Want | A TWENTY SIX

I walked into the grounds of St. Sinclair, no longer having the worries of my family on the risk of losing their business weighing my shoulders but in its place were the unclear intentions of a shrewd man. Granted, I was glad he hadn't been a disappointment when being cornered but I wasn't looking forward to whatever obligated labour he'd have me do sooner or later.

I sincerely hoped it was later so I could bide time to form a counter.

It was currently break when I arrived and I had my tracks set on meeting up with my friends who were probably wondering where I'd been. I hadn't even checked my phone yet for calls or the likes.

When I did, I came to find a recent text sent through the school message board. It was a club meeting notice. I was wondering why Garren had for once used the system when he'd been so adamant on directly sending to my other phone, until I read the heading: IAO

I gasped. It had completely slipped my mind. International Academia Olympics, the annual and biggest scholar event with the junior matches was commencing around this month. There were no questions any longer- this was dire and mandatory.

I viewed the time the meeting was scheduled and saw that it was ten minutes ago.

I cursed, changing my course to dash over to the Coeus clubhouse. Several pairs of eyes landed on me when I entered the conference room, panting. I brushed them all off except for the dark haired boy at the centre, perched on his supposed 'throne'. He was certainly sat like he was royalty.

"You're late." There was no lightness in his tone, it was stern and disapproving.

I felt twice as more apologetic. "I know. I'm sorry."

"Sorry, what?"

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry, your Majesty."

He nodded. "Take a seat."

That was it and all attention reverted to him alone while I occupied a chair.

As I caught up with the briefing, I was forced to admit, Garren wasn't as bad as I'd originally thought he'd be with the head arms of Coeus left in his hands. The meeting was purposed to share the official dates for the IAO and to organise suitable prep exercises. Not only had it been a reasonable and adequate initiative to take, Garren surprised me further with a chart aimed to work around everybody's schedules for anyone who held priorities with other clubs or activities outside the school region.

I was baffled in wonder to when he'd even learnt what the other members did- much less had I imagined he'd considered them. The chart even detailed on what each of our core strengths were and the weaker ones to improve what he predicted would be a major factor on this year's sets.

Those weren't the sort of things somebody could put together in an hour or two- genius or not. This was a plan put through careful thought and effort. It was like seeing a new side of the notorious autocrat. Putting aside when he congratulated Andrew on his new haircut, stating that the former one made him look like a potato head. Then told Fraiser he'd cancelled his audition slot for a TV series with the justification Fraiser didn't have a chance in hell even if he was the only candidate in the audition.

I guessed some things never changed.

He wrapped it up five minutes later and I folded my hands on my laps when Garren ordered me to stay behind. Soon, the only ones present in the room were me and The Aces. A foreign air hanging over us. I'd taken my eyes away from them for a day and suddenly they seemed to be further out of my league.

"You were pretty late today, Stevie," Garren started. "Had there been an issue getting the message on time?"

"No." I confessed, feeling odd with this side. He'd been the captain for nearly a month and I'd narrow mindedly presumed he wouldn't have taken the post seriously and only now was I recognising it. Here I had been the one slacking off.

"I swear, it won't happen again-"

"Alright. I'll take your word for it." He swiftly replied. "Now, could you assist in solving something for Vice Will, secretary Ben and myself?"

"Um, okay. What is it?"

Garren signalled the boys with a nod. Ben proceeded to switch off the lights and close the blinds, followed by Will shooting out his arm to the interactive whiteboard, remote in hand. There was a push of a button that cued the power.

Colours and shapes canvased the large square instantly and my eyes bulged with mouth hanging at the picture projected by the overhead monitor.

The image was a horribly familiar estate entryway with decorated shrubs in background and an all too familiar old man faced flat down on the pathway. For obvious reasons given by my predicament, I hadn't seen the mystified expressions of Ms. Dion, the elderly lady and the numerous strangers with cameras gaping at the black girl that was hunched on top of the poor man.

Now I wished it'd stayed unseen. It was almost as mortifying as reliving it in the flesh.

"H-How the hell did you get that?" I stuttered.

The boys exchanged glances with a series of expressions forming. All at once, Ben rose his fists in the air. "I'm getting a speedboat! Yes!"

