I glanced at my watch on my wrist. I still had plenty of time, so I grinned. Looking up at Skylar, without a word, I grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the crowd. To my surprise, Skylar didn’t resist. I bit my lip; I had expected him to push back.
After a while, we reached the back of the Engineering building. There were no students hanging around there at the moment, so I stopped in my tracks and turned to face Skylar.
He smirked. “You dragged me here. There must be something important up your sleeve, Azora.”
“Quite perceptive,” I praised sarcastically. “Care to guess what it is?”
Skylar’s expression shifted, but he suppressed his irritation and cleared his throat. “I don’t have time for games.”
“Mmm…” I retorted. “No time, huh? Then who are you?”
He furrowed his brow at my question. “What?” he asked, incredulous.
“I said, who are you?”
“I’m Skylar Angeles.”
“Don’t play games with me,” I warned. “Tell me who you really are, Skylar!”
A small smirk crept onto his lips. After a moment, his smirk turned into laughter. I scowled, waiting for his laughter to subside.
With a smile, he said, “You’ll never find out who I am, Azora. If you really want to know, you might have to hire a private investigator to satisfy your curiosity.”
My eyes narrowed. I didn’t have the resources to hire a private investigator. Besides, Dad would be suspicious. I was sure he was keeping a close eye on me.
“You questioned my relationship with Anthony last time,” I squinted at him again. “It wasn’t just idle gossip.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t gossip?”
“I’m sure!” I exclaimed, taking a deep breath. My heart was pounding from the heavy emotions. “Just tell me where you got that idea. Who told you that Anthony and I were in a relationship?”
“Relax,” he said with a big grin on his face.
I sneered at him. “I’m not here to play games, Angeles. Tell me!”
At that moment, the grin faded from his face. His playful expression turned serious, and he looked away. “You’re impulsive, Azora.”
I took a deep breath and looked away too. I didn’t know why my emotions were running so high. All I knew was that I felt on the verge of breaking down from the pressure ever since the night I saw Anthony struggling in my father’s grasp.
I didn’t want to lose my composure in front of Skylar, but even as I tried to suppress my emotions, my mind went blank. All I could do was yell and vent my anger and disappointment at Skylar. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. I needed to compose myself. But how? I couldn’t seem to control my surging emotions at all.
“Just tell me,” I pleaded.
I heard him take a deep breath. “You’re right. It wasn’t just gossip.”
My eyes quickly found Skylar’s somber face. He was looking directly into my eyes, and I couldn’t help but look away, staring at his clean, polished shoe.
“Then who told you?” I asked.
“Anthony did.”
I immediately looked up, meeting Skylar’s gaze. He was still watching me closely, studying my reaction. I scowled. “Anthony did?”
He nodded. “He told me that you and he were in a relationship.”
My brow furrowed. My breathing quickened. Before I knew it, I found myself slapping Skylar hard across the face. “Stop lying,” I hissed under my breath.
He shook his head. “It’s not a lie. Anthony did tell me that you were his girlfriend.”
“I said stop lying!”
“And why would I lie to you?”
I clenched my fists. My vision blurred with tears, so I squeezed my eyes shut tightly. No, he had to be making this up. Anthony wouldn’t have told anyone about us. He assured me himself that he hadn’t told anyone about our relationship. I trusted him, and I’d gone to great lengths to keep our relationship a secret because of that trust.
But now, hearing what Skylar was saying, I couldn’t stop sneering in disbelief. “You liar,” I gritted through my teeth. “Anthony would never reveal our relationship to anyone.”
I was taken aback when Skylar laughed. What was so funny?
His eyes were wet when he looked back at me after his laughter subsided. “So you admit that you and he were in a relationship?”
It took me a few seconds for his words to sink in. I gritted my teeth even harder. “Skylar, stop messing around!”
“No, I’m not.” He grinned at me. “Anthony and I were good friends.”
“Liar.”
Skylar snorted. “Why do you always accuse me of lying every time I speak? Am I just a liar in your eyes?”
“Anthony hasn’t had any close friends in the past few months. Even though he was popular, Anthony never got close to someone like you, especially not a liar.”
“A liar, huh?” He crossed his arms and stared at me intently. His expression changed from teasing to offended. “It’s not my problem if you don’t believe me. After all, you never really knew who Anthony was, did you?”
My breathing quickened again because he had hit a nerve. It was true. I hardly knew Anthony. I looked away and said nothing. Although I didn’t believe Skylar’s words, I couldn’t deny that his last statement was true. Anthony had been secretive. I bit my lip. At that moment, I didn’t know if I could believe Skylar or not. After all, after that night, I couldn’t trust anyone. It felt like everyone wanted me to admit what I had witnessed.
“Azora–”
Before he could finish his sentence, the alarm on my watch went off. I quickly glanced at it and saw that I had almost fifteen minutes before my next class.
I sighed deeply and without saying a word, I turned around and walked away from there. I knew Skylar was following me because the next subject was Logic Design.