Dares with the Boy Who Doesn't Care

Chapter Twenty-Nine(Rose POV)

Today I have a free period for my last class.

I decided to go early.

The harsh weather comes in soft flakes of frost biting snow and leaves remnants in my hair. It melts down as I enter the cozy temperature of the club room.

I take off my coat, scarf, gloves and shoes before thinking about what to do next. My mind wanders to the refrigerator and soon so does my body as I look through it out of sheer boredom. That's when I see it-

"Ice cream!!!"

I was so tempted to eat the entire container with nothing but a spoon and perseverance but after a few seconds of logical thinking I decide to use a bowl as well.

The trick to getting a good amount of ice cream is to not use a scooper, but a knife. That way you can cut the perfect amount of ice cream- in this case half of the container- every time!

I take a seat onto the counter island, bowl of ice cream in hand. No matter how hard I try and even two brain freezes later, I still can't clear my thoughts. I was hopping to forget about the events of last night.

I've been completely avoiding the guys today. I made it so obvious. I'm not necessarily ready to confront them yet. Noah, Leo and even Cameron are okay but the thought of encountering Mark terrifies me. I didn't think I'd be able to talk to one without the other and if the other happened to be Mark I'd be screwed, so I just decided to avoid all of them all together. It's been working up until now.

I reach in my pocket for my phone to see how much time I have left before they bombard in here to interrogate me about my whereabouts. However, when my hand comes back up with nothing more than pocket lint, I remember my phone is gone- shattered and thrown away like rubbish. Thanks to a certain someone who could come in any minute now.

My head shoots up as I hear the door creek open. Even though the cold outside wind hasn't hit me yet, I still shiver. Everything from the height and pale skin to the aura tells me that it's Mark.

He strides in. His expression doesn't change when he notices me, nor my large tasty bowl of vanilla ice cream. He simply hangs up his things and walks over, so that he's standing across from where I'm sitting.

The ice cream becomes increasingly hard to swallow.

"What are you doing here?"

The frozen treat decides to betray me by making a U-turn down my trachea. I choke. Really badly. Whereas the other guys would either comfort or even laugh at me, Mark just sits there and stares. I take about seven minutes to compose myself and he stares the entire time.

"Again, what are you doing here?"

"I'm, um, eating."

"But why are you here? I thought you were idiotically avoiding us again."

"Yeah, I was." I stir the pooling ice cream before shoving a heaping spoonful into my mouth, hoping that it'll give me some courage. "I realized it was pointless. In the end you'd force me here anyway, so I just came willingly."

"That's true, though I'm surprised you figured it out that quickly."

"Well I'm not as dumb as you think."

"You can tell yourself that."

"You are so mean." I shake my spoon at him.

"Okay."

"What goes around comes around." I place my spoon back into its now half empty bowl. "Have you ever heard that phrase before?"

"No, I thought you made it up." He says with a straight face and a sarcastic tone. "That must be why I'm stuck with you. It's the higher ups way of punishing me."