Alpha Zander
Chapter 48

I close my eyes and breath in the scent of comfort before I step out into the wild ways of Monday morning.

Ollie had just stopped the soft murmur of his car, and Brent had already jumped out and made a be-line directly to some of his school friends.

“How are you holding up?” Ollie asks, carefully studying me, I can feel his uneasiness as he brings up the topic of Zander. Neither of us like keeping it a secret from Brent or the rest of our family, but I am so grateful he has. “I’m OK. Kia kind of took things into her own hands on Saturday, but I managed” I shrugged.

I wasn’t upset at Kia after the little stunt she pulled on Saturday morning. It was kind of nice not having these feelings of anger and hurt flowing all around me for once, and right now, I feel somewhat oddly calm and peaceful.

I knew he wanted to talk more on Saturday morning, but I couldn’t allow that just yet.

I was still wounded, and I needed time to heal and let my mind not be so messy before going into something like that. Yes, it can be emotional, but at the same time, a decision that could potentially hurt us all in the long term isn’t something that I can just think over in a few days.

But on Sunday, I made sure she didn’t pull anything like that again. I just needed time to think and process everything before seeing him today.

“Are you ok going to school today?” He asks.

I laughed at the question. He didn’t think of asking me that before we got into the car. In fact, he and mum ganged up on me and said I had to go to school today and not sulk around for another week.

So here I am at school, trying to figure out how to avoid the one person I might not be able to. “Let’s get going, I have double maths, and I don’t want to be in trouble with Ms. Hanagin. You know what she’s like even if you are two minutes late after the bell.” I sigh as I get out, trying to avoid the question.

I tried not to look around the parking lot to replace him, but my eye caught his sports car parked up front. I suck in a deep breath as I reach my locker to get my school books and stuff for the first two periods.

Punching in the combination of my locker and opened it up only to replace a beautiful bunch of wild daisies.

My most absolute favorite flower, excitement, washes over me as I drop my school bag on the floor and pick up the delicate bouquet, trying not to break anything in the process. I bring the flowers up to my face breathing in the beautiful scent that reminds me of him.

Kia stirs around in the back of my mind, letting me know he’s behind me, waiting for me to look up and give him permission to come closer. I sigh and look over to the window in the corridor where l know he is, and of course, he’s there leaning against one of the pillars with a stupid grin on his face watching me like he knew this was going to be my reaction.

Now I know that it’s a small gesture. I certainly have not forgotten or forgiven what he has put me through, but with small things like this, hope blossoms through me of the possibility that he could be trying.

l’d like to know how he knew the combination to my locker and how he knew Daisies were my favorite. By the time I’ve finished that thought, he’s standing in front of me, leaning against the locker next to me.

“Morning, sweetheart,” he leans in and whispers only so I can hear. People around us were hurrying to get to class, not noticing us talking.

“Hi”l squeaked back. How is it that I am always nervous around him? Even with everything we have been through, nerves still flutter around in my tummy. His scent surrounded me, mixing in with the smell of the daisies in my hands. I have no idea how he managed to get them considering it’s winter.

“How are you?”

I roll my eyes at the question. I hate this small talk between us. It’s like we are walking on eggshells, waiting for one of us to crack. And yes, part of it may be my fault for ignoring him, but it’s also partly his fault for doing the same thing to me. I guess we just need to talk or yell or whatever we need to do to learn to communicate with each other, so this weirdness isn’t around anymore.

My brain hurt so much on Sunday, everything thinking over and over again until it was all numb.

Ultimately, l just tried to let it all go because I can’t keep this anger or hurt all bottled up, or I’ll snap every time something happens. There was no point in trying to avoid him, he clearly had other plans, so here I am waiting to see what he would do to try and work things out.

“Let me take you out tonight?” He asks softly, not letting the bystanders listen in to our conversation. Even though they are only human, gossip moves around here quickly, and if anyone ever found out we were dating or together, I’m sure a lot of people would have opinions about that.

I blinked up at him, dragging my eyes away from the flowers in my hands, “How’d you know?” I ask, curious to know the answers to my questions.

“Hmm, know what exactly, Sweetheart?” He questions, tilting his head and observing me, smirking a little bit.

