《The Curse Among Us》Chapter 5: Caught
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"Man, this is so boring..." Liam whined while staring at the skies. "I wonder what Alex and Oliver are doing, I've got nothing else to do."
"Hey, Liam!"
Liam sits back up and turns around to look at who's calling him, to see Alex running towards him.
"Well," Liam thought. "Speaking of the devil."
Alex stops in front of Liam to catch his breath, as he ran out of breath from running. Liam notices that Alex has a wild grin on his face.
"Huff... Puff... Guess what!?" Alex said with excitement in his voice, as he's excited to brag to his friends about his curse.
"What?" Liam asked as he is confused about what Alex is referring to, he stared at Alex to see if he had any difference since yesterday. "D-Did you get a haircut?"
"Eh? No!" Alex denies. "I got my curse today!"
"Wow. That's amazing. Bravo." Liam said sarcastically as he lies back down on the ground. "I don't care."
"Huh?" Alex whined in shock as he didn't expect this response. "Aren't you in any bit shocked by this?"
"Nope. Not at all, actually. I'm more interested in what curse you got."
"Heheheh." Alex laughed smugly. "I see now that you're interested. Beg me and I'll tell you-!"
"I've changed my mind. I have absolutely no interest in your curse!"
"Wha-? Ugh, Fine." Alex whined while walking away from Liam. "I'll go to brag to Oliver instead since you have no interest!"
"I should definitely go follow him." Liam thought. "He always somehow gets into trouble."
Alex went ahead to find Oliver, Liam decided to quietly follow him in case he gets into any trouble. It took a while, but eventually, Alex found him hiding behind a small hill near the edges of the walls. Oliver is just sitting there while looking at something with a wild grin on his face. Alex had no idea of what he's doing.
"What do you think he's doing?" Liam said.
Alex jumped out of shock as Liam came out of nowhere. Alex manages to maintain stealth for the first time and didn't manage to get spotted by Oliver.
"Shh- What are you doing here?" Alex whispered. "Didn't you said you aren't interested?"
"I thought It would be more interesting if Oliver was here too," Liam whispered. "By the way, why are we whispering?"
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"I don't know? Do you know what he's doing?"
Liam shrugged in responses, indicating that he doesn't know what in the heavens is Oliver doing. Suddenly, they both had an idea and grinned at each other.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Liam asked.
"Yeah, I have a plan to scare Oliver, as payback."
"Right, we're on the same page. So what's the plan? it's rare for you to be in the lead," Liam whispered. "Go on, I'm listening, it's time for me to get payback as well for those 5 Petals that I lost in our bet."
"Right. Okay, we both jump in at the same time and scream at him. How about that?"
"Do we, just jump straight in? Ehhh, it's kinda lame, to be honest."
"What? Do you have a better plan?" Alex asked.
"Eh. It's not like I have a better plan. Let's go for it."
Alex and Liam slowly approached Oliver who is still staring at his 'book' while smiling. As they got close and close, Alex and Liam grinned even more as they're imagining Oliver's reaction, Oliver had no idea that they were behind him the entire time. Liam looked at Alex, waiting for his signal to attack. He nods in response and they proceeded to pounce at Oliver and scream at him. When Liam pounced at Oliver, he got a glimpse of what kind of book he's looking at and his face immediately turned red. Oliver immediately jumped up in shock, screamed and threw his book into one of the trees out of pure reaction.
"Hahaha." Alex laughed. "We got you good-"
"NO! MY MAGAZIN-." Oliver yelled. "I MEAN MY BOOK!"
Alex continued to laugh at Oliver, as his reaction is priceless compared to his. Meanwhile, Liam is suspicious at what Oliver is reading just now while his face is still a bit red.
"Haha-." Alex continued to laugh, but then he noticed Liam's strange reaction. "Hey, Liam, what's the red face all about? Aren't you suppose to be happy that you got Oliver back?"
"Yeah! Totally!" Liam bluffed. "I'm so happy that I couldn't even react!"
"That's what I'm talking about!"
