Crazy but Sweet, Sweet but Crazy

14: the Kings

"Are you dating Elliot for real?" Bianca whispered sharply, as we stood in front of the vending machine of the cafeteria.

"Deja vu," I muttered with a smile. "Yeah. For real. Ester's not getting a drink right?"

"Yeah, just water for her. Bloody hell, it's been so difficult to get some alone time with you. They're totally birds of the same feather- Noah Hall and Elliot Lockwood. They cling on like some sick puppies."

"You mean to say Noah Hall clings onto you like a puppy?" I grinned, pressing a button for a canned ice cafe latte.

Bianca's lips twisted like she'd just stepped on vomit, but a slight flush came over her cheeks.

"He's never serious. What about you? When the heck did you start dating him? Exactly how did things progress so fast?

"I remember on the first day of school he asked if you remembered him. And that very day, there was a pap photo of you two in the car ki-"

"Shh," I mumbled, pulling out the cold can from the machine. "Yeah. Things that happened that way."

"I thought you were the kind who would psychoanalyze the guy and analyze his personality for maybe a year then you'd consider him a decent human, then you would analyze him for some more, then maybe consider being a little nice to him, and then a year later, maybe consider dating him."

Personality. What was Elliot Lockwood's personality?

"Yeah, I guess," I chuckled. "What're you getting?"

"Hmm- coke." Bianca pressed the button, and slotted in the cash. "Then? What, he's an exception to your step-by-step scrutinization?"

"I honestly don't know, Bi. I can't explain," I said sheepishly.

It was true- I couldn't possibly explain this whole give-and-take relationship I was in with Elliot. It wasn't a normal relationship, that was for sure.

"Something that can't be explained-" Bianca grunted, pulling out the coke, and beamed at me. "That's called love, my friend. Ah, the Artificial Intelligence has finally opened its eyes to love."

"L-" Even the first alphabet made me cringe. "You're definitely coming to the tennis match right?"

"Yeah, for sure," said Bianca firmly as we headed back to our cafeteria table. "I'm not leaving you in the depths of bloody hell with the she-who-shall-not-be-named that clings to Elliot like a hundred year old vine."

"Good," I sighed. "Because I don't know how I can-"

We stopped short, just as a girl stood from her seat and in front of us. To be exact, in front of me.

A girl with large, baby-blue eyes, carrying a handbag instead of a backpack, she looked like she wasn't a student from around here.

The low buzz of murmurs in the cafeteria crowd rose in volume. The eyes that had so subtly scanned me as I walked through the cafeteria with Bianca, were now overtly pinned on me- and the girl standing before us.

"You're Clare, right?" She asked clearly, looking straight into my face. "Clare Horan?"

Her eyes were so strangely calm, they were almost off-putting. Something about her was strange. Like the calm before a storm, like the calm of a mountain before a volcanic eruption.

"Yes-"

I heard gasps, screams and shouts, before I felt anything. Before I realized, that with the edge of her handbag, she'd smashed it across my head.

The senses came back slowly, one by one. First, I felt a low throb on the side of my head, then the vibrant swearing of Bianca, and then, the heat of all pairs of eyes in the cafeteria, on me.