TAMING THE PLAYBOY ALPHA - Chapter 111: Chapter 111

: GROUP PROJECT
FREYA'S POV:
"Did you really need to do that?" Adam asks as soon as I jog up to him.
He begins walking away and I struggle to keep his pace with my much shorter legs.
I admit, it might have been a bit dramatic but it was necessary. I don't want to constantly worry about him while working on the project.
"I did. Silas and I are going to be working together, and we all need to cooperate if we're going to make a reasonable score. I have no intentions of getting anything less than an A." I explain.
"You sure it's not more than that?" He prods further. "What?"
He pauses, suddenly turning to me.
I stumble a bit to stop my fast paced walking without warning and successfully steady myself.
"Are you sure it's just about calling a truce, Freya?"
He looks at me more seriously than before. His once playful countenance is completely gone.
At first, I wonder what exactly it is that's suddenly putting him in such a sour state. The look of dislike and other things swirling in his eyes, till it suddenly clicks in my head at exactly what he's hinting at.
"C'mon... it's not like that. I'm not trying to be or do anything with him. You are aware that I was forced into this situation."
He was literally there when I requested that we be put in separate groups, so I wonder how he had come to the conclusion that I was trying to patch things up with Silas.
"And Elena... aren't you going to make a truce with her?" He asks now.
I don't even need to ponder on it for a second. There's no way that is happening.
"Elena is a different case. I don't negotiate with the spawns of Satan." I explain.
It would be a waste of time to try to bring up peace to a chaos-loving devil.
Adam sighs, rubbing his temple. All of a sudden, he seems stressed and tired, and I quickly feel bad.
"I gotta go."
"What? Where?"
"To my next class. You don't need me to follow you for the next one since you share it with Xena." He says.
Suddenly, he feels too distant from me, and cold.
Without another word, he begins walking in the other direction towards the next class room.
"Adam... wait." I call out to him but he's already a good distance away to hear me.
Or maybe he does hear me and just isn't in the mood to talk anymore.
So, I'm left standing there alone and let out a heavy breath.
I understand his concerns, but I really am not trying to patch things up with Silas and I wish he could see that.
I stand there for a few seconds before heading to class as well.
"You sure you can't just ditch the first meeting?" Xena says just as we step out of the classroom just as everyone else begins filing out.
The final bell has just been rung, so the hallway is as busy as it is early in the morning just before school starts.
I feel relief, knowing that it's over but not being fully able to let myself rest, knowing the project meeting would be holding pretty soon in the library.
We walk down to my own locker while she continuously tries to convince me not to go for the meeting because Silas happens to be one of the people I'm working with.
Just like Adam, she's worried as expected, but I can't just put things on halt because Silas is involved with them. I'm not going to let him affect the rest of my high school life.
"For the last time, Xena, I can't. I'm Adam's assistant." I explain.
Being put in an important role like that made it harder to just skip whenever I pleased.
"Well, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you miss it."
"Yeah but Elena is also there, and I'm sure she's going to report me if I miss a single meeting. No way am I giving her the satisfaction of watching me fail."
I say.
I know for a fact that she's going to be out for blood, especially since I called her out in front of her precious boyfriend.
"But Silas..."
"We made a truce, so there's nothing to worry about." I interrupt, trying to assure her again.
"Fine, fine. If you say so. Gosh, you are so fucking hard headed." She glares at me but playfully.
I smile widely now, winking at her once all my books are in. I grab my notebook and slam the locker shut.
"I will see you later."
"Sure."
She turns towards the direction of her own locker now, and I begin heading towards the library. Regardless of the fact that I'm acting all tough and confident about this project, the truth is I'm skeptical of what's going to happen, how we're going to make things work with all the bad blood between both sides.
Elena is most definitely going to be out for blood, and
Silas...
Can I ignore him as easily as I think?
Once I approach the door of the library, Adam is there already, leaning against the wall.
Once our eyes meet, he smiles and begins walking up to me. His entire countenance is much different than how he was a few hours ago.
I guess it's nice that he's in a better mood than before.
"Hey, sorry I'm late." I say once we are both face to face.
