Chapter 247: 247-Trick Or Trap
Clementine:
The door opened, and Ian walked in. It was the most awkward moment ever. What happened between me and the others wasn’t some kind of lifestyle choice, it just happened. Ian gave us a weird look for a few seconds before throwing his bag onto the bed from afar, then turned around and sprinted out the door.
"Ugh, I think it was a little awkward for him," Haiden muttered, getting up from my side and quickly looking for his shorts.
"Well then, it’s better he left. Once we’ve settled, he can come back," Yorick commented, getting off me and searching for his clothes.
"I don’t know, I don’t care about him or what he saw. I’m just happy," Troy murmured as he cupped my face and pressed his lips against mine again, giving me a big smooch before pulling away and getting out of bed too.
I’d been too frozen to react or respond. All I remember is my body needing comfort, and they gave it. Once they’d dressed, I snuck out with a sheet wrapped around me and went to the bathroom.
Thankfully, none of them made it awkward for me. But once I’d showered, it took me a good half hour to gather the courage to leave.
When I finally came out, I didn’t expect Troy to still be in the room. He was smiling from ear to ear as he held his hand out to me.
I’d expected them to be jerks after sleeping with me, because that’s what I’d always heard men do. But there he was, smiling like a child, so innocently and sweetly.
"Come on, hold my hand. I want to take you somewhere," he urged, making me slowly raise my hand and place it in his.
He held it tightly and started leading me out of the room.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"The others were planning something for you, so I decided to steal the chance and plan something first," he told me.
Just because they’d slept with me didn’t mean they were going to stop chasing after me. The way he hurried me out of the dorm made it clear, the real competition had just begun.
We began running toward the woods, the area still under the academy.
"But where are we going?" I complained, looking around. "I’ve never been here before, actually."
"You thought you were the only one who found unique places?" Troy slowed down just to mention the phone booth before continuing to walk again.
"Okay, I’m gonna cover your eyes, but don’t trip," he muttered, and I gave him a playful yet sharp look. The place was messy. Even if I closed my eyes and tried to be careful, I’d still trip over something. Thankfully, Troy realized it soon.
He snapped his fingers and walked over to me.
"Close your eyes," he said, still insisting I play along, so I did. As soon as I did, he lifted me into his arms. A little yelp escaped my lips, but it was drowned out by how tightly he held me. He carried me somewhere, and after about five minutes of walking, he finally set me down.
"Open them," he murmured. I slowly opened my eyes, and what I saw left my jaw hanging. "What is this?" I asked, confused and stunned. It looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.
This part of the woods was filled with fresh fruit trees. In the middle stood a small table and bench, almost like a picnic spot. The overgrown vines had covered the bench, but they weren’t dirty or old, they were fresh, with flowers blooming on top. Flowers with no thorns.
"So I was thinking, how about we have a little feast here?" Troy suggested as he began picking fruit from the trees. There were different kinds of fruits, and seeing how excited he was to share them with me, I just sat down happily on the bench.
Once he’d collected enough, he sat on a half-cut tree trunk that looked like a bench.
"Here," he said, rolling a mango gently in his hands to soften it before we shared it. After two mangoes, he handed one to me and kept one for himself.
"You know, I’ve been thinking about some things," he began, and after sitting with him like this for so long, with all the misconceptions finally cleared, it felt strange. It was like sitting with my best friend, but now we’d taken a step forward in our relationship.
"About what?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation going, because every time silence filled the air, I was reminded of our intimate moment from last night.
"Do you remember that one night when you were at my place and nobody knew? My stepmother came in, and I had to hide you under the bed."
He reminded me of a distant memory though not too far from the day our friendship fell apart.
"Yeah, it was around the same time, right?" I asked, and he nodded, sucking the juice from the mango before starting to eat what was left of it.
"There was something that happened the next day," he continued.
"After I dropped you off and went back home, I overheard my stepmother talking to someone on the phone. She kept going on about this girl. I didn’t know who she meant, but after hearing your story about the kidnapping, all I could picture was you. Still, one thing she said stuck with me, and now it makes me feel uneasy. She mentioned something like, ’She needs to be in the North, along with Troy.’"
As soon as he said my name and the North in the same sentence, my heart sank in my chest.
And suddenly, we heard rustling around us. Both Troy and I jumped to our feet, scanning the area carefully.
Troy and I exchanged a hand signal, letting each other know we were ready to fight whoever was here.
However, it was getting hard to tell where the noise came from as one moment there was rustling behind one set of bushes, then a weird tapping on the other.
Then we heard loud cackling from both sides. Honestly, it was the scariest cackling ever.
"Good job bringing her here, Troy. Now we can get our hands on her easily," a voice said.