Never meant to be

Chapter 11

"Who is it?", asked Evelyn.

"Nick", I said while everyone glanced at the screen. Evelyn gave an evil laugh.

"Wait. It's not what it seems like-"

"That's enough!", Natalie interrupted me. I looked pleadingly at her.

"At least listen to me-"

"Kriss, I told you , That's enough! You don't need to give explanations to anyone. Not at least to these people. I TRUST YOU. That's it. We don't need to prove that to people. Also, those who had been planning to win over by creating a misunderstanding between us will NEVER succeed."
With that, Natalie grabbed my hand with one and Ethan's with another and dragged us away from devils.

" Natalie, I -", I tried to clear off the allegations put on me.

"We're late for the class. Come on, Let's go!"

*****

The teacher was ranting without a break and I didn't care to hear a single word. I was staring at my notebook for past half an hour. Well, not only staring but thinking. Wondering about what to make of Natalie's words. Was she mad at me?

There were two ways that could explain Natalie's acts. Either she meant each and every word she said. That she trusted me. Or she said those just for the sake to make Evelyn feel defeated at her attempts. Merely, for not letting herself down in front of Evelyn.

And at that moment, the latter made more sense. Because, anybody could have fallen to accuse me of betraying friends after what Evelyn told. After all, everything went against me. And there I was standing completely speechless with no words to say in my favour. Also, many times, distress makes you believe what is not true. Like I did when my mother died. I was devastated by her death and that made me believe at that moment that the whole world about me was trying to separate her from me. How I blamed Dad and people around for letting her go. Same way, Natalie must be really stressed at seeing her hours of hard work in rival's hands. And the sadness and anguish must have led her to believe even when she didn't want to, that I betrayed her.

Just this morning, I was cherishing our friendship and in a matter of minutes, it has ended. I didn't know what I was going to do without her. I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I just couldn't lose her. I would be miserable if I did. And for that , I'll put in every efforts to wash away the accusations and save our friendship. And the only person who could help me in this was the one who caused it,

Nick.

That Mr arrogant has crossed all his limits. He was the one who had so cunningly manipulated our meetings for book club to the meetings for our exchanging the flash drive. He would not be spared !

The class ended and I stormed to the library where we had initially decided to meet for the exchange of book. I spotted his back near the end of the library by the bookshelf.

"I never knew that you were this manipulative, Mr Arrogant! I thought you were better than all this but NO! How cunning of you to accuse me of backstabbing my friend. How the hell did you get the flash drive? I won't let you-"

He turned his back and faced me. My eyes raging with anger met his eyes. His eyes were looking more blue and deeper than usual. Maybe because his face was so close to mine. And suddenly, my lips refused to move and words denied to leave my throat. His eyes had this effect on me that I couldn't yell on him further. I didn't know why his eyes always intimidated me.

"Huh!? What flash drive? What are you talking about?"

His words snapped me out of my trance.
And I continued to scold him.