The Queen And The Beast

2. The Ominous Feeling

Isabella

Alistair Black knew my name and this news spread like the wildfire through the school.

Our ‘little-not-so-subtle’ moment in the parking lot was big news. Like damn breaking news, people couldn’t stop whispering about. In the hallways and classroom, I was getting ‘the stares’. The one that said I was currently on the top of the female population’s hit list. If any one of them had mafia connections, then I was gone for good.

And the worst part was, that they all were willing to fight for the spot I was on when I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted nothing to do with Alistair Black. But unfortunately, fate decided to abandon me today, and thus I couldn’t do anything about it now.

I then focused on my schedule for the day. It was my second class, one that I shared with another BFF of mine, Victoria, who was MIA since morning.

She had chosen today out of all the days, to screw me over, by making me go through Mr. Brown’s never-ending mathematics class all alone.

Ugh. It felt like the day was dragging and it was my only second class of mine. By the time, the bell rang, I was more than willing to jump out of my seat.

Meg was already waiting for me by my locker when I reached there to collect my books for the next class.

It was then that I noticed, that she was constantly checking her phone every two minutes.

“Meg, who are you sexting with?”

She looked up at me, masking her nervousness. “Huh? Sexting and me? Please. Besides, I wouldn’t be doing sexting with a guy, when my face looks like it’s even worse than a zombie.”

Raising my brow at her, I called her bluff. “Then why are you checking your phone every two minutes if you are not sexting with a guy? And your face doesn’t look worse than a zombie. Not wearing eye-liner for one day is no big deal, Meg.”

Megumi is one of my BFFs, was big on looks. With her shiny chestnut brown hair, hazel eyes, and porcelain skin, she looked like a doll. But apparently to her, it wasn’t enough. She always needed to have her eyeliner and her cherry lip gloss on or else she wasn’t beautiful enough for herself.

Bizarre? I know. To others, she might appear dramatic and crazy, but to me, she was one hell of a friend.

“Enough about me. Currently, you are the hot topic, everyone can’t stop talking about. Someone even posted the video of your ‘moment’ with Alistair on Facebook.” She beamed at me, clearly deflecting the topic.

“What? Did someone record it? And don’t think I didn’t notice that you are deflecting the topic.”

She sighed knowing she couldn’t deny it anymore. I expected her to spill the beans, now that I had called her bluff but she gave me that serious condemned look, making goosebumps rise on my skin.

“Is something wrong, Meg?”

“We need to talk, Bella. And soon. It’s about…”

She was cut off by the sharp ring of the warning bell, telling us we both were running late for our next class. I had exactly five minutes left before the final bell rang as I checked my watch.

“Let’s talk in the lunch break.” She said before scurrying away in the hallway.

On the whole way to my next class, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that whatever Meg wanted to talk about, wasn’t pleasant.

I was getting irritated every second by that ominous feeling. The more I thought about it, the more my anger rose.

To calm me down, I took a deep breath before entering the classroom. Good thing was, that I was on time or else it would have been one more thing to add to the list of ‘Bad and weird things happening to me today.’ Half of the people were already sitting in their seats. And rest were running late in the hallways.

It was the third class, one which I always shared with my boyfriend, William, and my BFF, Victoria.

Now, that both of them were MIA since morning, I had to sit alone in Mr. Barnes, English class.

The problem was, that Mr. Barnes, always made us work in pairs and I always did my assignments with William.

But now that he wasn’t here, I was bound to be paired with some other student for the next project.

I didn’t like it at all. I hardly interacted with anyone outside of my group. It was not that I was selective or mean or thought highly of myself.

It was just I wasn’t the type of person who liked the crowd in my life. I loved few people with strong connections in my life, rather than having one big crowd and zero connection with anyone.

I took my usual seat which was empty as it was my and William’s joint seat. I was typing a text to William, by hiding my phone under the table when someone sat next to me.

I looked up to find the familiar piercing black eyes looking back at me.

I narrowed my eyes at his signature smirk and incredulously asked him. “You? What are you doing here?”

He flashed me a cocky grin. “Nothing, Bella. Just taking a seat to attend the class.”

“This seat is already taken. Find another one for yourself.” I glared at him before turning my attention back to my phone.

He chuckled. This guy chuckled at me. How dare of him!

After I sent a quick text to William, asking him when he would come to school, I turned my attention back to this devil-attitude-gorgeous-look guy.

“Look, I don’t know what your problem with me is but I’m not interested in getting involved with you. So, it would be better that you found yourself another seat.”

Just as I told him this, the professor, Mr. Barnes, walked into the class.

Dang! Now my partner for the next English project would be none other than Alistair Black. And I couldn’t escape it, even when I was dying to do so.