Walking Heartthrob

Chapter 20 Home Again, Home Again

I returned to Angel Lane on Tuesday feeling way less apprehensive. Daylen's text had put me at ease and I looked forward to seeing what exactly he'd done to smooth things over.

The place was fairly empty by the time I returned as I was a little late; everyone must've already left for King's. I quickly showered and changed, grabbed my satchel and portable battery charger (my phone was dead from not being charged for two days), and headed out. Henry (such a good fellow) was kind enough to wait for me and drove me to King's in his snazzy Aston Martin. It was a one-time upgrade from the bus, and way more comfortable. Plus we reached in record time.

"Can you take it from here?" He asked with brotherly concern when we arrived.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks again, Henry. I owe you one," I said with a grateful smile at him as I opened the door.

"Not at all. Anything for my favorite cuzzie," he replied, ruffling my hair.

"Hey, I just spent ten minutes ironing that out!" I said, trying to fix my hair. He chuckled.

"That explains why you took so long... Call me if you need anything."

"Sure. If you don't hear from me, I'll see you this weekend." I got out and shut the door of his car, putting in my earphones as I walked into King's.

I walked into the campus with a spring in my step, bobbing my head to the beat in my ears. That's when I noticed a changed atmosphere around me; I didn't need to hear it to see the whispers on people's lips while their eyes were on me. But it didn't look like disdainful gossiping this time; people looked at me like I was someone not to be messed with, not an object of disgrace and scorn. I wonder...

I checked my phone for any texts from Daylen; I hadn't seen or heard from him since his text last night. I decided to text him now.

Hey, I'm at King's. I paused. Should I say what was on my mind? I went for it.

Looking for you. No answer. Okay, maybe he just didn't see his phone. I hoped to find him in class soon and ask him about yesterday. I had a feeling he was behind the strange looks everyone was giving me. And it only got better.

I bumped into Laurel and the Hardy gang after my third class outside the Somerset room, dropping the books I was holding. They looked nervous to see me. Know what happened? Laurel picked them up for me. Hell must've frozen over.

"Laurel, what gives? Did you get replaced by alien body snatchers?" I asked with cocked brows.

"Ha, ha, he, he." She laughed faker than my faux fur winter coat. "How positively hilarious you are, Alyssa! So sorry about that, by the way." I blinked. Whoa, first she shows manners now she apologizes? What did Daylen do to her, brainwash her? Threaten her?

"Enjoy your lunch," she said and hurried away with Clover and Matilda, heads down. Well, since I didn't have definite proof apart from Daylen's word that she was behind the kidnapping incident, I let it go. Just seeing her grovel was enough to make me scratch my head. I was burning to know what was behind that. If only I could find Daylen—but he seemed absent today. I didn't see him in any of our classes and he wasn't answering his phone. Hopefully, he'd turn up soon.

The next surprise caught me in the library courtyard. I'd stopped there to get some reading done when a statue of Confucius caught my attention (I'd seen enough Korean dramas to know who that was) and was taking some pictures of it when a troop of boys stumbled upon me. Hugo and his gang. I narrowed my eyes at them, guessing they were the ones who kidnapped me on Sunday. Two of them were even sporting shiners and cut lips. Daylen's work no doubt. Hugo did a double-take when he saw me and flinched in fear.