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CHAPTER FOUR
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2024-10-29 19:42:56"Is there anything wrong Miss Smith?" Mr Douglas asks.
My throat is tight, and I struggle to find the words to speak, to answer, but how can I talk when the air that is to fuel my words has evaporated from my lungs?"Miss Smith?"Mr Douglas's voice sounds like a faint siren to my already pounding ears. I lift my eyes from the paper and shoot my gaze at the boy that I have been trying to avoid making any eye contact with.Luke's eyes lock with mine. For a moment, the whole world goes silent and disappears, leaving me trapped in the chaotic blue ocean of my adversary's eyes.I feel the paper being taken away from my grasp, but I am too shocked and too immersed in my traumatic state to notice."Group Nine, we have Alicia Smith and Luke Evans."Luke's eyes widen in surprise. Low catcalls and whispers fill the air.This can't be happening! This nightmare can't be fucking happening to me!__________________________I am still frozen in place when Mr Douglas continues to call out the remaining three groups.What the hell is happening in my life today?!First of all, it was Sarah's unexpected question to me about mother. Secondly, I am suffering a pain in my left knee, thanks to Luke, the school's hot ass badboy for bumping into me and acting like a complete jerk. Thirdly, I am now paired with him for some stupid art project that I am so sure will determine the final outlook of my almost perfect result.What sort of bad luck is this?!"Remember, this project isn't just about the paintings. It is also about discovering more about yourself and your artistic abilities and energies."To hell with artistic abilities and energies Mr Douglas!"The project is to be submitted after your final examinations. It will be a crucial part of your grades in this subject. Have a nice day everyone."I tear my eyes from Luke's and groan inwardly as I watch Mr Douglas carry his files and notes and heads for the class door. Reaching the door, he stops and turns."Alicia, come to my office to receive a copy of the groups. I want it pasted on the class notice board for remembrance."I force a smile on my face and nod. To hell with remembrance!I glance at Reece, who is now staring at me with pity coating her eye pupils. I shift my eyes to Luke. He is indifferent now, with his right leg crossed over his left leg on his table in an obvious insolent manner.Typical Luke.I turn and trudge behind Mr Douglas as he finally leaves the class. I bang the door shut behind me.My trembling fingers rub over one another as I walk beside Mr Douglas to his office in silence, not even knowing how to begin my plea for freedom from the shackles of the walking handsome disaster that I am so sure will want to make this project a hellish one in my perfect academic life._______________________After some few minutes that felt like a thousand ages, Mr Douglas and I finally reach his office. He opens the door and enters. I follow him into his office and close the door as calmly and as gently as possible.He is more likely to listen to my plea if my actions do not show rebellion at him for the human chaos he has unknowingly unleashed into my life."Here, take it. Have it pinned on your class notice board."I collect the A4 paper from Mr Douglas's hand. I clear my throat a little, soothing my quivering nerves for the plea I am about to render."Mr Douglas, I have a favor to ask." I begin."And what would that favor be, Miss Smith?" He asks, his tone unnervingly even. His eyes are glued down to the students' assignments before him.I know Mr Douglas is a tough one, but saving myself and my sanity from having anything to do with Luke Evans is what only matters to me right now."Well sir," I continue, "I want to plead to you to please, pair me with a different group partner for the class project. Please sir. Having Luke Evans as my group partner—""—will be very alright for you, Miss Smith."Mr Douglas lifts up his bald head and leans forward."I am sorry Miss Smith, but I will not grant you your request. What you are asking of me is a favor of preferential treatment, which I will not fulfill. You and Luke Evans will definitely get along, and you both will work together to produce astonishing pieces for the project. Teamwork is built and not shyed away from Miss Smith.""Mr Douglas—""You can go back to your class now, Miss Smith."I can feel the deep frown forming on my face as disappointment and failure twists the coils inside my stomach. I try my best not to stomp the red rugged floor of Mr Douglas's office with my angry feet on my way out of his office.He didn't even give me a fucking chance to explain!I rest my back on the wall outside Mr Douglas's office, the A4 paper hanging limply from my hands. My brain rakes through a million options on how to evade working with Luke the bad boy on this wretched project and still retain my perfect result.I curse when no option gives me the desired solution I crave.My left knee starts throbbing in pain again, reminding me of my planned trip to the school's clinic. I lift my back from the wall behind me and straighten my hair.I turn and start to propel my feet forward, limping slightly as I walk down the hallway. I fold the A4 paper and tuck it into the left pocket of my blue jeans before taking a turn to my left.The door of the clinic stares at me from the far end of the corridor. My brain continues to whirl with thoughts on how I am going to navigate this impending doom.I reach the door of the clinic and turn the handle, pushing it open.Related chapters
