Academy of Blood and Magic

8🖤

Brandon leaped to his feet, his eyes shining with anger. My breath caught in my throat. Everyone around us went still and silent.

I sat there, frozen, watching as my boyfriend and Isaac had a staredown in the middle of the restaurant. I prayed they wouldn't get into a fistfight. The last thing that all three of us needed was to get kicked out and arrested for fighting here.

The manager, a tall, burly older man walked out from the back with a scowl on his face. I took a quick second to read his aura - human - and was surprised when he stepped in between the vampire and sorcerer. "Look, you two, if you're going to fight, take it elsewhere. I don't tolerate crap like this in my restaurant."

Isaac turned to the manager with a cool smile on his face. "I apologize, sir. My friend and I were just having a little misunderstanding."

Brandon slowly sat down, never taking his eyes off of Isaac. To my shock and dismay, Isaac sat down beside me, smirking at Brandon the whole time, daring him to do something about it.

Brandon scowled at him but just sat there, stiff as a statue.

The manager stood there and watched us for several moments before walking back to the kitchen, muttering under his breath about juvenile delinquency these days - twice this month I'd been considered a juvenile delinquent. A new record for me.

The restaurant went back to normal, though people kept glancing over at us nervously, still expecting a fight to break out. Several people asked for their checks and asked to take their food to go. My face grew red with embarrassment as I noticed a lot of the glances were towards me. They probably thought Brandon and Isaac were fighting over a girl and the said girl was me. I lowered myself in my seat, wanting to sink into a hole and never come out. This day was definitely a disaster.

"Was that really necessary, you two?" I hissed at them. "You almost got us kicked out!"

Isaac smirked at me then at Brandon. "I just came over and said hello. Your boyfriend was the one ready to throw hands right in the middle of a restaurant."

Brandon narrowed his eyes. I saw his fangs poking out from between his lips and could tell he was fighting not to let them come out. That would make matters even worse.

"You came over here to start shit," Brandon growled. "You knew what you were doing."

The smirk faded from Isaac's face. Anger filled his expression and he fixed Brandon with a withering look. "And it'd serve you right, you asshole. You left Janice and broke her heart. You didn't even wait to jump to the next girl. She loved you and you took advantage of her."

My face flushed even more. I really wanted to sink into a hole now. I couldn't believe this was happening.

Guilt etched onto Brandon's face and he lowered his gaze. I noticed that people were still staring and my heart nearly stopped when I recognized a few people from my school. Tomorrow the rumor mill would be spinning for sure.

"I'm sorry I left her, but I was having feelings for someone else. I didn't cheat on Janice and never would've. It wasn't fair to her to keep dating her when I was starting to like someone else."

Isaac abruptly stood up and looked down at me. "Look, Lyric, you seem like a nice girl, so I'm going to give a bit of advice: Leave this asshole before he breaks your heart too. Janice was never the same after him."

He turned on his heels and walked out. I stared after him, watching him cross the parking lot and get into his car. By now the whole restaurant was staring at us.

I got up too and walked out without saying a word to Brandon.

I walked across the parking to the Target beside the building. I stopped in front of the entrance, pulled out my phone, and started to call for an Uber to pick me. I didn't want to be around Brandon at the moment. I didn't even want to look at him right now.