Chapter 68: Agreement

JADE:

I was sitting in my seat by the classroom, enjoying my solitude while still wondering about these shoes at my feet.

These red shoes… were the hell did they even come from?

I wracked my brain, but I couldn’t find an answer…

I was thinking they could have only come from one person – Marian. But if it did, how did I get it? And why did I get it? Why me?...

I laughed despite of myself. I was being a nut job, right?

Maybe Liam was right. Maybe I was hallucinating all of this…

I whimpered. Liam and I never fought, except when it was about Marian. Why can’t he just support me on this? Was everything I’ve told him just so hard to believe?

“Ha ha,” I laughed by myself. Of course it was far-fetched. Did I expect Liam to believe in Marian’s ghost?

But then again, if werewolves were real, how can ghosts not be real?

Maybe if Liam knew about werewolves like Kix and his pack, he won’t have a hard time believing me, right?

I shook my head awake. Why was I thinking of werewolves? Could it be that I was really missing Kix?

It had been weeks since he left. Was he alright?

I slumped my head against my desk. I couldn’t shake the thought of Kix’s agonized face when he left my veranda that day. I hoped that wherever he was, he’s fine.

Suddenly, I feel a hand brush through my head. I looked up and Liam was there.

He held a bar of chocolate in front of my face. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

I reached for the chocolate, still frowning. “Are we making up?”

“Don’t be mad at me, alright? You do know where I’m coming from, right? You understand me, I’m sure,” Liam said softly as he sat next to me in Kix’s old seat.

“You should know where I’m coming from too,” I trailed off.

We sat in silence for a while. I was still leaning on my table, my head tilted on the opposite side away from Liam. I could feel Liam’s hand brush through the top of my hair as if he was soothing a child.

“Jade… You love me, right?”

“Uh huh,” I mumbled as I took a bite out of the chocolate bar. It was dark, bitter, and minty – just like how I wanted it.

“Then, you’d love me no matter what?”

I sighed as I face him. “Look, if this about Marian and finding about her killer, like I said, you don’t need to -”

“Alright. I’ll help you,” he said, smiling softly.

“Wha – What?” I can’t believe it. Did my boyfriend really agree to it?

I put my hand over his forehead. “Are you sick? Do you have a fever?”

“It’s what you wanted, right? Plus, I don’t think you’d stop even if I don’t help you out, so I just might as well join in the ruckus…”

I flashed my brightest and happiest smile. “Thank you.”

“You’re always welcome, hon…” He leaned in closer to give me a peck on the lips, but as his lips came closer, he started to use his tongue.

“We’re in the classroom, Liam…”

“But no one’s here,” he said, his voice turning seductive as he whispered.

He kissed me yet again. This time, I reciprocated, enjoying fully his sweet, bitter, but minty breath.

Good thing we stopped just in time before our rowdy classmates started to come back from outside.

Liam was still smiling at me, perhaps thinking of what could have happened if the class president and vice president were caught in a passionate exchange of kisses.

I sighed. By now, I was used to Liam’s sudden display of affection. He really liked to kiss a lot…

That night, Liam and I went back to the dormitory and brainstormed how we will set up a trap for our suspect.

We were looking at the website of The Red Shoes’ Curse over dinner. We were contemplating whether or not we should leave a message directly at the site.

Finally, after thirty minutes of staring, I broke the silence between us.

“Let’s do it… Anyway, I’m pretty sure this page will still lead to our suspect one way or another, right? This was what led Marian to her killers, after all…”

Liam made a forceful sigh. “Okay. Here goes nothing…”

He typed feverishly in front of my laptop. I peered at the message he typed, which will be our bait:

I know who you are.

These words were good for catching our man. “But will it be enough?”

“It will be. Let’s wait for an email response.”

Liam and I set up a new email account from this. Hopefully, this would really work.

With a quick prayer, Liam hit the ENTER button to send the message in the blog.

“Now, our waiting game begins,” Liam said in a hopeful manner.

An hour after, we still haven’t received any replies.

“Well, that was boring,” I blurted out.

I thought the criminal would be adamant to connect with us, but why wasn’t he messaging us back?

“Relax. If he is guilty of something, he’ll definitely reach back to us.”

I pouted. “What if he doesn’t?” This would surely leave us in a dead end…

“Don’t fret. We can still go to an IT specialist and retrieved that number I deleted,” Liam said, enveloping his arms around me from the side while he rested his head against my shoulder. He blew breaths against my neck, which felt very ticklish.

Liam’s right… It’s not yet the end of the world. If worse comes to worse, I’ll just go and ask for Gary Eduardo’s number along the College of Psychology.

“Hmm, Jadey, what naughty things are you thinking of doing again,” Liam said, still slumped towards my neck.

“Nothing,” I said. I tried to brush Liam away to check the laptop, but his hands around me were firm.

“Jade… Why do you always smell so good?”

I could predict where this was going. I could already feel my face turning red with a blush.

I remembered Kix saying the same thing before. He said I smelled like lavender or something – a scent that wasn’t even present in any of the products I use.

“It’s getting late,” I remarked to my boyfriend. “You should head back to your room.”

“Must I really, Jade?... Can’t I stay for a bit?”

His hands caress through my legs. I can feel myself drawing in a deeper breath as Liam’s hand comes up to my thighs.

This was a dangerous situation… perhaps even more dangerous than getting a message from Marian’s suspect himself…