Zenon's Game Chapter 116

My emotions were clearly a mess right now. And my thoughts were tangled like my earphones. I'm not on that airpod level.

So say something, anything, to get off the point. We started to walk to my English class.

"So, do you invite girls to the chemistry lab often?" I asked.

Oh god. As soon as I said it, I knew it was a bad question That was definitely going to piss him off. Honestly, it was innocent. I was just curious!

Zenon said, "I'm trying to be sweet here, which is a work-in-progress for me. Why do you have to call me out like that?"

"You make it sound like a yes."

"Well, people do it in the chemistry lab periodically."

I was about to snap back, when I registered the pun and appreciated the pun.

"There's that smile," he said.

It crept up on me, despite my best efforts to stop it. He caught me.

"No, I don't make out with girls in chemistry labs," Zenon clarified, "I'll make out with you though."

Cute... but I wasn't convinced. He only spoke about the present. What about the past?

Zenon has a way of saying things, that don't confirm or deny anything, but still get your mind off the point. Anyone else notice that?

And if you didn't notice that... then that's the point.

I let it go because the past doesn't concern me. We are each other's present.

We stood outside my English class. It had already started and I was late. I didn't want us to separate just yet.

My smile spread when I noticed how he missed the top button of his shirt and it was buttoned up wrong. I slowly unbuttoned each one, feeling the soft shirt between my fingers. He looked down, thinking I was about to make out with him in the middle of the hallway, when he saw how he'd messed up.

"I was distracted," he said, running a hand through his hair.

"You're distracting me."

He enjoyed me re-dressing him and I enjoyed it too. I'm not sure how many people saw us, but I like to think not many.

He kissed my cheek, before letting me go, "Have fun in class, Candy."

"I won't be in my element," I made another chemistry lab joke.

He rolled his eyes but smiled, "OK, you want to be a nerd? I got my ion you."

I walked into english class with a giant grin on my face, messed up hair and all the obvious signs that I'd been making out in between classes. The teacher didn't take kindly to my lateness, but let me off with a warning.

I sat in my chair and dazed off instantly.

"Hey," my seat neighbor whispered.

I looked over and saw the tattoos on his strong arm. I gasped, "Jake. You're back!"

Zenon's half brother: the guy who told me to give him another chance.

"I am," he said, "Did you get my text?"

For a while, I had forgotten about Jake. He went to NYC for a week and... a lot has happened since then.

He looked even better than I remembered though. Fresh faced with his scruffy hair and tattoos. His finger drummed against the desk absentmindedly and it drew my attention to his open notebook.

Lyrics were written across the page in beautiful handwriting. Jake was a songwriter and I blushed as I remembered the song he'd written about me:

She don't realize

How those eyes hypnotize

And those lips never tell lies

It's funny really, because Zenon usually calls my eyes demonic. Except this weekend, when he called them beautiful.

"Nothing changes around here, does it?" Jake mumbled to me in a quiet voice, as the teacher droned on.

Well, Zenon and I started seeing each other.

I found out that Julia slept with my ex while we were still together.

And I tried to get the police to stop my blackmailer.

"Yeah," I agreed, "Nothing changes."

Ms. Hathaway asked us to turn to Act IV in the play we were reading. He'd forgotten his copy again. I tried not to overthink it when he moved his chair closer to mine so we could share. I also hoped he didn't notice the ketchup stain on the bottom left page.

That ketchup was meant to go on my crispy fries last night. I'd create 100 ketchup stains to relive those fries right now – but I digress.

Someone from the class was reading out an excerpt from Taming of the Shrew in a super dramatic way. It made many laugh.

"So, uh... you never answered my question," Jake whispered under the laughter.

We were sitting closer now, and his whisper was perfectly clear in my ears.

"Zenon and I went on a date this weekend," I said, "And it went well."

His eyes remained glued to the page. He said, "I hadn't heard."

"Zenon didn't mention it?"

That shady-

I couldn't hear any emotion in Jake's voice. But I could see he was disappointed. He was a better singer than he was an actor.

"What?" Jake asked me.

"Zenon didn't mention it?" I repeated.

What's Zenon playing at? They were brothers.

"We aren't exactly on speaking terms."

The teacher began to walk through the classroom and we immediately went silent. Last thing we wanted was to be picked on to answer a question we clearly hadn't been paying attention to.

I slid my phone under my notebook.

"Then my text to you was bad timing, huh?" he said, appearing to focus on the play while Mrs Hathaway passed by.

I blushed. Oh, the text when you said you wouldn't give up and wanted to change my mind?

"It wasn't ideal," I said, "But Zenon and I are v-"

"Alright, you two lovebirds!" Mrs Hathaway popped up behind us, catching us mid-speech, "Since you're so chatty, why don't you read out the next scene together?"

Why does she have to do me like this?