Chapter 22: Giving Space

JADE:

I shuddered as those painful thoughts came back into my memory. No matter how much I really like Liam, I don’t think I could get through life if I was ever discarded like that again…

So, this would be much better, right?… It would be much better if I make him give up on everything now…

“Here, Jade,” Liam said, holding a sandwich he brought from the cafeteria in front of my face. I stared at his lovely brown eyes, and I felt a genuine feeling of peace.

“Thanks,” I said, taking the sandwich he bought for me. I bit at it in silence. Liam sat by my side and watched me eat.

“Liam… Aren’t you going to ask me about it?”

“Ask you about what?”

“About Kix… I know you heard me and Dianna talk…”

“I did, and I couldn’t say I’m not curious, but I think you have a good reason if you don’t want to tell me about it yet… I figured it would be much better if you come around and talk about it on your own…”

I looked at the bitten sandwich and felt a tad guilty for not having enough courage to speak in front of Liam. I couldn’t spill everything about my past just yet…

“I couldn’t tell you all about it… It’s just that he and I knew each other in high school…”

“I see,” he said. A heavy silence fell between us once again.

“So many things had happened since then. I didn’t expect to run into him like this again,” I turn my head towards Liam and met his stare. “Because of what happened, it’s been hard for me to trust people, Liam… If you are waiting for my answer to your question, it might take me a long time to give it to you… If ever you get tired waiting, I’d understand… I won’t feel bad if you look for someone else.”

As I said my last sentence, I started to choke a bit at a lump in my throat. Perhaps the food had been stuck there somewhere… Why didn’t I chew the sandwich well?...

“That’s fine, Jade,” Liam said. He rested a hand on top of my head and patted it gently. “It’s fine if you take a long time to answer me back… I can wait even if it’s forever… I can wait for you even if it’s beyond that…”

My throat began to hurt more… Gosh, why was this happening now?

“I… I…” Stammering on my own words, Liam held his hands over my head and hugged me.

I hated hearing empty promises, and yet I couldn’t stop my heart from being swept away by such declarations.

However, such big promises usually don’t come true… Didn’t they all sound like Kix’s promise too?

Abandoning all hopes would be much better for me. After all, nobody can withstand waiting until forever to hear one girl’s answer to a declaration of love.

“Don’t cry now,” Liam told me gently. “Let’s go back to class. The break would be over soon.”

Yes… Setting aside my heart would be the best option… Besides, wasn’t there a mystery I was dying to solve? Let’s focus our energies on that from now on…

**********************

KIX:

It has just been a few hours since I went back to college and back to the love of my life’s side, and yet, why do I feel like Jade and I have gotten much farther away from each other than before?

After she went back to class that day as lunch time ended, news about her and this Liam rat being an item had already spread.

“Man, Liam, that was a quick move! We knew the two of you were close, but we didn’t know you and Jade were in a secret relationship… How did that happen,” the boys in class jokingly asked.

“It just happened one day,” the rat replied.

I sniggered. Yeah, right… To be exact, it happened without my Jade knowing all about it…

As soon as my mate sat down next to me, she did not say anything… She was playing the perfect part of being into this fake relationship by ignoring me.

“Hey,” I whispered to her, teasingly, “Was it true? Are you and that rat in a relationship?”

She turned her head sharply at me, the look in her eyes seemingly as pointed as a dagger, but she did not say anything else.

“If you ever want someone to exterminate that pest away from you, you know who to call,” I told my mate. I blinked at her in jest when she looked at me again with an irritated expression.

“Aww, Kix, too bad for you! Liam seemed to have already won Jade’s heart… To think that you were so interested in her that you even angered Mr. Armond earlier,” another nosy classmate exclaimed towards me.

“Well, the fight’s not over yet,” I said coolly. “Mr. President, let the best man win,” I shouted on as a joke from my seat.

The filthy rat ignored me, but it didn’t matter a bit, for I knew the whole truth in my heart...

‘Jade is our mate. She will always be ours,’ my wolf rumbled on inside my head.

I let her be on her own for the rest of the afternoon. So many things had happened that may have overwhelmed Jade. I hope she gets to see soon that I was someone who would always stay by her side no matter what happens or even if someone would try to get in between us.

When school was over, I opted to only watch her walk home in a distance with that little rat beside her…

I reasoned inside my mind that he probably just wanted to make sure Jade goes home safely. Plus, following them a bit like this is my idea of protection.

I don’t trust that punk around Jade, but Jade does not trust me, so what can I do?...

I followed them to the dormitory where Jade was presently residing.

I waited outside the dormitory building for fifteen minutes, then for thirty minutes, until it became two hours. To my utter dismay, however, that blasted rat didn’t come out.

Was he planning on living there? It’s night time already! Does he plan to stay there the whole night?

Sh*t… Screw giving Jade some space!… I’m positively dying to know what that rat is doing in Jade’s dorm even at this hour.

There’s only one way to find out. I need to be as smooth as a ninja.