ꜱᴋᴇᴛᴄʜᴇꜱ

Chapter 12

I wake up with a pounding headache. The light from the window shines in through the blinds. I knew I should have shut them when I came back.

My mouth has a sour taste to it and everything that went on from 7 pm last night till 12 am this morning comes rushing in. Zane. The party. That dude...Blake. The calls...ugh. I feel miserable this morning. I turn to my alarm clock and find out that it is 10 in the morning. I walk into the bathroom sluggishly and brush my teeth and take another bath to ensure his touch actually is gone.

"Good morning honey," my dad says from the couch.

"Hey dad," I sit beside him on the couch. "And mum?" I look around.

"She's left for work already and I'm free today. It's dad and his baby girl...let's get on some little gist. How has school been lately, ever since the letter came in?"

"It's been good and I'm a little bit better now. I made new friends-"

"No one knows right?" he stares into my eyes and I just shake my head. He sighs out loud. He places his hand on my shoulder. "It's for the best. We don't want whatever happened to repeat itself. Please you are all that we have left and I'm sorry it had to be like this."

"I know you and mum are doing your best and I appreciate that but I wish it never happened. I miss them." I rest my head on his chest. He places a loose strand of hair behind my ears and holds me tight.

"Nothing will ever happen to you, as long as I'm alive." He's looking into a distance and I know he's thinking of them again. I miss them too.

On second thought, I don't want to tell Zane anything. For my parents and myself. The more people know, the more I'm at risk of being killed but a part of me wants to tell him because I can trust him. I just need sometime to be sure I'm ready to tell him in order to avoid whatever happened the last time.

"So I wanted to tell about-" I look back at my dad. The doorbell is once again rung and is echoing in the house. I get up in my ash sweatpants and purple tee and walk towards the door. I open the door to find Zane about to push the doorbell. 

He's wearing black sweatpants and white shirt, hanging his school bag on his left shoulder. I step aside for him to come in which he does.

"Hey!" he says with a smile on his face. I smile back at him.

"What are you doing here?" 

"Well, we took a break from the whole project thing and-"

"Who's that?" my dad asks from the living room.

"It's a friend of mine. We have a project to work on," I retorted and I turn back to look at Zane. "Let me go grab my books and I'll meet you in a few. Take a seat either here or the living room." He only nods and I find my way to my room. 

I'm coming downstairs when I peek to find Zane and my father in a really funny conversation. They are both laughing...at politics and me.

I brace myself and they both stop laughing. They stare at me wide eyed. I only shake my head and sit close to Zane. I put on my glasses and look down at my notepad.

"I-I'll just excuse you two," my dad says and he's out of the kitchen.

"Bye Mr Evans..." Zane yells behind my dad.

"What can I get you?"

"Maybe a bottle of water," he says with a smirk. I get up and pick up a bottled water laying in the fridge.

"Here," I toss it to him and he surprisingly catches it. He raises it up the air and thanks me. I shake my head and once again take my seat. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

"I tried calling you on your phone," he said and that's when I remembered I hadn't been with my phone since this morning. I want to go and look for it when he grabs my arm. "James said he found it at his place and told me to give it to you." He picks my phone from his bag and I sigh in relief.

"Thanks..." I take it from his hand. "So? The project?"

"Yeah..."

And that's how we finally complete the project and we are finally free.

"....In a nutshell, mitosis is found in unicellular organisms that can reproduce asexually. By asexually, we mean those organisms that can reproduce on their own, therefore having offsprings of same semblance while meiosis is found in organisms that perform sexual reproduction due to the combining of genetics from the parents, offspring takes some genes from each parents," he murmurs that last part looking at me with a smile on his face. "Mitosis in unicellular organisms like amoeba and paramecium and meiosis in multicellular organisms like humans. And that is it on the topic cell division."

The whole class begins to clap at the end of his speech. He turns to me still with a smile on his face. 

"Thank you very much Ms. Evans and Mr. Newman. That was a lovely presentation, so, any questions?" No one replies after a moment of silence. "Well," he looks back at Zane and I. "You can go back to your seats...Angela and Brian..."

"Thanks for doing the presentation on my behalf," I say thanking him for saving my sorry butt from stammering out there earlier.

"The pleasure is mine but you and I have some unfinished business..." he whispers in my eyes, leaving me and walking back to his seat that is two rows behind me. I sigh.

"It's for the best. We don't want whatever happened to repeat itself. Please you are all that we have left and I'm sorry it had to be like this."  

I shake my head and sit throughout the entire class. I adjust my glasses. Why is Zane so interested in my life? What does he wants to know? I don't want him to because it will hurt him along the way and that I do not want. Or anyone else including Ellie or James or even Darren. 

It all happened so fast. Down on the ground. Screaming....

No!

No!

No!

I feel a hand on my shoulder a moment later. "Cassie! Are you okay?"

I turn my head to find Zane crouching by my side and every other person in class is looking at me. I only nod and he sighs. "What happened?"

"You shouted 'no!' now...are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah..." I reply with a trembling voice.

"I'll see you after this class. We need to talk, okay?" he stands up and looks back at our teacher who is staring between us. He only nods at our teacher and walks back to his seat.

We are all out of the class, practically school for the day since that was the last class and I'm going back home with Zane. We are both sitting in his car when he parks his car off the road. 

"What's going on?" he breaks the preexisting silence making me look back at him.

"What do you mean?" I do know what he means but I can't let him find out anything.

"Why did you shout 'no' in the class?" 

"I don't know-"

"Of course you know why and you're not telling me. You're practically in danger and you need help."

"I've got as much help as I need,"

"And you need someone else. Tell me. You can trust me."

"I stopped trusting people a long time ago,"

"Who?"

"I don't want to say-"

"And it's killing you!" he shouts back at me. And it really is.

"Can-Can you please take me home or will I have to do it myself?" I ask trying to open the door by my side.

"I will. There's no need for that...." And with that, he starts the car and drives me home.