CHAPTER 19
“Hey, Adam, why are you here?” Adam doesn’t have to look back to know who that was. “Let’s eat pizza. I’ll treat you.”
Adam watched Helene walked away from him. This is the first time that he saw Helene acted like that. He has known Lucille since the day that she moved into the apartment near his house. Still, because of her being aloof with other people, Adam didn’t get any chance to meet her.
He sighed. He always wanted to be near her. That’s why when he found out that she chose this University to pursue her college, Adam also took an admission test here. But the woman never noticed him until he got the chance to talk to her when Bela approached her in the canteen a few days ago.
“Why did you break Helene’s phone?” Adam asked Bela. “And, why did you spread all over the campus that we’re in a relationship?”
Bela arched her brow. “So that freak told you everything?”
“Don’t call her that way, Bela.” Adam shook his head. “When will you stop bullying her?”
“I’m not bullying her,” she said and rolled her eyes. “I just talked to her about certain things—”
“Stop your lies, Bela,” Adam cut off. “I know that you hate her, but what I don’t understand is why?”
“You don’t understand?” Bela smirked. “That woman is trying to take you away from me, Adam.”
Adam’s brows furrowed. “What? Bela, we’re cousins.” He caught his head and sighed. “How many times do I have to tell it to you, you little brat.”
“Third cousins, Adam,” she corrected. “We’re safe from inbreeding—”
“Stop it, for Christ’s sake!” he shut his eyes and took a deep breath. “Pull off all the rumors that you’d done, Bela. If you don’t want me to announce to the whole school that I am your cousin.”
“You can’t do that,” Bela hissed.
“Well, you know what? I can actually do that,” he said and started towards the gate.
He heard Bela called him, but he ignored her. He has to find out now why Helene is hanging out with the repeater student, Minerva.
***
“You should start to avoid him, Helene,” Minerva told her as they were having their lunch at the pizza parlor in front of their school. “I have a feeling that he won’t stop until he finds out about the things that you’re into now.”
Helene looked at Minerva. “Who? Adam?”
She nodded. “Didn’t you notice the way he looks at you? It was as if he’s investigating you,” she said and took a bite of her pepperoni pizza. “I really smelled fishy with that guy. He’ll be a pain our ass.”
Helene stared at her pizza. Her thoughts weren’t on what Minerva is telling her. It was wondering somewhere. And in that somewhere, she saw Malcolm. What is he eating for lunch? She asked and sighed. He must be starving last night while waiting for her, but then she went home late and unconscious.
“Minerva, I want to ask you something…” Helene said suddenly. “Is there a chance that I could watch the show that I recorded yesterday?”
Minerva’s expression changed from light to upset. “Why do you ask? Is this about last night again?”
Helene clenched her fist on the table. “I can’t just let it pass, Minerva. It’s bothering me…It was like a loophole that needs justification. And I won’t stop until I found it.”
“What for?” Minerva asked. “Nothing happened to you last night. You came home late with all your things safe and so yourself. I think there’s no reason for you to be so paranoid.”
“Minerva, what happened to me was questionable,” Helene insisted. “I don’t have any memory about what I did within almost four hours.” She brushed her hands in her face. “It was as if…I was drugged.”
Minerva stared at her for a moment with arched brows, then she suddenly burst out laughing. “Drugged? Are you insane? Why on earth would a drug be involved in our agency?”
Helene knotted her forehead. “Why not? It was also…” She looked around the pizza parlor and lowered her voice. “It was also illegal.”
“Yes, it was, but Helene, if you were under the influence last night, do you think you’ll be able to get home without putting a fight with anyone on the street?”
Helene heaved a sigh and stared at her new pizza again. “Then maybe it was a kind of drug that causes euphoria…”
“Drug? Why the two of you is talking about drugs?”
Both of them looked up and found Adam towering them with a scowl on his face. He pulled a stool and sat beside Helene.
“Why are you here?” Helene asked him. She didn’t expect that he will follow her. But as she expected, all the female students inside the pizza parlor were now on them because of him. “You’re stealing what is supposed to be a peaceful lunch from us.”
Adam knotted his forehead. Completely oblivious of the attention that he’s getting from the women around. “I wanted to talk to you, Helene.”
“We’re leaving now. Right, Helene?” Minerva asked the raised from her seat. “We’re going to replace the phone that Bela broke, right?”
Helene’s having second thoughts on leaving Adam here. Everybody saw him shared the table with them, and if she just left him, she might think negatively against her.
Why do you always have to think about what other people say? A small voice whispered inside her head. You will never be happy if you’ll keep doing that.
Helene looked away from Adam and stood. “She’s right, Adam. We’re leaving now.”
Adam stood up also, but he didn’t leave. Instead, he stood in front of her to block her way. Helene looked at him with a knotted forehead. She doesn’t understand why he’s doing this.
“Helene, I just want to make things clear to you,” he said in a low tone. “There’s nothing between Bela and me…”
Helene’s gaze passed by Adam’s shoulders and saw a familiar man standing outside the pizza parlor. “Malcolm?”
***