Elle reluctantly got to her feet and headed for the door. When she looked out into the hall, there they were, leaning against the lockers. Well, what do you know?
Elle noticed Vincent was kind of hobbled over, holding his stomach, and his face looked like he might be sick. She became worried and started walking up to him.
“Vincent, are you okay?” Elle walked closer to him, passing Nero.
Vincent held up his hand. “I-I’m fine.”
Elle stopped walking toward him; however, she didn’t think he sounded very good, either. As a result, she took another step and held up her hand to check to make sure.
Vincent waved his hand in front of her. “No, don’t come any closer. I’m fine.”
What is wrong with him? Elle didn’t know what had happened to him.
Nero grabbed her waist, pulling her toward him. “He said he’s fine.”
Elle looked up at him, and Nero took the opportunity to claim her lips. He gave her a quick, firm kiss, making her forget about… Wait, what was I talking about?
“All right, Amo. You can take Chloe to class,” Nero said, nodding toward Amo.
Elle had been taken off guard by his kiss, but she was quickly brought back by his words.
“What? No. We need to all walk together.” Elle couldn’t let Chloe walk with only Amo after what had happened with all of them sitting at the table.
“Come on, Chloe.” Amo motioned for Chloe to start walking, everyone acting like they hadn’t even heard a word she had just said.
Elle pushed at Nero’s chest for him to say something when Chloe looked down at the floor and slowly started walking. Nero just squeezed her hips tighter without saying a word as they watched them walk to health class. Elle tried to squirm out of his grasp as he held her around her waist with one arm. One arm? Really?
Nero lifted his other hand and grabbed her hair, pulling it down. “You need to stop questioning me. I’m the one with the dick, and the sooner you realize that, the easier this will be. Trust me, baby, you’ll start to like it that way.” Nero dropped his hand from her hair. “Come on.”
Nero took her hand and led her in the same direction as Amo and Chloe had gone. I do not understand him sometimes. They followed them at the same distance as they had the day before. Elle saw Chloe was still walking at his back. Old habits die hard.
When Amo stopped and turned around, Elle saw his scary-ass face say something really low to Chloe. Moreover, whatever he had said to her made her quickly move to stand beside him.
Elle and Nero laughed at the two, and Elle could hear Vincent attempt a laugh, but a sound of pain escaped instead. Elle turned her head to look back at Vincent and saw he was walking farther back than he usually did. When she looked him in the eyes, he swiftly turned his head in another direction. What is going on today?
Elle turned her head back to watch Chloe safely walk to the classroom. When they were a couple feet from the door, Chloe tried to run. She had her hand on the doorknob when even Elle could hear Amo loudly scream, “Chloe.”
Elle tried to run to Chloe, but Nero held her hand tightly, making her stay in place. Elle had to remember the words Nero had just spoken to her—‘I’m the one with the dick.’
Elle reluctantly stood there and watched as Chloe dropped her hand from the doorknob. Amo closed the distance and grabbed the door handle himself, opening the door for her. Chloe kept her eyes down as she slowly walked into the classroom like she was defeated with Amo following her in then slamming the door.
Nero started walking again, pulling her hand to head to their class.
“Does Amo know we’re following him?” Elle couldn’t tell.
Nero shrugged. “I haven’t told him we are, but he might know on his own. Don’t get used to this, though; she needs to learn not to depend on you.”
Elle smiled up at Nero before she laid her head on his arm. She liked when Nero could actually be sweet. Well, try to be sweet.
Elle noticed Vincent could hardly keep up and had fallen way behind. She decided to ask Nero what had happened to him.
“Why is Vincent acting so weird? He won’t even look at me.”
Elle could have sworn she saw Nero smile before it vanished. “I don’t know.”
Elle tried again. “Do you know what happened to him? It looks like he got hurt or something.”
“I think he just got a little winded.”
Elle decided to give up. There’s no telling what they got into.
After Nero walked Elle into their classroom, she took her seat while Nero went to get their posters in the back of the class. Elle started pulling out some blank paper and a pen from her bag when she noticed Nero hadn’t come back with their posters. She looked up and saw he was practically sandwiched between the two bimbos.
Elle’s heart started to ache. This ache was the type that felt like her heart was splitting in two. She could only watch as Nero went through the posters on the back table with the two girls on either side of him, their bodies rubbing up against his while they talked to each other. Elle couldn’t hear what they were saying, though.
She had to look down before her heart ripped in two. I can’t watch.
She picked up her pen and quickly started writing. Nero joined her a few seconds later with their posters. She didn’t pull her face away from her papers to look at him; she didn’t want to see his face. Which is probably smiling from ear to ear right now.
She also didn’t want the bimbos to see they had hurt her; therefore, she never picked her eyes up from writing the entire class period. It was hard for Elle to concentrate and write words fluidly without Nero noticing she was attempting to ignore him. She later realized she didn’t want Nero to see she was hurt, either.