Chapter 5
1173 Words
Aria’s POV
“What did you say?“
I definitely misheard him. Or it could be my lack of sleep playing pranks on me—
“You were so hung up on Ryder. It has always been him since I noticed you, and even though I knew he was a dimwit from the beginning, I still had to step back.”
Wait, what?
“You’re serious?” My voice dropped with each word I said. I looked intently into his eyes and there was no atom of a joke in them, not even one.
THE Kingston Lance liked me?
I’ve surely caught him staring at me a whole lot of times and not once did he look happy. But I never expected less from someone who had always been Ryder’s rival, so I thought he was just watching hating. But oh, boy.
He just shrugged and looked away from me. He didn’t look like he wanted to even respond to me any longer. So when his phone pinged again, I just knew the conversation was over.
His brows furrowed at first as his eyes danced through the phone’s screen. He looked like he was trying to make sense of something.
“What happened?” I asked, unable to hold myself back any longer.
“The drainage pipe for the pool has burst.”
My eyes widened, “The one used for swimming tournaments?”
“Yes. The school is about to be flooded and in a nutshell, there’s no school for today.”
He turned around, “Where are you going?” I had finished asking before I realized how stupid the question was.
“There’s no school for today… So, home.” He responded.
I nodded, “Oh.”
He walked forward for a while before suddenly stopping and turning to face me, “What about you? Where are you going?”
“Uh, I’ll just hang around in the common room or something. Probably read for a while.”
I couldn’t afford to go home yet — not when my aunty would be home till evening when she’d travel.
“I don’t think it's safe to stay here though. Didn’t you read the message already? It states that they’d start working on the pool immediately and they’d make use of some poisonous chemicals.”
I rolled my lips into my mouth. I haven’t unlocked my phone since I turned it off last night.
“I must have missed that.” I mumbled, “Anyways, I’m sure I’m going to figure out something. I’ll be fine.”
His brows quivered for a bit, “I don’t know why you’re avoiding going home… but if you don’t mind, you can come with me. It’s really not safe out here.” He said.
“What?”
I hadn’t gotten over the shock of his “likeness” and he just had to spring that up. Could I come to his house with him?
“Yes. Besides, wouldn’t it look weird if after what happened in the hallway, I leave in my car and you’re in the hallway?” He moved closer to me. “You started the rumor, you should be able to go on with it.”
I looked into his eyes for a while and for some reason, a tremor passed through me.
I swallowed thickly, “Okay.” My voice was so low that I barely heard myself.
“Come on.” He offered his hand which I took instinctively and we started to move towards the garage. The school was almost empty except for a few students who were also leaving and of course, they stared.
I almost walked past his car when he dragged me back.
Hell, I knew he was into sports and definitely would be a lover of cars, but I kind of never thought that a student would drive a car as sleek as the one before us.
He opened the door and I slid in, trying so hard to not appear as a creep who hadn’t seen a car as luxurious as the one before her.
I got in and he did it. And if I thought that the exterior was sleek, then the interior was three times cooler.
The moment he put the car into drive, I mentally compared the smoothness of the car to Ryder’s which I’ve entered a few times. It really felt like we were moving in the air without any sort of sound surrounding us.
“Shit.” Kingston cussed as he abruptly stopped the car.
The seatbelt held me in place, softly biting into my skin. He looked out of the window as if checking where we had gotten to.
“What happened?” I asked him.
“I forgot my laptop at school, and I have a pending job on it. I can’t leave it till tomorrow.”
“We can still go back, right? I’m sure they wouldn’t have started the treatment already.”
He nodded, “I’ll be quick.”
He reversed the car smoothly and got onto the highway. Just as he got off the highway and rounded the corner that’d lead us back to the school premises, he slammed the brakes again.
But this time, he looked like he saw something. I followed his gaze to see that he was staring at me but I saw nothing.
“Can you hear that?” He asked.
“What?” I frowned.
He rolled down the windows and that was when it hit my eardrums. Groaning sounds and gasps for air.
“How did you even hear that? It’s a bit far away.” I asked meticulously.
“I saw the car before I heard the sounds.” He said while unbuckling his seatbelt and that was when I saw the car he was referring to. From where I sat, all that I could see was the colour. I even forgot my eyeglasses at home, now I’m practically blind.
“Stay in the car, I’ll be back.” He said as he closed the door behind him.
As if I’d stay alone here while he goes to check something. What if the danger comes to meet me right there in the car?
The thought alone had me jumping up and racing out of the car. Kingston was halfway to the parked car when he suddenly halted. It wasn’t because I defied his order, but because of the sound that went off. Gunshot.
Shock flickered through his eyes as he saw me, and he instantly grabbed my arm and pulled me down so we could hide behind a flower tree.
“Why aren’t you in the car?” He whispered, but the anger in his voice was very intense.
I couldn’t even speak if I wanted to. Someone was just killed in my presence.
We both looked up at the same time as someone stepped out from behind the parked car. And the moment the figure got into light, air got knocked out of my lungs.
Ryder?
- Writer
