Chapter 18: A Blond Boy's Heart (part 1)

About 3 months have passed since the whole fainting incident.

Although nothing else out of the ordinary has happened, Karlyle's protective gears were kicked into over-drive and he has been thoroughly glued to Alythia's side ever since.

Also, after the whole Ashbrown incident, almost everyone in her class started avoiding her – Damien being the only exception.

As Alythia opened her bedroom door she saw Karlyle already leaning against the wall waiting for her.

He stretched out his hand, as if inviting her so she merrily walked up to him and intertwined their fingers.

Karlyle smiled at her tenderly before placing the back of her hand against his lips, lightly pressing a kiss to it.

"Kloeye will be visiting today" he said as they made their way to Alythia's class "I'm assuming Tia already has some plan to entertain her?"

She nodded in agreement.

"Yea RayRay and I already have it all figured out. After morning classes I'll dash over to the cafeteria to prepare a picnic basket while RayRay picks up Kloeye at the fountain in the center of the garden. They'll decide on a nice place for us to sit and then wait for me to arrive with the goodies!!". Alythia's eyes beamed with excitement.

Karlyle arched his brow "Does Ray even know what Kloeye looks like?"

"Sure she does. Kloeye has contacted me a few times in hologram form while I was in my room. And RayRay, being her friendly self, just naturally fell into our conversations and started chatting with us"

"Ah" Karlyle nodded. "Well I need to help Blake with something today during the first half of lunch but I'll meet you guys in the garden as soon as I'm done, alright?"

Alythia squeezed the hand that was linked with hers. "uh-hu but hurry up. The food I'm gonna get will be super tasty but if you take too long we girls will devour all of it and there won't be even a single crumb left over for you or Blake. Though I might save some for you, the snake is Ray's problem so I can't be blamed if he starves"

When they finally arrived at her class Alythia caught sight of Damien through the window.

He was already seated and smiled at her as they made eye contact, though his smile seemed a bit strained. She was about to smile back and acknowledge his greeting when Karlyle swiftly turned her around. He placed his one hand on her lower back, slightly lifting her up, while the other hand went behind her head holding it steady as he planted a firm kiss on her lips.

As he deepened the kiss, Alythia's arms instinctively wrapped around his neck.

When he pulled back slightly she could've sworn she noticed him glare at the window behind her.

"Stay safe okay" he whispered in her ear, before planting one last kiss on her lips and walking off to his own class.

When she sat down she felt Damien's eyes fixed on her. It seemed like he had something he wanted to say.

"I see that bodyguard's quite committed to his job" she heard him scoff.

Alythia looked at the blond boy, who wore an unusually pained expression today, trying to figure out why he seemed to be in such a bad mood so early in the morning.

Since she didn't respond Damien clicked his tongue "be sure to pay him at the end of the month"

Alythia's eyes stretched wide at his taunting remarks.

'Eh? This little child, what's with that arrogant look in his eyes? Should I discipline him a bit? I mean if I just leave things be won't he grow up to be some sour old man whom everyone hates? I can't have my guardian angel turn out like that!!'

And with that resolution deeply engraved in her heart Alythia smacked Damien over the head – with quite a bit of force might I add.

The boy recoiled in pain and gently rubbed his head as he held it in between both arms.

"WHAT did you do that for??" he whined after the stinging finally died down.

"Disrespect" the girl responded with cold eyes. "Children need to respect their elders Damien"

He looked at her with a confused expression "You know I'm probably older than you right? My birthday is in January so I'm already 17"

Alythia only glanced at him briefly; her expression remained unchanged. "Age is not measured by one's years but by one's wisdom.... so I'm light-years ahead of Damien" she said with a smirk.

"HAAA!?" Damien's shocked expression turned sour. "Where do you even get the confidence to say something like that??" he asked before flicking her forehead and turning his head to the side.

As Alythia covered her head, guarding it from further onslaught, she stared at the moody boy in front of her and then suddenly thought of something....

"Damien!!" She exclaimed while slamming both hands on her desk. "THATS IT isn't it!? You're lonely and want a girlfriend don't you?"

The boy jerked his head back to look at her. His eyes were stretched incredibly wide – almost to the point of being inhuman – and his entire face was dyed crimson.

The poor little creature looked utterly distressed.

When Alythia saw his reaction a devilish grin appeared on her face.

"I knew it!! Look I'll help you find a nice girl okay? As long as it's not RayRay coz... um how should I put it... you're a nice guy and all but let's try not to bite off more than we can chew... besides she's much too bewitched by that snake to ever consider dumping him. Plus that power-abusing serpent might go on a rampage if anything like that were to happen – he's so overly-sensitive he might even have you hanged for treason.... So let's just stay clear of that route shall we?"

Damien had grown completely unresponsive.

He simply stared at the pink-haired girl sitting next to him. But it was a special type of stare you know – the kind of stare a college professor would give an idiotic student who couldn't even do basic division. The type of stare that says: 'What are you doing here? How have you even managed to make it this far in life?'

"You know...." Alythia continued seeing as Damien didn't even see the merit in having a two-way conversation with her at this point "Karlyle's sister is coming to visit during lunch... so maybe---"

"NO!" he interrupted her. His eyes shone with malice.

'Eh? How did I manage to upset him even more??'

He clicked his tongue at her. "Alythia you're so dense, it's absolutely infuriating..." he murmured as he turned his entire body to the side so that she was now staring at his back.

Throughout the rest of the morning he completely ignored her but Alythia, for the life of her, could not understand why.

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After classes ended our pink-haired girl jumped to her feet and ran out the door.

She rushed straight to the cafeteria and busily got to work packing her picnic basket.

As soon as she was done she went to her dorm room to grab a blanket before heading to the garden.

'Ray and Kloeye must already have waited for a while so---'

But her thoughts were interrupted when she opened the door and saw Ray standing there with a blanket in hand and a picnic basket on her bed.

"Eh? RayRay weren't you supposed to meet Kloeye at the fountain?"

Ray looked utterly confused. "Ally, you said you would meet her at the fountain and I should prepare the blanket and snacks"

"WHAT!?" Alythia yelped "That means Kloeye had been waiting ALONE all this time!???"

And instantly both girls dashed out the room and down the stairs towards the garden.