Flicker | ✔️

Chapter 50: Cale

Class ends rather abruptly as the bell rings, waking me from my daze. I still feel Daisy's lips against mine with a tingling feeling. Her small waist still in contact with my hand as I lower it slowly to feel more of her.

"Cale?"

I am interrupted by Maya's gentle amber eyes. That's when the pang of guilt resurfaces once again. What have I done? The question kept replaying itself in my mind as her lips moved to say something I didn't quite catch. All I could focus about was that time I simply grabbed and kissed her. I compare both the scene with Daisy and Maya in my mind trying to get to a solution but it doesn't help. My feelings for Daisy are different than those for Maya; they're more developed, deeper, more personal. Then I remember Maya's face as her face was drenched in her own tears as she saw her brother betray her before her eyes. They were bright because of the teardrops but I could see past the physical aspect; I could see the pain, the defeat, the vulnerability in them.

"Cale? Did you hear me?" she repeats herself, her eyes now showing a different element in them: worry and disappointment.

Disappointment? Why?

"Ugh, no, sorry. Could you repeat that?"

She sighs. Her white hair falls right where it should as I look at her. So cute, so innocent. Too innocent. If only she knew. If only she saw all the things I had done.

"I asked you if everything was alright. You seem a little tense and distracted this morning. Did something happen?"

"Ugh, no. Nothing happened." I dismiss her immediately, too busy still processing everything in my mind.

That's where I made a mistake.

Immediately her eyes lose all hope and fall down to the floor, defeat once again prominent in them. She grips her books tighter in her arms, unsure of whether she's supposed to leave or stay, her sadness all but obvious on her face.

I'm sorry Maya...

That's when she makes her decision.

"I'll catch up with you later. Gigi seems to need me right now." she says, her voice distant although she's just in front of me.

I don't want to upset Maya but it seems I only have the opposite effect. She needs me. She needs someone like me beside her, supporting her. Or perhaps I'm being selfish, egotistical, self-absorbed. Perhaps she doesn't need me at all but I have caused too much ruckus to simply leave her as she is now. I have made too much damage to her heart to simply leave her to figure it out herself. I care about Maya, I like Maya.

I turn away, heading to the library and away from my locker. In the distance I see Gigi's glare protuberant and relentless. She won't let me off the hook. I don't blame her. I kissed Maya, confused her yet decided to not to do anything else until she realized her feelings. Then Maya kissed me and I kissed her back and now I'm cold towards her and I made out with Daisy.

This is a mess.

I need to end things with Daisy straightaway.

It's all my her fault. My mother confused me. She did it on purpose. She manipulated me. She used me with information. I can't let it go to my head. As I dash through the corridor in direction of the library, I find myself restless, agitated. I need to relax.

I sign in and I hurry up to sit at a desk. I get the typical giggles from the corner as girls smile at me as they watch from a distance.

Ugh.

I do not miss that. A glare their way makes them scatter away almost instantaneously. I get up towards the biology section. Homework still needs to be done if I want to leave this ridiculous town and the clutches of my mother behind. As I reach up to get hold of the book I'm looking for, I feel a pair of arms wrap around my waist, someone hugging me from behind. A girl. I know it's Daisy since Maya wouldn't do that in the first place, not after earlier and I know Daisy's body almost as well as my own. I push the book back in its place and turn around to face her, my face kept emotionless before slowly backing away from her.

"Cale you know we're meant for each other."