Charity Case by Ivy Clyde

Author:Ivy Clyde [Clyde, Ivy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-15T05:00:00+00:00

23

Gabrielle

The smell of coffee in the cafeteria next morning woke up my senses. The residual hangover from last night had almost passed but my head still felt light. A waiter brought me a plate of full English breakfast, complete with sausages, fried eggs, baked beans, grilled mushrooms and thick slices of buttered toasts. Tucking in, I devoured half the plate before looking up.

The cafeteria hall was comparatively empty that morning after the Halloween party. Those few who came to breakfast looked pale and disgruntled. I sat alone at the table as Liam still slept in his room. I assumed he didn’t catch much sleep after Nikolai Ivanov tipped him about Paris’s situation. Just then, my wandering gaze fell on a figure with vibrant indigo hair. Even when her back was towards me, I knew it to be Paris.

Picking up my plate, I walked to her table.

“Hey.”

Vivid green eyes stared up at me. A smile slowly stretched her lips. “Hi.” She looked around the place and then back at me. “Are you alone?”

“Yeah. Do you mind if I joined you?”

Surprise flitted through her eyes as another smile blossomed on her pretty face. “Of course, not.”

Taking the chair opposite to her, I saw the plain toasts and a cup of black coffee before her. It took me a moment to realize how pale she looked that morning. I hadn’t spoken to her since the night of the incident at Liam’s party. Both Liam and I kept our distance from her since then, hoping Brianna and her friends would stop picking on her on our account.

“Aren’t you hungry?” I asked.

“No. I don’t feel too good.” There was a glum look on her face as she stared down at her coffee cup.

“Where’s Zoya? Did you guys have a good time last night?”

“She is still sleeping. I guess she had fun but I…” she shook her head. “I ran into some trouble.” She plastered on a fake smile. “But everything’s okay.”

I could feel her pain underneath that nonchalant smile. A part of me could identify with her. She’d lost her mother and with Zoya still in bed, she had no one to confide in about the horror she faced last night. She was the kind of girl to suppress her own pain so as not to make others uncomfortable.

“Where is Liam?” she asked after a while.

“He’s asleep too.”

She nodded, picking up a toast and taking a small bite out of it. “About that day…thanks for saving me,” she suddenly blurted out. “If you hadn’t jumped in after me, I might not be sitting here today.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that,” I said grimly. My hand closed over hers and I gave it a gentle squeeze. “How about we get out of here?” I said. “Just you and me like last time?”

“With you?”

I nodded. “We could go for a drive in the city, walk around, have lunch somewhere and I’ll take you back to my apartment and you bake me something.”

Her eyes lit up at all the things I said.

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