Tainted Perfection

⁰ ³|𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞

I grimace at the scene that greets me when I step into the lounge. With a roll of my eyes, I proceed to close the door behind me louder than necessary, alerting the other individuals in the room. Emilia loses her balance on the side of the table she’s perched on but Aditya reaches out a hand just in time, catching her before she could fall off.

“If you insist on keeping your relationship a secret from Nic, I suggest not making out in a room he can easily walk in,” I say with a hint of exasperation in my voice. I walk over to one of the couches resting against the wall on the left side of the room. Sitting down, a sigh escapes my lips as the soft leather seems to absorb the exhaustion from my bones. The benefits of being a Prefect of Crestview Academy range from having our own house with the eight of us having our personal rooms to a private room in the school compound for us to discuss comfortably. Said room, painted white contains three sofas, a wide rectangular table with eight chairs around it that we use whenever we feel formal at the centre of the room, and two mini vending machines that contains both snacks and drinks with one being vegan friendly, a fully stocked bookshelf King Adeyemi is especially fond of and two desk chairs with computers.

“Dios mío, why would you scare us like that?” Emilia asks as she hops off the table still slightly shaking from shock. Despite, Emilia not being a prefect, she hangs around us often enough to be usually seen around. I shrug in reply as I take off my shoes revealing spotless white stockings underneath. I stretch out my toes and sigh as I feel the numbness fade. Today, was definitely the wrong day to wear heels. Emilia receives a shrug in reply.

“I thought it would be funny.” I smile. “It was.”

“Come on, Lyn. Stop teasing her.” Adi says with a laugh as he wraps his arms around Emilia. I raise my arms, palm forward in surrender.

“You know,” Emilia states, the growing panic clear in her voice. “How do you know?” She asks me before turning to face Adi, her sea-green eyes flitting rapidly between the both of us. “Did you tell her?” She directs the question at Adi, accusation clear in her voice. I resist the urge to laugh, it’s honestly funny that they believed they could have kept their clandestine relationship a secret from me. Maybe the rest of our friends but surely not me. 

“Em calm down, I promise I didn’t say a word.” He tells her, tucking a loose strand of brown hair behind her ear. Cute.

“Aditya didn’t have to tell me anything,” I say as I release my braids from its ponytail and the couple turns to face me. “You guys weren’t as discreet as you thought last term and my suspicions were confirmed when Adi told me he was spending his vacation in Columbia instead of India like he originally planned,” I explain as a smile creeps up on my lips. “Well, I imagine Nic had thought his best friend did that to spend time with him." 

“Do you think he knows?” I can see the growing panic in Emilia’s eyes. Most students of Crestview know of the extremely protective relationship the Assistant head boy has with his cousin. Although Nic is just over a year older than her, he treats her like she’s incapable of making decisions for herself which has led to several fights between them. I suspect this is how she’s treated at home and from what I know Emilia is the youngest in her large extended family back in Columbia. It is quite sad that the sixteen-year-old doesn’t get a chance at freedom even when she is away from most of her family.

“Well, Nicolás can be quite foolish-” I start but the opening of the door cuts me off.

“I’m always touched by your kind words, Reina.” Emilia jumps at the sound of her cousin’s voice as he walks into the room with Romeo not far behind. He greets Adi with an enthusiastic handshake, tugging at Emilia’s hair as he walks passed her before dropping down on the second sofa next to me.