Deviant King (Royal Elite 1)

“My relationship with King isn’t like that.”

Relationship?

Before I can question her, the last class’s hour dings.

“Your track training,” Kim says.

I give her a quick hug. “I’ll see you later?”

She doesn’t take any sports classes.

A grin breaks on her face. “We’ll binge Lucifer?”

“Absolutely.”

In the locker room, I finish changing my clothes in record time before the other girls arrive.

I’m always the first or the last and usually in the far corner so none of them catches a glimpse of my scar.

A scar that’s now surrounded by hickeys.

I wait in the hallway for Coach. Some of the girls are chatting amongst each other.

Since the first day when Aiden deemed me as an outcast, the track team doesn’t really like me.

I remain in my zone and they stay in theirs.

I retrieve my phone and open social media.

It’s only to know what I’m up against, I tell myself.

Nothing more.

I find Aiden_King on Instagram only because he’s been following me for about a year. I never thought much of it at the time and I always ignored the itch to go through his profile.

He has a few hundreds of thousands followers. Hundreds of freaking thousands. Geez. It’s not like he’s a celebrity or something.

His caption is Go Elites.

His feed is filled with pictures of the game. He has full shots of the entire team. Most of his pictures are with Elites’ forward line. Xander, Cole, and Ronan.

He has pics in parties while they drown alcohol. In other pictures, they have girls squeezed between them.

In older pictures, they have Levi King with them. Aiden’s older cousin and Elites’ previous captain and a current player for Arsenal. I know him because I’ve been following him so closely since the beginning of this season.

He added so much balance to Arsenal’s midfield.

At the end of last year, Levi led Elites to win the schools’ championship. Aiden commemorated the moment with a picture of the forward line carrying Levi on their shoulders. A brunette stands beside Aiden laughing so happily and genuinely.

Even Aiden appears… happy? No. Not happy. More like euphoric.

It must be some sort of a power, right? Even through his Instagram, he shows that perfect golden boy and star image.

It’s easy for the world to believe he’s living the best life and loving it.

The more I scroll, the more it feels like a mask. A method to hide something. What, I don’t know.

Then, a break of pattern catches my attention. Now and then, between rows of happy go lucky pictures, he’d post a black and white shot that doesn’t have his face on it. One has his dark silhouette from behind. Another shows a ball with his name on it. A few others have the chessboard.