Zenon's Game Chapter 119

Art raised his hands and backed off, "I know you guys are what the whole school talks about, but we have gossip in our year too. Especially around your brother, Zenon."

"Juniors," Bryce shook his head, "Y'all are kids."

Zenon clenched his jaw, keeping his anger under control.

Art kept going. "So let me get this straight, the girl your brother is rumored to be dating is actually the girl you're dating?" Art couldn't help laughing, "This girl must be magic. How hot is she?"

He picked up his phone to re-watch the video when Bryce grabbed it out of his hand.

"Not that hot," Bryce answered, turning up the brightness and watching the video himself.

"I recommend you stop talking now," Axel muttered to Art, "Helpful tip, bro."

Arturo looked from Axel to Zenon and then nodded. It was a warning not to cross the line with Zenon.

Zenon was looking down at his phone, texting someone. "Jake's here."

"And why are we at the mall by the way?" Bryce randomly asked, "Because I told you my chef would cook for us, but you wanted chicken wings?"

"Candace works at that store," Axel said, pointing at Lola Rae.

"Candace's here?!" Art exclaimed, suddenly a very vocal member of the group, "and Jake said he's here too? I bet they're here together doin-"

"Leave."

Art stopped talking and faced Zenon. Zenon wasn't going to repeat himself.

Art buckled, "Sorry man if I offended you-"

"I'll be apologizing after I'm done with you at practice tomorrow."

The threat was real, and Art was terrified. "Woah, no need to get this way, man."

"You crossed the line," Zenon said, "And I'm not feeling like a team player anymore."

Art shakily stood up, staring at the guys. He looked at Axel for help. Axel shook his head, since he'd just given the guy a warning.

Bryce happily waved goodbye.

Arturo left without his chicken wings, so Axel took those under his wing.

"Why don't you tell everyone you're together?" Bryce asked, "That'll stop the rumors about her and Jake."

"Maybe," Zenon answered honestly, "I'm just not sure."

"Why? You don't want to be with her?" Bryce asked.

He stole a napkin from Axel to wipe a speck of dirt off his watch. Then he continued, "This relationship lasted 72 hours. I've had plants live longer than you two."

Zenon leaned back in his chair, "I want to be with her. I'm confused by what she wants. She told me today that she doesn't want the attention. She says that nothing good happens in public."

"It's cos you're an odd couple. People expect you to be with someone like Bianca."

"And my opinion on this," Zenon said, "Is f*ck what people think."

"Oh look," Axel pointed, "There's Jake."

They all focused on the guitar store on the mall's ground floor. Jake strolled out of the store, oblivious to the guys staring at him from above.

"No, no, no, no," Bryce warned, as he saw Zenon get up.

This wasn't going to end well.

"JAKE!"

"Damn," Bryce said, "I barely recovered from the last fight."

Zenon abandoned them without any parting words. He went to handle his younger brother directly.

"Oh look," Axel pointed in the opposite direction, "There's Candace."

"Who are you, today? Finding Waldo?" Bryce exclaimed, "Look what you've just started."

"You're right!" Axel jumped into action, "Let's go."

He stopped to stare longingly at his food, before looking at Zenon and then back at the food. Dilemma.

He decided that he had to go for Zenon. He picked up three boxes of fries to take on the road.

"Zenon needs us!"

"Does he? I know we call him brother but that's his actual brother-" Bryce was in the middle of making his point when he saw that Axel was already running.

*Candace's POV*

I smacked into Axel and somehow found myself under a rain of fries.

"Want a fry?"

"Axel!" I exclaimed, "What's going on? Why's Zenon here?"

Amidst the panic, Bryce squeezed past us, and calmly took the escalator down to back Zenon up. "Excuse me."

I stared after Bryce. Did he really just pretend like he didn't know us?

"Come on Candace! Zenon's about to murder his brother," Axel pulled me onto the escalator.

"Why is this happening?"

"I don't know," Axel exhaled, "I never know what happens. I usually show up and there's already some drama."

"Let's just de-escalate the whole-"

"That's why we're on the escalator!"

Fair point.

We stood patiently on the escalator as it slowly traveled down to the ground floor. Axel munched on his fries. I was staring intently at Zenon's back. He was facing Jake and I couldn't see what they were talking about.

Bryce was already beside him and we joined in a hurry. I reached out to tug Zenon's arm.

Both Albert brothers said at the same time, "Candace?"

"What's going on, Zenon?" I responded, "I asked you not to overreact."

Zenon relaxed my grip on his arm and said, "I'm not overreacting."

I tried not to get distracted by his eyes. Why did they have to be so se-

"Listen to her, Zenon. We really don't need to get into this here," Jake said, since Zenon p*ssed off was not something he wanted to see.

"Why does everyone think I'm going to overreact?" Zenon asked. He then told Jake, "We had an agreement. We said that whoever she decided, we would respect. The other would back off. We shook on it."

"I know we did," Jake nodded, a lump gathering in his throat.

"So why are you texting her?"

Jake looked from Zenon to me. Maybe he expected me not to tell Zenon about the text?

"And why are these videos popping up of you calling her husband?"

There was a very awkward silence. I looked at Bryce and Axel for an explanation. How on earth does news travel so quickly to Zenon?