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The air in the clinic smells of medicine and Swiss Air Freshener. I shut the door, the sound making Mrs Green, the fair chubby nurse sitting at her desk near one of the beds in the clinic to look up from the stack of office files in front of her."Hey Alicia. How are you?""To be honest Mrs Green, I am not fine.""Is everything alright?" She asks, her eye brows raised as she stands up from her chair."I fell down on the stairs in front of the school's entrance and hurt my left knee. It is really painful.""Oh my dear."She reaches me where I stand and wraps one of her arms gently around my waist. She guides me to a spring bed draped with a blue bedsheet."Here, sit."I settle my ass down on the bed. She brings a chair, places it in front of me and sits down on the chair. I wince when she lifts my left leg and places it on her laps."Sorry dear. I need to examine the area."I wince further when the fingers of her right hand begin to press around the regions of my left knee. Some parts
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The rest of the classes before lunch go by pretty fast. Miss Oregon, our Literature teacher, allowed me into the class after I explained to her that I was coming from the school's clinic. It wasn't tough coining out the words to use, moreover, I am a role model student. The next valedictorian. And I have a very clean student record, so it wasn't hard for me to convince her to allow me into the class.During lunch break, Reece and I arrive at the cafeteria and order our lunch. Within a few minutes, our lunch order is set and we carry our trays to our favourite table: The table by the window facing the lawn outside. The lushious green beauty lies calm, radiating the rays of sunlight. My lunch expenditure ever since I became a student of Riverdale High has always been spent with Reece and I picking at our food and talking about stuffs that pique our interests.Recently, Reece has been engulfed in the Kpop world, always squealing in delight and ranting non-stop whenever she talks about Ju
The Badboy's Redemption CHAPTER SEVEN
Luke stops his motorcycle in front of Bailey's, a popular diner in town. The aroma of spicy fried chicken and hamburgers and all manner of sweet foods seeping out of the door of the diner cloaks around my nose, teasing my senses."What are we doing here Luke?" I ask."We are here to talk about the project, and since I am hungry too, it is better to kill two birds with one stone. Are you hungry?""No I am not."Another crispy aroma of French fries and fried chicken wafts through my nostrils, and my stomach does a loud growl, betraying my lie."I think your stomach disagrees with you."I clutch my belly and bite down my lower lip. Luke coughs."Ladies first.""I didn't know you were such a gentleman." I taunt. I open the door of the diner and enter inside, with Luke following me behind.We get to a quiet spot at the left end of the diner. I settle down on the lounge chair. Luke sits down on the one opposite mine, and waves to a waiter standing by the bar.The waiter walks up to us, a ple
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I twitch my eyes in confusion. My ears must have heard wrongly. I unfold my arms at once."Are you joking?" "No Alicia. I am not. Research studies have shown that women are excellent experts in depicting various mood swings, even better than men, especially when they are on their period."It takes everything in me not to scream out the next sentence."You are unbelievable Luke."He shrugs. "I have heard that compliment a lot."He tilts back his head, drumming his fingers on the table."You are the perfect muse for this project. You are beautiful, and you switch emotions so fast like a cheetah.""I don't." I blurt out."Yes you do. Remember Miss Oregon's Literature presentation class last term?"My hands fall limp at my sides. I sigh. I know where this conversation is heading to."I hope you are not trying to taunt me because I cried during the presentation class."Luke giggles. I swear the sound is so lovely."No Alicia. I am not trying to taunt you. If you can clearly remember all t
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The blaring noise of my phone alarm and the chirping of the morning birds wake me up from sleep. I wipe the swollen sleep bags around the corners of my eye. I still feel very much tired and drowsy from my little lack of sleep last night.Luke was right. Knee pains are actually worse at night. When the effects of the painkillers started to wear off, the pain in my left knee had to force me to wake up at intervals to press down the ice pack on it. I rubbed a little more ointment on the area, which also helped.My alarm continues to ring. I gently toss to my side before gathering up the strength to sit up. I pick up my phone and swipe my finger on the screen, turning the alarm off.After a brief moment of resting the back of my head on the headboard of my bed and running my brain through the few tasks I have mapped out for today, I climb out of my bed. I dress my bed and arrange the little disorders spread across my room.I go through my usual morning ritual of brushing my teeth, taking
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About twenty minutes later, we stop in front of a photography studio named Shutter Pictures on Abbey's Avenue. Luke turns off the car's engine and alights. I open my door and climb down too.Luke leads the way and I follow. When we enter the studio, I clutch my arms at the sudden cold that grasps at my skin. Luke notices this and pulls off his leather jacket."Don't worry Luke. I am—"Before I finish my protest, his jacket is already covering my shoulders down to my arms. "I may not be the perfect friend yet, but I guess friends don't allow their other friends to catch a cold."I can't help the smirk that I now know is curling up my eyebrows. I scoff."And also. . . . ."His hand moves swiftly to my hair, pulling off the hair band I used to hold up my curly hair in a messy bun."This looks better. You look more beautiful when your hair is let down."My mouth is gaped open in shock at his audacity. At his temerity. His fingers trail down my hair lightly as he adjusts the curls down my