Garren appeared mazed, Will was chuckling and Ben bolted out of his chair, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and planting a large smooch on my cheek. "Thanks, Stevie. Couldn't have done it without you."

I received another kiss. I blinked repeatedly, trying to grasp what was transpiring here but to no avail. "Um, your wel... Wait, what?"

Seeing my confusion, Will came to my aid. "Ben has a sister who subscribes to this web forum. It showcases the latest gossip and rumours on celebrities nationwide and they have a featured section for compromising photos. This..." He pointed to the framed memory fresh out of all my countless flops. "Was on the top ten titled 'MP Takedown'. His sister showed Benny and he came rushing over to us shouting 'It's Stevie! It's Stevie!' Garren told him he was wrong."

"He said I needed to get my eyes checked." said Ben.

"Yeah, and well, I had a hard time believing it too honestly." admitted Will. "But Ben wouldn't shut up and I didn't want a fight breaking out, so we settled to resolve it with a bet by your testimony."

If it were possible for my mouth to hang any lower, it did in that moment. "I pushed over an MP?!"

"Yes." chuckled Garren. "Yes you did."

"Well it looks more like a tackle than a push," interjected Will, hitting a button to zoom in on the shot like it wasn't vivid enough. "See, if you look from here- "

"Okay, that's enough clarification. You can zoom out." I said and buried my face in my hands, groaning. "Oh my god, this is so embarrassing..."

"Hey, come on Stevie. Look on the bright side." said Ben.

"What bright side?"

"I won the bet so now Gary has to buy me a speedboat!" Ben hollered, grinning from ear to ear.

Garren was visibly displeased by the defeat. "Oh come on Ben you can not be serious."

Ben instantly terminated his celebration, eyes narrowed on his leader. "You promised! You can't go back on your word, Gary."

"What the hell are you gonna do with it? You can't even drive yet."

"Speedboats are cool. So if I own one, I'll be cooler and have more girls who want to bang me." He declared with the utmost level of certainty. "Plus, I've always wanted to do it above water since I've already done it underwater. I think it'll be more fun."

A moment of silence intermediated, Will and Garren's confused faces spoke enough without my verbal addition, my eyes squinted. "Um, did you just say underwater?"

Ben nodded.

"How do you have sex underwater?"

"Oh, it's nothing too hard. I'll show you."

Without waiting to hear my response, he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my seat with his hasty steps to the exit. Will and Garren hurriedly intervened before the enthusiastic boy could succeed in bringing me to an available body of water for demonstration.

**

Will was busy reprimanding the boy on his frisky attempts as we departed from the clubhouse. Garren's pace fell in line with mine at the towering staircase, a few steps behind the two.

"I can't believe I have to give that hormone driven monkey a speedboat." He grumbled, boring his eyes deeply at the back of Ben's head as if expecting it to burst into flames.

"So, you're honestly going to tell your parents to buy one because of a bet made and have them say okay? Just like that?"

"Of course not, they'd ground me. If I use my cards that would arouse suspicion too so I'll have to just use the rest of my allowance for the month. What I've got on hand should roughly be enough."

"Roughly? How much allowance do you get? Actually, y'know what don't answer that. It'll make me dizzy." I said. "I can't believe he was the only one who recognised me though. What happened to those observation skills?"

"This and that are two completely different things." He argued. "Benny has an inhuman sense when it comes to the female anatomy. He can tell a girl's shoe size from a glance, to what shade of lipstick they use to their range in kinkiness in the bedroom."

"That's actually really impressive."

"I know. He'd be formidable if the rest of his scrambled brain worked that well with everything." sighed Garren. "I figured it was going haywire today but I guess not."

"So, you were wrong."

"No, I had simply just underestimated Ben-"

"And ending up being wrong." I smirked when he visibly twitched at me spitting out the word. "My God, have you never said that before? I'll give you a hand."

He rolled his eyes, jaw clenched. "Y'know what, this is all on you."

"What?"

"If you had been a guy, I wouldn't have had to make a stupid bet with that halfwit."

I crossed my arms. "Is that supposed to be a joke or are you really this much of a sore loser?"

"All I'm saying is things would've been much simpler. Like, I wouldn't have had to hold back on hitting you."

"Really? Funny, I'd never known I'd needed a lame excuse not to succumb to those urges."

