Spirited Away To You

Chapter-23: Not Forgiven

We all rushed downstairs to see Uncle dragging Aristotle by his tail to the door.

"Uncle Jeff! What are you doing?" I was mortified by the scene as the poor puppy continued whimpering. Trixie was meowing loudly which just showed how much she also disliked Uncle.

"A cat was not enough, now you guys brought a dog, tomorrow you would be turning this house into an animal rescue center!" Uncle roared as he continued marching to the front door.

I quickly jumped up and stood in front of him, taking Aristotle from his cruel grasp.

"Jeff! Stop all this," Aunt reasoned but Uncle tried taking him from me again.

The sound of glass shattering was heard as we all looked behind to see Uncle's brand new wine bottle on the ground, the liquid splattered and William standing there with an evil smirk.

"Oh... my god," Uncle cried out, mortified by the scene but he was the one to blame. I was having a hard time containing my laughter as I took Aristotle and Trixie to my room, William right behind me.

☆☆☆

Sunday morning came, announcing the last day of the weekend. I had to complete all the assignments my generous teachers had given me. William had gone away at night and came sometime in the morning while I was preparing to study.

When I asked where he stayed at night, he just murmured he checked into some new hotels around. Wish I could also do that.

William just strolled around, popping up and helping me solve some problems in AP Mathematics and physics. He was very smart, I would give him that.

When evening rolled, he left saying he would come soon while I set up a movie to watch before sleeping.

"Knock knock," William said from the window as he came after some time.

"Who's there?" I played along unlatching the window sill.

"Nobel."

"Nobel who?"

"Nobel, that's why I knocked," I was laughing so hard that I had to hold onto my nightstand for support.

William came in grinning but in his hand, I saw a serve which he licked when he caught me staring.

"That's where you been?" I asked pointing at the serve that looked so good.

"Yep," he said popping the 'p' at the end.

"Can I-"

"Nope."

"Please?"

"Nope, I had to walk for a long time to find the stall."

I just pouted and sat down as the movie started. William slowly slid under the duvets, careful with his strawberry-flavored cone. I couldn't help but stare when he caught a small drip of the ice cream just before it fell. He was so cute.

Right then, he caught me staring at him. I looked away at the movie screen. Slowly, a hand reached out, the ice cream coming in front of my view.

"Just one lick," William warned boring a serious face but the corners of his mouth crinkled up.

I don't know what came on to me but I held his wrist firmly as I took a huge bite. My teeth stung from the harshness of the cold but the look on his face was priceless.

"You did not just-"

"Oh, I just did," I spoke sheepishly breaking my gaze from his astonished face.

All of a sudden, William sprang up on top of me and started tickling me to death.

"Oh god! Please stop-!" I yelled in between my laughs, my breaths coming out short and fast.

"Say you're sorry," he said as he continued with his assault.

"To heck with your sorry," I spoke out in the middle of laughing as he tickled me.

"I'm sorry! Please stop!" I said not able to handle anymore.

After some time, he stopped while my stomach hurt from all the torturous laughing. I looked up to see William staring at me with the same look I saw in him the night of the party. I got very self-conscious about our position, me lying down with him straddling me with his hands placed on both sides. He just dipped a bit when suddenly the door flew open.

"Sweetie, are you okay?" Aunt asked, once again barging into my room.

We both sprung from our positions, heat creeping onto my cheeks.

"I heard you yelling from downstairs and got so scared, you okay?"

"Yep, I was laughing seeing the movie," I said pointing to the screen where a very intense part was going on.

Even if Aunt saw it, she didn't say anything about it.

"As you say. Go to bed, you have school tomorrow," she said, giving me a flying kiss.

As soon as the door shut, William burst out laughing.

☆☆☆

Weeks passed by as we all got busy with school work, projects, and also daily teen drama. Elijah was suspended for a week for a fight that he claimed was started by a sophomore. I still hadn't said anything to Mikayla about the party incident but it soon became a small headache when I saw Elijah and Britney never crossing paths.

''You seem like you could use some talk," Mikayla read my mind in the cafeteria. My brows shot up but I quickly shook away her doubt with a wave of my hand.

"Neh, it's just schoolwork getting on my nerves," I meekly responded plopping up a fry. My eyes fell on the seat next to me where Jaxon would usually be cracking jokes.

Jaxon had been skipping school a lot lately and wouldn't pick up my calls. I was worried about him until he popped suddenly and said he had the flu. He seemed fine. I never saw much of Britney except in my biology class which she would skip at least twice a week. She was back to her normal self but I would sometimes catch her staring at me.

William would always accompany me to classes and walk back home where we would then talk for hours and sometimes do my school work. He was my private tutor for physics, not that he could be a public tutor. Aristotle was an official member of our family when, with the help of William, he brought a new bottle of wine for Uncle. His reaction should have been recorded.

It was a chilly day, the sun spreading mercy with its idea of staying hidden for the time being as I walked across the broad opening of the campus, making my way from music class. William must be in the cafeteria tasting the new items, I thought.

I looked around the vast, three-storied monumental buildings when my eyes fell on a hallway that had a lock on it. Interesting. As I made my way there, I saw the lock was actually not closed up allowing me to push open the collapsible steel doors.

What could there be?