Ferd don’t freak out

She squinted at me as if she couldn't believe her eyes, "Ferd?".

Oh no.

"Delilah?".

What the hell was she even doing here?

"What are you doing here?", I laughed nervously somehow managing to voice my thoughts.

She gave me the same look Victor and Jason gave me when I had asked if they were both coming in with me. As if I was retarded.

"I live here?". She says sounding mostly unsure.

"You live here?".

"Yeah, I didn't know you knew my cousin".

"Your cousin?", At this point I should probably stop repeating everything she says.

She laughed seemingly amused, "Yeah, Ariadne is my cousin".

I couldn't have heard right. My eyes glanced over at Victor to make sure that he too had just heard what I think I had heard her say. Victor nods obviously understanding my conundrum.

Forcing myself, I smiled, "That's great... really, just great", I tried my hardest to not sound bitter.

"We only have an hour", Jason spoke up, "so get started quickly".

Thank you, Jason, but an hour might be too long. Suddenly I wasn't feeling too thrilled about hanging out with Ariadne anymore. I just wanted to go home.

************

I had never been happier to be away from Ariadne until today. Even thinking about that strange encounter again still makes me cringe. The guys had busied themselves on their phones, but they weren't fooling anybody. I still felt their eyes on me the entire time.

But it was really after Delilah casually brought up the kiss from last night that things took an awkward turn that we would never be able to recover from.

The last thing I wanted was for Ari to find out about it. At first, she seemed unnecessarily shocked but once that passed, she had just remained a bit distant and quiet. I guess anyone would react that way after hearing the story about where their cousin's lips have been.

It was so awkward.

Why would Delilah even bring that up in the presence of other people especially in front of Ari? If I wasn't as out of it as I was, I can only imagine how much more embarrassed I would've felt.

I knew she didn't do it out of spite though since she didn't know about by hidden feelings for Ariadne.

Keyword: Hidden.

Delilah insisted on hanging around to 'help us out' but I had caught the two girls stealing weird glances at me the entire time, then pretending to look away. But while Delilah had an expression of pure intrigue for some reason Ari had seemed completely sullen as if she'd rather be anywhere else but here.

*******

The rest of the weekend passed in a blur. I learnt from Jason that I might've gotten a bit carried away at the party the other night and broke my glasses. Since they were custom made in Austria to my specific preference, I'm going to have to wait two weeks to have them replaced. Until then I'd have to get used to wearing my uncomfortable contact lenses that seemed to burn my eyes whenever I remembered I was wearing them.

"Which one of you picked out my clothes this morning", I asked the two men from where I sat in the back.

We were in the car on our way to school. Victor was driving and Jason was sitting shotgun.

Jason looked accusingly at Victor who just shrugged.

"I thought you'd want to look nice for your girlfriend", he says carelessly.

My eyes rolled on their own accord at his ridiculousness, "Delilah's not my girlfriend alright!", I shouted a bit too loudly for someone who was trying to be taken seriously.

Soon we pulled into the school parking lot. Jason got out first and opened my door then Victor joined us draping an arm around my shoulder.

"Whatever you say buddy", he teased.

"Whatever," I huffed jerking his hand from my off my shoulder.

I was wearing black jeans that were a little too tight around the groin and a grey v cut T-shirt, black combat boots and a black pull over.

I felt so weird considering Vick and I were practically wearing the same things but in different colors.

"Solace hey!", A voice called from behind us before we could make it inside.

Nicole came bustling over to us with a bunch of books in her hands.

"Hey... you", I said not sounding the least bit enthusiastic.

"I just wanted to remind you that the debate team has a meeting after school today", she informs with a smile.

Crap! I totally forgot.

"Yeah, I know", I said instead.

When I looked back at her, her eyes were scanning my entire body for some unknown reason.

I was about to make a sarcastic comment when I noticed the people walking up behind Nicole.

Her blonde hair was what I saw first. Then when she smiled there was no mistaking that this was Delilah.

She was beautiful.

I wasn't the only one who noticed that either because she was turning many heads. Even Nicole turned to see what I and everyone else was looking at.

As soon as she saw me though, the most unimaginable thing happened. She began walking towards me and not in the 'I'm gonna kill you' kind of way but she actually had a friendly look on her face.

"Ferd", she said out loud, my eyes widened, and I looked at my bodyguards in panic.

Victor just smirked and Jason didn't seem like he was gonna do anything to prevent the confrontation that was seconds away from happening.

When she reached me, she actually leaned into my stiff frozen body and hugged me.

I was totally freaked out by now. What the hell was going on.

"I missed you", she whispered in my ears, which sobered me up enough to pulled away from our hug quickly.

By now Ariadne who I hadn't noticed had been walking with her cousin was standing right in front of me and Nicole was on my left side.

"Hey Delilah, how are you", I asked cautiously. She smiled brilliantly at me, and I could've almost sworn that I noticed Ari rolling her eyes.

"I'm okay", she chirped happily.

"I didn't know you went to this school", I asked next. In fact, I knew for a fact that she didn't attend this school, her appearance here was a mystery to me.

"I transferred today", she replied taking a step closer to me. By now Ari was slightly narrowing her eyes at her cousin. Come to think of it so was Nicole.

I nodded awkwardly.

"You remember my cousins Victor and Jason", I motioned to them, "oh and this is Nicole".

For a second her smile dropped when I mentioned Nicole.

"I already know her", she said a bit too calmly, "anyways, what are you doing after school today Ferd?".

"Actually, I have-", I was about to mention the debate meeting after school when Ari cut in.

"I was going to ask Solace to help out this afternoon", she said hastily shooting her cousin a wicked smirk, "the dance club is having a carwash after school to raise funds for our new costumes".

I quickly looked over at Nicole. But she had no mercy to spare.

"We have debate meeting after school", she smiled a bit too tightly, "sorry".

Ari didn't seem pleased in the least.

"Solace is smart surely missing one debate meeting won't matter", Ari directed her words to Nicole.

"I think you are right cousin", Delilah nodded with a thoughtful expression. The two cousins seemed to agree on something for once. Their attention was solely focused on Nicole as if daring her to refute them.

"Of course,", Nicole agreed reluctantly, surprising even me, "I'll see you later Solace". Then she turned and left me there with two smiling girls and two soon to be unemployed bodyguards for not preventing this entire confrontation in the first place.

No one even asked me my opinion, even though it's pretty clear whose company I would choose.

Ari has never invited me to do anything like that before. Surely all her friends are going to be there, and I've never really fit in well in that case.

Mario was also most likely going to be there.

Crap! Okay Ferd, don't freak out. You've got two bodyguards remember.