The twitch at Garren's eye was growing more easier to notice, then he took one step closer. "I'll give you that one but we both know you enjoy the view of this..." The tool made a gesture to his face. "More than anybody else."

I'd rose a brow at first, giving the impression he had me stumped. Then inched one step forward, eradicating the space between our bodies as thin as a hair. I caught those eyes curiously sweep over me, anticipating my next move. When I raised a hand to his cheek, he didn't so much as blink, stormy eyes pensively following their light trailing along his face. Right as they brushed the tip of those soft lips, his chin and flattened on his hard, broad chest, at lightning speed, I fastened on the nipple and twisted that thing with no mercy.

The sheer pain that struck was worth relishing for every second the great king of the Aces doubled over, hissing in agony as he held his pecks. I got a little too carried away, not expecting him to recoil so abruptly to set vengeful eyes my way.

I fled, but I didn't have the stamina like the athlete he was. Something I definitely should've taken into calculation before proceeding. Luckily, Will and Ben hadn't gotten too far down the steps so I took up shielding myself between them.

**

"So, I still haven't gotten any explanation as to why you were at a private art gallery," started Garren.

He'd brought it up so calmly as if he hadn't been chasing the three of us around the grounds for half an hour.

"Um, an acquaintance who got invited asked me to accompany her," I answered, still keeping close to Will.

"Since when did you have an acquaintance in a position to get grants like that?"

I took no offence at the implication I wasn't someone capable of bearing associates with a low class like mine. After all, he and a few others knew that better than anyone.

"Since two days ago." I, myself was shocked at how easily the confession left my lips, no care for discretion.

Or more like because it was him I took no discretion.

Garren lifted a brow, prompting me to elaborate.

"She's a fashion designer. She booked into the hotel I stay at and I'd bump into her occasionally."

"She invited you after only knowing you for two days?" Will questioned.

"She's kind of eccentric."

They didn't need any more elaboration than that. "I was wondering what happened since I didn't see you at lunch yesterday," said Garren. "I even bothered asking those beloved friends of yours."

"You, you asked about me?"

Why hadn't Ashton mentioned this to me?

Maybe because she hates Garren's guts and every single thing about him? An inner voice quipped.

"Yeah, and that was twenty seconds of my life I'm never getting back." Garren groaned. "But to think you were just skiving to go to a dumb art show- my god, is this is what it's come to now Stevie? Juvenile misconduct? I just weep thinking about the poor kids in under developed countries who can't even go to school."

I stifled a laugh at his overdramatic show of dismay. "Oh, shut up. It wasn't like that."

It was exactly like that.

"Yes it was. The regular classes are boring, aren't they? Which is to be expected, after three years sat through it- it must be so unfulfilling and dull. I'm amazed you haven't killed yourself yet."

"Right," I replied flatly. "And I'm probably late now thanks to you lot so bye."

I aimed to take a two step lead and skip off but he caught my hand. "Wait."

I didn't budge.

Knowing I wasn't going to run off, he withdrew his hold and leaned back on the banister. "Today's Thursday."

Another thing I'd completely forgotten but I stared back ardently, a silent recognition I understood.

"So yeah, you know." He scuffled his feet. "I can still make a call to add another plus one to the reservations."

The expectant look the three boys sent me, Garren's in particular, actually had me debating over an answer that should've needed no thinking. That was the thing with Adler though; he constantly had me second guessing myself.

"Is this an invitation as just a plus one or... or more than that?" I asked.

I held my breath as Garren stared at me. "That depends; what do you want it to be?"

I bit my lip. There it was- want. The one word that had me strung on the spot. What exactly did I want? These past few days, I'd been discovering I was living for what I thought I wanted without checking with myself if my head and soul agreed.

Then I was abruptly drawn out of my hopeless mulling by the sight we saw in front of the clubhouse entrance.

A growing crowd of students were gathered by the outskirts of the courtyard. Curiosity piqued, we moved closer. Any previous rage on Garren's face from my nipple crippling was gone, replaced with scrutiny as he along with everyone else had their eyes peered on the parking grounds just beyond.

Aligned in the row of staff cars was an unfamiliar automobile. Stood by it was Ms. Shepherds, that courtesy smile on as she spoke to a young lady who appeared to be the owner of the vehicle. She was easily distinguishable without the cardigan draped on her shoulders.

Esme Ivanov.