What Love Entails

two

sous l’âme || two

♤

“What are you doing here?” He had asked. And what exactly was I supposed to say? “Oh I just wanted to finally stop thinking about you and what went down so I’m here to let go of all those thoughts and have fun for once.”? Yeah, like hell I would.

I nervously looked at him. “What do you mean?” My voice was soft, just about audible.

He rolled his eyes. “You were never one to attend parties.”

I’m surprised you even remembered that.

“I was basically dragged out here.”

“Figures,” he looked at me coldly. “Just make sure you stay out of my sight.”

With those icy words, he left a jab in my heart and turned on his heels and walked right back inside just like that. I sighed. I tried to ignore my throbbing heart as I pondered on what to do now.

“Excuse me! This area is off limits!” I turned around to face Kaden Lloyd– the host of the party himself– standing by the door.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

He stared at me inquisitively before taking a few steps towards where I was.

“Aren’t you River’s ex-girlfriend?”

To say that I was surprised was an understatement. Sure, people did know that we used to go out, but hardly anyone remembered, if you know what I mean. After all it was high school. Relationships would come and go like a boomerang that people often lost track of who dated who. And River being popular– Bree too– and me being, well, me, contributed a lot to that forgetting factor. But to think that Kaden Lloyd, who was basically the golden boy of Hardelle High, would have remembered was really, really surprising.

“Um,” I started, unsure of what to say. “I guess you could say that.”

He grinned. “Your first time at my party?”

I nodded.

“C’mon, I’ll guide you around.”

My eyes widened. “That’s not necessary, I–“

“Oh c’mon!” He grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him. “I gotta show you how epic my parties are!”

I opened my mouth to protest but stopped short on realising that it wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway. I scrunched up my nose on being faced with the same throng of bodies again.

“Kaden!” A voice called out over the loud music. “Up for seven minutes in heaven?”

Kaden turned to me and grinned. “Sure!”

“Wait, what? No, I-“ I started as he dragged me to a circle of people.

“You begin, Kade,” someone passed him the bottle and he grinned as he spun it. The bottle spun round and round before it finally came to a stop, pointing at– me.

My eyes widened and turned towards Kaden who gave me a soft smile. “Let’s go.”

“But I–“ he grabbed my hand and started leading me into a dark closet as the others hooted.

The closet was small and crampy, with just a little tube of light glowing inside.

“Look, I–“ I started but was cut off by a deep chuckle.

“No need to look so frightened,” he smirked. “I won’t do anything.”

I let out a breath of relief.

“Why so relieved?” He asked, placing his arm on the wall behind me and drawing in close. “Other girls would kill to be in your place to have me do things.”

My face flushed at the close proximity as I tried to wrap my mind around what he had just said and form an answer to reply to him.

“Phfffftt!” Kaden burst out laughing. “I’m kidding!”

I could feel the heat on my face and I was sure I looked like a ripe red tomato at the moment. I kept my head down as he kept laughing. After his laughter died down, he turned to me with a serious expression. “Can I ask you something?”

“What?” I frowned.

His eyes bore into mine. “Why does River treat you like the plague?”

My heart skipped a beat. I definitely wasn’t expecting that. A sharp pang hit my chest as I realised the magnitude of his words. I knew what he said was true, I always had. But I never brought myself to accept it consciously. And now that it was pointed out by someone other than myself, I had to realise that it was true. And it hurt. A lot.

“Why don’t you ask him?” I almost whispered.

He looked as though he wanted to say something but seemed to decide against it. “Right. Sorry.”

Silence ensued. Kaden started humming, making me look up at his face which was belatedly facing my right. The little glow of light highlighted his face, making me take in his features. I had to admit, he was really good looking. His dark brown hair was tousled and little strands of it fell over his forehead, accentuating his eyes, which were a deep grey colour. His lips always seemed to have a knowing smile playing on it. He was tall, but a little shorter than River.

