Shadowteer

Chapter 28

"I'm tired of getting my hopes up for things I know will never happen. I'm over it." Manon shoved her hands into her pockets, ignoring the shocked look on the twins' faces.  "I'm going for detention with Chris. If I don't come back then you should know I probably killed him, killed Zainab and killed myself. Bye."

"Manon!" She turned around and sucked in a breath when her friends looked at her. "You... you're not okay, are you?"

Well, I'm not like them but I can pretend...

"I'm fine, don't mind me, just some dark humour. Stop worrying about me guys. I feel great. Fantastic." She smiled brightly. The twins watched her leave before rounding up the rest of their group.

"Guys, Manon is..." Etta finished up for her pale sister.

"Depressed."

"I can't believe it. We've been her friends for years, Chris has only been back for three months and he was able to see it so quickly." They all shared sad looks and made a unanimous decision to find solutions on how to help their friend without making it seem obvious.

A/n I hate this book and every other book I have ever written. They're all horrible.

Manon walked into detention and took a seat at the back of the class. The only thing she hated more than pretending to be fine was that everyone around her actually bought it. She didn't feel like pretending anymore. She just wanted to admit that her thoughts usually ranged from food and shipping to self harm and suicide. She saw Chris talking to Zainab and looked away immediately, determined to ignore him for as long as necessary.

"Students, your detention starts now. You cannot leave this class. I'll leave you to it, see you in a couple of hours." The teacher walled out, closed the door and locked it. Manon let out a bored sigh. Chris was bored too. Zainab had been following him like the plague ever since they had met and he couldn't help but feel Manon was acting weird about it.

He wrenched himself out of her grasp and walked over to Manon. "Hello love, what's up? Manon? Mano-"

"Do you mind? Trying to ignore you here." He smiled at her words. She found herself smiling back before she remembered she was ignoring him and focused on the table. Zainab got uo and walked over to them with a smile on her face.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Manon rolled her eyes, feeling a bit confused when Chris did the same. He cleared his throat.

"Remember how I said I needed to show you something, Manon? Well, that thing is about Zainab-"

"Oh wait wait wait, lemme guess. You guys are gonna get married, live in a condo in Marseilles and rent libraries in-"

"Amsterdam and Budapest to ignore the kids. That's our thing thou-"

"Aww, Chris, that's a bit too forward but it's so sweet of you!" She leaned closer and before Chris knew what was going on her lips were on his. He shoved her away roughly and turned to Manon. She swallowed down a lump in her throat and stood up.

"I hope you two are as happy together as I am sad alone. Bye." She walked to the door and tried to open it, swearing under her breath when she saw that it was locked.

"I... Manon I didn't know she was gonna-"

"Save it."

"I know you're mad at me. You have every right to be. But that thing I wanted to show you was about Zainab. Well, if her name really was Zainab." The class went quiet. All eyes were on the three of them. Manon turned around, suddenly interested in the conversation while Zainab's eyes widened. "Thought you were leaving?"

"You piqued my interest. Go on."

"You know I'm not so big on trust or the big L-O-V-E so when Zainab came, it seemed a bit fishy. Did some research and found out that she isn't actually an official student. Mr. Damocles just let her in. Plus she kept asking me questions about my life just often enough that it was borderline stalkerish." Zainab blinked, her face dropping. "So, who are you exactly, 'Zainab'? If that's even your real name? Fangirl, reporter or..."

The girl bit her lip for a moment before clearing her throat. "Nice detective work. You caught me. My real name is Alex, I'm a blogger/YouTuber. Just came to get as much dirt as I could on the mysterious Christopher Lahiffe."

"How old are you?"

"21."

"And Damocles just let you waltz in?"

"You pay the guy enough cash, he bows to your every whim. It was pretty easy." Manon blinked, shocked beyond measure. Chris turned to her and smiled.

"I wasn't ignoring you, okay? While she thought she was playing me, I was really playing her."

"Actually, pretty sure I won this round. You told me a lot about you and I have everything down. I'm going to be more famous than the Ladyblog for getting an exclusive on you so thanks a lot sweetie." Her voice made Manon cringe.

"I actually lied about everything. Nothing I told you is true cause again, I don't trust people. My favourite colour is black though, feel free to give a shout-out to me for the exclusive." She frowned and walked over to the door. She banged against it, ignoring the shock of the students behind her. She stepped out, and turned around slowly.

"Touche. I'm really sorry Manon, just needed a scoop."

"Who says I care?"

"Uh... anyone with eyes?" Manon shrugged and looked away. Alex huffed.

"I just wanted an exclusive. Don't hate me, I'm not a bad person. I'm sorry Chris. You were wise not to trust me but I hope I can redeem that trust one day. Maybe we could even be friends." She took a deep breath and walked out of the class, feeling guilty and slightly ashamed of herself. Chris shut his eyes tight when everyone started cheering. Manon walked up to him and put her hands over his closed eyes.

"Did we win?"

"Definitely. Nice work, idiot." She took her hands off. He bit his lip and grabbed her hands, taking her by surprise yet again. "Wow Chris, didn't know you were such a touchy-feely guy-'

"I'm sorry about what happened-" she kissed his cheek, sending him into a shocked stammer. His cheeks were bright red.

"It's okay. We're good now. I give you full authorisation to hu- hey I didn't finish!" He picked her up and spun her around. Zaina- Alex smiled from the window, looking at all her photos. If these didn't make her famous, she didn't know what would.