Chapter 9

"Allen?" I asked. Didn't he just say his name was Gaetano?

"Yeah, my American name is Allen." He shrugged. "I'll leave you girls to your work then." He said then left the library.

"Who's he?" I asked Talia once he was out of sight.

"My ex, can we get back to the assignment?" She seemed a bit irritated to talk about him so I didn't push it and sat down beside her.

"Sure no problem." I said and opened the novel.

"Sorry for snapping but his such a jerk I hate talking about him." She apologised before we got to work.

I felt like there was something up with her that was much bigger than Allen being her ex boyfriend but I decided to ignore it.

I told Talia that it was alright and that I understood so we got back to her work and soon we were done with her essay and left the library. I wouldn't say it was the best essay but it would get her a C at least.

Talia headed to her class while I went to the cafeteria, I stayed there till it was time for my class before leaving for the class.

Mom called me as soon as I had ended class so I didn't have time to meet up with Talia. I got to the gate few minutes later and mom looked like she was pissed off that I didn't arrive any sooner but I couldn't care less. I got into the car and left with mom and like every other day since we got here, I went up to my room and drowned myself in school work at first then in novels. I wasn't a gadget freak but more than a week without them made me to get bored plus I hadn't spoken to Jenny in a while and I really missed her. I closed the novel in my hands then went to the balcony and sat on the bean bag while watching the scenario. I always loved coming here whenever I just wanted to distance myself from everything, I didn't know if George knew about this place but I had never seen him here.

"Bella do you plan on taking forever to prepare for school?" dad yelled the next morning when I wasn't down by thirty minutes past seven. I had lost track of time while watching the waterfalls behind our house and fell asleep on the bean bag which caused me to have a piercing headache and a fever when I had woken up by three in the morning. It wasn't as bad now but I had overslept so I just began to prepare for school.

"I'll be there in a sec." I yelled. I quickly put a black crop top over my head and a white ripped jeans. It wasn't my best outfit but it could do, I brushed my hair backwards, rinsed my mouth with mouthwash and ran downstairs. I called out to dad who was already driving out of the driveway.

"Ugh, I wish you were thirty seconds later." George groaned as I settled into the car.

"I wish you were never born but we are both here aren't we?" I retorted.

"Don't talk to your brother like that." Dad said curtly. I hated the fact that he didn't say that when George dissed me. It wasn't the first time he did it, mom also did it as well and that was one of the many reasons why I felt adopted or that my parents preferred the male child to female, but then again there's Debbie and they loved her to bits.

"You don't seem too happy this morning." Talia said as we walked to class.

"I've been grounded since I got to New Orleans, I don't think I have a reason to be happy right after getting out of my dad's car." I replied.

"Spicy much." She muttered before we got into the class.

We had Greek history, the lecturer was quite young maybe in his late twenties or very early thirties and he was definitely hot, but that wasn't what kept my eyes on him, it was either he looked a lot like Talia's ex boyfriend, Allen. It wasn't Allen but he looked like an older version of Allen.

"Hey Talia?" I nudged her slightly to grab her attention.

"Yeah?" she answered tilting her head slightly to acknowledge me though totally concentrating on the lesson.

"Never mind." I said and focused on the lesson. I had wanted to ask if the lecturer was related to Allen but then I recalled that he was still a sour subject so I decided not to.

She looked at me for a sec but nodded and turned back to the lecturer. An hour later the class ended with the lecturer announcing that his name was Giorgio Giovanni and we could come to him if we had any problem understanding the course syllabus. The first thought that came to mind after he said his name was that his name was Italian just like Gaetano.

I had human biology by 1pm while Talia had a class so she went to her class while I went to the library, it wasn't really packed since most students were in their various classes.

"Hi can you help me with this paper?" A blonde girl with light brown eyes asked coming up to me with an anatomy textbook and a blank paper.

"Sure no problem, which topic is it." I asked keeping the novel I was reading aside.

It was a paper on the bones in the human body, the subject wasn't exactly my strong hold so I was only helping her to summarise the textbook, it wasn't much work since everything in the textbook was all that was needed for the paper.

"Thanks for the help." She said, stood up and began putting her stuff together. "I'm Maurice by the way." She said as she put her books in her bag.

"I'm Bella." I replied. She nodded then left the library.

I left the library for human biology class after thirty minutes, the class lasted for an hour, it was one of the shortest class so far but the lecturer did get a lot through to the class in the space of one hour.

"Aren't you leaving yet?" Talia asked. We were just leaving the last class for the day but I was heading towards the cafeteria instead.

"Of course not, I'm still grounded." I shrugged.

"Oh see you tomorrow then." She waved then left.

I stayed in the cafeteria till the attendants told me they had to close up then I went to the gate and sat by one of the pillars. Dad had called earlier to say he'd be late and I should wait up, so here I was at six pm, this wing of the school was completely empty, the last person to leave was Giorgio, our Greek History lecturer and he had asked why I was still in the school, I had explained that I was waiting for my parents to pick me then he said something about how a university student still needed their parents to pick her up and left.

I felt a sudden gush of wind, I looked up to the road but there wasn't any car in sight, it was not possible that a car would pass so fast that I couldn't even see the rear lights anymore. Right? I decided that it was all in my head, I was probably so scarred that I began to imagine things. With the thought in mind I decided to go inside the school to wait for dad, there was no one in school anymore or if there were any none of them were in sight.

I went into the field and sat on one of the bleachers still waiting for dad, I know I wasn't right to forget to pick George on his first day of school but leaving me stranded hours after my last class was definitely wicked there wasn't any cars around the area anymore so i couldn't even get home on my own.

I felt a gush of wind which snapped me out of my thoughts, I turned left to see Chris sitting next to me, I was more scared than shocked, like how in the world did he get there without making a sound and worse he looked so pale like he could literally be mistaken for a statue.

"mate" he whispered under his breath, what was that even supposed to mean.

"Why are you here, When did you get here, answer me!!" I almost yelled asking him a bunch of questions but not the one that bordered me most, 'why did he look like he cared?'

He suddenly looked forward into the distance then sighed. " Your dad is here, I'll answer all your questions next time." he said.

I looked forward as well but there was no way to tell that my dad was here. " what do you mean by my dad is here, there's no one there." I stated while turning towards him but he wasn't there any longer.

At this point, a thousand and one thoughts were going through my head, I was worried that I just hallucinated, but most of all I was scared that all that just happened might have been real. Out of curiosity I picked my books and went back to the gate to my surprise I met dad scowling.

Dad kept scolding me for not waiting outside the gate for him but I ignored him and went into the back sit the only question in my mind, 'how did Chris know dad was here?