3. Why No One See Him?

ALEXA

Time seemed to stop when Nicholas hugged me, and within a second, the soup splashed onto that pale body.

“ACKHH!!!” “NICHO!!!!”

I immediately stood up and examined his back, and I was horrified. His neck was red and blistered!!

“Gosh! This is burned and looks serious, let's get you to—” and before I finished my sentence, the school nurse arrived, seemingly called by one of the students. But Nicholas Alexander brushed me aside and walked away quickly, leaving me behind.

“...”

“Did he just glare?” I thought, looking at him strangely, before Betty and Grumpy swarmed me.

“Gosh!! Alexa! Are you hurt? Are you overheating?? Are you okay?”

“Fuck!! Your hand is red! You must have been splashed!!”

“Well…” before I could explain to them that I was fine, the school nurse came to get me. But one thing made me curious, but I didn't want to ask them…

Why did they seem to not see Nicho helping me earlier?

“Even the students didn't ask about Nicho. Is he ostracized?” I thought before being led away.

+++

Just a minor burn with barely a coin-sized mark on my hand. That's the diagnosis.

"You are very lucky, and this is an ointment in case it suddenly stings."

"Okay, thanks," I mumbled, before leaving the nurse's office, and right outside, my best friends for the next 6 months—Grumpy and Betty—were waiting for me.

"So how is it?? Is the burn serious?? You didn't need to go to the hospital, right?" Betty asked, turning my hand over, and I could only give an awkward smile.

"No, Betty, it's fine! Don't worry about it," I said, pulling my hand away forcefully. I felt uncomfortable with all this sudden attention. "I'm okay, and if I'm not, I will tell you straight about it."

"Okay then…" Betty sighed, although a hint of worry was still visible on her face.

Then, we continued our journey to class down the hallway. But I noticed how what was once a lively atmosphere had become awkward due to the spilled soup incident.

"Anyway, Betty. You said Nicholas Alexander was the worst of all, why did you say that?" I asked, suddenly remembering the earlier topic.

"I'm sorry, but who do you mean by Nicholas Alexander?"

"Huh?" I frowned when I heard her answer. I thought it was a joke, although I didn't see any sign of her pretending not to know Nicholas Alexander. But when I looked at Betty and Grumpy's confused faces…

I knew they weren't joking.

"There's no one named Nicholas Alexander here, is that someone from your old school? Maybe you had a concussion, why don't we check if your memories are mixed up—"

"No, thank you, and I'm good," I said, stopping Grumpy's speculation. "Why don't we just walk quickly to class? I don't want to be late again since I've already been late too many times."

"Oh, okay." Then the three of us quickened our pace to class.

"Why don't they remember Nicholas Alexander…"

+++

School ended, and I saw Jacob's Land Rover parked in front of my school.

"Jacob!!" I called, running towards him. Jacob immediately looked at me, and I swear I heard jealous squeaks from the girls because he grinned.

"Oh, hey, Alexa! Ready to hop in?" he asked, offering his hand, which I immediately took to climb into the car. I swore I heard the girls squeak again.

"Anyway, there's no food at home. Want to grab a pizza? I have some vouchers that fit your favorite menu here," he said, taking out the voucher coupons. I grinned and purposely pecked his cheek. I somehow enjoyed seeing those girls go even crazier and jealous, but I didn't understand why Jacob's face turned red.

"Alright, sure," I grinned, putting on my seatbelt. "But remember, I don't want to pay any penny. No matter how small it is."

"Okay," then he stepped on the gas, and the car sped away. I don't know why his cheeks were now red all the way to his ears.

Were there mosquitoes swarming the Land Rover?

As we arrived at the pizza place, we immediately lined up and ordered our menus. There was a mini-debate between me and Jacob because he wanted pineapple pizza because it was as exotic as him, but I, as an Italian food lover, chose cheese lover.

Of course, in the end, we picked neither of those but American lovers. Just like the good old times.

"Hey, what happened to your hand?"

"Oh, this?" I asked, pointing to the burn on my hand. Now that the wound was exposed to the air, it was visible that it was very red.

"It's because—" "Look out!!"

Suddenly, a waiter tripped over some kids. The pitcher of lemonade on his tray was about to spill on me!

"Shit!!" I cursed, trying to avoid it, but once again I was trapped because on my right was the wall and on my left was the waiter. I closed my eyes, about to resign myself to my fate of being spilled on again. However, before that happened, a pair of strong arms hugged me.

"Nicho?" I mumbled, seeing my savior and shocked to see it was Jacob.

CRASH!!!

"Hey, use your eyes when you walk, what if your tray had hot water??" Jacob barked, scolding the fallen waiter. The waiter kept apologizing on the floor, while the kids looked scared and cried for his mama.

"Jacob…" Grep!! "Let's get you cleaned up, there's peaches in your hair," Jacob said, and with that, he pulled me to the sink.

I swayed and just followed him because I was shocked, but a question crossed my mind: Why do I keep thinking about Nicholas Alexander though?

"I barely even know him…" I mumbled, before walking faster as the peachy water started to feel sticky.

After the little drama at the pizza place, the rest of the day became fun. Since Jacob's clothes were the most soaked, we thought about buying some because the house was quite far away, but it turned out the stores rarely sold his size because he was 6 '1''. Not to mention that his body was also fucking bulky, so he ended up walking around naked all day. Only in jeans.

"And he's naked until now…" I thought, blushing as we left the arcade game. Since we had already searched for clothes for 2 hours, Jacob decided to end the search and have fun at his favorite arcade. But I couldn't stand it because his arm clung to my shoulder, which drew everyone's attention!

"So today was fun, huh? Never thought that one day I would play here with Alexa Nicky…" he smirked, opening the car door. I gladly entered it because I was finally free from his arm.

"Yeah, same. This place is fun, although I wouldn't visit it alone," I said, before Jacob turned on the car engine and we sped away.

As we were on our way home, I occasionally looked at Jacob and noticed how much he had changed since we first met.

"He's no longer the brat he used to be, huh?" I thought, remembering Jacob's face when I first had a crush on him. Back then, I remember how Jacob seemed like he jumped straight out of an old teen movie. Lean, and old money child-like, but now he seemed to have changed his appearance, and kinda looked like a lifeguard. But meh, whatever he did, he still looked hot.

'It's a part of adultery after all…' "So, Alexa…How's your life in Oz? Any crushes, chasers, or boyfriends?"

"Boyfriends?" I asked before scoffing. "Nah, no boyfriends. Busy with study and only child life. Why do you think someone like me can have a boyfriend? I ain't attractive," I said honestly. I can't even have your heart, Jacob. What do you expect of me?

"Unattractive, who says that?" Jacob asked before honking at the car in front of him and speeding up. "You are attractive, and any boy who gets you will be lucky."

"Why do you think so lowly of yourself? What if there's a boy out there who secretly likes you?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I brushed off, rolling my eyes. "If that happened, then the boy must be blind. I didn't even get my mom's beauty genes, but my dad's ugly genes." Then, our car ride continued in silence. It was really silent, and I noticed how Jacob tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

"Why does he look so tense though?" I thought about breaking the silence by maybe asking him about his own crush, but before that happened, I saw a black flash in front of us, and before we knew it, we hit it!!

"Shit!! We hit someone," I said, shocked, and immediately got out, and I was even more shocked to see that we had just hit…

Nicholas Alexander?

“...Nicho?”

GREP!

"Don't touch him! He's a corpse!"