Chapter 24

Three weeks had gone by, and Gregory's warning still rang through my head. Surprisingly, yet suspiciously, he hadn't made an appearance after that day. Neither had Bryce or the gang. I should have been more at ease, but the fact that they hadn't done anything had me glancing over my shoulder every minute. Putting that aside, Chase had made remarkable progress in the past few days. Which was entirely surprising, to say the least. One could say that I was proud of him.

"What's on your mind?" Kenneth asked, taking a seat next to me.

I munched boringly on my sandwich and gave him a side glance, lifting my shoulders in a shrug. "Nothing much, just that it's very suspicious that Bryce and his gang haven't made another move yet," I answered simply and nodded toward an approaching Danielle.

"Hi, guys. What're you talking about?" she asked while taking a seat in front of us.

I took a bite out of my sandwich and shrugged at her, not really in the talkative mood. I kept eating silently, while they talked about random stuff that I didn't mind listening to.

Soon enough, Izzy walked inside the cafeteria with a cheery smile and walked to our table when she noticed us. "Hi!" she chirped and sat down beside Danielle. "How are you guys?"

"I was doing fine until you walked in," I retorted, taking the last bite out of my sandwich.

She looked taken aback and Kenneth punched my arm playfully, earning a smirk from me.

"Stop being so rude, Lily." He chuckled, and I shook my head in amusement. Danielle rolled her eyes at me and Izzy slowly smiled, finally catching up with my sarcasm.

"I still need to get used to your sarcasm," she said with a chuckle. "For a moment there, I thought you were serious."

"And who said I wasn't?" I asked looking at her with the most serious expression I could muster. Her smile immediately faltered, her cheeks flushing up slowly. The whole table went silent for a minute, and as much as I tried to contain it, I burst out laughing.

The cafeteria suddenly went silent, all pairs of eyes on me as I clutched my stomach, laughing loudly. "Y-You should've seen your face!" I laughed. "That's the best expression I've seen on you. Damn, I should've taken a picture."

Slowly but surely, the people around us went back to mind their own business and Danielle shook her head at me. I smirked in her direction and leaned forward to ruffle Izzy's hair. "Come on, I'm just playing around. Don't let my sarcasm get to you. I surely don't want to be responsible for any tears," I said with a grimace.

She chuckled a bit and cleared her throat, looking at me with a newfound glint in her eyes. "It's alright," she said. "Changing topics, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"You just did," I retorted.

"Where do you live?" she asked, ignoring my comment.

"Nowhere," I answered without giving it a second thought, and she furrowed her brows at this.

"What do you mean? Don't you live with your father or something?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

I felt how my shoulders tensed slightly at the mention of him, but I played it off. "He's dead," I said simply.

"Oh," she said, her eyes widening. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Of course, you didn't," I said with an eye roll. The table went silent for a moment, and only then I noticed that Kenneth and Danielle were missing. They probably left in the middle of our conversation.

"Well...don't you have any siblings?" she asked after a moment.

"Don't know. But if I do, I don't care."

"What about your mother?"

"Not important."

"Grandparents?"

"Having a party inside their tombs."

"How about an uncle or aunt?"

"How about you shut up already?" I snapped, and she immediately closed her mouth.

I sighed and picked my stuff up, not bothering to say anything else to her as I made my way out of the cafeteria. I fiddled with the necklace around my neck, playing with the small ruby decorating it. Chase was nowhere to be found, which only led me to think one thing. He probably had his nose stuck inside a book at the library right about now. I decided to go and scare him for a bit and get scolded by the librarian. So I started making my way to the library. I glanced around the sea of people in the hallways, who were chatting away happily and joking around.

Once I rounded the corner to the library, I was greeted by an almost empty hallway. Almost.

"We can't keep on hiding the truth!" a guy hissed.

"I know we can't, but she'll kill us if she finds out!" a girl snapped back.

"We'll be more than dead if she finds out on her own. It's best if we tell her now," Kenneth growled, making me furrow my brows.

Why were they arguing?

"Oh, really? And how do you intend on telling her? By going up to her and saying: 'Hey, guess what? We've known where your father lives this entire time! Oh, and your mother also knew about this, by the way.' That is just ridiculous!" Danielle mocked, and I felt my body go rigid.

I hoped that it wasn't what I was thinking.

They kept bickering back and forth, oblivious to the world around them. I toned out the rest of their conversation, feeling my blood starting to boil as I tried to keep my cool.

