Delia

16 Exes

A man stepped inside and took off his coat. He had deep, ochre brown skin and straight, voluminous hair. He made his way towards Thalia with open arms. Macy and I glanced at her in confusion. Her eyes were shaking and she grabbed her left wrist and squeezed it. She couldn't even open her mouth to say anything.

When she failed to respond he raised an eyebrow. "What? Aren't you happy to see me?" He asked with a disappointed look. "Did you give me a reason to?" She rolled her eyes before standing up abruptly and leaving the room. Macy seemed to recognize him but I was more concerned about Thalia's reaction. We greeted him with a brief 'good night' out of manner before going back to the dorm.

I opened the door to see my roommate lying on her stomach with her face buried in a pillow. "Thalia..." I said with caution. "I'm going to sleep," She stated in a monotone voice. I looked at Macy and shrugged. She gestured for me to step outside and I closed the door behind me.

"That was, Malik Kumar, Thalia's ex boyfriend" she said awkwardly. "Oh wow, no wonder she acted like that. Well she's ready to explain she will, we can't force her, you go get some sleep okay, Night Mace" I bid her farewell for now and went back inside. I didn't want to ask Macy about the situation because I wanted Thalia to be comfortable enough to let me know. I changed into my sleepwear before turning off all the lights and climbing into bed. I looked at Thalia's depressed figure one last time, unfortunately there was nothing I could do for her except be there for her.

The next morning the tension in our dorm was more than apparent. But I didn't want to force Thalia into talking about it because that would make it worse. I assumed she needed some space so I left the dorm for the day and hung out with Macy.

My desire to explore the town only grew, and thankfully the restrictions for the investigation were lifted, for now. Macy and I were eating and chatting in the dining hall. We decided to take a short relaxation day to head into town so I could familiarize myself with the place.

However, when we were done eating Malik approached me at our table. He didn't really acknowledge Macy's presence. "You're Lia's roommate right?" He asked but I was sure he already knew the answer. I only nodded which provoked him to sit down. He had this curious look on his face which made me a little uncomfortable. It was like he was reading me.

"Can you tell her I wanna talk, it's important" He enquired and I raised an eyebrow. "Well if it's so urgent then find her yourself" I said sarcastically and rested my cheek in my hand. He smirked and laughed a little before leaning back. "Now I can see why you're the one who's been turning Neo's head, it makes sense I mean he's always had a type" he looked at me up and down and tilted his head in disapproval.

He must've been friends with Neo and Azriel, but did Neo say something about me? I glanced around the room and found him sitting with Azriel and Warren to the far right of the hall. He sat back and listened to whatever his friends were talking about.

Malik seemed to notice me looking at Neo and scoffed jokingly. "Cute," he commented. I gave him a dirty look and tightened my jaw. "Okay you can leave leave Malik, if you really wanna find Thalia then I'm not the person to ask, there's a reason you two broke up so obviously she doesn't wanna see you, accept it or look for her yourself" I didn't intend to be harsh but my words seemed to hit a nerve. Malik's annoyance was plastered on his face.

I slammed my hands on the table while getting up. In the corner of my eye, I saw that Neo was now looking in my direction. Macy followed after me as I left the hall. I had a feeling Neo would want to have a talk later. After a short cool down in the common room so I didn't make any brash decisions, we headed outside.

We got into Macy's car and she drove us to the town center. "So where do you wanna go first?" She asked as we got out. The town's buildings were old fashioned, but the people were ordinary, modern townsfolk.

"Show me the interesting places first, places that you guys visit often" I replied with a subtle tone of excitement. So she led me uptown, near the infamous Gold Hill I'd been hearing about, to a pub. It wasn't filled with old alcoholic men, but younger adults and even some residents from our school.

