Chapter 4. He knows!

"Ow," I cried, "what was that for?!"

"What was that for? I'm trying to flick some sense into you. As much as I hate this, I will not be a selfish brother and tell you to turn your back on this golden opportunity. Larissa, this is your chance to get him to fall for you, for real. Aren't you tired of this?" He pointed his fingers at my wall of Zayne's photographs. "Do you want to keep loving the pictures when you can love him in person? Yes, you will fall for him if you get close, but he might too. You can never know until you try—"

"That's risky—"

"No, your obsession over him is. Once you get this over and done with, you can either get him to love you, or get your heart broken and get him out of your system for good. I know you, if you don't do this, you will regret this for the rest of your life. Risa, just try and see. And I know your other worry would be what if he falls and later gets tired of you like Dad's wife did to him? What if he cheats on you? What if he blah blah," he said, waving his hand childishly. "Stop comparing everything to how our parents' relationship ended. And what if it does end up like that? Sometimes it takes about three to ninety tries to find love, and some never do but that doesn't mean you won't… Am I making sense here?" He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "The point is that you should just risk it and give it a try first and commit suicide later." He shrugged. This is what having Neo as a mentor does to one's innocent soul.

I stared at him thoughtfully as well. He might have said it wrongly, but I understood his point. Could I really go on without trying and regretting it later? What if I spend the rest of a long time thinking about a lot of what-ifs? What if I end up getting hurt? Wouldn't it be better to get it out of my system? Wouldn't it? He would break my heart but at least I could finally move on with my life, right? I'd always been the kind of person to never let go of something until I had every reason to. Maybe this is what I need after all.

____

I jolted up from my seat with a cry, rubbing my forehead dazedly. I was sleeping so well, enjoying my wedding with Zayne until something thick hit my forehead. I dropped my hand and glared at the teacher. "What was that for?"

"Excuse me?"

"You hit me with a…" I trailed off, looking around for what he hit me with. I found the culprit lying on the floor, a red chalk. Give a round of applause to the only teacher who would use chalk to write on a marker board. The only teacher who would wear pants big enough to fit an extra human his size and an old shirt I'm sure was passed on to him from his father's father. The teacher was old-fashioned, odd, and ugly. Yet he loved staring at boobs.

"Can you tell me why you are sleeping when I'm teaching?"

"Can you tell me why you're teaching when I'm sleeping?" I quipped. His eyes hardened with anger, his teeth grinding together. "Yeah, yeah, detention, I get it, whatever," I threw myself back on the seat, folding my hands and looking away. I'm not usually this rude, I barely even talk. But I guess the whole thing was getting… Okay, I'm naturally rude, no lies.

I realized what I did and glanced at him, where he was sitting. Today, he wore a red pocket tee, red slim-fit stack jeans with a white belt, and white sneakers. He wore a white baseball cap, he wears caps most time. Zayne was looking at me already. I rolled my eyes away immediately, acting as if I didn't care but my heart begged to differ.

I stayed quiet for the rest of the lesson, but immediately the bell rang, I picked up my fancy satchel, crossed it over my torso, and stood up. My objective today was not to run like always, instead, to wait at his locker. I guess he had his own mission and it was to stop me from running away again. I did avoid him the whole of yesterday and took off after Mr. Stone dropped the bomb.

"Larissa!" I really need to establish a way to keep my heart under a chain. It didn't have to throb every time my name left his lips. It would give me a heart attack if it continued that way. Shaking my head, I slowed down my pace instead of stopping. I've been told I walk very fast, as in very. So most of the time when I'm with people, I have to learn to walk at their frustrating pace.

Zayne caught up to me, stopping his jog with a sigh of relief. "Jesus, you walk very fast,"

"So I've been told. I'm guessing this is about our assignment?"

"And the tutoring," I glanced at him, shaking my head and looking away before I got caught. "If you don't want me to teach you, it's fine by me, not begging you for your own good. But, if you still want me to teach you, I can only make time both for the tutoring and for the assignment at my place. I've been given the job to watch over my little sisters for the next two weeks, so I'm stuck at home. I also have a deadline to work on some art project that can cost me thousands if I don't get the work done before the deadline. So, we'll have to manage the time I have. The only thing is if it would correspond with yours," he tried to run his fingers into his hair but stopped when his fingers touched his cap instead. He grunted in annoyance and brought his hand down to his neck. He pulled out a pendant and fiddled with it.