"We both know that we have to tell her, Dan." Kenneth sighed. "Lily has been kept in the dark for way too long."

No. That couldn't be. It had to be a joke.

"Am I missing something here?" I asked, acting completely clueless.

Their bodies tensed and turned to look at me, their faces going completely pale.

"A-Amelia," Danielle stuttered. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Who cares, I think that what's more important here is the fact that my two best friends have been lying to my face." I turned to Kenneth. "Is that why you asked about my father the other day?"

"Lily, let us explain—" Kenneth started, but I held my hand up.

"There's nothing to explain, Kenny," I said, dragging out the nickname he hated. "I am clearly not deaf."

"Look, Lily, I'm so—"

"Save it," I spat. "I don't want to hear any of your excuses. You knew this entire time? Knowing how I've been looking for him for two damn years? Now that I don't even want to hear about him anymore, you come up with this?"

"We know we made a mistake—"

"And a huge one at that," I growled. "I can't believe you guys. Especially you, Kenneth. You're the one I've trusted the most out of you two and you kept something like this from me?"

They kept silent after this, and I clicked my tongue in annoyance. I shook my head at them in disapproval, feeling betrayed. Kenneth sighed as I brushed past them, continuing my way to the library with a frown on my face. I pushed open the double doors and walked inside the eerily quiet room. The smell of paper and old books greeted me as I made my way to the one table I knew a certain brown-eyed boy would be at. I relaxed my shoulders, not letting the tension from just now bother me.

Just as I predicted, Chase was sitting at his usual table with his nose stuck behind a book. I smirked at him, slowing down my pace so that my footsteps couldn't be heard. I approached him from behind, leaning forward and brushing my blonde hair over my left shoulder.

Once I was successfully behind him, I positioned my mouth next to his ear, making sure to hold my breath. "What're you reading, Brownie?" I whispered in his ear.

He jumped, startled. The book fell from his hands and landed with a loud thud on the table. He turned so fast to look at me that he lost his balance and fell from the chair, landing on the floor with a groan. With that, I erupted into laughter, earning a loud shushing noise from the librarian. A hand clamped over my mouth, but that didn't stop me from laughing. I was dragged behind a bookshelf as the owner of the hand glared daggers at me. 

"Are you serious?" he whisper-yelled at me. I felt tears pricking at the corner of my eyes, and my abdomen ached due to the laughter. He continued to glare at me, but I could see the hint of amusement glistening in his eyes. Once my laughter died down, he took his hand away from my mouth and I smirked. Chase served as a good distraction from reality, which was exactly what I needed.

"All of that training, yet you can't seem to notice someone sneaking up on you," I teased, and he rolled his eyes.

"It's not easy when you're the expert of sneaking up," he retorted, and I smiled sheepishly at him.

I stepped out of the bookshelf and motioned for him to follow me, to which he furrowed his eyebrows at. "Watch this," I whispered to him and looked around the silent library. I noticed a girl reading by herself on a nearby table, and gave Chase a lopsided grin. "You might want to grab your stuff for this."

He reluctantly did so, stuffing his books inside his bag and draping the straps over his shoulders.

I nodded at him then looked back at the girl, who just stood up to probably look for another book. Smiling mischievously, I reached inside the bag I brought with me and grabbed what I needed. I gave Chase one last glance and he narrowed his eyes at me, trying to figure out what I was going to do. Once the girl was making her way back to the table with her eyes trained on a book, I placed a fart balloon on top of her seat.

I grabbed Chase by the wrist and hurried over to the entrance of the library as I took my phone out. Opening the camera, I instantly hit the record button once the perfect moment came. The girl—oblivious to what was about to happen—sat down on the chair slowly, and the whole room went silent once the huge fart-like noise sounded throughout the room. I stifled my laughter as everyone turned their heads in her direction, either with amused or disgusted expressions.

Her face instantly flushed red as she stood back up and reached down to grab the balloon, which was inflating back up. Just as she held it high enough for everyone to see, laughter filled the entire room. I stopped the recording and burst out laughing just as the girl's eyes met mine. I mouthed her an apology and rushed out of the room, dragging a chuckling Chase behind me. Before we were completely out of sight, the librarian caught my eye and gave me a disapproving shake of her head. Yet another person fell victim to my pranks.

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[Edited: August 31st, 2020 by michh_44]

Ahh, yet another prank from the troublemaker. It had been a while since she pulled one up. I don't have much to say today, so I hope you liked this chapter! Vote, comment, and have a wonderful day!