Damn him. He knows my questions. He’s just going to make me say it. “My combination, The Daisies? How did you know?”

He leans in a little bit, so he is at eye level with me, and reaches up to brush a loose curl away. Tingles shot , through with the slight contact of skin, “Now, where’s the fun in that if you know all of my secrets?”

His lips were so close that I would k**s him if I moved forward just a little, his breath soft on my face.

Fighting the urge to k**s him, I stepped back a little bit because as much fun as this is, he needs to earn that k**s, and the only reason I haven’t given him the cold shoulder or yelled at him is that we are at school, I don’t need whispers about us while we are sorting through this.

He smirks and straightens back up, leaning against the locker, satisfied that he has officially made me a permanent shade of light pink.”So tonight, can I see you?”

“Umm.. maybe, I’ll see,” I mumble, looking away, trying to gather my books quickly before the final bell is about to go. I don’t need detention for being late today.

He sighs heavily, “come on, please. I know you probably hate me right now, but won’t you let me try to make it up to you?”

“Zander… I don’t think,” I start, even with all the thinking I’ve been doing. I’m not sure that being in the same space without any disturbances is a good idea.

“Just give me tonight.”

I turn a little to face him, seeing him leaning against the locker, looking slightly defeated and drained.

Part of me feels a little sorry for him. But honestly, he is only feeling a little bit of what he put me through last week.

At least he gets to be around me at school. Last week, he didn’t even have the guts to be in the same room as me, and now he’s scrambling, yes, he apologized, but he also blamed other people. He didn’t even own his mistakes.

“Let me think about it?” I mumble, closing my locker door, and start heading towards class.

“Ok, I’ll message you with details,” he nods, following me silently, letting my mind wander. Thankfully my Maths class isn’t too far from this building, so in about three minutes, the final bell is about to go, and I hopefully won’t be late.

I’m about to walk into the classroom and replace him still following behind me.

Spinning around to face him, I put my hand in front of his chest to stop him from walking and slightly stumble at my impulse movement. I ignore the tingles moving through my body because right now, I can’t concentrate with his scent and everything else going on.

Adding the tingles of the bond is just making things harder for me.

“What do you think you are doing, I have double maths, and you most certainly are not in this class.” I hiss.

I did not need anyone catching this, especially the teacher. She is the worst at calling people out on their stuff and embarrassing them. He shuffles around uneasy, rubbing the back of his neck, trying to avoid my eye contact like he knows he will get into trouble for the next words that he says. “Umm, well before everything happened, I had some of my classes changed to match your schedule,” he mumbles.

“What? How?” I ask, my eyes widening as I recall the only way of changing a class is if you confirm you have found your mate, they try to put you together, so neither one gets too out of control. I hope he didn’t tell anyone. I don’t need the whole world knowing right now. Or if you get moved up a class because of your grades, and he hasn’t been here for a little bit, I doubt they would just let him change anything unless it was a valid reason.

He shrugged and said, “I did Physics and extension maths the last few years, I guess they were happy enough with my grades to let me bump up and do extension one maths this year, but with Bio, I had to talk my way into letting them change over because they weren’t too happy losing another Art major.”

“‘And the rest? What about Economics and English?”

He shook his head, “You get to keep those to yourself. I couldn’t change anymore unless I told them, and well, I didn’t exactly want to give up my sport, if I’m honest, but they didn’t want to change my English class around without a valid reason.”

“Wonderful, just so I have this right, I have Study hall, History, Extension maths, and my Bio classes with you? You realize that is about 80% of my time at school, right?” I start counting the classes in my mind, trying to remember where they all are in the two-week cycle the school gives us.

He flashes one of his grins and chuckles, “well, Sweetheart, considering that is the whole point, I guess so yeah.”

I roll my eyes at him and sigh,”Fine, but you have to wait out here for at least 5 Mississippi before going in.”

“You realize a few people have already seen us walking together, right?”

I shrug. It wasn’t fair he got to move all his classes around to make it harder for me. Granted, it was supposed to make things easier, and maybe it would have if we hadn’t been through so much already, but I still needed him to respect my space.

He sighs and leans against the locker next to the classroom and starts counting down. Telling me it’s now or never before he walks into that room.