His eyes suddenly interlocked with mine and he smiled. “Seven minutes are up.” I nodded and he opened the closet door, suddenly being surrounded by cheers and whistles. We made our way back to the group of people with me looking down the whole way.

“Must’ve been hot?” Someone asked, smirking.

“No comment,” Kaden answered nonchalantly. The crowd started hooting yet again.

The game continued and after a good 10 minutes, I was already tired. I got up on my knees to leave. “Where are you going?”

“Um, I’m kinda tired of this game,” I answered Kaden, to which he chuckled.

“Okay then, I’m out too,” he got up and I gave him a questioning look. “I’m supposed to be your guide for tonight, remember?”

“Really, it’s not necessary at all,” I emphasised, but he was already leading me to the drinks section.

“You drink?” He asked as he took a cup of what I figured was beer.

“Not really.”

“Well, want a cup?”

I paused. Oh what the heck. “Okay.”

He handed me a cup and I slowly sipped the drink. My throat burned as I swallowed the cold liquid. I made a face; alcohol was really not my thing. I scanned the room, my eyes meeting the sight of people dancing, making out and totally being wasted. My gaze stopped at the sight of a silhouette I had been so accustomed to once upon a time. Bree was next to him, embracing him as though her life depended on it. River seemed to be whispering sweet nothings in her ear, when his eyes glanced up and met mine. It was blank and cold as usual, but then he proceeded to glare at me, which was a first. He normally just looked away whenever our eyes met.

“We’re in the same year, right?” Kaden’s voice snapped my eyes away from River.

I nodded. “We share a class. English lit.”

“Right.”

I spotted Andrea glancing around, before noticing me and quickly walking towards me. “Kyla. Something came up and I need to head back right now. So I guess you have to come along too since I’m your ride.”

“Oh yeah, okay,” I was relieved. Like River pointed out, parties really weren’t my thing. I turned to Kaden. “Well, thanks for guiding me, I guess. Bye.”

He smiled. “Sure, bye. See you.”

“Sorry I had to cut your fun off short,” Andrea apologised once we were in her car and she started the engine. “You seemed to be pretty engaged with Kaden.” She turned to me and gave a knowing smile.

“Oh, no,” I quickly dismissed her. “He was just guiding me around as it was my first time to his party. Something about wanting to show me how epic his parties are.”

She laughed. “Ain’t he right about that though.”

____________

Monday morning came and I dragged myself to school. School was really such a drag. I sighed as I gathered my books from my locker for the first lesson before making my way to class. As I entered the class, I noticed Kaden sitting on his desk and talking animatedly with some other guys. He looked up and grinned on seeing me. “Hey, Kyla.”

“Hey,” I smiled before scurrying to my seat. It was surprising that he knew my name. But then again, he knew about me and River, so I guess not.

The bell rang and Mr. Smith entered the room. “Okay, get to your places everybody.” Five minutes into the class, we were interrupted by River, who had arrived late. “Sorry,” he mumbled to Mr. Smith. Luckily, our teacher was pretty lenient so he allowed him in. “Go have a seat.”

That’s when I noticed that there were no empty seats. They were all occupied, except for the one beside me. River seemed to have noticed it too. “Well hurry up and take the seat next to Ms. Wilson, will you?”

River grimaced. “Anywhere but there.”

I kept my head down as I felt embarrassed and hurt. I could feel quite a few curious eyes on me, probably wondering why River seemed to hate the idea of sitting next to a girl they had hardly noticed before.

“You arrived late. So I don’t think you have much of a choice, Mr. Hayes.” Mr. Smith deadpanned. River reluctantly made his way to the said seat and slumped into the chair. A faint smell of his usual cologne engulfed my nostrils and a thousand memories filled my head; the embraces we had shared, taking in each other’s scent. It was funny how I was thinking of River with him sitting right beside me, but how it was all so different now.

The class progressed as usual. “Alright,” Mr. Smith announced. “I’m giving you guys a project to work on in pairs. And no, you cannot choose your own partners.”

Everyone collectively groaned.

“Your partner will be the person seated beside you.”

Shit.

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