Chapter 42: Can't Let You Go

Melissa's POV.

I keep trying to pull my hand away, but he holds on firm with his gaze directly on me. I tried not to make it too obvious so that the people would not begin to stare, but I was no longer comfortable sitting down there with him.

"Are you just going to keep holding my hand like that? When are you going to go ahead and say what it is you want to say?"

I sounded frustrated, and I knew it, but I couldn't act fine.

"I do not think I can stay away from you. I mean, I wish I could, but for some strange reasons I can't seem to do that now."

Everything he said to me at that moment sounded crazy because what exactly did he mean by 'he did not think he could stay away from me'? Why the heck wouldn't he be able to stay away?

"Lex, this is the one thing I want from you, and we'll both be fine. Didn't you say you wanted me completely out of your sight?" I asked him, staring angrily at him now.

"I did say that before, but you did not stay out of my sight, Lisa. You kept showing up and even had to form an alliance with Landon, and all of this spiralled so quickly; I can't help it."

"You must be out of your mind. What exactly do you want me to do now? If you can't stay away from me, then what does that mean for me? more torturing and bullying? To even consider how others feel when you treat them so badly?"

"Actually I do; I consider it a lot, and most of the times I do not give approval for those bullies. I just seem to have people who would do anything for me, but then your case is completely different from what you think."

Those last words sounded rather funny to me as I tried to hold down the laughter in my throat and not let it come out.

"Okay then, Lex, tell me then exactly what my case is. I would like to hear from you, the expert, now."

"I never said I was an expert, but I'll tell you," he said, raking his hand through his hair as he sat upright on the chair, his arms now folded around his chest again.

"After the first day it has been like you've been stuck in my head, and I am trying to get you out, but you don't want to leave."

"That's ridiculous, Lex. You cannot make it sound like it's actually me in there; you are the one in control of your thoughts," I reminded him sharply.

"Yeah, I know that, but there's something different about you, and I thought throwing the first stone and trying to bully you was going to make it go away, but it seems to make it worse, and I don't think I can continue."

"I'm sorry, you lost me at that point where you said something about me being different. Kindly clarify that."

I asked it, and he suddenly fell into silence, staring at me plainly.

"Look, Lex, I called you here because I thought that I was somehow a part of the reason you and Landon fought, but it seems to me like there are some other reasons why you did fight, and it has nothing to do with me, so maybe this meeting was a mistake. I shouldn't have to interfere no matter how much I wanted you both to fix your differences."

"Did Landon tell you it was nothing about you?" He asked me, making me narrow my eyebrow in confusion, and I couldn't place what he was trying to point at.

"I don't get it."

"I mean, if he told you that it had nothing to do with you, then he lied because even before I pissed him off, we were talking about you, and I got so angry and pissed off that I yelled at him and said something about his mate. That was when it started, so it has everything to do with you, and it's still going on too. There's no pulling out now, Lisa; you're a core part of this."

He said all of these as if it was my fault that they were talking about me wherever it was they were doing that, and he had to piss Landon off. Why do I have to be involved in an outcome of a conversation in which I was never present?

"Well, I am not pulling out. I'm doing my best here, and that is why I have you seated right here in front of me despite how uncomfortable it is for me to sit in your presence like this. I don't like you right now; I feel like I'm going to throw up."

"You're exaggerating, right? No one ever feels that way around me; in fact, they always feel the opposite, especially girls like you," he said with a pinch of pride in his voice.

"Well, I do not know why girls like me would do that, but I am me, and I do not care about you or what you look like."

"Who said anything about my looks? Well, Lisa, it seems you've been noticing more details than I expected."

"What are you talking about?"

"You just said you do not care about my looks, which means you do, and you're trying to convince yourself that you do not care about it."

His voice was now so calm and slow; he was staring at me directly with a smirk on the corner of his lips. It was one of those bad-boy signs; I saw it.

The right thing to do at that moment was get up and run and forgive myself for making such a mistake of inviting him over to talk, but strangely I seemed to like it – the way he spoke, the way he stared at me, the way he smiled?

What is wrong with me?

"Lisa, Lisa!!" He called out, tapping my hand, and I jerked.

Goddess, please, I didn't just space out in front of him, right?

"Did you hear my question? What's your answer?" He asked.

"What? What question?"

"Will you date me for a semester, and I'll leave you alone after?"

What the heck? Is he really asking me that?