Zenon's Game Chapter 298

But I don't feel comfortable because none of this felt right.

I was staring down at my hands when the Principal's door opened again. A lot of movement ensued as everyone gathered around to hear what she would say, but I stayed still.

I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open.

I felt awful. Partly because I drank alcohol this morning on an empty stomach. Partly because I watched my boyfriend beat someone up. And partly because I felt like a bad human.

The right thing is for all of us to be punished – including Kaden. None of us are good people in this chain of events. Sure, Kaden started it but look how we finished it.

And yet, here I was, incapable of doing anything about it. The Principal said Zenon would lose his spot in college if he was responsible for hitting Kaden. And I couldn't do that to him. I love Zenon too much to ever want to hurt him. So I was keeping my mouth shut...

And that made me complicit.

"Candace, come on. Come on!" Cynthia whispered, nudging me up.

I looked up around me and saw parents with happier expressions. My mom was talking to Doz and Cynthia's mom was talking to Zenon's dad. It seemed like the tension had lifted.

I didn't feel the same way.

Cynthia yanked me along to join Bryce, Axel and Zenon, who were standing away from everyone else. As we walked towards them, we overheard their conversation.

"Why is your dealer a grown man?"

"He has the best sh*t at a good price."

"Is it awkward if we go up to him and ask?"

"Hey guys," Cynthia said, entering the conversation with a grouchy me behind her, "I can't believe we got out of this. I was so sure we were done for."

I avoided looking at Zenon. I didn't know how I would react. I didn't know how to process this.

And then I tried to hide my yawn behind my hand. After all the events of today, what I needed more than anything, was a bed. Any bed would do. Even a chair would be fine.

It was so much effort to stay awake.

Axel said, "Who came up with Bryce's whip? I need to thank them."

Cynthia joked, "Maybe Kaden's kinky."

"It was a skipping rope," Bryce clarified, "Shame, we were having such a good time before someone came along..." He sighed and slowly turned to look at me.

"I ruined it?" I asked, shocked that he would blame me for interrupting their bullying.

Zenon explained, "Candace wanted us to do a Q&A session with Kaden instead."

Oh that little-

"Can we leave now?" Bryce asked, switching subjects pretty easily, "After the principal said we were innocent, I stopped listening. What are we waiting for?"

"She didn't say that," Cynthia answered, "She said that none of the new witnesses supported Kaden and Julia's version of the story, but there's still one person left to ask."

"Who?"

"Arturo," Cynthia said, "Apparently, Kaden and Julia mentioned that Art had been bullied too. Principal Lee wanted to see if at least he sides with their version of the story."

"So Art's in there now?" I asked, looking round the room to check.

Zenon has been giving Art a hard time ever since the jersey incident. Wouldn't this be Art's chance for payback?

"He's not going to talk," Zenon said, seeing my reaction, "Art isn't going to go screaming to anyone. We have our differences, but we handle them directly."

"Unlike your ex the snitch," Bryce said, shaking his head, "You really know how to pick 'em."

"Bryce," Zenon said, "If you make one more joke about Candace's ex-boyfriend, I'll show you how hard I can throw a basketball."

"Zenon!" I snapped, keeping my voice very low so that no one else could hear, "Can you not threaten anyone please? We're still in the Principal's office for the first time you tried that."

Zenon raised his hands in surrender.

"Code red," Axel told us, staring over us with widening eyes as Cynthia's mom walked to Bryce's dad.

I had completely forgotten about Axel's phone call.

"What do we do?!" Cynthia freaked out, flapping her hands while watching the adults approach each other.

"Go over there," Axel told Zenon, "You know I can't say anything."

Zenon and Bryce didn't hesitate. They swept in between the parents and tried to intersect Cynthia's mom.

Bryce went straight for his dad, drawing attention to his watch, "You're late, dad. Don't you need to be somewhere important?"

And Zenon appeared in front of Cynthia's mom, "Sorry to ambush you like this, but I just wanted to say that you have a very kind daughter."

"How sweet of you, Zenon," Cynthia's mom replied, stopping to talk to him, "I'm sure a dozen girls have said that to you before and I'm just not so sure how innocent you are."

"I'm well intentioned," he replied, with a hint of a smirk.

Cynthia was holding onto me so tightly I thought my arm would break off.

She leaned over, "I can't believe Zenon Albert is trying to cover up for me!"

"He's a master at that, apparently," I muttered bitterly, still not over Zenon's clean diversion of the bullying incident.

We watched the conversation continue, until Cynthia's mom loudly called out to Bryce's dad, "Mr Chadwick, there are no hard feelings. You took good care of my daughter in Dubai, so I appreciate that."

Zenon rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at me. He was worried that this would be the moment everything unravelled for Axel and Cynthia.

There was not much we could do about it now. Bryce was waving his rolex in his father's face, trying to convince him of some invisible appointment, but his father wasn't going to leave until the Principal cleared the situation.