While Alex is distracted with his celebration, Liam leaned closer to Oliver to ask what that's all about.
"Just what the heck were you reading just now?" Liam whispered to Oliver. "You know those stuff are for adults right?"
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"I'm sorry, I got curious when I found that book in my parent's bedroom drawer," Oliver whispered back. "By the way, why didn't you sell me out just now?"
"I'm your friend, Even though I don't agree with your choice all the time. At least I respect it." Liam explained. "Plus if I sold you out it would probably corrupt Alex's pureness."
"You're saying it as if you're not pure in the first place," Oliver whispered while staring at Liam with a poker face. "But still thanks, my dad would probably kill me if he found out about it."
"Read that when you're older alright? Now's a bit too early. Let's keep it a secret between us." Liam whispered back while giving him a thumbs up with a grin on his face. "Also don't forget to share that with me. If you know what I mean.
"OI!" Alex yelled. "What are you guys talking about!"
"Nothing!" Liam said back. "I'm just mocking Oliver for his reaction!"
"I know right! Hilarious!"
"You're acting strangely mature today Liam," Oliver whispered back to Liam. "What's wrong with you today?"
"Because that also happened to me and my dad gave me a long talk. So I have experience."
"So what the hell are you guys here for?" Oliver asked while being slightly pissed. "Just scaring me out of the blue for no reason?"
Alex ran up to the top of the small hill and crossed his arm over his chest with pride.
"I just got my curse!" Alex bragged. "What you think about that huh?"
"I want to say I'm uncomfortable about your reaction," Oliver said. "But, honestly after being your friend for 3 years I kind of expected that."
"Why?!" Alex asked. "Aren't you at least surprised?"
"Surprised about what?" Oliver said. "Curses are just curses, everyone has time, those who haven't had them yet just need to wait a bit longer."
"Yeah..." Liam said. "Also isn't joking about curses extremely rude? What's cool about them?"
"Curses are cool because it affects your lifestyle, and when you do something surprising, it will be even cooler, because it makes you so badass."
Alex is just blattering bullshit at this point. Not even the author knows what he's talking about. He's just trying to make himself cool.
Oliver cast another confused look at Alex, Liam is just completely clueless at this point.
"What?" Oliver said. "I don't get it."
"Thanks for stating the obvious chief," Liam said. "Me neither."
"You still don't get it huh? Okay, listen. If you have a curse on you while you're doing something impressive, then it makes you look like a strong person." Alex explained even though he himself is too, completely clueless about what he's talking about. "Get it?"
"Okay, your point is completely flawed," Oliver explained. "Because you haven't even done anything remotely close to impressive while having the curse's effect yet, how does that make you cooler?"
"Well..." Alex said while scrambling around, looking for something, out of pure reaction he picked up a rock off the ground and display it proudly in his hand. "I can lift this rock! I did something cool!"
"Wow! amazing!" Oliver said sarcastically while being done with Alex's crap, he walked up the small hill, stood next to Alex and yelled. "Hey, guys! He just got his curse! What do you think?!"
Almost no one reacted to Oliver's yelling, every bystander that was near them even ignored their shenanigans.
"What was that for?" Liam asked.
"See?" Oliver mocked. "Noone cares that you got your curse. It's just that simple. Why don't you shut up?"
"Isn't that, uh kind of mean?" Liam said.
"Actually yeah, that is kind of mean." Oliver apologized as he realises what he just said. "I take that back."
Suddenly, Alex notices two guards walked towards them, they stared directly at Alex as they lumbered towards him. He flinched when he saw their expressions and hide behind Oliver.
"What are you doing?" Oliver asked.
"I don't know, something about their expressions feels off."
The guards stopped in front of Alex, stared him down. Alex froze as he doesn't know what to do. The others are clueless as well.
"Are you..." One of the guards asked. "Alexander Armstrong?"
"Yes I am, why?"
Suddenly, the guards pushed Oliver away from Alex, grabbed him forcefully and knocked him out. Alex remembered the horrified looks on Liam's face and Oliver yelling at the guards before passing out.
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