The Royal Crush

29

"Again?!" Vivi exclaimed.

I twisted in my seat and glanced at Keith anxiously. He shot me a suspicious look.

"Keep your voice down!" I whispered to Vivi.

Vivi clapped a hand over her mouth. "Sorry."

"Yes," I said as quietly as I could. "I snuck out without him noticing. Again."

"Wow," Vivi whispered back. "What did you guys do?"

"Just walked around and talked. It was really cold but I couldn't risk going in and bringing a sweater so we didn't stay out long."

"Sweet. By the way, why is Holt Tucker grinning at you?"

I looked up and Holt Tucker winked at me. I flipped him off, making sure the teacher didn't see. The bell rang and I got out with Vivi.

"Did I tell you there's a formal dinner tonight?" Vivi asked.

I groaned. "No. Really?"

"Yup."

A pair of strong arms caged me from behind and I jumped, startled. Caleb's rich laughter filled my ears.

"This will take some getting used to," I said.

"We have all the time in the world baby," Caleb said and threaded his fingers through mine as we walked to the cafeteria.

Vivi smiled at us. "You two are so cute."

"You can say that again," Caleb smirked.

As I took my food I heard Shannon say pointedly, "of course he cheated, why wouldn't he?" And then she looked me up and down condescendingly. Bitch.

Caleb squeezed my hand comfortingly and led me to our table. Cedric and Dylan were already there, and didn't notice us.

"She didn't come to school yesterday either," Cedric was saying. "And she's absent today too."

"I know, I already miss her–" Dylan was cut of by Caleb clearing his throat loudly.

Cedric and Dylan looked up and their eyes immediately turned to me. I sat down and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Uh– nothing," Dylan shrugged.

"What, you think I'm going to be mad because you were talking about Alexa?" I asked.

No one said anything. Hurt and anger stirred inside me.

"Really?" I said sharply. "She's my friend too. You think I'll magically stop missing her because she betrayed me? You think I'll start hating her, just like that?"

Cedric shifted uncomfortably. "We didn't mean–"

"Do you not know me at all? Do you think that if one of you made a mistake one day I'd just turn my back on you and never think of you again? Huh? Is that what you think?" I struggled to keep my voice down as curious eyes watched us.

"Chloe no, you know that's not what we meant," Dylan said softly

I kept my head down and glared at my food, telling myself to calm the fuck down. Caleb's hand found mine under the table and his thumb traced soothing circles on the back of my hand. I took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled.

"Aw come on, you don't need to apologize," said Dylan.

"Yeah it's okay, we're all a bit stressed," Cedric said.

I smiled gratefully at them.

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