Chapter 28

"What is this sudden interest when it comes to Octavia? Are you jealous of her? Are you jealous of my friendship with her.

"What?" Rue rolled her eyes at his statement. If there was anyone to be jealous it was Octavia, not her. Rue decided to keep her mouth shut and not say anything regarding Octavia anymore. It seemed it wasn't helping matters. It was only going to get Keir upset with her and she didn't want that right now.

She wanted him to trust her again, to be able to tell her anything but how was she going to earn this darn trust? He said he had forgiven her but she could feel him drifting away from her each minute.

She stared at him but his eyes didn't even look at her once, he seemed bothered about something as he sipped his drink. She could only wish she could read his mind.

LAUNDRY ROOM

"Did you just arrive?" Octavia asked as she stepped into the laundry room alongside Atlas, who was busy closing the door behind him after secretly looking outside to make sure no one was following them.

"I have been in and out, but I should be back fully soon."

"I see," Octavia said, smiling and touching the clothes on the table, trying to figure out what to say to him. It had been a while and she didn't want to start by asking boring questions about his family or his business. She hadn't felt nervous when she had met him in the hall upstairs but being alone in that room with him suddenly made her heart start to race fast.

She had always imagined what it would be like to be alone with him in a room back then and hopefully steal a kiss from him to show him how she felt but she never got the opportunity to because she was always timid around him.

"It is a small world. The moment you came to my mind again was the moment my eyes caught sight of you on the stage," Atlas confessed as Octavia stared at him walking closer to her.

He placed his hands on her shoulder caressing them softly with a smile as he leaned in to whisper something into her ear. "Were you ever going to tell me that you had a crush on me?"

"What?" Octavia questioned with a shocked look on her face, she had never mentioned anything about her feelings for Atlas to anyone, she tried as much as she could to not even give him a hint of how she felt towards him.

Even now she tried her best not to let it show that she still felt something for him. There was still a certain longing she felt just looking at him, it wasn't as strong as when she was younger but it was there.

"I guess not," Atlas chuckled. "It took a while but I finally figured out why you were always timid around me even when I was willing to have a conversation with you."

"We were so young then," Octavia tried to laugh the embarrassment off, She had never confessed her feelings to any guy before and she was certainly not going to start now. "That's all in the past now."

"If you are not seeing anyone at the moment, which I want to believe you are not, I think we should kick off that little crush of yours," Atlas said with a smile on his face but Octavia wasn't having any of it, wasn't it too soon for them to be talking about starting something.

Didn't it always start with getting to know each other first before finding out if you were compatible with the person?

"Don't get me wrong," Atlas said. "This is me trying to get to know you better. The truth is I liked you back then but I wasn't planning on getting rejected, so I never took it up."

"Really?" Octavia asked. If he truly liked her back then he should have just said something that always looking at her with a frown on his face. Maybe they would still have been dating by now and she wouldn't have ended up dating that idiot douchebag she called her boyfriend back then.

"Can I kiss you, Octavia?" Atlas asked leaning in as his lips touched hers not waiting for an answer, The kiss was subtle but Octavia pulled his head in kissing him back passionately instead.

BACK AT THE EVENT

Keir stared again in the direction Octavia and Atlas had passed through, then back at his wristwatch. It was now almost an hour since they had left and the program was already rounding up, what could they have been up to for so long? If she wasn't out soon, he was going to be forced to go and see for himself what they were discussing.

Staying till the closing of an event wasn't his usual style because he didn't want to meet up with someone he might know in the business sector or brands that were trying to reach out to him. Events like this were always a good opportunity for them to get to him and possibly ruin his day with boring small talks about themselves and their business.

"Are they arguing?" he heard Rue ask as he came back to reality looking in the direction Rue was looking at. He could see Octavia and Atlas in the corner, Atlas was holding on to her hand firmly but she seemed to be trying to shove him off as they continued talking to each other. He could tell Octavia was vexed because she wasn't smiling and she seemed to be yelling at him.

He was tempted to stand up and go to them to see what the hell was going on. Did Atlas perhaps harass her? Maybe that was why they had been out for so long but he didn't want to create a scene as he was sure Octavia would not be pleased with it. She always felt she was in control of the situation even when it was dangerous.

Rue wondered what Atlas and Octavia could be talking about, the sight of them brought an interesting idea to her mind. What if Atlas had feelings for Octavia? From the way he was holding her hand, she figured that was what they were talking about or maybe she was wrong and just making silly assumptions but Atlas wasn't so bad. He was a very good distraction for Octavia.