Spades and Angels

Mystery Homecoming Hiatus?

Lolita

I kept away from Mads after that day in detention. Something easier said than done given how through some fucking fluke of fate he's in almost all of my classes. Not that he does much in the way of interacting with me mind you. Not beyond the odd look. That and when he'd open his mouth as if he was about to ask me something, only to promptly close it seconds later. An odd look in his eyes that I couldn't read seemed to linger there. That and the preoccupied expression that thanks to going to school with the troublemaking Angel my whole life I know is new. Just not what causes it.

"He's watching you again," Cora mutters that day at lunch. Frowning at her I see my friend gesture to where, when I look up, I fall headlong into striking aquamarine eyes for a second. Clueing me in as to who she meant. "I wonder why he keeps doing it? Surely he has to know about you and Connor? You've been dating for almost three years now." Cora sounds confused but I just shrug and return to the work I'd been doing. "Stop working for one minute Lo. Seriously be a kid for once."

"Yeah I'd love to Cor," I mutter sarcastically, eyes half on the page and half resisting the urge to check if Mads is still watching me the way the warmth inside me seems to suggest. I fight it off for as long as possible before something in me snaps and I look up with an angry expression to see he was. A rueful smile played on those perfect lips for a second before he was pulled away by his friends. The heat, the ache his look had caused inside dulls a little. Dulls but doesn't disappear. "Maldito ángel problemático," I seethe, rolling my eyes and shooting him the finger mentally.

"You good over there Lo?" Jessa chimes in then with a question and I give her as best a reassuring smile as possible. "Still having Angel issues huh?" I nod once glumly, seeing he's watching me again. The ache that's become a companion to his eyes on me strikes back up again. "Figured he'd have dropped the death wish by now. Maybe he's just a little slow, who knows?"

"Yeah maybe," I mumble, feeling something inside me rebel against the words. As if they're covering up the truth that I don't want to face. A darker, deadlier truth I'd been dancing around since I accidentally kissed him at the Spirit Bonfire behind that building. Something that seems to have started this godforsaken obsession in my mind over someone I could never have, even if I'd wanted them. "Just leave it, Jess, he's not worth your time. Trust me."

She shrugs "I'm sure you're right Lo I just can't understand why he'd keep antagonising Connor with what he's doing. Nor why he'd be so interested in you besides the obvious." She makes a bored motion before she looks back at the person still watching me since the feeling of his eyes burning into me where I refuse to acknowledge him deepens.

I sigh, "Seriously Jess, please just give it a rest before someone else notices whatever the fuck he's trying to pull and one of the others starts a fight," I mumble, sparing a look in the direction of where I know Connor and his buddies sit since they remain separate from me and the girls. A glance confirming he'd seen at least some of what Mads was trying to start and I groan at Connor's black look. Great just what I need. A fucking fight between my boyfriend and an obnoxious asshole who's more trouble than he's worth.

Jessa shrugs again as she, finally, looks away from the Angel whose eyes still bore into my head across the field, before her eyes go to something in Nova's hands where our last friend had joined us for now. The others are all elsewhere. "What's that Nova?"

"Homecoming poster for two weeks time," She replies, passing it around so I can see what it says. "They picked an interesting theme this year. I'll give them that." I frown at her for a second before my friend taps the paper about halfway down and my eyes zoom in to focus on the words there.

STARLIGHT MASQUERADE MYSTIQUE

FRIDAY OCTOBER 14TH