The Heart Does Go On

After work on Saturday, I pretty much spent the rest of the weekend in hiding. Tea and Yugi texted me a few times saying that they heard and they were ‘sorry’ but I didn’t reply to those text messages.

And then, Monday came around. I wasn’t looking forward to school one bit. Not that I usually do, but this was worse than those times. It wasn’t that I’d have to see Joey; it was that I’d have to deal with all the baggage that came with it. People made a big deal of when we had sex, imagine what they’re going to say now that they know we’ve broken up.

I got to school earlier than usual, I didn’t want to bump into the gang at the lockers. I was going to avoid them as much as possible, but I knew my efforts would be fruitless as I had homeroom with Tea and Yugi. At least I could do my best to avoid Joey.

I got out my Economics textbook so I could study it in between now and the first class. We had a test coming up soon, and Economics was my second worst subject (Maths was the first)

Surely enough, my peace was disturbed as people began filing in before the first bell rang. I saw Yugi and Tea, who gave each other a look when they sat in front of me.

“DON’T say a thing about Joey and I.” I warned them.

“So uh, how was the rest of your weekend?” Yugi asked.

“Great. I got some extra work and I studied. How about yours?” I asked.

“Yeah, it was okay...” Yugi trailed off.

“ELLA!” I heard, and turned around and saw Kathryn behind me.

She dragged me off to a corner of the classroom.

“Firstly, no this is about you and Wheeler. I’m not going to say a word.” She stated.

I love this girl.

“You're pretty close with Duke Devlin aren’t you?” She asked me.

“Yeah, do you want me to ask him out for you or something?” I replied, raising an eyebrow.

“No, he isn’t my type. I like my men to be men.” She smirked, and I had a bit of a giggle.

“But, he’s having this really awesome party on Saturday night apparently, and I need you to introduce me and him so I can get closer to him during the week and get a last minute invitation.” She informed me.

“That’s extremely shallow and rude.” I replied, and she nodded.

“I like it. Sure, I’ll do it at lunch.” I laughed, and she grinned.

“Thanks!” She hugged me.

***

During Maths, Kaiba was a lot more talkative than usual. I think he felt safe to be a little bit more open now I wasn’t with Joey, like I was more trustworthy, or maybe just drop the trust and say I was more “worthy” as he would put it.

But after Maths, the dreaded Legal class came up. I had Duke in the class, sure. But I’d have to face Joey for the first time since Saturday. I was going to just pretend he didn’t exist, and I was hoping he would do the same to me.

As the end of Maths came closer, Kaiba could sense my nervousness.

“Knock Wheeler dead, Campbell!” Kaiba said, and I laughed at that.

It was almost something Joey would say, not words you’d hear out of Kaiba’s mouth. The only thing that resembled Kaiba was calling me by my last name, which he didn’t even do anymore.

However, Kaiba’s words put me at ease. What’s the worst Joey could do?

I smiled sweetly to Kaiba as I said goodbye to him. I was beginning to warm up to him too, he didn’t seem as cold hearted to me anymore once Joey and I broke up (albeit he’s gone ‘easy’ on me compared to others in my group) and we had some good conversations on Saturday. However I still wouldn’t date him, I was always weird and truly did like people for their personalities rather than their good looks. Kaiba was really good looking, but his personality was still lacking to me.

I walked into Legal, and I could have kissed Duke! He had obviously found out that Joey and I had broken up, and purposely saved me a seat at the front, away from Tristan and Joey at the back.

“Thanks.” I said to Duke.

“No worries. I’ve never really liked Joey anyway, even after I became friends with that group.” Duke shrugged.

“So what’s this I hear about you having a party on Saturday? Why was I not invited?” I giggled, as I asked him.

“Huh? I thought I invited you,” Duke said, grabbing his messenger bag and obviously sorting through invitations. “Oh crap! I didn’t invite you! Well, here you go.”

“Hmm... are you allowing alcohol or not?” I asked, reading the invitation.

“I am, but it’s BYO.” Duke replied.

“Awesome.” I replied, as the teacher came in and we did our work.

