Her Knight In Rusty Armor

Chapter XXIX

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Operation Get-Drake-Back
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"Yesss! The slow burn was killin' me, man!"

"Wait, so you two really kissed? You didn't need a mistletoe for it, either? Damn, son's got moves!"

Rolling my eyes at the two of them, I turned around to face my bed, all sorts of clothes and items scattered on top of its covers. It was the big day today.

Ahem, y'know, the day I was supposed to mend my relationship with Drake, yada, yada.

"Now don't go around spilling all the tea to the others," I warned them, flinging my suitcase up the wooden floor and onto the bed. "This is top-secret info. Maybe even more confidential than Dave's little agency. Understood?"

Marc chuckled, and I cast him an amused look in return. "Our lips are sealed. Right, E-boy?"

Ethan, in turn, mimicked zipping his mouth up, grinning goofily as he did so.

I nodded, satisfied with their respective responses, and began stuffing the suitcase with my belongings to prepare for the detour to Westwood High.

A part of me loathed the thought of ditching my loved ones for a stupid university which overburdened me to the bone, but another part of me knew that staying here for too long would make me get too used to home, and it wouldn't take long for the cronies to start pulling a Drake on my family, too. Plus, in the twenty-first shucking century, priorities were rather... flipped upside-down.

Sighing, I shrugged the philosophical thoughts off my shoulders, beginning to pack my things up once again. After Kate, Nora and I finished with the packing, we walked downstairs out the main door, Beth and mom on our heels to bid us farewell.

"Have you gotten all your suitcases, my bad boy's good girl?" Mom asked Kate, to which she giggled and nodded in return. "And you, Nora? All your clothes, gifts and whatnot? By the way, take a bottle of water with yourselves, munchkins. You might die of hypothermia in the cold–"

"Don't worry, mama," I mumbled while giving her a side hug, and she squeezed my waist in response. I eyed Kate with a smile, who glanced at my lips in return. "Heaters exist. Besides, we're old enough to take care of ourselves."

Mom scoffed. I perched an eyebrow at her.

"Surely Kate and Nora are, but you? You are a stupida piccola nocciolina [dumb little peanut], and I always get so worried that you might fall prey to the beasts of this world..."

Nora let out an amused laugh. I glared at her, shaking my head in dismissal.

Kissing my mom's cheek, I stroked her hair softly; she sniffed in return.

"I love you, mama, and trust me, Kate's gonna take good care of me – won't you, love?"

She passed me a small smile. "Duh! You don't have to worry, Miss Miller."

Mama smiled at her, cradling her face in her hands. She nodded, and I could tell she was almost on the verge of tears, but she wouldn't let them come, just to not make us feel even more miserable than we already were.

Walking over to Beth, I jokingly messed her blonde hair up, to which she grunted in return. I passed her a sad smile. "Don't ghost me, okay?"

Chuckling, she nodded. "No promises, donkey. This girl's got a tight schedule."

Pulling her into a hug, I sighed. She hugged me back, rubbing her hand over my back. She used to do that back when we were younger, too, and it was one of the reasons why her hugs comforted me so much.