CHAPTER 4
1197 Words
Aurora’s POV
“Oh my God! Who’s this?” someone says from the hallway adjacent to the room, her high-pitched tone floating around the walls. She appears a second later in a stunning tube leather dress that barely reaches her mid-thigh, and her perfectly wild platinum blonde hair frames her pretty face.
“Were you picked from the dumpster? Who let her in?”
“Cassandra,” Sophia laughs, reaching for a red cup from beside a beanbag chair. “Stop. Be nice. It is her first time amongst us Veridians, and we have a question for her.”
“Who even is she?” Cassandra rolls her eyes and drops into a beanbag chair, as if I am not right in front of them. “And what is that skirt? Oh my God! Don’t even let me get started on the sneakers. Where did you get them from?”
And then, her face contorts into one of horror when something occurs to her. “s**t! Did you… Nah! You better not have. If I go to that living room and find out the rug is stained…”
“Stop it, Cassandra!” Callum mutters. “Can’t you be nice to her?”
“Right,” she drawls. “You invited her. I should blame you.”
“I have to leave,” I whisper, trying to push down the knot in my throat. Callum shakes his head.
“Aurora…”
“You tricked me,” I murmur. “I should have known that someone like you would never invite me to a party.”
“Oh, don’t be mad about it,” Sophia drawls, fake concern dripping from her tone. “You see, we all just wanted to know what your deal is with Professor Alaric.”
“What?”
“You both seem pretty close,” she continues, reclining further into the seat. “And well, we all haven’t seen Professor Alaric that close to any woman since we got into that school. I mean, at some point, we all believed he was gay.”
“Until today,” someone else adds — a strange face, but looks rich too.
“Do you all remember the rumour when he was still taking the stage as a French painter?” Sophia suddenly murmurs, snapping her fingers. “They said he was in love with someone and that she broke his heart.”
“I wonder who would break his heart,” another says. “He is like… very popular and handsome too. I know many students who will die to get into his bed.”
“Maybe she is just like this… thing here,” Cassandra murmurs, buffing her nails. “She probably found someone richer and hopped to the next flight. Callum, this is for you. Be wary of girls like her. They want nothing but a good life.”
Blood roars loud against my ears, yet my feet stay rooted to the spot. My hands curl into fists by my side, but I know that if I make any move here, I’ll have to kiss my job at the College goodbye. And that will be disappointing Alaric, who worked so hard to get me in.
“I’m sorry, Aurora,” Callum whispers next to me. “I had no idea that…”
“You did,” I shoot at him. God, how can I be so foolish?
“Come on.” The whole room turns to me, the expectation in their eyes. “Tell us. What is between you and Professor Alaric? Are you both like…”
“You all need to learn the art of minding your business.”
I know he is the one the minute I hear his voice.
Andrew.
He is huddled in the shadows, a glass in his hands. It looks like whiskey. He doesn’t look at me as his fingers circle the rim of the glass. Still, I feel him in every fragment of my being, as if shedding the layers I have coated myself with.
I feel hot and cold at the same time. My hands lift to wrap around my frame, despite the sweater I have on.
“Stop being a party pooper, Andrew,” Sophia sighs, rolling her eyes. “We just want to know.”
She brings her gaze back to me. “You’ll tell us, right, Aurora?”
My feet finally listen to my brain, and I turn around at once, heading outside. It all happens so fast. One minute I am on my way out, and the next, a pair of slender fingers dig into my skin as they pull me back into the room.
A yelp escapes my lips as I wrestle with Sophia. But she wouldn’t let go. Suddenly, my tote bag slips off my shoulders and falls to the ground. The room gets swallowed in silence as something white flies to my feet.
Cassandra breaks it first.
“Oh! Wow!” she sneers, getting on her feet. Her heels clack on the marble ground as she pulls closer to me. “Aren’t those diapers?”
Sophia looks at it too. “s**t! This is like gold! Professor Alaric has a child?”
I look at Andrew again. He is watching the scene. I see a muscle jerk in his jaw as his fingers clutch the glass tightly. But he does nothing. He sits there, swirling the liquid in the glass, as if there is nothing going on in front of me.
Andrew has no obligation to help me. Hell, he hasn’t even said a word to me since I met him, which is like a few hours ago.
So why does his silence hurt this much?
I pull my gaze away from him and get on my knees, packing the scattered items back into my tote bag. “There is nothing going on between Alaric and me,” I mutter, my fingers reaching for the diapers.
Sophia giggles as she swerves it away from reach, kicking it to the center of the room. One of the boys picks it up and tosses it to another until it becomes an item for sport. I get on my feet, my eyes following my son’s diapers, my heart pinching.
“Let it go!” I cry, heading towards them. But Callum pulls me to him.
“You should leave now before this gets worse.”
“But there is nothing going on between Alaric and me,” I insist.
Sophia folds her arms across her chest. “And you want us to believe that? How then did you get the job at the studio?”
“She’s your new nude model?” Cassandra asks, her eyes widening. “Oh! That makes sense now. He probably gave her the job because she seduced him too.”
“Cassandra!”
“Don’t yell at me, Callum!”
“Come on, Aurora!”
Just as I turn around with Callum pulling me, the last thing I see before my tears blur my vision is Cassandra sauntering over to Andrew and pressing herself against him.
He doesn’t fight it.
And he still doesn’t look at me.
- Writer
