The Heart Does Go On

Like always, my Sunday was spent around the house, doing boring things. I did my homework, studied for a few tests, did a load of laundry and did other assorted housework stuff.

I woke up at about 12pm, and I felt a lot better after taking a few painkillers before my sleep and sleeping off the grogginess. After a few vitamins and a shower after my wakening, I only felt a little tired.

However during my tasks, I still couldn’t find solutions to fix the problems I faced. Yugi would be easy to avoid (Although my ‘beef’ was with Yami, it would still be embarrassing to be around Yugi!) as I was avoiding that group already because of Joey. But avoiding Duke would be hard. Kathryn, him and I had formed our little friendship/hang out-group, and we had nearly every class together.

I was thinking of a solution all of Sunday night, even up until 2am when I was finally able to sleep.

***

“Hey.” Kathryn said, smirking at me while she waited outside my locker.

“Hi.” I replied to her flatly, putting my books in.

“Nice hickey.” She smirked at me.

“WHAT?!” I asked her, mortified.

“Yep, right there on your neck.” She explained to me.

I quickly shoved my bag into my locker, and grabbed out my make-up bag.

“You’ll never have time to hide it, we have homeroom in about 30 seconds.” Kathryn said to me.

“Oh, crap!” I whined, and then had an idea.

“You and I are not going to home room.” I said to Kathryn.

“You’re an idiot. We’ll get marked absent, even though we’re here. That’s pointless.” Kathryn said, scrunching up her face.

I grabbed her arm, and ran towards the bulletin board. I searched for a list of events, and found the perfect one. She followed me into homeroom, where I quickly put my hand over my neck.

“Hi Mr. Teresey! “ I said, brightly.

“Hi Ella.” He replied.

“Cross country is on this morning, and Mr. Lee asked both Kathryn and I to set up the cones before our first class. Is it ok if we go? We’ve read the morning announcements on the bulletin board, so we won’t miss any vital information. We just need to get our names marked down that we’re present.” I smiled, very fake.

“That’s great news girls! It’s good to see that people are still participating in school events, whether that be running in the event or helping out. I will mark you present right now, you go and help Mr. Lee.” He smiled, and Kathryn and I couldn’t have gotten out of their quicker.

However, as I was running out, Yugi was walking in. We made brief eye contact, before I ran off. He did call out to me, but Kathryn and I ignored him as we ran to the bathroom.

“Oh my god you’re right. It’s huge, argh!” I said, once we reached the girl’s bathroom.

“I’m good with covering hickeys. If I agree to help you, you HAVE to give me all the details.” She said to me.

“Okay, deal.” I said, and we shook hands.

She went through my make-up bag, and grabbed some concealer as well as foundation.

She dabbed the concealer on, and waited for it to dry. When it was dry enough, she spread some foundation over it. Because luckily the hickey was high enough on my neck, she was able to blend in the foundation on the top of my neck to the foundation with my face.

“There, you’ll look like your foundation is smeared a bit, but you don’t look cake face. It’s either that, or have a very visible hickey.” She said.

“You can still see a little!” I hissed.

“That’s why you need to take your hair out of its ponytail.” Kathryn said, grabbing at my hair scrunchie.

“Go away, my hair is wavy it’ll look terrible down!” I screeched, swatting her away.

“Fine then. Walk around with a barely noticeable hickey then. See if I care.” Kathryn stubbornly said.

“Fine.” I sighed, adjusting my headband, and taking out my hair from its ponytail.

“Your hair looks gorgeous wavy, you can really see it’s shine. Okay! Now, spill. I know you got that hickey at the party.” Kathryn grinned.

“Have you heard about what you missed?” I asked Kathryn.

“Um. Yeah. But you can’t tell Duke I told you.” Kathryn said, biting her lip.

“He told you didn’t he?” I asked, cocking up an eyebrow.

“That he made out with you and then Joey saw and they got into a fight? Oh yeah. I saw Joey in the hallway before; Duke did some pretty bad damage. Haven’t seen Duke yet though.” Kathryn explained.

“Wow they actually got into a fist fight? I knew they argued, but wow.” I commented.

“So the hickey is from Duke, yeah?” Kathryn asked.

“Um, I don’t know.” I said looking down, shuffling my feet.

“Whoa, ho ho, who else got lucky in Kentucky?” Kathryn asked, shocked.

“Firstly I’d like to point out the obvious that this is Domino and not Kentucky. Secondly, you were the one who got lucky.” I stated in a ‘matter-of-fact’ tone.

“Shut up. Who else did you make-out with?” She asked.

“Did Yugi ever give you the ‘I have a 5000 year old pharaoh inside of my body’ speech?” I asked.

“So you made out with Yami, huh? You little fox.” Kathryn grinned, as the bell rang.

“I’ll see you at lunch then. Good luck in...” She trailed off, not knowing what class I had next.

“Maths.” I said, finishing her sentence.

“Okay. Well good luck in that.” She replied.

***

“Hey Ella.” I heard a familiar voice behind me as I opened my locker.

“D-Duke, hey.” I stuttered, burying myself in my locker to try and hide how nervous I was.

“Kathryn suggested we sit in our normal spot today. You cool with that?” He asked.

“Yep.” I said, taking out my lunch, which consisted of an apple and a salad sandwich.

As I slammed my locker door shut, I took my first look at Duke. He had a few bruises covering himself, and a black eye, which he used eyeliner to hide. Both of us were covering things with make-up as a result of that party...

“So, how have your subjects been today?” He asked, scratching his arm.

I was able to smile and open up to him again. From his questions and body language, he was perfectly content, and aiming to not talk about what happened on Saturday between us. That was the happy ending I was looking for, which scratched one third of my ‘people to avoid’ list.

***

“Ella!” Yugi called out to me, as I was heading out the front doors.

“Hey, Yuge. Sorry but I have a ride to catch, I don’t have time to stop and chat.” I called out to him.

“Okay, but will you stop off at the game shop tonight?” He asked.

“Uh yeah, sure. If I have time, due to homework and stuff.” I said, running off, leaving him there.

I approached Kaiba at the gate, and before I could even mutter a ‘hi’ he grumbled ‘get in’ very coldly.

I clambered in, and he sat next to me. However, he put his arm around me in a very tight manner.

“What’s that on your neck?” Kaiba asked me.

“Oh, my neck is a little red because a bug landed on my neck during lunch and bit me. It’s a little irritated because I’ve been scratching it.” I shrugged, trying to hide my nervousness.

“Then why is it covered in make-up?” He asked, cocking up an eyebrow.

“Simple. I smudged my foundation this morning. I was in a rush.” I said, although not hiding my nervousness as well as before.

He said nothing, as he licked his thumb and rubbed my neck, undoing all of Kathryn’s hard work of covering my hickey.

“A love bite. I knew it.” He smirked.

“Why do you care?” I glared.

“Because you’re my employee, and a-“ He started, but I cut him off.

“Hickey makes the company look bad. I know, Kaiba. I didn’t know that hickeys were against the dress code, but next time I’ll be more careful and make sure it doesn’t happen. Sorry.” I apologised, looking down.

Why the hell am I ashamed? I can do whatever I want in my own time. Then again, I am ashamed the Duke and Yami things happened in the first place...

He said nothing.

“Aren’t you going to ask who it’s from?” I asked him.

“No, I’ve learned my lesson that you get angry and hate those things. But trust me Ella, I will find out.” He said in an icy voice.

“Yeah okay, you do that.” I rolled my eyes.

He wouldn’t be able to find out.