Vile Attraction (Floyd Leech/Yuu, Jade Leech/Yuu)

8 ~ Overreacting

Ace quickly turned around, concealing himself behind the wall.

'What... in Twisted Wonderland... was that?'

He noticed Yuu's behavior around Floyd seemed stranger than usual at lunch, so he decided to follow. Maybe they were doing drugs after all. Either way, it felt like something fishy was going on.

But to find out that they were dating?

Not what he was expecting in the slightest.

"Heya, Acey—"

Ace shoved his hands over whoever was speaking's mouth, not wanting to draw attention to his location. He turned to see Cater looking at him with a wide-eyed expression and slowly removed his hands. "Sorry, Cater, but I'm trying to stay quiet here."

"Why? You doin' some sleuthing?" Cater lowered his voice to match Ace's.

He paused for a second. "I feel like this is all supposed to be secretive. You won't tell anyone, right?"

Cater raised an eyebrow. "Alright, I won't..."

Ace gestured his thumb around the corner of the wall. Cater carefully looked where Ace was gesturing to find Floyd holding Yuu in his arms and smothering her with affection.

"Ooh, I didn't know they were a thing! New tea!"

"No, not new tea," Ace whisper-yelled, letting out a deep sigh at Cater's confused expression. "I... I get the feeling that something's not right."

Cater slid his phone into his pocket at Ace's sudden serious tone. "What exactly do you mean?"

"Yuu... She's never been interested in him like that before. But somehow they're dating all of a sudden? I don't get it."

The older boy twirled a strand of his hair between his fingers as he thought. "I mean, haven't they been hanging out a lot lately? They go to the gym together, right? You prolly just didn't notice, Acey."

"No... I mean yeah, you're right, but I still don't know how I feel about this... That guy just gives me a bad feeling." A realization struck Ace and he gave Cater a peculiar look. "Wait, how do you know they've been going to the gym together?"

"I know everything, Acey," Cater chuckled, narrowing his eyes as he grinned. "But all that aside, I really think you're just hyper-analyzing here, man."

A giggle from the couple penetrated the relative quietness and reminded Ace and Cater of where they were. Cater gave Ace a pat on the back and a bright smile, contrasting with the frustrated expression Ace wore. "Here, Acey, I can tell this is bothering you, so why don't we talk after classes? You can come to my room and we can chit-chat there."

Ace nodded, still wearing a tense expression. "Yeah, let's do that."

The school day passed and Ace immediately made his way to Cater's room. He knocked on the door and Cater opened it with a grin. "Hey, Acey! Glad you could make it. Want some tea? Maybe some cookies? Someone gifted me a package of cookies and I really wanna share them with someone, haha!"

"Nah, I'm good." Ace entered the room and Cater shut the door behind him before moving over to grab the package of cookies.

"Pretty please? Just a cookie or two? Even the whole package, if you really like them?" Ace could hear the slightest note of desperation in Cater's voice.

"Jeez, alright! I'm taking the cookies!" He took the package from him and sat on the edge of the bed. "Now, about Yuu and Floyd..."

"Yeah..." Cater moved to take a seat next to him. "How come you're so adamant you know that she's never thought of him that way before? That's what's bothering you the most about this, right?"

Ace nodded. "Listen, I know this'll probably sound stupid, but I know Yuu. I know how she usually acts around him. Even yesterday when he came and bothered us at lunch she was acting normal! But today, she was being all stiff and nervous and stuff, which was why I followed her in the first place, and then I see them being all kissy, and now they're dating!?" He let out a sigh. "It just doesn't make sense to me. Be honest, am I overreacting?"

"Mm, I feel like I don't know enough about the situation yet to decide that," Cater responded, scrolling through his Magicam feed. "Aren't you in the Basketball Club with Floyd? Do you think he's been weird lately?"

"I don't really pay much attention to him except for when his weird mood swings impact me," Ace admitted. "I probably should pay more attention, huh..."

Cater let out a hum of agreement. "You'd probably be able to get more info that way compared to just paying attention to Yuu." His eyes flickered up for a split second before returning to his phone. "Anything else been bothering you, Acey?"

"Jeez, are you even paying attention?" Ace murmured under his breath.

"Don't worry, I'm listening, I'm just checking out Floyd's Magicam for anything weird. Not that I think he'd post anything obviously suspicious, but we should cover all of our bases, right?"

"Oh. Sorry for assuming."

"Not a problem!" Cater shut off his phone for the first time during the conversation but still kept it in hand. "Here, Acey, here's an idea: why don't you keep an eye on the both of them and if you notice something, like, super weird, you can come back to me and I'll help you out?"

Ace let out a sigh. It only made sense that he had some solid proof to back up his feeling of unsettlement about the situation, but was he really just overreacting? ...Was he just upset that one of his closest friends was being snatched up by some guy?

"...Fine." He stood, the package of cookies in hand, and made his way to the door. "Thanks for the help."