CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
ANTHONY’S POV

“And they are back together. On-again-off-again relationship, people!”

Dante has been saying this particular thing about Blake and I for a while now and the only person that has had the slightest issue with it has been Luke. But no one really cared what Luke thought so it was ignored. But now that Dante said the same thing, I saw Blake visibly flinch at his comment. No one else noticed this which made me wonder if I had just imagined it.

“Dante, stop being ridiculous and saying ridiculous things.” This comment was made by Blake, which confirmed what I saw.

He’s been acting all weird ever since Claire caught us...in his room earlier this week. First, he didn’t want to sit beside me during lunch which he made conspicuous by placing his girlfriend (yeah, he invited her for lunch knowing that I’ll be there as well which has never actually happened before) right by his side (quite reasonable, really) and then placing Claire (that’s right! She made the cut for sitting at the table during lunch) on the other side of him. So now, I had to sit beside Dante who was sitting beside Luke and I was directly opposite my sister and neither of us liked it!

Then he completely ignored me when I asked if I could go over to his place so I could sleep in his bed! It’s been three days now and I still haven’t gotten a response. It was like I hadn’t even spoken!

“Hey! I’m right here.” I grimaced at my sister’s comment and kept picking at my salad while wondering why the hell she was more upset about me sitting there than the red-haired beauty from God-knows-where who can’t seem to keep her hands off Blake.

Okay, that’s a lie. I did know why she was more upset about me sitting there than the red-haired beauty but still, I was her brother and in times like this, we needed to band together to get rid of our common enemy. She watched GOT with me and she still doesn’t know the tactic!

“Winter formal,” Claire announced with a huge grin. She looked at me then at Blake and bit her bottom lip in a very seductive way. Then she winked at me and proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the time that she spoke about the dance.

“Luke Evans, do you have a date for the dance or does no one want to go with a homophobe?” I had to admit, Claire did have balls. I don't know if it was because she was a girl and she knew Luke wouldn’t hit her no matter how crass he was or maybe she was just that bold and it didn’t matter what gender she was, but I liked that side of her.

Luke frowned and threw her the nastiest glare he could. “What about you? Have the girls here decided that you aren’t manly enough for them? One minute you’re Barbie and the next you’re Ken. Pick a side, Claire!”

I took notice of her outfit then. When I saw her in Blake’s room the other day, she was wearing skinny jeans with a crop top that enunciated her boobs and a pair of high heels that made me wonder how she was able to get anywhere. She had glitter all over her face and her eye makeup was amazing. Today, however, she was dressed like bona fide tomboy, and her clothes were most definitely better than Luke’s.

I did a double take at his statement. I knew I was slow to understand certain things, but what he just said sounded kinda like she was not into guys...

“Not my fault I dress better than you do. I could give you some tips on how to dress like a ‘guy’ and also act like a gentleman. Maybe your girlfriends wouldn’t dump you to be with me then.”

Dante and Blake started howling and laughing like maniacs while Luke turned a bright shade of pink. He tried to make his friends cower and keep silent by glaring at them, but they were too invested in their fun to take notice of the look he was giving them.

“Wait, does that mean you’re gay?” I asked dumbly. Claire looked at me and smiled in a very sweet, very teasing way.

“You didn’t think you were the only homosexual on this table, did you? You should thank me. Now, Luke wouldn’t pick on only you; you have someone to share that burden with you.”

“C’mon now, Luke. Be cool. This is 2024. You can’t possibly still hate gay people when their only crime is love.” Dante probed Luke with the edge of his fork, but the other guy just waved him off.

Every negative thought I’ve had about Claire immediately disappeared from my mind. I was in awe by her beauty and her charm, things that I once thought to be annoying and infuriating. When she playfully hit Blake on his shoulder after he made a comment about her nails, I didn’t see it as a flirtatious act like I would have prior to the knowledge of her sexuality. She was a completely different person in my eyes. Even Crystal didn’t seem all that edgy towards her after that revelation.

“Would you guys like to go as a group?” Claire asked.

My salad was getting really annoying to deal with. I hadn’t packed my lunch as usual this morning because I woke up late and was really stressed out about the whole Blake thing, so I had to get my lunch from the cafeteria and it was just my luck that the menu today consisted of nuts and vegetables which I hated. I was starving and I wasn’t going home early today because I had to be in The Clay Room after school to make more mugs, so I had no choice than to eat those leaves.

“You’re asking because no one wants to go with you, right?” Luke was chattier than ever. Don't get me wrong, he always had an insult or two to throw my way from time to time. But since Claire started sitting with us, he has been talking way more than usual, always responding to whatever she said. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he had a little crush on her.

“I’m asking because everyone wants to go with me. I’m not a heartbreaker, Luke, so I can’t pick just one girl and make the others sad. Better to go to the dance single and give the rest of them an opportunity to dance with me.” Her confidence was gnawing at him from his inside out. I loved her even more.

