Complications

Chapter 32 - His Infatuation

Selina's POV:

"So what next?" I asked Keegan, slouching on the leather chair by the computer in his room and sipping on a can of Sprite.

"We start targeting them. One by one." He said, placing his comb down onto his dresser and moving away from his mirror to sit opposite me.

"Who first then?" I questioned, kicking my feet down from the desk that I had my boots up on and crossing my legs over each other.

"The one who started it of course." Keegan smirked. "Just need to know where we can find them."

"Oh don't worry about that." I replied. "Leave it to me."

*******

Aria's POV:

Gah why was the walk to library so long?

We had our food in hand, trekking our way through the centre of town with our rucksacks heavy with notes and papers.

"I can't believe we're actually done with school in a few months." Ramon said.

"Don't remind me." I stated. "That means exams are coming up and frankly, I'm stressing my life away."

"We didn't bring you out to be depressy Aria!" Ishmael nudged me, smiling.

"I'm not being depressy." I said sarcastically in his face, sticking out my tongue. "You guys brought me to do homework - excuse my lack of enthusiasm."

"Oh come on, we all know  you're practically itching to get that French assignment done for Ms Dana." Rosalie mocked.

"That's due this week!?" Angel shrieked, drawing death glares and odd looks from intelligent people walking out the library.

"Naaah you know Angel it's due after the next holidays." Ramon sarcastically sang before she raised her hand threatening to 'accidentally' drop him.

********

We eventually all sat around in a circle on the fourth floor of Central Library, totally ignoring each other's existences, with music in our ears - until,

"Hey guys!!" A voice said, causing us all to look up, even over the blasting shrills of sounds in our ears. "Okay maybe that was a bit too loud."

"Selina!" We all whispered in unison.

"I thought you had tuition." Rosalie said, shuffling over with her papers to make room for Selina to sit.

"Oh I finished up early." Selina smiled, placing herself next to Rosalie and dropping her bag to the floor. "I told Ishmael not to tell you I was coming."

We all turned to raise an eyebrow at Ishmael.

"What?" He looked confused, yet innocent. "She wanted to surprise you guys."

"So what work we doing?" Selina asked.

"French." We all groaned in unison.

"That's due this week!?" She shrieked, once again getting glares from the grumpy librarian sitting on the other side of the hall.

"See!" Angel complained defensively, cluelessly gesturing as if I was searching for something. "Don't see her getting sarcy comments."

Rosalie pulled the most overly dramatic gasp,

"US??" She asked. "BE MEAN? TO SELINA?"

"That's practically treason." Monika added.

"She ain't a queen, hoe." Angel laughed. "She can be the Queen of Hoes though."

"Hey!!" Selina shrilled, pulling a pretty questionable look of anxiety - before shutting herself up upon meeting the librarian's glare and whispering, "So..French?"

*******

After about an hour of preparing a speech for the forbidden language, I decided to get up and stretch my legs. Ishmael of course, joined me as we walked up the the 6th floor of the library, the balcony side. It's like he didn't trust me to walk up two flights of stairs and back and come back in one piece.

"So," He said after a few minutes as we leaned on our forearms on the ridge of the balcony, breaking the awkward, yet almost acceptable silence. "How you holding up?"

"Okay I guess." I muttered, twiddling my fingers. "Just..you know. Hoping he wakes up soon."

"You gotta stop overthinking it." Ishmael said,patting my shoulder and drawing me towards him in a half hug. The strong aroma of his aftershave had me entranced for a minute before he spoke again. "And if you are gonna, think positively. Soon, Mitchell'll be back, healthy and well. We'll be back at school complaining about exams and then getting on with our lives."

"Well what about Keegan?" I asked, almost in a whisper, as if someone was listening in on our conversation.

"He'll get what's coming to him." Ishmael stated, now a firm tone in his voice compared to his usual calmness. "We just need proof."

And then I snapped, pulling away from his hug,

"How much proof do we need?!" I raised my voice. "More so, WHAT proof do we bloody need before Keegan can fucking pay for this!?"

"Look, Aria cal-"

"Don't tell me to calm down Ishmael! What did you expect me to do?!" I shouted. "Get back to school? Go to lessons like everything's okay?"

He stayed silent as I ranted, releasing all my pent up thoughts and emotions I'd been feeling since the moment we left the hospital this morning

"Well it's not okay! Nothing's okay!" I yelled. "How can you make me go back to the place that reminds me the most of Mitchell and expect me not to miss him?"

And before I knew it, tears were streaming from my eyes, and I looked down over the balcony, before meeting my gaze with Ishmael's again.

"Aria.." He said calmly, shifting his vision between me and the balcony, before harnessing me by the shoulders and slowly taking steps back with me. "Mitchell's going to wake up. And he's going to wake up and see you smiling, and everything'll be okay."

I wiped my tears with the edge of my sleeve before he pulled me out a tissue.

"As for Keegan, I know what proof we need. We just need to find a way to get it." He said reassuringly. "I promise you Aria, he's going to pay for this."

I nodded before asking,

"What proof do we need?"

"A confession." He said. "And it's going to be risky, and it's going to be hard, but if we play our cards right and use his weaknesses...we can get one off him."

"The one person he can't say no to.." I muttered, a sudden smirk breaking out on my face. 

"His crush...his love...his infatuation." Ishmael said.

"Selina."