***
At lunch, I decided to quickly approach Duke about meeting Kathryn before I went to my locker. I was going to take advantage of this situation, if I could be with Duke and Kathryn all of lunch then I didn’t have to sit by myself or even worse, sit with the gang. They were nice, but I had to wait until Joey and I cooled down before I could sit with them again.

“Hey Duke, wait!” I said, running up to him.

“Yes Ella?” He asked me.

“Um, I was just wondering...my friend Kathryn wanted to hang with me today because she sympathised with the whole Joey situation and uh, I was wondering, did you want to join us? Because I know the gang isn’t as cool when I’m not with them.” I grinned.

“Well, that’s actually true. Sure, I’ll hang with you. Should I meet you at your locker?” Duke asked.

“Yeah, sure.” I said, and walked off to get to Kathryn’s locker.

“Hey sexy.” She said to me, as I was leaning on her locker.

“Hey gorgeous.” I said, repeating her joke giving her ‘a look’

“Did you speak to Duke?” She asked me.

“Sure did. You, him and I are hanging out during lunch. He said he’d meet us at my locker, so grab your lunch and go go go” I replied.

She grabbed her lunch quickly after I said this, and we trotted off to my locker. Luckily, the gang had already grabbed their lunch, as the lockers were empty besides for Duke waiting at mine.

“Duke, Kathryn.” I said, waving my hand as I opened my locker.

“Oh hey, I know you. You’re in my free period, and my English class.” Duke said to Kathryn.

“I sure am.” She said, as I slammed my locker shut.

“Do you want to sit outside? It’s a nice day today. It’s going to get real cold real soon, we should make the most of the post-summer weather whilst we can.” I said, and Duke and Kathryn nodded.

Introducing Duke and Kathryn was a major success. Not only did Kathryn receive her wish and get invited to Duke’s party (Which happened way before she planned it would anyway) but they actually got along really well. We made plans to hang out at lunch again tomorrow, which saved me from hanging out with the gang at lunch tomorrow. If I’m lucky, this may be my ticket to avoiding the gang for a long time.

***

The end of the day came. I sighed with relief. I had avoided speaking to Joey all day, or even making eye contact with him.

But I realised I spoke too soon when we made brief eye contact as I was approaching my locker. I thought about maybe getting a drink and then coming back once Joey was gone, but he had ignored me all day, he’d ignore me right now? Wrong.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Ella Campbell. The bitch that doesn’t care about anyone but herself.” Joey snarled at me, blocking my locker.

“Beat it, Joey. I have to work tonight. Kaiba’s waiting for me outside and he’ll kill me if I’m late.” I pleaded with him.

“No wonder why Kaiba and you get on so well. You’re both rich, selfish and stuck up.” Joey said to me.

“Joey, please, can’t we have this conversation tonight?” I asked.

“I don’t use my spare time to talk to bitches.” He growled at me.

“Didn’t anyone ever teach you to not talk to a lady like that?” Kaiba coldly said to Joey.

“Lady? I don’t see a lady!” He grinned, thinking he was being smart.

“Ha. Funny Wheeler. Why don’t you go run back to the geek squad and leave those out of your league alone.” Kaiba growled to Joey.

“Out of my league? I was the one who broke up with Ella.” Joey informed Kaiba.

“A very foolish move, none the less. Now move from Ella’s locker, or I’ll have to get the school authorities involved. They’re looking for any way to kick you out, your school grades and your history make them nervous to have you here as a student, if I were to have a chat with the principle about you bullying a student getting good grades I think they’d take that very seriously.” Kaiba warned Joey.

“I have better things to do than talk to you two. You’re perfect for each other, have a nice life.” Joey shouted, storming off.

“Thank you, Kaiba. I’m sorry you had to see that.” I said, looking down at the floor in embarrassment and shame.

He softly raised my chin up with his hands, and he studied my face once again.

“Don’t worry about it Ella, putting Wheeler in his place is one of my favourite things to do.” He smirked.

I smiled, and we stood like that for a while. No kiss resulted from it, but it was nice to have an intimate moment with him.