He instinctively grabs onto my notebook, like it's a heavy bag, and takes my hand in his so casually that I'm forced to think of it as nothing. "It's fine... I'm sure no one has gotten here yet."
I nod while letting him gently drag me into the library to the spot where we are going to be meeting as from now on.
All the while, I can't help but stare at the point where our hands are linked. It feels weird holding his hand and just a bit uncomfortable, but I don't want to say anything for fear of him getting upset like he had been earlier today.
Once we reach the spot, however, Silas and Elena are already there.
He types away on his phone absent mindedly while Elena sits cozily on his lap while reading a book. My heart involuntarily stings. Still, I remind myself that we don't care anymore. The pain reduces a bit but doesn't go anywhere.
Well, this is going to be the longest 2 hours meeting of my life.
"Hey, guys." Adam says just as we approach them, dropping on our seats.
Their eyes meet us and Silas taps on Elena to get off him when we approach and get into our seats. Adam infront of Elena, and Silas right infront of me.
"You're late." Elena says dryly. But is painfully ignored.
My eyes briefly move up to Silas and catch his silver eyes before they quickly look away. Again, my heart does a backflip all of a sudden in my chest, causing me to clutch it.
"You okay?" Adam asks, watching me have a mini heart attack.
"Yeah."
I take in deep breaths, chanting to myself continuously. I'm fine.
Once we're all settled, we begin working on the project.
Sections of it are shared between each of us, and mine is easy enough to do based on previous knowledge of classes I've been attending.
The four of us fall into a rhythm surprisingly, which makes me realize that even with bad history, none of us want an F.
Though Elena continues to smack her gum in an annoying loud manner just to spark an argument, but I ignore her instead.
It goes smoothly till I come across a that I have no recollection of learning, and pause.
A part of me deduces that she had probably mentioned this in class while I was busy, not minding my business and letting unimportant things worry my mind.
I'm stuck but I'm too embarrassed to say anything as everyone is focused on their work and doing it silently, so I tell myself I can figure it out. Few minutes pass, however, and I'm still stuck.
I scratch the top of my head, now feeling more frustrated than ever, having squeezed up a bunch of papers. The equation I'm trying to put together isn't balanced for some reason, and I'm this close to ripping everything I've done up until this moment into shreds.
"You made a mistake."
I look up from my paper and realize Silas is looking at me and actually speaking without a hint of hostility in his voice.
At first, I doubt if it's me and our eyes just happen to meet by chance just like before but then, he looks down at my paper and points at my mistake. "You started getting it wrong from here. May I?" He asks, gesturing to the pen in my hand.
I give him the pen.
Our fingers slightly graze in the process of the transfer and goose bumps rise in my skin again. "You don't need this part if you want to do it like that." He continues while pointing at my work in a gentle toned voice.
His eyes look up, slightly staring at me and sucking me into those silver orbs, holding my gaze for more than a moment.
My heart does even more back flips as my breath gets caught in my throat from being so close to him like this.
Memories of the night we spent together flash through my mind unwillingly, and my eyes move to his soft pale pink lips against my will. I immediately begin thinking of just how good they tasted. Geez... What is wrong with me?
I blink rapidly to pull myself from the hypnotic stare, and he quickly looks back at my work again, almost like we had never just looked each other in the eye so deeply seconds ago, and continues explaining my mistake to me. But my mind can't focus anymore. While he talks, I can't help but look at his long silky lashes that extend from his eyelids, unable to really pay attention to what he's explaining.
When I realize what I'm doing again, heat floods into my cheeks. "Hey, what's going on?" Adam says, leaning towards me now as he casually slides his hand around mine.
He peeps at what we're doing.
"S-silas is helping me out with this problem." I explain.
He looks surprised, then looks at Silas, then me with a strange look on his face.
"Oh, you could have just asked me if you needed help."
"Actually, I didn't ask, he just-""
"Since you're here, you can take over. I'm already bored." He says, suddenly sounding pissed and tossing my pen to me, leaning away quickly like he's been burned.
The sudden mood swing is unexpected, and I'm confused now and pissed off as well.
Why bother helping out if you're going to be so bitchy about it?
So much for a truce.
I pick my pen up, glaring at him one last time before getting back to work.