The Badboy's Redemption CHAPTER ELEVEN
We sneak out to the parking lot just the same way we sneaked into the back of the school's yard. After we enter the car, Luke straps his seatbelt over his chest and hatches it into the lock. He starts the car and drives out of the parking lot. I strap my seatbelt too over my chest and wind down my window a little bit more.The air blows into the car and topples my dress a little. I adjust the dress over my exposed thighs immediately. I think I heard Luke clear his throat. When I look up at him, I catch his eyes feigning focus on the road.Or maybe he is actually focused on the road.One of his hands continue to control the wheel of the car as his other hand pushes back his messy hair getting blown all over his face. To say he looks cute will be an understatement.He looks. . . . . . beautiful even.The silence in the car starts to feel alien, and just when my mind starts to contemplate on whether I should or should not initiate any conversation of some sort, Luke saves me the trouble b
The Badboy's Redemption CHAPTER TWELVE
"What's this date for?" I can't help but ask. I glance up and meet Luke's eyes glazing down on me. His eyes are darker, burning with deep blue embers that are now sending firecrackers throughout my entire brain. I catch the slight movement of his full lips as he presses them together.He doesn't say anything. Instead, he covers the tattooed area with his t-shirt and averts his eyes away from me."I might tell you if you decide to jump into the water with me."He points down to the roaring water below us."You are kidding right?"He shakes his head vehemently, at the same time smiling like some mischievous brat."There's no way I am getting into that water.""Come on Alicia. It's just going to be a quick swim. Just imagine the view of the cliffs when you get into the water, imagine how the water will feel on your skin—""I am not getting in there Luke. I might catch a cold." I protest."The sun is already out. The water won't be that cold. In fact, I bet it will be warm."He smirks. A
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What?!" I gasp.The breeze whips through Luke's hair, blowing it across his face. His hand pushes it back."Yeah. There is this lady called Sienna that I started seeing quite often with my dad since like three months ago. She is pretty, jovial, and I thought she was just one of my dad's friends. But this week Monday, my dad came out to me about his true relationship with her. I was paralyzed with shock to the point that I couldn't do anything that day." "You said you found out this week Monday?" I interrupt, my mind going through a puzzle."Yeah."The dots connect. Shit. "So that was why you weren't in school that day?" I blurt out, my realization hitting me with a bang.He nods. "The news fucked up my head so bad that I couldn't bring myself to come to school that day. I spent most of that day at Tyler's studio. I wasn't expecting to see you there later that day. I also wasn't in my right frame of mind." He sighs deeply. "I still feel a bit pissed at myself that I reacted so bad towa
The Badboy's Redemption CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
This is cruel. This is so cruel. So cruel that I feel like dragging my fingers through my hair. So cruel that it reminds me of my own pain. So when Luke was grappling with his mum's death, I and Sarah were being whisked around from court to court to listen to my parents yell and throw curses at each other and to listen from judge to judge asking Sarah and I which parent we would want to stay with. Why do we have to suffer for the shitty things our parents did? We didn't force any of them to bring us into this world. The least they could have done for us was to try to be better for us."I passed the night at my uncle's place. I stayed in his house a couple more days, and then on the third day, in the morning, my dad showed up at my uncle's house, looking normal. He begged me to come back home with him. My uncle, who was his elder brother, beat him up so badly and had the police arrest him for trespassing his property. It was a tough, ugly scenerio to watch. During my mom's burial, my da
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He goes super still and silent at my question for a while, but just when I begin to think that he may not answer me or do anything, his hands on my back and face leave my body. He steps back a bit from me and lifts his t-shirt up over his head, exposing his naked torso to me. My eyes go directly to the tattooed date on the left side of his abdomen.15. 05. 2012.I am not given enough time to ogle at it because Luke turns around in silence, his inked back facing me as he walks to a space on the clearing a little bit far from the motorcycle. I watch his hard muscles flex with each movement. They flex harder when he settles down on the mowed grass. He drops his t-shirt to his bosom, staring afar at the blue water crashing its waves to the rocks.I wonder what is going through his mind right now, but I know that whatever it is must definitely be related to my question earlier. His silence lures me to join him there, and I do. I walk over to him and settle down beside him on the grass. His
The Badboy's Redemption CHAPTER FORTY TWO
