Broken crystal ✔️

Chapter 10

Mia was cleaning the board, as she waited for the last class to start. She suddenly felt a presence behind her.

"You missed a spot," Nick said.

She felt a chill run down her spine and it wasn't because of the October cold. "Yeah, thanks," she said as she cleaned the said spot.

He leaned against the wall and watched her as she finished cleaning the last bit of the board. She stared at him, not even trying to mask her confusion. Why was he talking to her?

"Did you want something?" she asked.

"What, can't a guy hang out with his classmates just because?"

"Class is about to start," she said. "I should get back to my seat."

"Sure," he said, watching her as she walked over to her seat. Then he pushed himself off the wall, smirking to himself. He still has an effect on her. He wasn't planning on winning her over right now, but Josh was getting so close to her and he couldn't allow that. He had to do something. Looks like the days of keeping his distance from Mia are over.

Class was hell for Mia. She couldn't stop thinking about that little encounter with Nick. She tends to overthink things a lot, so you can imagine what was going through her brain after Nick tried to strike a conversation with her for the first time in almost a year. She just couldn't wrap her head around it. And what bothered her most was how easily he could waltz back into her life, like nothing ever happened between them. She quickly gathered her belongings after class ended and sprinted out of there, in case he wanted to talk to her again. She knew things would go very badly if he were to talk to her in that moment. She could break down in front of him, or punch him in the face or something dramatic like that. She needed to clear her head. She laughed to herself. She felt so weak for letting him affect her so easily. He made her weak and she didn't like it one bit.

She heard Kai call out for her and she came to a halt.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry for leaving like that."

Kai furrowed his eyebrows. "It's okay. But what happened?"

She always tells Kai everything. He is like her diary. She gets quite emotional when she's sad. Sometimes she can't get the words out because she breaks down, but with Kai it's different. After every word she says to him, a weight is somehow lifted from her shoulders. She wanted nothing more than to talk to him.

"It's about Nick," she sighed, running a hand through her hair.

They went to the spot where they usually wait for Mia's bus to arrive and there she told him about what happened. Kai wasn't as surprised about Nick's actions as Mia thought he'd be.

"To be honest I expected this to happen," he said.

"Why?"

"I know him Mia. He can't stand the thought of you being interested in anyone else but him. It hurts his pride."

"Why would he care about who I'm interested in?"

"He's a jerk, that's why. He wants your attention. He wants to always have you on the sidelines."

Mia scoffed. "That's ridiculous. He stopped caring about me a long time ago. He wouldn't bat an eyelash even if I started dating someone."

"Then how do you explain the fact that he started talking to you again just as you started hanging out with Josh?"

Mia pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't know."

"My theory is probably correct," Kai placed a comforting hand on her back. "Don't give him the satisfaction of thinking that he can mess with your head. You are strong. Act like it."