“Too bad,” Crystal said and linked her arm with Blake’s. She has been doing a lot of that lately, as if trying to mark him as her property. Ugh!

“Blake and I are going as a couple. Right honey?” Blake looked completely taken aback by this news, but he recovered quickly from the shock.

“Of course. You’re my girlfriend. Who else would I go with?”

The kiss that she gave him then seemed forced to me. My salad was no longer appealing and I pushed it aside.

While Dante made his case about how Claire’s idea to go as a group was fun and way better than what my sister proposed, Blake was giving me sideway looks subtly. He would glance at me, and when it seemed like I was going to catch him in the act, he would quickly look away and pretend like he wasn’t just doing that. I didn’t know why he was acting like that and frankly it was frustrating me and giving me sleepless nights. I thought a long time about how it may be because of the fact that he brushed his lips against mine in his bedroom and that now he was clear-headed and fully aware of what he did, he didn’t feel quite good about himself and his actions.

I would have loved to keep thinking that it was all on him, but my brain couldn’t help but think that I was also the problem. What if he thought I was disgusting and he didn’t want to hang out with me anymore? We’ve not had a stable relationship since I almost died at the beginning of the school year and I was just so sick and tired of being on-again off-again with him!

“What do you think Anthony Pearce?” All eyes turned to me at Claire’s question. To be at the centre of it all had my heart going a mile a minute. “Should we go as a group or not?”

“I don't even want to go to winter formal, but uh...a group is fine...I guess.” Crystal wasn’t pleased with my answer, obviously, while Claire smiled like I just handed her a check worth millions of dollars. I bet if she wanted to, she would have clapped and squealed like a little kid in a candy store.

“Not inviting the enemy boyfriend?” Dante probed. I glanced at Blake for a brief second and he looked away as soon as our eyes came in contact.

“Uh...no. We...we broke up.” Luke snickered and bent his head forward.

“And what’s so funny about that, Luke Evans?” I realized all too quickly that Claire Reagan always called people by their full name. I had no idea why, but I liked it when she did that with Luke. It made him seem like a little boy being scolded by a grown-up.

“It’s just funny to think that he wasn’t even good enough for Michael of all people.”

“Dude...” Dante started, but Blake cut him off.

“I’ll have you know that Anthony was the one who broke up with him. Michael isn’t good enough for him, not the other way round. I hope you remember this for a long time Luke – Tony is amazing and any guy would be lucky to have him.”

My heart started to move in rhythm with a kettle drum. Just when I thought I was going to explode from the sheer joy of being backed by Blake like that, he carried my bowl of grass and placed his highly-rich-in-carbs-and-delicious-fat lunch in front of me. When he smiled at me shyly after saving me from starving to death, my heart melted and it settled in my stomach, making me feel satisfied.

Luke and my sister rolled their eyes. I could just imagine the tantrum she was going to throw later on today when we got home.

After lunch, Blake and I headed to the Clay Room for pottery class. We got there before anyone else and under normal circumstances, I would be happy to be alone with him for a while, but since he was giving me the silent treatment, I didn’t feel comfortable being there with him.

“You really don't want to go to the winter formal?” He startled me by talking to me first. His eyes were fixed downwards while he played with a lump of dried clay on his thigh and if it wasn’t for how empty the class room was, I wouldn’t have even known he was talking to me.

“I don't really like the whole school dance scene. The idea of being in the same room with all those other people from school doesn’t sit right with me.” He paused for a while, as if contemplating his next words.

“But I’ll be there. Do I not sit right with you?”

When he looked up at me, his lashes fluttered in the most beautiful yet seductive way ever. I don't know how he managed to look so innocent and naughty at the same time, but I was completely hooked, mesmerized and turned on by that one single look. I was tachycardic and I feared for my ever-decreasing life span because of Blake Lindell.

“You do,” I whispered in response. We gazed at each other from the safety of our various stools, neither of us wanting to get up yet using everything in our willpower to stay put. His eyes flickered to my lips and I saw him gulp heavily. I was convinced that I wasn’t the only one that felt the heat in that moment.

“I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting lately. I didn’t mean to ignore you, it’s just...” He stopped, unable to complete that sentence. It didn’t seem like he didn’t want to say the words – it was more like there were no words to say. Like he absolutely had no excuse to give for his bad behaviour towards me right after initiating a kiss in his bedroom and sparking indecent thoughts in my head.

“You can come over tonight.” His permission was granted so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him. Before I could give a proper response, the door opened and the other students milled in. We both adjusted our sitting positions and acted like we weren’t just about to burn down the room with our sexual tension.

I didn’t know what was happening to Blake and what was going on in his mind. I didn’t know how he felt towards me and how his feelings for my sister were now. I, however, did know that he wanted me to come over to his place later tonight and sleep in his bed and I knew there was absolutely no way I was going there without kissing him properly especially since I knew he wasn’t going to refuse my advances.

Crystal be damned! I was going to steal her boyfriend from her.