SOLITUDE

Chapter Three

I naturally don't like long talks, stress, hardwork or labour, hence my annoyance for the first class of the day. I lumber to class with Zayn and Liam as they argue about whatever.

Mrs. Grace, the English teacher, is not your normal boring one who just stands there at the center and reads all the words in the textbook like an orator. She's a lot more different. Too different. Sometimes I wonder how she got a job at such prestigious a school.

"I swear if anyone is late for my class, Imma make a shrine and sacrifice that poor lads genital!" I hear her thick full throated voice from outside. The rest of us race inside immediately, after such a threatening statement.

I sit beside a girl you'd consider too quiet for comfort. Chubby, dark skinned and just like every other nerd on the planet, has a rim of a big lensed glass resting at the bridge of her nose. We've sat together for as long as I can remember in all our classes. Mostly because we make a pretty great team and any other boy would probably just want to take advantage. I really don't know if Avery has actually dated anyone. She doesn't say much, at all.

What I do know is, she has had s*x with a Bridgerton dude. It was a one time thing though. Are they lucky that news didn't get to the gossip page!

She whispers a light 'hey' as I sit and nod in a quick response. Don't get me wrong, we don't talk that much either. There's really nothing to say, and apart from the academic part, Avery and I have extremely different lifestyles and routines. She's just the only Bridgerton girl who's not all that. In a good way.

•••

Hazel wants to meet up. If these instincts are right, she just wants to talk to Braylon about what happened. No matter how much she hates him, she cannot get over the idea eating up inside her that maybe, just maybe, Braylon may be the real father.

She's not sure. She just loved him more. Felt more when she was with him, and wanted every moment to last a little longer. She thought what she had with him could actually be real. She was tired of all the pain, and playing around with boys she knew could never take her seriously. She was just exhausted and needed a relief.

I knew all of this. I witnessed all of it.

"You think he's gonna come?" she asks impatiently, pacing up and down her bedroom while biting her nails impatiently. She runs to me at the chair immediately and kneels at my feet, eyes watered with tears.

"What if he doesn't come?" she asks and I sigh, holding her by both shoulders and pulling her up. "He will. Just a little patience," I reply and she nods.

"He texted. He's here! Kai, he's here!Braylon is here!" she cheers in excitement and rather than happy for her, I feel so much pity. One thing about a guy like Braylon is with him, you'd feel an errotic kind of everlasting bliss, a euphoric delight and skyrocketing pleasure. The sweet words, how he'll manipulate you into wanting to have something serious and you start imagining an entire lifetime with him. And the moment he has his way, he uses it to his full advantage. He doesn't leave you just then. You'll become intoxicated. Addicted to this heavenly goodness and you'll keep coming for more but like a bee, when fresher nectar is discovered, the former becomes nothing.

Explaining this to her would be such a waste of precious time. Foolishly blinded by a one sided affection for an unfortunate being. All this has happened before on countless occasions but when it's your time to dine with fine wine, you forget the consequences that excess has brought to others.

The words hit her like a rock against a feather. Hard, shattering and brutal. Whatever she must be feeling right now must be a lost worse than she expected. No, not a breakup. Something more, and a little bit too much for anyone about to write final year exams to handle alone.

Sigh.