Pacific Bell High

> XXXI <

"You know," Ciara started as she opened the locker room cautiously and peered inside for any sudden movements, "when you called me in the middle of the night on Saturday, I expected a bouquet of roses and you kneeling down with a ring."

Although Justin should have stayed quiet, especially in cases like that, he went along and said, "You didn't have to come downstairs."

Before she answered him, she turned to give him a flat look. "It's called sarcasm, honey."

He raised an eyebrow and asked, "What makes you think I wasn't being sarcastic?"

Ciara put a hand on her hips as she peeked over the corridor, then turned to him. "Intuition, babe." She added a wink and he only chuckled at her.

"So this is what you wanted to do?"

Ciara's head snapped forward so fast that she had to rub her neck from the whiplash, and stared directly into Martin's furious eyes.

"Fuck." She let out harshly. Out of all people, they had to run into Martin? She slightly turned to look up at Justin, who was only looking at Martin with a blank expression—although there had been a tick in his jaw.

Martin saw that action and his frown had deepened. Earlier, when he had been going down the stairs, he had spotted the two looking around and sneakily jumping over the fence to return back into the school.

He had ran down those stairs quickly, pushing whoever and whatever was in the way.

She was not going to get away from him this time—especially with the fucker right next to her.

"This is what you leave me for? This delinquent over here?" Justin's expression didn't change, but Martin didn't care. He looked at Ciara and held out his hand, "Come over here, Ciara."

"Like hell I am, Martin." She said standing her ground. She strained her hearing just in case she could hear anything suspicious—when she didn't, she narrowed her eyes at him.

Martin's scowl disappeared and a challenging look appeared on his face. Slowly, he reached into his pocket and took out his phone.

What is he up to? Justin thought to himself. He sneaked a glance towards Ciara, only to see her eyes narrow and jaw clench.

When he turned to look back up at Martin, he saw him—he guessed—dial a number on his phone and place it next to his ear.

Whoever he had dialed must have picked up, because a mischievous smile slowly stretched across Martin's face as he looked at Ciara. "Oh, hey, Daniel. How are you?... That's great. Listen, did you know that Ciara is right in front of me, actually—"

Ciara had quickly walked up to Martin and snatched the phone out of his hand. She placed the phone near her ear, and while talking away to whoever was on the phone, walked away from the two boys.

She hadn't even looked back towards Justin, didn't even steal a glance.

Justin bit on the inside of his lower lip at that. Then, he looked towards Martin, who crossed his hands over his shirt and glared at Justin.