Seven

Chapter 71

LILIANNA'S POV

It's been four days since I last talked to Mesha. She's sent a text the day after I found out about her and Curby telling me to call her when I'm ready. Mesha and Curby. How could I have been so blind? The more I've thought about it these last few days the more things I realised I never noticed. They had always been flirtatious with each other but I had put that down to them just having a bit of harmless fun.

My anger at Mesha subsided that very next day. I woke up feeling more embarrassed than angry. She was just trying to do the right thing by me and I understand that. Despite no longer feeling angry at her I still haven't brought myself to message her yet. I'm sad she didn't feel as if she could talk to me, that she felt like she had to keep Curby a secret because of how I would react. I was happy that she was happy, I still am happy for her, even if the secret boyfriend she was hiding from me all this time was Curby. He is nice enough I suppose. As nice as gangsters are.

Though my anger had vanished it was quickly replaced by jealousy. Curby clearly likes Mesha, enough for him to keep contact with her after he left town. Enough for him to visit every so often. Enough for him to return to her. She is enough for him, and it breaks me that I apparently wasn't enough for Seven.

"I think I might be done." Hannah announces at the table and we all look up at her.

"Really?" Paul asks and leans over to look at the work in front of her.

"Mmhm. I've gone over it twice now and I think it's all there in order." She nods looking at the stack of papers. The truth is, I have also finished my research but I've been waiting for someone else to speak up first.

"Already?" Alec asks in disbelief and Hannah nods.

"I'm actually finished too." I slide my stack of papers over slightly and Hannah beams at me proudly.

"Surely not. You've got to check over it before we hand this all in. If you've done it wrong it make us all look bad." Alec remarks, his clear dislike for me shining through his words.

"I've checked it over three times already. Plus the editor will tweak what's needed to be." I reply dryly. I don't rise to his baiting arguments and it seems to annoy him even more. I get the feeling he's been trying to redeem himself since our public debate in the lecture theatre. He's been very testy lately but I don't rise to it, a far cry from the charming guy I had first met when we started this.

"How far off are you then Paul?" Alec turns his dark eyes to Paul.

"About a page off. But I'll be finished by this afternoon easy. We could probably hand in by five." Paul says excitedly. If we finish this afternoon we'll be four days ahead of our due date. I wonder if this is the earliest Paul has ever finished anything seeing as he likes to complete assignments hours before they're due.

"How much do you have left Alec?" I ask and his eyes shoot down to his pages. He seems slightly flustered as he flicks through them.

"About two but I'll get them done for our five o'clock submission." He assures the group and I don't doubt him. He may be a dick but his academic work speaks for itself, the guy is annoyingly smart.

"We should go for a drink tonight to celebrate turning in our research!" Hannah suggests and we all agree on a casual celebratory drink at six tonight.

Paul suggests a low key student bar about a twenty minute drive from my flat that hosts an open mic night for some live music to entertain us while we drink. I haven't been to the bar before but I have heard of it. I'm unsure on how drinking out with Alec is going to go but I'm hoping it won't be so bad with both Hannah and Paul there too.