****
"Hey man what's up?", the boy who just walked in greeted the boy who was just leaning casually on his seat with no emotions. The boy didn't seem to hear him as he leaned on his seat, eyes empty, staring into space.
"Hey man are you all right?", the boy asked.
The boy, leaning on his seat immediately flashed a brilliant smile at him.
"Of course, why wouldn't I be fine?"
"Really?", the boy looked at him somewhat doubtfully.
"Really", the boy responded a smile still on his face, as he pulled his sleeves to hide the cut on his arm. The cut he had no doubt made himself.
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Lucas' POV
"....are you her boyfriend?" They both looked at me surprised and I knew people rarely questioned their relationship. I just couldn't help it. I wanted to know. Sky stared at me for a long time before he burst out laughing.
Placing his hands on her waist, he looked at me provokingly before responding,
"I don't know... what do you think?"
I eyed his hands on her waist. 'How I so badly wanted to remove his hands from her waist'. I glanced at her, she didn't look the least bit fazed or uncomfortable with his hands on her waist, rather she was staring at me weirdly.
'Of course. Seeing how she jumped on him earlier, they are probably really close for him to do that', I thought inwardly and bit my lips.
"Let's go", I heard the boy say as he led her away. I stood there for a while staring at their retreating backs before leaving to catch up with Ryder and the gang.
"Hey bro. What took you so long?", Ryder asked me. Before I could answer, Tony ran towards us.
"Ryder! Bad news", he said.
"What?", Ryder asked him.
"Sky.... Sky's back", he said as he panted.
"What? Wasn't he supposed to return next week?", Ryder asked.
"I thought so too but I saw him just now with that Tiana chick", he said.
"Tiana...", Ryder mused. And I watched them. They weren't exactly trembling which told me they weren't that far behind Sky when it came to power but Sky's influence was evident.
"Ryder, you pissed her off this morning, would that be ok?", Theo asked referring to earlier when Ryder had called Tiana a play thing.
"You think she'd tell him?", Rico asked.
"No. Tiana isn't the type to do that. She doesn't want to seem overly dependent", he said.
"But when he comes to Tee, she doesn't necessarily need to tell him, Sky always finds out", Tony said.
"So what? It doesn't matter", Ryder said.
"He can't do much", he said.
"Come, we shouldn't be rude let's go welcome Sky", he said with an air of authority.
"You coming, Lucas?", Rico asked me.
"Sure", I said.
We found Sky at the lounge. The lounge is where the students could stay and relax before and in between classes. It actually served almost the same purpose as the homeroom but there was a difference. Unlike the homeroom, the lounge had couches for resting and due to the limited number of members it was quiet most times. It also had aircon. The lounge wasn't open to everyone. It was for the cremé de la cremé of the school. Granted, everyone in the school had one sort of powerful background or the other with only a handful of scholarship students. And this was understandable as the school was situated in a rich neighborhood. Even at that, the school had a working hierarchical order. We have students who came from old money, those whose families has been rich for generations, at the very top of the food chain, we also have the nouveau riché students, the ones whose families aren't that old in money, we have the students who are children of rich and well known lawyers, bankers, directors etc., then we have the scholarship students at the bottom of that food chain.
The lounge was made to cater for students who are from old money. The ones, whose family companies has been successful for years and are well known all over the world.
Students like Tiana, apparently. From what I heard, Tiana's Family; The Almirez, are a very large, powerful and old family. They had subsidiaries all over the world. This I heard, was the reason her dad was rarely around. He had to manage some subsidiaries abroad.
There were certain exceptions were someone who wasn't from old money could be granted access into the lounge,
If one had contributed alot to the school academic wise or one is really popular amongst the students at school, one could be granted access to the lounge.
Another exception is if one had someone of influence, who came from old money that could get one into the lounge.
Following these two conditions, Tiana was still good to go as she was about the most popular girl at school and the guy who was backing her, Sky was also apparently from very old money. To everyone else, Tiana was perfect but for some reason I found her too perfect.
From afar we already spotted Sky and his friends. They were seated on some couches forming a kind of semi circle. I spotted her, she was seating right next to Sky and she was laughing at something that was said. As she laughed freely she leaned in to Sky and as if it was some sort of habit, Sky reached out and held her in his arms to balance her. She leaned in his arms all smiles as they continued whatever they were talking about. I sighed.
"Sky", Ryder called as we reached where they were seated. They all stopped talking and turned their attention towards us. I looked at the group and I recognized some faces. The guy who had punched me on the first day, Romeo was seated there, Tiana's friends, the two girls I had met before were also there and a boy I hadn't met before. They all stared at us.
"Ryder", Sky called with a a small smile on his face. He stood up and glanced at all of us, his gaze lingering on me for a while. He stretched out his hands to Ryder and Ryder took his hand.
"We heard a rumor that you were back, I guess it's true eh?", Ryder said.
"Yeah. I'd wanted to extend my holiday but then I was worried that a certain rat might start thinking he was a lion while the real lion is away", he said as he smirked at Ryder.
Romeo snickered and Ryder's face contorted into a scowl. He was mocking Ryder. I removed my attention from them and focused on her. She was sitting watching Sky intently.
"Well, so we wouldn't seem rude, we decided we'd come and welcome you first", Ryder said as he ignored Sky's earlier comment.
"Hm mh", Sky acknowledged as he withdrew his hands and sat back down pulling Tiana into his embrace once more. I'm sure I saw him smirk at me as he did this.
"Well I guess we should leave you seem to be really busy with your plaything", Ryder spat out as he smirked at Tiana before walking away not leaving Sky any room to reply. I glanced at her before following them out.
We had just left the lounge when,
"Hey Ryder!", someone called out. We turned to see Sky walking towards us.
"You have a death wish?", he asked menancingly as he reached were we stood.
"What do you mean?", Ryder asked feigning innocence.
"Oh wait, is it because of that. But I didn't say any lies did I?", he continued intentionally trying to provoke him. Instead of getting angry as we had expected, Sky laughed.
He turned his attention to me and said, "You are the new boy right? I have to say you've got some guts"
I knew for sure that someone must have told him everything that happened.
"I would have liked your guts but I don't appreciate you disturbing Tee", he said.
"Why?", I asked.
"Is she your girlfriend?"
"Whether she's my girlfriend or not has nothing to do with you. Just stay away from her and mind your own business. If I ever see you see so much as an inch close to her you'd regret it", he warned.
"Really? What can you do, huh?", I asked provokingly.
"What did you...",
"Sky?", a voice said. Tiana walked up to us and held his arms.
"Sky what are you doing?", she asked as she eyed all of us.
"Nothing just catching up. You ready to go to class now?"
"Yes", she replied and smiled at him.
"Alright, I'll walk you", he said and they walked away. I looked at the time and realized that I too had class so I bid the gang goodbye and walked off.
As I neared the class, I spotted Tiana walking over with Sky. Her arms were hooked with his. They got to the class and Sky released her hands and after planting a kiss on her forehead, he walked away. As I watched them, Sky and Romeo warning me not to go near her, echoed in my head and they made me angry. Who were they to tell to stay away from her. Before she walked in I pulled her and dragged her into a secluded corner. Pinning her to the wall, I saw the look of surprise in her eyes as she stared at me in disbelief. I locked my eyes with hers as I got close to her and whispered,
"Why do you have so many knights around you huh?". She looked at me confused.
"It makes me want to best them all and protect you myself"