Chapter 20: The Cause of It All
JADE:
“You heard me right,” Liam said in a calm but firmer manner. “Jade and I are together.”
It took me a while to comprehend what he had just said, and when I did, it was as if my tongue had turned into jelly.
“Wha-? Why,” I mumbled. Rats, I couldn’t even finish my own sentence after Liam’s declaration sank into my head!
“Hey, the three of you there,” the librarian said, coming closer to where we were standing near the shelves. “This isn’t a place for drama or love confessions. This is the library, so no shouting, and get out of here if you’ll just be noisy.”
“Jade, you must be hungry after showing the transferee student around the building. Let’s get you something to eat,” Liam whispered just enough for Dianna and I to hear, his face splitting into a smile.
I followed Liam’s lead helplessly not because I was willing to but because he had his arms around me like a shield.
Once we have crossed the stadium, I stopped walking for a bit to catch my trail of thoughts.
Liam stopped alongside me as well.
“Liam,” I began, braving myself to speak, “I don’t know how much you’ve heard, but I want to thank you for helping me back there. If you hadn’t come, I don’t know how I could have escaped that predicament, but what you said earlier, um…”
I looked at Liam’s eyes. They were so beautiful and piercing that I wanted to just melt away, but at the same time I knew what was going on in his head.
“I’ll help explain to everyone later why you said that,” I blurted out, evading his stare. “Anyway, thank you.”
“If you really are thankful, Jade, then why don’t you give it a shot?”
I met his stare again, and this time, instead of a piercing look, he gave me a more tender one. “I don’t really know why you and Dianna were fighting, but I didn’t want you to be humiliated back there. There’s also another reason why I did that other than to help you save face, Jade…”
I can’t stop staring at Liam’s face so much that my words came out absentmindedly. “There’s another reason?...”
“Yes. There’s something you must know…”
He stepped closer to me and took my hand.
“Jade Sy… I really like you. Would you consider being with me – for real?”
**********************
KIX:
I watched how that Liam rat entrapped my Jade in his arms and declared something pathetic in front of all those people in the library… I can still hear the disgusting ring of his voice booming inside my head…
“Jade and I – we’re together…”
“We are officially dating each other…”
Hah! As if anyone would not see the lie written all over Jade’s face. That frightened and shocked expression of my mate gave all his act away.
I wanted to strangle that boy and pluck every single one of his nasty black hair that never seemed to be out of place. How dare he say such a pathetic lie?!
Before I could do anything however, I gazed at the person whom they were talking too, and I was almost too shocked to speak as well.
That slim figure and long-straight chestnut hair - I knew her from high school… Why was she still hovering around Jade after all these years?
Even though I wanted to follow Jade and that black-haired rat, I sorted out my priorities and landed a hand on Dianna’s shoulder instead.
“What,” she said, spinning around to face me with a disgusted look. She stepped back involuntarily however when she saw who I was.
“K-Kix?... Kix Sarmiento?”
“Yup, the one and only,” I snapped in quiet sarcasm. “Dianna Gray, right? Why don’t you come with me for a second?”
The way that her skin grew pale told me that I was right. I started dragging her by the hand, thinking bitterly of how I was letting that rat take away my Jade because of this girl before me…
I led her into the only other place I knew would be deserted – the fire exit.
“K-Kix? Kix Sarmiento – w-why?... How?...”
“I was too smitten by Jade that I followed her here. How about you,” I said more loudly now since I no one was around, “what’s your sorry excuse for following Jade?”
“I-I… I wasn’t following her…”
“Really,” I said, moving closer towards her that she seemed deathly frightened. “In high school you did just that – snoop around her, hover on her like a bug… Now you’re telling me you aren’t doing that now?”
“That’s right!... If anything, it was really Jade who followed me here!”
“What,” I shouted at her. I can’t believe the nerve of this woman who had just lied to my face and say that about Jade!
“You,” I said again, making sure I stress every word that came out of my mouth, “You clung to her like a leech in high school, and now you have the guts to tell me that Jade followed you here? What kind of stupid idea is that?!”
“It’s not stupid; it’s true,” Dianna said, tears forming on the corners of her eyes. “After all of what you did to her, do you think she’ll have any more spirit left in her to do what she wanted? You all crushed her spirit in high school! She can’t even stand being in a crowd even for one second a month after that incident happened. Her parents practically begged me to stay by her side!”
“You piece of trash,” I said, losing my composure completely. “Are you saying I did that to her?”
“That’s right,” she shouted back, “you and your gang, the whole school – you made Jade a victim of your antics! You seduced her and abandoned her, and when she needed you the most, you threw her away and framed her for being your attempted murderer. Didn’t it all started because of you?!”
“Shut up, Dianna,” I retorted back. “You speak as if you did not have anything to do with what happened to Jade back then when you were the actual cause of it all!”
The moment I said those words, Dianna was taken aback. “W-what? What were you saying?”
“That’s right… Weren’t you the one,” I said, my chest brimming with anger, “the one who started all of that back in high school… Weren’t you the cause of it all, Dianna Rosewell Gray?”
