Deadlock

XI

Nikki and I went out of the elevator when we saw Jake. I got nervous. I didn’t really know why but my face started to heat up.

“Hey Em, are you okay?” he started.

“Ah… mmm… yeah. I’m okay.” I tried not look at him in the eyes. 

“Hey, I’m taking you two home.” he told us.

“Ahm, you don’t have to. We can go home by ourselves and Ashley might…” I declined him but he cut me off.

“We already broke up.” he simply stated. I was surprised and a little bit happy?

“Oh my god, what can I say? Well, I’m sad?” Nikki said sarcastically. Jake smiled.

“Yeah, yeah, let's go now ladies.” he took us to his car. 

While on our way to our house, I had to admit that I was really happy. Well, I felt sorry for him but... “I bet someone’s really happy right now.” I heard Nikki said from behind.

“Why is that?” Jake chuckled.

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask her?” Nikki said being the teaser that she was. She was going to pay for it.

“Alright, enough you two.” I demanded. They both smiled. But the atmosphere suddenly changed when Jake started to talk.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh?” I asked him.

“I heard someone bullied you.”

“Well, yeah, don’t worry about it. I can handle it. I was thinking of just ignoring it. They would probably stop.” I assured them.

“Yeah, let's hope they will.” 

Not a long time later, we were already in front of our house. I got out of the car first and I bid Jake goodbye. We went inside the house. Well, what a day I thought. I was right when I said I hate Mondays. Nikki and I were in my room. She decided to spend the night in there. It was maybe because she was still worried about what happened earlier today.

“So Em, you’re not famous, powerful and all but your grandfather is.” she started.

“So what’re you trying to say?”

“Why don’t you ask protection from him?” 

“You want me to ask something from him?” she nodded. “Nik, I still feel bad because I made a promise to him but I don’t think I’m going to keep my promise. I don’t have the guts to ask a favor especially not after I ditched his guy.”

“Then what’re we going to do?”

“As I said, I’m just going to ignore it for now. It’s just a childish bullying and they would probably stop soon.” I did hope just that.

“What if they won’t?”

“Then I’ll think of another plan. Going to my grandfather would be the last thing I would do because he sure would make me marry someone if I ask him something.”

We talked but we didn’t stay up all night. It was still weekdays so we slept after we did our assignments.

“Grandpa, I can’t take it anymore, please help me.” I went to grandfather crying.

“What is it that you want Emilia?”

“Grandpa, I’ll do everything you want, I’ll marry him, just help me escape from the bullying at school.” I begged my grandpa.

“Then it's settled. You will marry him.” I saw grandpa point to the person across from him. I was surprised when I saw a guy without a face.