Behind Me

18: shopping

Happy new year 🎊!

PS; do hit that star.

I didn't want to go back to school. Every time I thought about it, I didn't know how to confront Noa at all. This whole situation was wrong, Perhaps a whole lot more than intended. What I had seen that day between him and Charissa was quite a lot. How involved were they? It had to be much closer than I had thought for her to be able to come up close with a peck to his cheek. And Noa wasn't too keen on physical touch, not even with me, not until much later!

I didn't want to go to school, so I didn't.

At first, Mei called worried I'd died. I assured her I was fine and would resume as soon as possible. As soon as possible turned into three days. There were texts from Noa too which I never replied to, and calls I just sat through so it'll would seem like I missed them.

I didn't know what to say.

Was he upset or did he merely feel guilt? I couldn't even tell what I was feeling.

Alpheus came over a few times being the good caretaker that he was. He wouldn't even let me touch the stove so long as I stayed home. He'd been the one to convince me to stating, "your mom doesn't have to know if you don't tell." I'd come far enough to trust him although not too much, but this much.

Then there was the surprise visit from Del and Mei that afternoon. they never even mentioned coming over although at this point, this much had to be expected.

Del sat in my couch already as comfortable as she possibly could be. "Your place is so cozy." She'd commented, I had no way to react to that. They'd pressed as hard as they could until I'd narrated the whole "Noa" debacle.

"I should have known Noa was nothing but a slimy mutt." Del wasn't too happy about it.

"Del, it's alright," I said.

" 'Alright' doesn't explain your absence from school the past few days. " She argued.

"Yeah, I thought you two were cute together. not anymore. How could he hide something like being engaged?!" Asked Mei. "And why is a political marriage like that being so hush hush? Is this a wolf thing?"

I wondered the same as well. I found I was unable to tell them myself about my sudden promotion from civilian to royalty as well.

"I don't know either." I said. I might know enough about the wolf race but not as far as the politics itself which was quickly proving itself to be shady.

"I'm never going to talk to him again. " Mei declared.

"Let's not go too far."

"Well you're being too nice," Stated Del, " if i were you, I'd do everything i could to make him miserable."

"Too far."

"I could do it for you if you want."

"You could?" I stopped myself in that train of thought at once." No, no , don't do that."

"You sure? As a manipulator, I could give him nightmares for months until he goes crazy..."

"Del!"

"Okay, okay... Still sucks."

"I know you guys care a lot," I started." But he's literally not done anything to hurt me. It's probably me over thinking things. I haven't even given him time to explain himself."

"So you won't show up to school anymore? Need I remind you exams are about a week away." Asked Mei.

I sighed.