【COZEN】Bloody Painter x Reader

❥Chapter 14

"You're just defending a thief because you like him!"

Those words were so loud that they couldn't let you sleep, after your little argument with Tom those words have been stuck into your mind.

It wasn't because you liked Helen, well you did liked him but just as a friend, you just wanted to do the right thing, defend a friend.

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As you expected, Tom and Aiden didn't talk to you or even looked at you when you arrived to school, though Helen was there to greet you.

He looked more tired than usual, but that didn't stop him from smiling and talking to you, but it did worried you, "Helen you're not getting any sleep?" You ask.

He looks at you but then looks away quickly, trying to not answer your question, you stayed quiet trying to not ask him more questions.

These rumours are already troubling him and you felt bad for it. Maybe just staying by his side was enough to calm him down, he was more at peace when you were by his side.

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"Hey did you hear? Aiden tried to spread rumors about Ban framing Helen."

"Really? Do you think he was the one who actually stole the watch?"

New rumors, it annoyed you how it was always between Helen or Aiden. This time was something new to hear from you classmates.

As you were listening to your classmates you suddenly remembered the paper Aiden passed to you before he left yesterday, you quickly take it out from your pocket, and open it. You couldn't believe that you didn't read it at home you completely forgot about it.

You take a look at it and it said:

"Can we talk alone during lunch tomorrow? You know where just don't let Tom or Helen see you."

You fold the paper again and put it back in your pocket, your mind starting to make up questions that Aiden might talk to you about something bad to you during lunch, so many that you couldn't even choose which could be the actual conversation he wanted to make with you.

Lunch time was around the corner and you didn't waste time in going to the place to meet up with Aiden, you started to get anxious for meeting him, wondering what he was going to tell you.

You finally arrived and Aiden was there, leaning against the tree he was always sitting against as he ate lunch, he seemed to notice your presence when his body to face you, a small and nervous smile showed on his face, "hey, (Y/n) how are you?" He asks.

"Not so great," you respond then you quickly ask him what he wanted to talk to you about, "so what's with the sudden note? You've been ignoring me for a while so I thought this was the end for us."

He froze a bit, he bit his lip and looked down awkwardly, "it's just... Tom is changing." he says. This confused you, you tilted your head a bit then he continued to talk, "I know you have noticed, he has changed quite a lot ever since you started talking to Helen," his head turns to where the tree was, confused you look at the tree to see why he was giving glances to it, "I also decided to talk to someone else to clear everything." He moved to the side a bit to show someone that was behind the tree all this time.

Annie.

You recognized her as soon as you saw black curly hair reaching her shoulders, her clothing in such an elegant style as her smooth brown skin gave her such a beautiful look under the tree as some patches of sunlight were laying gently on her skin, her aura giving a sense of shyness and vulnerability that you didn't sense the day she threw the food on you, her brown eyes looking at you in an embarrassed manner.

Your face showing surprise at the sudden appearance of her, Aiden quickly stepped in front of her to talk to you, "before you say anything, she talked to me and everything was a misunderstanding the day she dropped her food on you." He says quickly, he tried to explain but Annie gently moved him aside so she could look at you clearly.

"Tom made a rumor that you were saying bad stuff about my friend... I knew it was him but he threatened me to spread rumors about me if I didn't drop the food on you or make a scene." She looked ashamed of herself as she was explaining, "I'm very sorry, I never meant to do that to you, I swear." That's all she said and backed away a bit to keep distance with you.

You tried to reach for her but she backed away even more.

This wasn't something you weren't expecting from Tom, what was the reason for him to do that?

Aiden looked nervous, his eyes staring at Annie as she walked away, trying her best to not look back at you as she still felt embarrassment to what she did to you a few days ago. Aiden puts his hand on your shoulder in a comforting manner, that look of pity always there when he looked at you.

"He has never done that to me, so I don't know why he's doing it to you." Shocked you look at Aiden dead in the eye. He has never done that to Aiden? He had to be kidding, he hasn't heard all the rumors about him?

Everything was starting to make sense, he was the one spreading rumors about Aiden, but for what?

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You tried to look for Tom to have a talk with him, this wasn't the boy you knew, was the cheerful and bashful boy you met before only a facade? An act? Nothing was adding up.

As soon as you stepped into the classroom you see a few students slamming books on Helen's head as he was sitting down, loud noises and laughter echoing in the hallway.

With no time to waste you quickly run towards them and push them aside to take a look at them, "what are you guys doing?!" You yell at them, "do you really think this is funny?!"

The three boys stayed silent as they held their books tightly, they didn't say anything and looked annoyed before they walked away, leaving you and Helen alone.

You crouched down to take a look at Helen, his face bruised but tried to not make any eye contact with you as he felt embarrassed.

You couldn't help but hug him, this surprised Helen as he quickly jolted back, but you didn't let go as he started to relax, as if he was starting to melt in your hug.

He finally found some comfort even if it's for a few minutes.