THE LEGENDS

FOUR

I walk out of my final class and watch as Maya walks out of hers with a group of guys.

She sees me and waves for me to come over.

Just as I'm heading in her direction, I hear Lydia call me. I honestly roll my eyes and ignore her.

I don't know why she is calling me, and I couldn't care less.

"Bianca, stop ignoring me," she says, and I feel her grab me by the shoulder and drag me back forcefully.

I turn around angrily.

"What?"

I hope the next thing that comes out of her mouth won't be something stupid.

"Relax. I'm not here for a fight."

"Then what?"

She shakes her head in disbelief before sighing.

"I just wanted to ask whether you know why the new guy hasn't been coming to campus," she asks, and I c**k a brow.

Why the heck would she ask me something like that?

How the hell am I supposed to know that?

I haven't seen him since that day in class.

That was on Monday, and this is Friday. Since he only showed up once for class, maybe he wasn't part of this campus.

Besides, Eric has been showing up for all of his classes, and he has been ignoring my presence the whole time. But he normally does that, so it hasn't surprised me.

Maya got back to being my seatmate.

"Arnold?" I ask, and she nods.

"Why the hell would I know that?"

"Well, because I saw you strike up a conversation with him that day."

I raise another brow.

"I did?"

I didn't know she was that keen on watching me.

"Stop acting like you don't know what I'm talking about."

She raises her voice at me, and I know it's time for me to walk away.

"I forgot to get his number. Next time I strike up another conversation with him, I'll ask for his number and gladly hand it to you," I say and walk away before she can say anything else.

She really needs to stop coming at me like that.

I head to where Maya is with her group of friends.

She looks a little too excited, and I can see Johnny beside her, holding her by the waist so firmly.

I frown.

I didn't know they had started hanging out again.

Hell, I didn't even know Johnny was back.

"Hey, girl!" she says excitedly as she pulls me into a hug.

After the hug, Johnny tries to hug me, but I take a step back, and I can see the look of embarrassment in his eyes.

He is stupid if he thought I would just hug him like he never disappeared for that long.

"I can see you're still being uptight," he says, and I roll my eyes.

"Bianca, look who came back!" Maya says when she sees how awkward things are.

"I can see."

I don't understand why she is acting so calm and excited about the fact that Johnny is back after going missing in action on her for close to a month.

Maya and Johnny had been having a thing.

She calls it a thing because she claims she can't date someone like Johnny.

And that she didn't love him.

Then they went to one of the many house parties, and she found him kissing another girl.

She didn't want to ask him, but it was clear it was eating her up.

So I advised her to just face him and ask what he was doing. When she confronted him, he told her straight to her face that they weren't dating and she didn't have the right to ask him who he was kissing or sleeping with because it was none of her business.

That statement hurt her.

She tried to act like things were okay and that she wasn't hurt by it, but I know Maya. She was hurt, and she would take it out on drugs and the meditation thing she does.

Then Johnny just disappeared and stopped talking to her.

And since he doesn't go to school with us, she didn't have a way to get to him.

More like, she said she didn't want to look for him.

But I know she went to check if he was at his house a couple of times without success. She doesn't know I know that, though.

So forgive me for acting that way, but I don't think her acting this excited about him being back is a good thing.

"What is he doing here?" I ask, and I can see Johnny frown.

He's obviously not pleased with that.

"It's his birthday. He came to invite me... us."

I shake my head when she says that.

"You guys go have fun."

There's no way I'm going to Johnny's birthday party.

Maya grabs my arm and drags me away from the rest of the guys.

"Come on, girl. I'm going to need your company."

I shake my head again.

"What are you even doing accepting an invitation to Johnny's party?" I ask her, and I can see her face fall.

"Because I'm not shaken by what he did."

"Really?"

I don't understand why she is trying to put on a tough front when it's obvious he hurt her.

"Yeah, it's just a birthday party."

I shake my head in disbelief.

Maya can be unbelievable at times.

"Come on, just accompany me, please."

She begs, but I still shake my head.

I won't be convinced.

Unless Johnny has a good enough explanation, but since he is just a playboy, I don't think he has any excuse that I would buy.

"Where has he been?"

"He said his mom has been sick," she says, and I know Johnny lied about that one.

"Was his phone sick too?"

"Look, we're not getting back together. It's just the party. Besides, I feel like you need to unwind and relax a bit."

For sure.

"I'll do it somewhere else."

"You're not going to those Gothic parties of yours. You need life, not death."

I swallow hard when she says that.

That was offensive.

"It's a culture."

"Yeah, a weird one."

Now that she just called my culture weird, she can forget any thought of me accompanying her to that birthday party.

