Chapter 12 - Steak Dinner

THE class for the next subject was about to start when Max returned to her seat. She was just silent the whole period but deep inside she's brooding over what Cedric had said. Her thoughts were filled with catastrophic scenes if ever Hero and Liam would meet each other again here in Cas-U. Bloody fights were not new to her but it scared her to even think what one of them would do with the other.

"Max, are you okay?"

Hero's whisper interrupted her thoughts and snapped her back to her senses. Only then did she realized that the class was already over and it's time to go home.

"Come on! I'm hungry."

"Where are you going?" Lisa asked curiously.

"Well, I'm going home," Hero replied quickly.

"Are you going home together? Are you, two, dating?" Brenda butt in.

She raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you jealous, Brenda?" she asked directly.

The girl was caught off-guard by her question and fell silent for a moment. Some of their classmates were also stunned.

Max did not wait for Brenda's answer. "Well, I tell you, you have nothing to worry about. He is not interested in me so clean up that filthy mind of yours." She grabbed her bag in and head out first.

Hero immediately followed her. "Hey! Wait for me."

She stopped at the corridor and faced him with an irritated stern look. "I told you, do not talk to me casually here at ----school as if we are close. I do not want to involve myself with you or anyone else. And I am even more annoyed to hear issues like that. If you want to talk to me, do it openly at home. Not here nor anywhere else." She gave every word enough emphasis to make sure he understood her point.

But he seemed unaffected. "I'm sorry, okay? Don't get too worked up," he soothed her.

She heaved a sigh. He's doing it again, making it hard for her to maintain her composure. "Fine. Let's meet at the Casa de Steakhouse. I assume you know where that is, right? I've reserved a table for two. Just say my name - Kathrina."

"Okay."

She turned her back on him to leave him. She went to the ladies' room first to calm herself and pull herself together before going home to change her clothes.

"Oh, darling! Where's Hero?" Belen asked when she noticed Max's arrival.

Max kissed her on the cheek before she replied. "He said he wanted to eat steak from a fancy restaurant so I'm treating him to dinner at Casa de Steakhouse. Would you like to join us?"

"Wow! It's very kind of you, honey. But I'm afraid I will have to decline your offer. I still have a lot of things to do here. Besides, I think it's the best opportunity for both of you to get to know each other and get along. Thanks, anyway."

"Actually, it's not a treat. It's compensation for his lunch that I ate today. And we're not getting along well. Guess we'll never be."

She laughed amusingly. "Oh, I see. But who knows?"

"Okay, it's getting late. He's probably waiting for me. I just came home to change my clothes and inform you."

"Is that stain on your shoulder?"

She looked over her shoulder, holding that part she pointed out and saw the stain of blood blotting in her uniform. It's her from her wound, probably the pressure from her bag.

"Yeah. This," she answered, covering it with her palm. "I have to go change."

"Bring that uniform down with you. I will have to soak it with bleach to remove the stain."

"No, it's okay. I will do it myself."

She hurriedly went upstairs before she could lie any further. She took her uniform off and removed the dressing of her wound to replace it with a new one. She chose a maroon jumpsuit to camouflage the blood color in case it leaked through the dressing again.

"Sorry, I'm late."

"What took you so long?" Hero complained when she arrived at the restaurant. "I'm starving, you know. Thought you'd never come. I was about to..." He stopped when he looked up at her and saw how gorgeous she was in that dress--or maybe he's just caught off-guard seeing her in a "non-gangster attire."

She felt her cheeks burning red so she immediately rebuked him as she sat across from him. "Who told you to wait for me? You could have ordered already and eat first."

"And be imprisoned because I could not pay? No, thanks."

"My family owns this restaurant. Everything you eat is already paid for."

"Wow! That's big news," he said with a mixture of amazement and sarcasm.

She's starting to get irritated again. She didn't know he was this annoyingly noisy way back then or that he had this side of him that used to be hers.

"What?" he asked when he realized she was just staring at him.

"Just stop talking, will you?" she said in a soft threatening voice.

Still, he wasn't affected. Well, of course. She already saw that coming. He's Hero, the mighty red-haired Morsons gang leader. Even if he had stopped fighting, that didn't mean he'd be intimidated by some gangsters, not to mention a girl like her.

"You know what? I think you should loosen up sometimes. Every time you talk to me, it's as if you held some grudge against me or something. It's kind of makes me wonder if we have ever met before and I offended you or something..."

As he was still talking, she waved at the waiter and beckoned him. A male servant in his early 30's wearing a black tuxedo came hither.

"Good evening, Miss Mejares, Mr. Gaston! May I take your order now?" he greeted.

Hero stopped talking.

"One serving of each steak dish on the menu, a platter of rice, and a glass of red wine," she replied immediately without looking at the menu. "Oh, and two bottles of soft drinks for him. Thank you."

"My pleasure. One serve of every steak dish, a glass of red wine, and two bottles of softdri..."

"Make that two," Hero interrupted. Max and the waiter looked at him. "I mean the red wine. I also want a glass of it."

"Certainly, sir." The waiter wrote something on his notepad before reiterating their orders. "All steaks, two red wine, and two soft drinks. Anything else I have missed or any more you want to add?"

"No, that's all," she answered quickly.

"Okay, coming right up!"

"Wow! Are you serious?" Hero shook his head in disbelief especially when several waiters started coming up and placing the dishes on their table.

"Just consider it as compensation for all the troubles you went through last night because of me."

"Ohh!" he teased.

She shot him with a warning look. "Another tease and I will leave you alone here."

"You really can't take jokes, can you?"

"I don't have time for jokes."

"You know, sometimes, you also need to laugh, to smile, just so you feel better. It will take the burden off your shoulder. If you drown yourself in anger, it will only eat you up."

"Is that what you learned from everything that happened in your life?"

His face became serious. "Darkness has once enveloped my heart. It was full of anger and hatred. So many times I have wanted revenge. So many times I almost died because of what I was doing in my life, and I really wanted to. But something was always holding me back. Something was telling me that I have to move on, to live my life and start over. Anger and hatred only created a heavy burden on my chest, and I wasn't happy at all. "

"So you just chose to forget everything?"

"It is not easy to forget the bad things that have happened to you, but if you continue to be enslaved in the past, you will not be able to move on. I chose to move on. I tried to accept that there is a reason for everything. I just chose to change my life and start again. "

"Good for you. You are lucky to have Nanny Belen who loves you and your friends who are still loyal to you."

"Why, Auntie loves you, too! She's always worried about you. She told me to just understand you because you might just be sad.1 After all, your parents are always busy."

"She said that?"

"Yup! And because I'm a good person, even if you hate me, I volunteer myself to be your friend!"

She just looked at him as mixed emotions washed over her heart again and thoughts of the past came rushing in. What if...just what if, she dared to make friends with him then, just before Dana came into his life, would everything have gone alright? Wouldn't they suffer all those turmoil in their lives? Might be...Everything could have been better...

Or could be worse.

She was aware that Liam liked her and hated Hero. It would infuriate him if he saw them together. All the more, Cedric would never allow her to date his mortal enemy. Even her parents would think Hero was not suitable for her, even as a friend. Either way, the world still opposed of them together, and their lives would still be chaotic. The only difference might be was that they got each other's back and were fighting for each other.

"Hey! Snap out of it!" Hero interrupted her thoughts as he snapped his fingers in front of her. "Let's eat, shall we?"