The Thief of Hearts

Chapter 18

Thalia's pov

I was asked by one of my male pen pals on Facebook, why do most girls always ignore or avoid a guy whenever they find out he's interested in them? I was a bit unsure of the answer as I sent my reply.

I ended up telling him that us girls sometimes are just as confused when it comes to knowing what we want. It takes time to figure our own selves out and during that time, we accidentally avoid the person purposely. 

I thought my answer served to make him more puzzled than he was before. Why am I avoiding Keith? Is it because I don't know that I want to give our relationship a try? Or is because don't know that I know that I want to give it a try? What??

I was heading to the multipurpose room to meet with my group from TV production class to give us one last run through before we set up the stage for our finals. It was Thursday morning and I haven't heard anything from Amanda since I snapped at her the day before. She didn't even come home the night and I felt like it was all my fault.

I'm a horrible horrible person! She didn't deserve my anger, it's not like she's the one who is causing the turmoil I was going through.

I knew I needed to find her and apologize, but I had a whole lot of things to get done. It was a busy week and the seemingly annually celebrated Less Stress Week was not doing anything to take the pressure away.

From my understanding, the week before all final exams was to take away some of the stress from us students and teachers. The different colleges would show their expertise in their different areas in a way of making each other feel relaxed before taking on the biggest challenge of the school year. 

The nursing and tourism/business department teamed up on Monday and gave everyone who had time to stop well needed massages, health tips and samples of hair and skin products. The education department partnered with the college of performing and visual arts to host a small concert on Tuesday. MIJ was hosting a talent show all by ourselves after school, something I did not want anything to do with but I guess I have to. Some other events were in store for us to feel less stressed, and the masquerade ball was one of them. It was actually placed on the last night (Saturday) so we could let our hair down, relax and go right into exams with no fatigue.

I haven't been to anyone of the events yet and I had no intentions of going. I just wanted to get through the week so I could go home for the Christmas holiday and finally be around familiar territory. Somewhere where I wasn't forced to sort out my emotions. Somewhere where I could actually breath.

"Hey guys." I greeted my classmates with a tiny smile when I entered the multipurpose room. My small group of eight smiled and returned the greeting.

I decided to do a roll call before I went through our program for the last time. "Floor manager."
"Here."
"Set designer."
"Here"
"Talents, camera men, Director, Switcher."
"Here."
"Here."
"Here."
"Who am I forgetting? Oh, yeah, where's my assistant producer?" I asked after going through my list.

Ayden burst through the door a second after I said that, earning a glare from me. He then smiled at me broadly and held up a small envelope, waving it as he did so. "I'm sorry I'm a little late Lia. Some guy stopped me on my way here, told me to give you this."

I curiously stared at the envelope, hesitantly taking it from Ayden. I was already aware that it wasn't from Keith, since my assistant producer would have mentioned his name if it was him. It looked like the invitation envelopes that seemed to have gotten familiar as everyone around me was getting them.

"Umm... Thanks." I mumbled to Ayden as he took a seat beside me on a table facing the rest of the group.

I put away the short distraction and tried to go through my plans for the group. My mind kept wondering away at who could have give me the invite. It didn't matter anyway right? Because I still wasn't going.  I didn't want to.

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Keith's pov

I literally tore my room apart and turned everything upside down searching for one particular tiny envelope. It contained a small invitation card to the masquerade ball and was accompanied by a somewhat lengthy love letter.

I wrote it about a week ago when Thalia hadn't wrote me off and rejected me. It was intended for her as a way to win her over, but it didn't work out, so I hid it somewhere so she didn't end up with it. I was searching for the damn thing to make sure that Ashton or, even worst, Amanda didn't get ahold of it.

I was underneath my bed, searching with a flashlight when I heard a knock in my bedroom door. I lifted my head up, forgetting my position for a second when my head collided with the underside of the bed.

"Ow! The f'ck!" I screamed, earning a chuckle from my best friend. I quickly wiggled my way out from under my bed to glare at the creep with one of my eyes shut in pain.

"What do you want!" I said irritably.

"Nothing, I was just a bit curious as to what you've been throwing around in here so long." Ashton replied with a smirk.

"I'm looking for something." I said, leaving out what exactly I was searching for.

Ash nodded in understanding and placed his finger on his chin as if contemplating something. "Does that something, by any chance, happen to be an invitation envelope?"

"Yes! How....?" I was puzzled at first but then it turned to horror. "What f'ck did you do!" I shouted at Ashton, who started to laugh like a maniac.

"You, my friend, are going to the ball." He said while he laughed his ass off. I was beyond enraged.

"You f'cking asshole! If I wanted to get rejected again, I could have done that all by myself!!" My idiot of a best friend just kept on laughing, like all my yelling did nothing to him.

He calmed down a bit after a while of mindless laughter. "Dude, relax. At least she's coming. It may not be with you, but she'll be there. You have another opportunity, I suggest you make use of it."

I managed to breath calmly after Ashton's little speech. I was trying to see the good in my friend's idiotic stunt and I kind of did.

"So what do you say?" Ash said after a while. "Any thank yous?"

"I need an ice pack, my head hurts like hell." I replied, ignoring him as I headed past him into the kitchen.

"You're welcome bro. Don't mention it." Ash shouted from the hall and I shook my head, smiling.