As a matter of fact, I'm never going to a party with her.

Then an idea hits me.

Maybe it's time I introduce her to my way of partying.

"When is this party?"

"Tomorrow night."

Okay.

"And what will you be doing today?"

She looks at me with a c****d brow, like she is trying to get what I mean, but I don't show anything.

"I don't know, maybe hang out with Johnny and his friends."

She knows I'm not going to approve of that, yet she still told me.

But it's fine. I'll see what I can do about that.

Her hanging out with Johnny when I'm not around is something I won't allow, at least not now.

"Okay, I will go with you to that party."

She creases her brow.

"Really?"

"Yeah, only if..."

"I knew you were going to have a condition. Fine, you can put on the black dress and black leggings, which is very weird, by the way, but if it means you accompanying me, then it's fine."

She quickly cuts me off, and I shake my head in disbelief.

"I was planning to wear red, but that's not a bad idea."

She clasps her hands together in a begging gesture, and I almost laugh.

"Please wear red."

I shrug.

"It's open for discussion. However, that wasn't the condition."

She rolls her eyes, and I smile.

She is not going to like what I'm about to tell her.

"Okay."

"You don't hang out with Johnny today. Instead, you go with me to our culture party, just for thirty minutes. If you don't like it, then you can leave."

She's shaking her head even before I can finish my statement.

"Not happening."

I don't know why she never wants to go with me to the parties, yet I participate in her stupid meditation without questioning it.

"Fine, good talk," I say and make to walk away, but she stops me.

I smirk.

"Fine, but just thirty minutes."

"Deal," I say with a smile.

"I hate you."

"Yeah, I love you too."

See, that wasn't very difficult. I thought it would take a lot of convincing, or she would just tell me not to go to that party. So if she accepted that fast, then there's more to her and Johnny than she has been leading on.

And I just don't want to know.

"Johnny!" someone says excitedly from behind us, and when we turn, we watch as Lydia runs and hugs Johnny.

We both stand there in shock.

How the hell does she know Johnny?

Johnny has never been to this campus, and since Maya and him never made their relationship public, no one on campus knew about it until today, I guess.

So her knowing him is a little strange.

And by the way Johnny is hugging her back, they seem to know each other.

I can see the frown on Maya's face, and I know s**t is about to hit the fan.

She walks toward them angrily, but I rush and hold her back.

Too much for someone who claimed there wasn't anything between them.

I can tell from the way Maya looks that she won't react very well, so I push her behind me and decide to take over.

"You two know each other?"

I ask them, and Lydia turns to look at me before sizing me up.

That wasn't necessary, but I'll just ignore it.

This is Lydia.

She is a pain in the ass all the time.

"Oh, so now you want to talk to me?"

I chuckle angrily.

She's really pushing my buttons.

"I was talking to Johnny," I say, looking at Johnny.

"Lydia is my sister."

"Whoa!"

That's Maya.

Obviously he didn't tell her that.

Which I feel was a very important piece of information. Whether they were dating or just friends with benefits, Lydia has been a topic in our lives ever since we joined campus.

"Why didn't you ever tell me that?"

An emotional Maya. One that I was hoping wouldn't come out.

"And why would he tell you? You're irrelevant," Lydia says, and I hear Maya chuckle angrily behind me.

Lydia just pressed the wrong button this time.

"I don't care if he is your brother, Lydia. You talk to me with that attitude again, and I will crush you."

Lydia smirks, then a sneer follows.

This girl really has the guts.

"And what will you do?"

Yeah, I think it's time for me to take over, or to make things easier, it's time we teach her a lesson.

She has had too long to think she has this much power.

"Lydia, just shut up," Johnny says, and I can see her look at him in disappointment.

"Bro, I told you not to associate yourself with these people, but you didn't listen to me," she tells him, and he keeps quiet.

Just like the jerk that he is.

"Maya is a w***e. Bro, just stay away from her."

I expect a reaction from Maya, but there is none.

"I love her," Johnny says, and that catches all of us a little off guard.

"I'm out of here," Maya says and walks away.

I'm left behind, and I feel like I should give Lydia a piece of my mind.

She can't just call my best friend a w***e and walk away with that.

"Lydia, you need to apologize to her."

She looks at me, her eyes wide open in shock.

"What?"

"You heard her."

Johnny adds, and I'm a little surprised by that.

"Or what?"

"I don't know. We have, what? Less than six months left on campus. That's enough time to plan a murder, execute it, and cover it up. So you apologize to her, or you'll be the victim," I tell her, and I see her jump back in fear.

I smirk and walk out of there.

I didn't mean that threat, but she should know better.

I have had enough of her thinking she has so much power.

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