Chapter 39

Third-person narrative Mia and her brothers had returned to school after their parents were sure that it was safe enough for them to go back. They had also been skeptical about returning, but they had to because of their end-of-semester exams and because they had missed school for so long.

When they returned to school, everyone was excited. They were all everyone was talking about. They had always been the most popular, so it was weird to see that they had left school with no prior notice.

They were mobbed the minute they stepped into school. They were happy to see and be reunited with their friends.

It was time for lunch, and the brothers were seated at their favorite table, and after a while, Mia joined them. As usual, the brothers had a few girls following them around, especially now that it seemed that they weren’t with Jasmine anymore.

The opportunity to get with the brothers opened up once more.

“Look over there,” Calix said as he glared in the direction of the cafeteria door.

His siblings followed his gaze to see Jasmine entering the cafeteria with Noah. Anger flowed freely through their veins like lava, but did their best to keep their expression blank.

Jasmine and Noah were busy talking with each other as they both picked up trays to get their food.

“Ignore them,” Ethan said, and they all looked away and continued their conversation with the people around them.

Jasmine heard laughter from a corner of the cafeteria and looked to see what was going on. She soon noticed that the laughter was coming from the table that Mia and her brothers were at.

They spoke amongst themselves and laughed so loudly that it was the only sound that filled the cafeteria. They didn’t seem to have any problem being away from her. They looked very happy; besides, the brothers could date and have s*x with any girl of their choice again, so she was sure that they were happy.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Noah asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Oh, nothing. I was just lost in thought,” she smiled at him, and they continued on the line.

When they had gotten all the food they wanted, Noah led her to a table farthest from the one the quadruplets were at, but she could get a clear view of where the quadruplets sat.

She didn’t know if it was on purpose or just at random that Noah led her to that particular table, but she decided not to ask.

As they ate, Jasmine couldn’t take her eyes off the brothers who were busy flirting with other girls. The girls were touching them and rubbing themselves all over them which angered Jasmine.

Jasmine was boiling with jealousy, but she wouldn’t admit it. And even though Noah was saying something to her, she couldn’t hear anything he was saying at all. All her attention was focused on the mia and her mates.

The brothers would occasionally glance back at her, and at that moment she would feel her stomach stir with anxiety and a little excitement.

She wished they could resolve the issue between them so they could go back to being friends.

But hearing one of the girls seated with her mates laughing hysterically made her hope shatter. Since it was obvious that her mates were no longer interested in her, she came up with a plan to make them equally jealous.

She waited for a moment when one of them would glance at her. And when the opportunity came, she turned to Noah, pulled his face towards hers, and pushed her lips to his, shutting him up.

She tried her best to make sure the k**s was passionate because she knew it would make the brothers jealous.

Noah was really into the k**s, too, as he kissed her passionately. Jasmine smiled as she pulled away, knowing her plan would work, but by the time she turned to look at the brothers to check if they were looking at her, they were nowhere to be seen.

Noise by the door caught her attention, and all she saw was their backs turned to her as they left the cafeteria with the girls that were clinging to them.

Jasmine sighed, feeling sad that her plan didn’t work. She looked up to see that Mia was still seated at the table but was preparing to leave too, so she decided to approach her.

“I’ll be back,” she said to Noah as she stood up and walked away from their table towards Mia, who was leaving.

“Hey, Mia,” she called out, and Mia stopped before turning to face her.

“What is it that you want?” Mia narrowed her eyes, her voice bland and devoid of emotion. “Didn’t I tell you to stay away from me?”

She wasn’t even trying to keep her voice down. Everyone knew that Jasmine wasn’t with the brothers anymore, so finding out that she wasn’t even friends with Mia would be an even bigger surprise.

“I know, Mia. But please, just listen to me for a second. I promise I won’t waste your time,” she pleaded.

“I don’t want to hear anything that comes out of your lying, conniving mouth. I made the mistake of never becoming friends with you. I regret the day I met you,” Mia said coldly.

By now, everyone in the cafeteria was looking at them, some even taking videos, and Jasmine felt tears start to well up in her eyes.

“I don’t ever want to have anything to do with you, ever again, so please just leave me alone.”

With that, Mia walked away, leaving Jasmine standing there alone, with cold gazes from all the people around. She had fallen from the grace of the most popular people in school, so they had no reason to be nice to her or even pity her.

Some laughed, while others mocked her as the tears finally left her eyes and she ran out of the cafeteria.

Jasmine stayed by the side of the cafeteria building, trying to calm herself down before Noah came out, which didn’t take up to one minute.

“Hey. Are you okay?” He asked her as he stood beside her.

“Yes, I am,” she replied, smiling, but it did not reach her eyes.

“The best option is to forget about them. They’ve shown how cruel they can be, so what’s the use of still chasing after them?” Noah demanded.

Jasmine had no answer to his question. She just sighed and rubbed her forehead.

“Let’s go home,” Noah said after he didn’t receive a reply from her.

The drive home was silent, as Jasmine was still deep in thought. She had been like that ever since her encounter with the quadruplets at the hospital. No matter what Noah did, he couldn’t cheer her up.

They got home, and all Jasmine wanted to do was go into her room and sleep, but when they entered the house, they saw Freya in the living room; she had a lot of pills scattered in front of her, and she was smoking.

The pills weren’t any average pills; they were drugs. The whole room smelled like smoke, and even when they stepped in, Freya didn’t look at them.

Jasmine walked close to her, and then Freya’s head turned toward her. From the look in her eyes, Jasmine could tell that she was long gone.

“Freya, you should not be doing this. Drugs and cigarettes are bad for your health,” she told her.

Freya burst into a loud cackle. When she was done laughing, she turned to Jasmine.

“You’re just a kid. You become an adult when you do this. This takes you to places you’ve never been. A child like you would never understand,” she teased.

Jasmine turned to Noah for help.

“Noah, you need to stop her. This is so wrong,” she said to Noah.

“Why? I don’t see anything wrong with what she’s doing. She’s taking them to enjoy themselves and feel good, so I don’t see anything bad in that,” Noah said nonchalantly.

Jasmine stared at the both of them in surprise. Why would anyone think drugs and cigarettes were any good?

“You should try it, Jasmine. Don’t condemn it yet; you just might like it,” Freya urged.

“She’s right. You haven’t tried it yet, so you don’t know how good or bad it is,” Noah contributed.

Jasmine shook her head. “No, thank you. I’m not interested,” she said, storming off to her room.

When she got to her room, she sat down on her bed, wondering what exactly was wrong with Noah.

She was seeing some sides to him that she had never noticed, and these things were making her wonder whether she truly knew who he was.