The pendant was made out of some kind of glowing yellow stone with his name encrypted on it with sapphire. The thing looked expensive and priceless. The yellow pendant was shaped into an apple with a strap chain shaped like raspberries. It was kind of cute. Tilting my head, I couldn't help but comment on his necklace.

"Nice pendant, where did you get it from?" I snapped him out of his thoughts. He glanced at me with a nod. "It's beautiful, was it specifically made for you?" I mentally slapped myself. Of course it is, his name was carved into it.

"My older quint brother, Zach, made it for me as my eleventh birthday gift… Don't touch it," he snapped, twatting my hand away. I didn't even know I was reaching for it. I whimpered and moved my hand, nursing the hand that would redden later. That was a hot one. I made a mental note to never touch his things. "I'm sorry, I just don't like people touching anything given to me by my siblings, so save that to your head for future sake,"

"Firmly noted. And as for the time, what time are we talking about exactly?"

"Since classes end by 2:30 PM, you'll have to come with me. I'll pick up my sister from kindergarten and junior high, then take them home, hmm…" he scratched the back of his neck in confusion. He obviously hasn't gotten it figured out either. I shook my head. I understood schedules more than anyone I knew because I had a younger brother I'd been a mother to since he was four. Imagine me taking up that position at the age of eight.

"Don't worry, I'm sure I can help you figure it out as a Mom myself,"

"Wait, you have a kid?"

"Three girls and five boys," I grinned. He chuckled and shook his head. I happily held the strap of my bag, changing my walking to a skip. I swayed my bag the way I could, focusing my thoughts on the fact that Zayne Verlice was walking beside me, something he had never done before. I should probably mention that Zayne was always alone. If he wasn't with his siblings or the friends moving around them, he was always alone. He spoke rarely, smiled seldomly, always in the library or art class. So to be one of the few girls privileged enough to walk with him, was an honor.

I also knew that I would have a lot of enemies after everyone found out he accepted to become my tutor. That was also a first. So while they hadn't arrived yet, I was going to soak in the attention and the feeling of being his only possible friend.

"Okay, this is where I stop," I snapped out of my thoughts in confusion. I looked around, I was in front of my next class. Wait, how did I get here? "This is your next class, right?"

"Yes? Did I lead you here? Or did you just follow me here?"

"I led you here," I knit my brows up in confusion. "How did I know? I went through your schedule to see if I could plan how to work on the lessons and see the subjects you are bad at, which is surprisingly a lot," he frowned disapprovingly. My cheeks reddened in embarrassment. I was hoping to lie my way out of the rest, but he went ahead as if he knew my plans. "I don't know how you managed to get to senior level, but I am certain that you will fail this semester unless you make a tremendous improvement. I have my work cut out for me." He sighed. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm dumb," I murmured, chewing at the inside of my cheek. How would you feel if your crush found out how dumb you are? Me, I felt like disappearing into the ground or diving down from the top of the building. "You don't have to waste your time if you don't want to,"

"But I want to," I pulled my gaze from my shoes, running my eyes up his legs to his face to see a glorified and arrogant smirk, something I'd never seen on him before. But again, I was never close to him so I had no way of knowing if he had ever worn that expression before. "You see…" he trailed off, taking a very deadly step closer to me, causing me to take a conscious step back. He took another step forward and another, and another until my body was pressed to the door as if I could pass through it. He brought his face down to mine, causing me to shrink away from him. My breath caught up in my throat and my heart thumped violently.

"Z-Z-Zay-ne wh-wh—" he chuckled, his hot breath hitting the space above my ear. My body shivered from the shock of his proximity and his breath on me, his apple-berry cologne encasing me in its delicious prison. My eyes squeezed shut, not fully understanding what I was expecting.

"The thing is, I'd love to know more about the apple-flavored lips that have been haunting my dreams," he paused, intentionally giving me time to understand what he meant. At first, I was confused and angry. Whose lips taste like apples? So while I was thinking about him, he was thinking about someone else's lips. A pang of hurt spread in my heart, before my mind fully registered what he said. I always, as in always wore apple lip balm. Everything about me was apple because I was obsessed with it. My shampoo, conditioners, soap, my toothpaste had apple and coconut milk as the key ingredients. My body lotion was avocado and apple.

Me, he was talking about me!

The color drained from my face as the severity of the situation settled. He knows!

Zayne chuckled darkly. "It's not very nice to run away after kissing someone, Justice. And for the record, I love your lips." Before I could die of any more embarrassment, he pushed the door open, sending me falling backward and crashing on the floor, startled, dazed, and confused. He winked at my disoriented self before strutting off, tee heeing to his heart's content and sending me into a much deeper daze.