Unpopular - Enemies to Lovers

➸ 6

Maude's POV

I absentmindedly sketched flowers onto my history notebook instead of focusing.

My teacher had given the class a work period but I had already finished my homework so there was nothing left for me to do but daydream.

The sound of my best friend's sharp voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Right, Maude?" Eve asked me. She expectantly raised her thin eyebrows at me.

"I didn't hear what you said," I admitted.

"You need to start living in the real world," Eve said, "I was telling you about Logan's birthday party. It's this Saturday."

"Do we have to go to that?" I asked.

I already knew the answer was yes. If Eve wanted us to do something, we were going to do it. It didn't matter if I was dying in the hospital, Eve would make me go. It didn't even matter to her that Logan and I had a tricky past.

Instead of replying, she squinted at me. We both knew what the answer to my question was.

"Fine. What're you gonna wear? Is it a dress event or a pants thing?" I asked her.

"Dresses," Eve declared as if it was common sense.

A girl with thick black glasses raised from her seat to go to the bathroom. She was dressed in a fuzzy brown sweater and slacks.

Eve's almond eyes leered at the girl.

"What a tragedy. She looks like she's stuck in the 80s," Eve said under her breath.

I thought the girl looked nice, but I didn't say anything.

◍

At 4:00, I sat in the Braun dining room with my eyebrows furrowed in frustration.

Lucille and I had been working through practice problems for the past hour and I was still struggling with them.

I could never understand how some people were so good at math. Seeing a math problem was equivalent to seeing hieroglyphics for me.

When the tutoring session ended, I walked myself to the entrance where I had left my shoes. I carefully kneeled behind the door to tie my yellow running shoes.

Suddenly, the door flew open and knocked me over. I landed with a thud on my right arm.

Felix emerged from beyond the door, his dark eyes widened in horror. A few seconds passed where he seemed too stunned to speak.

"I'm so sorry!" He blurted.

I winced in pain as I sat up straight.

Felix briskly kneeled in front of me and examined the arm I had landed on to see if there was bruising.

His pale hands were cold and slender. He tenderly touched my forearm which made me squirm.

"You don't look injured," Felix said returning to his rude demeanour.

"You just slammed into me with a door..." I tensely responded.

"And I apologized."

Rather suddenly, Felix raised his head and looked directly at me. I sharply inhaled. Our faces were too close.

His dark brown, almost black, eyes peered into mine.

"It looks fine," he said.

His eyes lingered on me for a moment too long then he looked back at my arm.

I yanked my hand away from him and scooted away.

Felix's face was impossible to read. He usually just looked like he was bored. I couldn't tell if he felt sorry or happy that I was hurt.

"What was that thud sound?" Lucille asked as she walked in on our scene.

"I accidentally hit Maude with the door," Felix declared.

Lucille's walnut coloured eyes opened in horror, "Felix what the hell is wrong with you?!"

Lucille scolded Felix for being clumsy and seemingly forgot I was still there. Although Lucille seemed to be university age, she treated Felix like he was her son. It made me wonder what had happened to their actual parents.

After her lecture, Lucille turned to me and helped me up.

"Would you like to stay for dinner? As our apology?" Lucille offered.

Dinner... With Felix?

Lucille sensed my reluctance and spoke again, "we're having pizza."

Well, I couldn't refuse pizza.