Page 10 of Orlando

Every day.

I admit it. I missed him so much. I shouldn’t have. I should tell him we need to talk, but when he reads the message and doesn’t respond again, I set my phone on the table next to my bed and close my eyes. I only have a couple of hours before Sebastian wakes up.

I’m late. I misjudged the traffic. The student parking lot is full. The only spot left is towards the back, which means I have to run into the building.

The moment I walk into my first class, everyone stops and stares at me. I’m sure I look like a hot mess. I feel like one too. “Miss Bateman, nice of you to join us. Take a seat,” Mrs. Valmade, the modern history teacher, says.

“Sorry, miss,” I mumble and look around the room.

There’s one vacant seat. I glance at it and then at the person sitting next to it. Orlando. Of course. I make my way over to the desk and sit down, doing my best to ignore his presence. I unpack my bag and focus on the teacher. Or at least I pretend to. It’s really hard with him right next to me.

Just before class is about to end, I finally work up the courage to look at him. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”

Orlando glares at me. “Is talking a euphemism for fucking?”

My eyebrows draw down. “No,” I tell him

“Pity, my answer would have been yes if it were.” With those parting words, he gets up and walks out of the room, before class has even finished. Of course, the teacher ignores his disappearing act. They all do. The Valentinos can do whatever they want around here.

At least now I can say I tried. I asked him to talk and he blew me off. That’s on him. Right? It’s not like I can tell him that he’s a father or at the very least a sperm donor via text, now can I?

Chapter Six

Reincarnated. Brought back to me.

Reborn. Old, yet still new.

Reincarnated. Ohhh, you’ve come back to me.

But you’re not mine anymore.

You were never mine before.

The lyrics stare back at me from my notebook. Can you love and hate a muse at the same time? I’d say yes. She asked to talkto me. What the fuck could she possibly have to say after all this time?

Slamming the book closed when I hear footsteps, I look up and see Aleeka walking towards the stacks. Exactly where Josie said she’d seen my ghost yesterday. I watch her sit down with her back against the wall. She types something out on her phone, and a moment later, a smile graces her face. Moments like this have me wishing I was Dante’s kind of smart. Because I’d hack into Aleeka’s phone and find out who the fuck’s making her smile like that. She looks up, directly into the darkened corner I’m occupying, almost like she knows I’m here. She can’t see me, though.

And then the smile drops from her face. That’s when I see it. Her sadness. The tears stream over her cheeks and she does nothing to wipe them away. Are they because of me?

I push up from the ground, step out of the shadows, and make my way towards her, against my better judgement. It seems I have zero sense of self-preservation when it comes to this girl.

Aleeka doesn’t look up at me as I sit in front of her. “I’m really not in the mood, Orlando,” she says.

Placing my fingers under her chin, I lift her face until her watery eyes connect with mine. My thumbs wipe the wetness from her cheeks. “Why are you sitting in here by yourself crying?”

“Because crying in the cafeteria surrounded by everyone didn’t seem like a better option,” she counters.

I smile. “Probably not. Why are you crying?”

Aleeka’s eyes squint at me. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Why are you crying? Did someone say something? Do something?” I ask for the third time, my blood suddenly boiling at the thought of someone hurting her. Fucking hell, I reallyneed to get my addiction to this girl out of my system. You’d think fifteen months of going cold turkey would have cured me.

One look in her direction, and it’s like all those months without her didn’t even exist.

“Why are you here, Orlando?”

“Because my ma says I can’t get through life on good looks alone and need to finish school.” I smirk.

---