Supernova

Chapter One Hundred - Double Date Between Best Frenemies

"There's a festival happening this weekend," Elias told me the next day at breakfast. "I think it would be fun to go."

"Okay," I told him, without much thought.

It wasn't just that I didn't have any choice in the matter, but I honestly just didn't care. I didn't care who had told him about it, what he'd have me wear, or the bullshit pictures we'd take for the entire world to see. It was all just blurring together, and whatever farce this was would be no different.

"It starts tonight," he told me. "When would you like to go?"

"Whenever," I told him, just looking to get it over with. "Which day do you think will be the least crowded? Does it require special attire?"

Idiot Elias frowned a little, and then shook his head. "No, it is not that kind of event."

"What kind?" I asked him, genuinely curious.

"The publicity kind," he answered back. I choked on my next bite of rice. It quite surprised me. I had to force some tea into my throat to wash it down. Elias didn't seem to notice. "No cameras, no chaperones. Just a night for us. What do you think?"

I had to be mindful not to peer at him. There was too much pause to my reaction, but I couldn't help it. It was horribly suspicious. Even if it was just meant to seem romantic, someone had clearly planted the idea, but for what purpose, I couldn't be sure. Plus, there was the matter of chaperones. There may not be any we could see, but there would be some nonetheless. They were shackled to my wrist at all times.

"Let's go tonight, then," I told him, still motivated to get it over with as soon as possible. It seemed to be the right answer regardless.

"As you wish," Elias beamed. "I'll prepare everything."

"Okay," I managed.

"Are you alright?" he asked me, a troubled look taking the place of his once beaming smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I told him, trying to shake my self hatred and shame from my head. I supposed the bible verses were still weighing heavily on me. "Just a rough sleep is all."

That made him frown too, as I should have expected. "Perhaps you should stay home today."

"I can't," I told him. "Academics are important."

"Well, yes, but," he said, pausing a little. A flash of something came over his face, and it made my heart stop. It was yet another moment that he looked almost intelligent, almost mischievous, almost himself. "Not these academics."

The mere nostalgia made me smile a little.

"Besides," he said, waving a hand in the air a little. "Are rules not meant to be bent a little every once in a while?"

I'm not sure what exactly it triggered in me, but it was something that if not temptation, it was a lot like it. He came over to my side of the kitchen island and kissed my forehead, smiling at me like we shared some type of intelligent secret, the way he used to. Maybe that's what it was. Nostalgia at its finest. Maybe I wanted to spend time with him while I still had the awareness to do so, even if it made me sad.

Or maybe I just wanted to see what he'd unknowingly let slip without thinking about it.

"Maybe that would be good," I finally said, not having to fake my own mischievousness.

He kissed my forehead again and raised his eyebrows slightly, before giving me some type of hmm noise. It felt so nauseatingly familiar that it almost gave me hope. Maybe, just maybe, there was still a way to pull all of this off.