It had a rustic but cozy appeal to it and it wasn't reeking of alcohol, surprisingly. "This is The Brightons, back in the 1900s and maybe even early 2000s they used to be a really popular pub, who knows what happened that suddenly they started catering to younger people, less alcohol, unless you know someone who knows someone, and more teen friendly, it's like being in a pub but not really."

We walked around surveying the area for a bit. At the far back of the pub I noticed a familiar brunet. I nudged Macy's side and she caught sight of him. "I thought today was our day off" she side eyed me. "It is, but there's no harm in some small talk, just to make sure we're still on good terms" I nodded before we split up. Macy found her way to the counter and I took a seat across from Oliver.

"Didn't expect to see you around here" he immediately perked up. I noticed before I sat down, he had a cross look on his face. "Yeah I'm just passing by for now, so what are you up to?" I asked casually. "Felt like a drink, absolutely knackered after the week I've had" he sighed and slouched back. "What happened, I know the whole investigation had everyone on edge but..." I trailed off as my eyes landed on his hands that were clasped together on the table. His knuckles were red and had small bruises on both his hands. They weren't bleeding but judging by the color it looked fresh.

He quickly noticed where my eyes were and retracted his hands from the table. "Y'know, just a little mishap here and there, some misunderstandings" he elaborated vaguely. I nodded. I was undoubtedly curious, but I needed him to trust me first. "Well I hope you feel better, I gotta go but I'll see you later" I said in a sympathetic tone before leaving.

As soon as we exited the pub Macy pulled me to the side. "He wasn't in the best mood, also his knuckles were bruised, do you think he got into a fight with someone from school, what for?" I explained. "So many questions yet so little answers, are you sure it's safe to be pursuing him" Macy emphasized the word 'safe.'

"I don't know Macy, but he knows something about Lilian that we don't and we need to find out, I'll be careful" I tried reassuring her. "Promise? We cannot let Lilian's incident be repeated" she murmured. "I promise" I stated. We both knew this situation affected her more than she let on and whenever she decided to talk about it Thalia and I would be there to listen.

Next, we visited an old, but interesting, bookstore. It wasn't huge in size but it was overflowing with books. The shelves looked specially made for this store, as it had intricate carvings of nature and music notes on them. Macy seemed to be familiar with the owner, as she was a past student at Timothy Mikaelson. Her name was Miss Thompson, a beautiful young lady, maybe in her early 20s. She greeted us warmly at the counter. We chatted for a while about her days at the boarding school. She seemed quite fond of the environment which made me wonder if at the time things were different. The conversation didn't last too long, and I wasn't necessarily a bookworm so we left soon after.

Lastly she took me to Gold Hill. I couldn't say I wasn't excited, this Hill seemed to be the main attraction of this vintage town. It was steep, even climbing up on the sidewalk with railings was a challenge. The road was made of cobblestone and it was lined with cottages that probably dated back to the eighteenth century. It was definitely a marvelous sight.

"No one really knows the exact date these cottages were built, some are said to be so far back to medieval times, but many were reformed during the eighteenth to nineteenth century" She sounded just like a tour guide, but more genuine. "This town truly is rich in British history wow" I commented. "Been hearing about it since I was young, but to you it must be exciting huh" she laughed a little.

She looked at the sky and noticed the sun was slowly descending and the sky was now changing colours. "The sunset is beautiful from up here but we don't wanna be late for curfew now do we?" she joked. "Come on, next time I'll take you to the blackberry field on the outskirts of town, but we'll do it with Thalia" she grinned before heading down the hill. It was the first time I'd seen a genuine, big smile from Macy, it made me feel overjoyed. Along with everything that had been going on, I was glad to see my friend smile.

But as her car drove through the school gates, just a half an hour before curfew, I was reminded of what happened this morning. I didn't want to let that sour my mood however, because I had an enjoyable day. Macy headed up to her room first and we wished each other a good night. It was a little cold in town so I stayed in front of the fire for a few minutes. When I was done I made my way to the staircase but before I could I was stopped by Neo.