#Chapter22The crowd at Monique's Bakery was slow too. I was left with my own thoughts which was not a good thing these days. Earlier, I had no problem in being alone. I loved to think about trivial things, but that was just one more thing Harper had an impact on.Stephanie sneered at me as soon as I came in and I expected that. We maintained a distance of a few feet between us, which was way better than us trying to gouge each other's eyes out all the time.The bell rang, signalling the arrival of a customer. The sound of the bell chime shook me out of my thoughts and I turned my head to look at the customer who had entered. And it was Harper. Thank God, he was alone. This could be my chance to talk to him.He walked in like he owned the place. Not sparing me a glance, he went to sit in one of the booths in the corner of the bakery. Where I didn't serve.I sighed in disappointment. I thought this would be my chance. Wow, I never thought I would see the day when I wo

#Chapter24'"And I will never, ever, cross your path again."'******I hate Harper because he always brought out a weak side of me, a side I have never been fond of. I have always been proud of the fact that I had the ability to school my emotions and stand tall whenever a problem came my way.But with him, all this control somehow goes down the drain. I never considered myself a control freak and I never wanted people to bow down to me, or listen to every word I say. The only thing I really wanted was to never appear weak in front of anyone. I never wanted anyone to emotionally exploit me or know what was going on in my head.In short, I never wanted to be vulnerable in front of anyone. People take advantage of you if they come to know about the chinks in your armor and I didn't want that. I wasn't a superhero, I knew I had weaknesses but that doesn't mean I was keen on showing them to anyone. I would much rather prefer to don a carefree and strong mask like everyone else

#Chapter26'Apparently, you don't thank your best friends for any sort of help.'******He left me there, in the living room, alone, with a thousand unanswered questions of my own. I didn't expect more from him and I was glad that this would be the last encounter we would have with each other.I turned around to see Sam and Nat standing in the doorway of the living room, looking expectantly at me."You were listening through the keyhole, weren't you?" I asked softly, afraid of their answer. Did they hear about the dreams that I had been having. They frantically shook their heads and I smiled at the sight.I sighed and moved towards one of the couches. I sat down and pulled my knees to my chest, waiting for the both of them to sit down.They both walked in and took their seats in front of me."What happened?" Sam asked, concern evident in her voice."Honestly, I don't know." There were too many unanswered questions and theories for me to comprehend. "What di

#Chapter28'Meet me on the benches during the third period?'******Aiden was there, in my classroom, standing with a big box of chocolates and a bigger bouquet of red roses in his hands, right beside my designated seat. He was smiling and looked at me with so much admiration in his eyes, that my knees nearly buckled.I could practically hear the lyrics of Wildest Dreams in my head!That's right. These scenes only happened in movies and cliché teen novels. In real life, a girl like me only gets a cheap box of dark chocolates, a single red rose and a letter on my desk.I walked ever so slowly to my seat, careful to avoid eye contact with everyone's inquisitive eyes.I put my bag down and grabbed the box of chocolates. You can't blame me, people. Turns out that they are not cheap. At all.I stuffed the single rose and the chocolate box in my bag. Without sniffing it, may I add.I opened the letter, which was clearly torn out of a notebook. It was nothing extravag

#Chapter30'Would someone help me plot his murder?'******"You're never going to believe what just happened." I said, putting down my tray and sitting down at our "reserved" table in the cafeteria.After the "meet and greet" with Harper, I walked straight into the girl's washroom to clear my thoughts, and to convince myself that I did the right thing by refusing to give Harper a chance. Every cell in my body wanted to go back and remove that despondent look on Harper's face, that I put there in the first place, but I had to hold my ground. My faculties were in total debate with each other. The sane part of me stressed upon the fact that I did the right thing by refusing him. He didn't deserve any more chances. He hadn't actually done anything which showed me that he was serious about me and after the things he said yesterday, it was going to take a lot more than painting my locker, balloons, chocolates, a rose and a heart warming love note!I waited for the lunch bell