Chapter Twenty-Six: Pet Names

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"Party at my house on Friday," someone from the team announced cheerfully before gesturing to everybody sitting at the table, "And you're all invited."

"Oh right, forgot that it's almost your birthday," Pat teased out loud, causing the birthday boy to throw a wrapper towards his way. The table fell into a round of laughter while the two started bickering back and forth in good fun.

However, all I could do was sit there in horror as his words sank in.

A party. A house party. A house party of a classmate. A house party of a classmate on Friday.

Dear god, this was something that was definitely not going to end well. The date, the said classmate, and house might be different but the circumstances were so similar that it terrified me.

I was ready to bolt out, to get the hell away from here before I could suffer a breakdown. I was desperate to go before all the memories can come flooding back in and let me warn you, those memories were not good ones in any shape or form.

But that was when I felt an arm wrap around my waist, rubbing me soothingly through my shirt as an act of comfort. I turned to my side where Leon was sitting, melting inside when I caught his concerned gaze. Of course he knew what happened – in fact, it probably happened in multiple timelines.

"You want to get out of here?" he asked in a hushed volume.

I slowly nodded and he released me, bending down so he could get my bag for me. Though before any of us could stand up, the teammate who was throwing the party spoke out loud, "You know, we've been wondering, but are you two going out?"

Mia, who was unaware of my oncoming panic attack, started to choke on her drink and coughed rather loudly. Pat, who was sitting on Leon's other side, paused midway from nibbling on his sandwich. And to my horror, the first time Sasha ever looked my way since the argument, was right now after that question was asked.

Great, amazing, spectacular.

Leon was unfazed by all of this and shot his signature scowl so everybody would look away, "No."

That was the signal for everyone to go back to minding their own damn business. He sighed loudly to show his displeasure and stood up, his bag on his shoulder and my bag in his hand. I turned to Mia and before I could tell her that I was leaving, she nodded in understanding.

She probably thought that I wanted to go because of that uncomfortable inquiry. Well, it was one of the reasons but that wasn't the original cause.

So we both went out of the cafeteria with a respectable distance between us. The last thing we wanted was to add more fuel to the fire.

"I swear, everybody loves to meddle," he grunted once we were outside.

When he turned to me, his eyebrows shot up when he saw me with a frown and an outstretched hand towards him.

Don't get me wrong, he answered them correctly because we really weren't going out. But, I do think we had a pretty good thing going on. While I agreed that what was happening between us weren't anybody else's business aside from ours, it was alright to be a little needy every now and then, right?

Please tell me that I'm right.

Thankfully, he got the signal immediately. He wrapped his fingers around my hand and tugged me closer to him, smiling gently down at me, "Are you feeling better now?"

I hummed contentedly, walking side by side with him with our hands still together, "You probably already know what happened to me. Sasha and Mia saved me before any bad deed could actually happen, but it was still a horrible experience."

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