Chapter 47: Keeping Facades

KIX:

‘Sh*t… Sh*t!’ I was swearing inside my head, but I stopped myself, remembering how the mind-link might still be in effect. Did Jade also hear me swear in my head just now?

We looked at each other for quite some time, no one of us knowing what the hell we must do. Finally, an idea dawned in my head.

‘Act like a puppy,’ I pictured in my mind.

I started barking at Jade and kept picturing food in my head. I thought long and hard about fried chicken or a bowl of spaghetti.

That should do the trick, right? I don’t want to get caught. I don’t want to let go of Jade yet, and if this was the only way that I could be with her then, I’ll just pretend to be a stupid dog for the rest of my life.

Riley was with me a hundred and ten percent on this. He started waging his tail and rounding up his eyes in the best manner he could.

Jade was still frozen on one spot, just looking at us with surprised eyes.

Sh*ttier than all sh*t… Won’t this work?

After what felt like an eternity, Jade slapped her own cheeks and bit her lips.

“What was I thinking,” she muttered absentmindedly. “I must be really tired.”

She smiled once more at me, stood from the corner where she was crouched down and patted my head.

“Are you hungry? I think I have some fried chicken in here somewhere,” Jade remarked, looking inside her mini refrigerator.

Thank the Goddess that worked! I couldn’t imagine what could happen if she realized I had been duping her all this time…

However, despite the relief of knowing that I had not been discovered, I felt sad once again.

Was this the only way I could be with her? Did she really stop loving me in her heart?

I wanted to cry, but I was still in front of Jade, and I knew my thoughts would still definitely affect her.

After Jade heated some left-over fried chicken, we proceeded to share a midnight snack while she continued to browse the Internet and finish her homework.

She called it quits at one in the morning. We retired to bed, snuggling against each other.

“Kix, you’re staying tonight, right,” she exclaimed in a groggy voice. “You won’t leave until the morning, right?”

I whimpered as I buried my snout against her chest. She stroked the fur at the top of my head.

“Promise you won’t leave until I fall asleep,” she whispered until she closed her eyes for the night.

“I promise,” I growled, my own eyes feeling quite heavy.

Thus, we spent our supposed prom night together in each other’s arms as such.

I wish this moment would never end…

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

JADE:

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. It was six in the morning, and it was Monday once more. Time sure did fly…

My whole Saturday had been full of action that it almost felt like I was in a movie…

After discovering things about the past, I have lost two people in just one night. My heart still felt heavy whenever I thought of Dianna and Kix… Especially Kix.

“Uh, whatever,” I muttered.

Everything in the past has already been cleared up. The only thing left for me to do now was to move on.

I took a shower, ate a breakfast of oatmeal and bananas, and after that I fixed my bed before leaving for school.

My bed reeked of the smell of dog fur. The white dog I call Kix had been coming over at night and sleeping over with me over the weekends.

I don’t know how long I could keep on pretending that he isn’t actually a dog but a wolf…

Maybe I had known it from the very start. It was only my own wishful thinking back then, which somehow turned out to be true. Soon, it became a habit, and I didn’t want to break the bond and the routine we have established out of my own selfish desires…

That dog… No, that white werewolf, was surely Kix, but I didn’t have the heart to send him away…

Despite telling him off the other night, I still opened the door of my veranda hoping that he would come whenever my heart ached for him.

How could I be stupid enough to forget how he looked like as a wolf? I have only seen him in his wolf form once, but his smell of the night wind with a hint of cinnamon was always stuck in my head.

When I heard him speak in protest inside my head last night, I became sure it was him… Gosh, to think that I even changed clothes in front of that dog… I mean that wolf… What was I thinking?...

Well, whatever… If he wanted to pass himself as a dog, that’s none of my business. He could come as long as it pleases him… He could take as much time as he needed to be able to get over me, to get over the dreams we once had, and I could do the same…

Liam’s knock pulled me out of my thoughts. I smiled as I opened the door for him, ready to start the school week by walking together with my boyfriend.

That’s right… I have a new boyfriend now. I love my boyfriend. I love Liam…

I just used to love Kix, that’s all…

Why was it so hard to teach one’s heart to unlove someone?...

“Jade, did you have a good Sunday,” Liam asked. He didn’t stay on the dormitory on weekends mostly, with the exception of this Saturday, since he needed to attend the Annual Psychology Society Ball.

“It was good. I was able to do some progress in our paper yesterday,” I told him. I had been putting all the work in Liam’s hands. He must have suffered a lot since then.

“By the way, Liam, you mentioned you were a scholar of Brooklyn and Burke, right? Do you happen to know what kind of drug they manufacture?”

“Well, as far as I know, they are a large pharmaceutical company, so I guess they manufacture all sorts of drug. Why do you ask, by the way?”

“Well, during the party, Dianna’s behavior –I think it was influenced by something else other than wine?”

“What is it?... Don’t tell me -?”

I nodded. “I think she was fed with some kind of drug from Brooklyn and Burke.”