LOVING HIM WAS RED

The moment we were out of the dining room, it felt like the both of us were painfully alone again. I quickly darted over to the coat cupboard to pull out the jacket I wore for school. Then I quickly darted back to the garage door where Fluffy was waiting.

"Whew. That was close." Fluffy smiled as he opened the garage door for me. Was Fluffy escaping too?

I ducked through and got to the passenger side of Dad's car as quickly as possible. The car was locked, so I had to wait between a large black and silver motorbike and Dad's car.

Fluffy picked up the car key and flipped the switch for the garage door. Then he came over and got the car door for me before jogging over to his side and getting in.

I could get my own door! But I quickly got in and buckled up. There was no point in arguing with Fluffy right now or ever. Actually, I felt like any kind of emotional outburst would end up in tears on my end, so best to just keep a stiff upper lip.

My best bet was to focus on the passing scenery, I told myself that whatever awkwardness or unpleasant exchange to follow was the consequences of my own stupid response to Fluffy in my dream. I mean, Fluffy would be understandably p***ed at me for refusing to accept him. Bell was always p***ed at me over every stupid thing. I just needed to put up with it until we got to school. Chin up, Sam. Just let him vent, I can take this.

It wasn't far. Just a 20 minutes ride up to the Lorent Packlands by car. By bus, it would've taken me easily 45 minutes - the walk in from the front of the school gates alone was a stretch.

"Lucky!" Fluffy beamed at the road, "Thanks to you, I get the car for the whole day!"

I didn't know how to respond to that. I decided to keep looking out of the window.

"Dad didn't even ask me to top up the tank." Fluffy continued. I took a peek at him to check that his smiling mask was still on. It was.

"I should thank you." Fluffy decided, "What time do you get off school? I'll come pick you up for ice cream."

"Don't you have school?" I asked, but inside, everything was exploding like fireworks indoors. ICE CREAM! FLUFFY! I DON'T KNOW WHY I'M SO EXCITED! (All the truth very loudly screaming inside of my head.)

I didn't even know how to feel about that. I just… poof! Became a puff of smoke.

Fluffy laughed lightly, "Then it's a date."

Wait. Ddd..da…date?

"Just kidding." Fluffy smiled. He didn't wait for me to figure out a response, "Actually, with any luck, I might be able to kidnap Wolfie. We'll come down to get you and stop by Gate City for gas and ice cream. How does that sound?"

It sounded like Fluffy was going to be doing a lot of driving around. I nodded and returned to not knowing how to feel. Yes, I did want to meet Wolfgang to see how he was. He was the only one who had to leave us when we got here. But I kinda had wanted it to be a date with Fluffy? I mean, I didn't want it, but I wanted it at the same time? Goddess, I was a wreck… but I think I had already established that by now.

Fluffy didn't seem to notice my internal collapse though. He was busy navigating a junction. The roads in our Packlands weren't usually very crowded, except near schools during school runs. Our car joined in the line.

This might take a little longer than 20 minutes. I checked my phone, I was still on time, but there were a barrage of notifications.

Luckily, Lala was less useless at this kind of thing than I was. It wasn't that I had a lot of friends texting me first thing Monday morning, I mean please! Lala had a lot of friends at school, but most of them would be posting on their social media. It's not like they had anything to actually say to my face.

I flipped through the feed, pictures of breakfast (I liked everything with strawberry in it). Someone had a new tea set at home (haha, Lorents...), more than one someones had a perfect style to start the week (Lala liked them all). Someone woke up late cos she went to the LuvMuunMuun concert last night with her boyfriend (poor guy). Someone else had a spontaneous manicure done last weekend, but our school only allowed natural shades. Oh what to do?

I didn't check my feed last night, so there was quite a lot to scroll through. Would this be the equivalent of reading Alpha reports? I realized I hadn't made Lala's daily post since yesterday either. Let me think, it's not like I could post "Just back from messing with the timeline! Booya!" They'd think I had gone mad.

Or how about, "My brother is my soulmate!" That'll make them all go rabid mad.

I sighed just a little. Lala's life was so troublesome.

We were stuck in traffic so I guess Fluffy got bored. He snatched my phone, looked at it, and then lifted it up and took a selfie.

"Wait, stop, no!" I think that was every word I could think of at the moment.

But it was too late. Fluffy typed something, beamed, and returned my phone. The line of cars started moving again.

I looked to my screen to ascertain the damages to my public image.

He had posted our selfie on my account.

LadidaPrincess posted:

The photo showed Fluffy with me in the car. He was smiling, his eyes bent in perfect crescents, and his blond hair like gold spun in the sunlight. I was reaching out to take back my phone.

Well at least I looked cute. Wait, no. How was that the point?

The post read: Hello La's pretty friends! Pls take care of my pretty La. Xoxo, Kai.

Die! Was what I wanted to say, but didn't, because I wasn't sure if I wanted Kai to die or if I wanted to die. I seriously felt I could die.

And right away, the like and comment counter started racing like Fluffy just hit jackpot with his single post.

The car was stopped again, we were just outside the school gate now. Fluffy picked up his phone and reposted the picture on his own timeline.

I decided to just put my phone back in my bag and pretend it didn't happen. This was Sam's way of dealing with social media. Haha. Sorry, La.

Fluffy chuckled, typed something, and handed his phone to me so he could resume driving, "Looks like my lovely beta's stalking me."

I looked down at Fluffy's phone, now in my hands.

OnePunchBeta was the first to comment: You have an unhealthy obsession with your little sister, Alpha.

FluffyAlpha replied: You have an unhealthy obsession with me, my lovely beta. <3

I put the phone away into the empty cup holder between us.

Fluffy laughed again, "You're the first girl who didn't try to snoop in my phone even when I handed it to you."

How many girls did he hand his phone to?

"Who wants to snoop in your phone?" I answered instead. As if I didn't have anything else better to do!

I turned to stare out of the window again, because admittedly no, I didn't have anything else better to do.

We were driving up through the school grounds. The Lorent Schools all shared the same huge sprawling campus, and since the Lorents liked to drive their white fancy cars to show off, the roads were crawling. It was faster to walk. That's why I usually took the bus to school and dropped off outside the school gate. I usually went to school earlier too, just before the jams start.

Although I was facing the window, and I had put the phones away, I found myself thinking about the post. I knew already that the post had made a stir. Lala, that silly girl, was really quite a prominent freshman.

She was one of the handful of girls who transferred in during high school. Half the girls here have been studying here since first grade, and the other half came in during the Middle School Enrollment. She was an Alpha's daughter, so she was treated like a princess from day one. On top of that, when Lady Amber introduced the new girls at the first assembly of the year, she proudly declared that Lala was her personal protégée whom she had high hopes for.

If that wasn't enough, Charles (Alpha Lorent's second son/ Student President/ most eligible high school guy in the Lorent School World) had come over to her classroom on the first day of school to ask her how was school. He also told her that Lady Amber made him promise to check on her protégée.

"Well, let me know if you need help with anything." He said with a shrug before quickly removing himself from the classroom of ogling girls. Lala thought he was very nice. The other girls all thought she was very lucky.

I sighed again. Lala, that silly girl, had a very troublesome life.

And Fluffy was just making everything worse.