I stare back squarely at him, gulping hard. "Even if you wish you could take it back, the sad news is you can't, Luke, because I love you too."My somersaulting heart gradually stops thumping so hard, and I feel like a huge burden has just been uplifted from my chest. Luke blinks hard at my confession, the action making a single tear drop from his right eye down to his cheek. He wipes it away quickly as his eyes squint back at me, crease lines appearing on the top of his forehead. He takes a step back away from me, shaking his head. A sad chuckle escapes from his lips."You don't have to fucking lie to me that you love me just to make me feel better, Alicia. I do not want your pity. What I want is your complete honesty with me, at least I deserve that."My heart shreds. Why is everything crumbling so fast? I love him. Why can't he see that? I know exactly what I feel for him. It is crazy. Exhilarating, and I know for sure that I did not leave my fucking house just to come all this way
The Badboy's Redemption CHAPTER FORTY ONE
The wind whips through my hair roughly, wheezing past me in sharp gusts as Luke races down the road with a speed that steals every of my exhaling breaths away. I love the cool sharp feeling of the wind blasting my face, but what I love more is how the blowing wind carries Luke's scent to me.Gosh I love this. I love him. I still hate myself for having to deny the truth to myself for this long.We race past various cars and road signs, and I feel my eyes nearly popping out of their sockets when I catch the view of a set of hills outside town.The truth is that they are not just some ordinary set of hills that I have never seen before. They are the same set of hills that Luke and I visited the day he showed me his art studio for the first time. The blue water waves are splashing at the thick rocks beneath the tall cliffs, their crashing beauty reminding me of the awe I felt when I saw them for the very first time that day.I know Luke is taking us there. I can feel it deep in my guts.I
The Badboy's Redemption CHAPTER FORTY
"Mr Douglas?" I croak out, still finding it very hard to believe my eyes.What the hell am I seeing right now?! What the freaking hell is going on here?!"Alicia what are you. . . . .what are you doing here?" He stutters back at me, his blue eyes bulging so wide that I can clearly see the shock and discomfort shimmering in them.Wait a minute.I turn my eyes away from Mr Douglas and place them right back at Luke, who is now staring at me like I just caught him gorging on a forbidden box of sweet milk candies. That is when I see it. Notice it. For the very, first, time.The resemblance is there. Fuck! It has always been there. In their identical deep blue eyes and perfectly sculpted jawlines. The rest of Luke's facial features look softer, feminine.And I figure out instantly that he may be sharing those softer features with his mom, who I am just finding out today, is dead.God. Why the fuck does no one in school know about them? Just how much don't I know about Luke Evans?The tensi
The Badboy's Redemption CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
"Hey Alicia, how are you?"Tyler's voice is the first thing that greets me immediately I step out of the cab that drops me in front of his studio, which was of course the first place that popped into my mind to go search for Luke.I just hope he is here."I am cool." I reply, looking around the premises. My doubt begins to poke my insides when I don't see any sign of Luke's motorcycle parked around. "Have you seen Luke? Is he here?" I hurriedly rush out the questions.Tyler shakes his head. "No. He is not here." He corks his eyebrows at me, looking me over, two thin lines creasing at the top of his forehead. "What is going on Alicia? You look. . . . . .tensed."Tensed is an understatement. He should see how torn apart and messy I look inside."It is just. . . . ." I take in a short breath. "I have been searching and calling Luke, but he has not picked any of my calls.""Yo, what happened between you two?"I scratch the back of my neck in impatience. "It is a long story Tyler. Please, d
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I climb out of the bathtub and wipe my wet body quickly with my towel. When I dash into my room, I glance at the clock.It is just 8:45am.Sarah must be very tired and probably asleep right now, so I will just drop her a note.I quickly go through my skincare routine of applying my body lotion and my facial cream and serum. Next, I throw on a black tank top and blue jeans shorts. The sun is surprisingly hot this early in the morning, and the last thing I need now is to feel sweaty in big clothes.I brush my hair and pull it up into a messy bun. After applying some powder and lip gloss with some perfume, I pick up a pen and tear out a sheet of paper from my rough book to scribble down a note to Sarah, to inform her that I will be leaving to go see Luke. Done, I grab my sling bag lying lazily on my bed and tuck in the note, my phone, my spare library key, and some cash from my drawer into the bag.I glance at the clock again. 9:02am.I look back at myself in the mirror and gulp in a bre
The Badboy's Redemption JUST A QUICK AUTHOR'S NOTE
To my Dearest Readers, Thank you all so much for coming this far with me on this story. Your support and perseverance with this book gives me enough strength to continue this story, and for that, I am really thankful. Sadly, it is with great pain and helplessness that I write to you all today to inform you guys that I won't be able to update this story for some period of time. My school exams are choking me right now, and in order to keep giving you guys the best of this story, I have to clear my papers first so that my brain will be relieved and stable enough to keep on giving you guys the best. I am so sorry for whatever inconvenience this may cause any of you, but I promise to bounce back and smother you all with lots of delicious chapters. I love you all, and I also value your feedbacks, ratings and endless support. I am really glad to be on this ride with you all. You guys are the real MVPs. With so much love, Lora Ashley.
