A Slave to Love

Chapter 49: First Snow

Kiana POV

"Hey Jill," I said politely, feeling like absolute shit as I watched Jill walk alone to the dorm building at the beginning of lunch.

"Oh hey," she said, pink lips pursed, like she wasn't sure why I was bothering. As much as I used to really hate her, I couldn't help but feel guilty every time I saw her now. She was always alone and barely ever said a word anymore. And I knew it was partially my fault that she got attacked and suddenly became this shadow of herself, but even if it wasn't I'd still feel bad that everyone was basically shunning her now. Except for me, apparently.

I hesitated before taking the plunge in what might one of the dumbest ideas I've ever had. "Um...I was wondering if maybe you wanted...to eat lunch with me today? Well not just me but like Mick, Nate, Katie and all of us?"

She blinked in surprise, the cold winter wind blowing her hair around her like a blonde hurricane. Her face went blank as my question registered, like she thought I was making fun of her or something. "You don't have to do that, Kiana."

"But I want to," I insisted as we kept walking. I shoved my frozen hands deep into my pockets. The sky was dark and heavy and I was sure it was going to snow any day now. Mother nature was being a real tease by making it freezing cold with no snow to make up for it.

"But you shouldn't. I treated all of you like complete shit," she said, annoyed now, as if me trying to include her despite that was insulting.

"So? I treated you like shit too." I stopped outside the cafeteria. "Look it's your choice. You can come sit with us if you like, the offer's on the table. You can take it or leave it," I said. She stood outside the cafeteria for a moment before she left in the direction of the dorm with a sharp shake of her head.

Well. I tried.

"Hey cutie!" Mick said cheerily as I sat down at our usual table next to him, "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"Sorry," I said as I gave him a hug. It had been kind of refreshing to return to school and normal day to day life after the whole ordeal with Alek honestly. Made it easier to forget and relax.

"You said you were going to call me last night," he pouted adorably, his lip ring forever present.

Crap. I'd totally forgotten. "I got...a little caught up."

"Ooh," Mick said with a smirk. "You and Blade getting it on?"

"Actually no. We went to Blade's friend's house for dinner so basically it was me, Blade, his family, Blade's friend Ace and Ace's grandfather." I shot him a warning look before he found some other way to insinuate less than PG behaviour on my part. "We stayed pretty late then came home and I stayed up late doing homework and passed out."

Actually Blade and I stayed up late doing homework together and it was surprisingly fun. Although the little kisses and teasing in between might have something to do with that.

Maybe more than a little.

Okay, there was some serious making out happening on top of my textbooks, but it was important to take study breaks, right?

"You do look tired. Maybe you should have gone to bed earlier. I'm sure your teachers would understand if you couldn't get all the homework done," Katie frowned at me worriedly.

"It's fine. I'm just glad that things will be back to normal now."

"Normal?" Landon quirked an eyebrow.

"Er...yeah. It's just been busy this weekend, you know? With the party on Friday and yesterday's dinner and we all went over to Blade's parent's house on Saturday too and...um...yeah," I said awkwardly as I rolled my apple across the table. Ugh. One day I was so going to get caught in a lie and I had no idea what I was going to do. "This weekend we're not supposed to be doing anything so I hope that means I can finally relax and catch up on things."