Five, click.

Bella walked closer, her heels clicking against the tiled floor.

Four, click .

Brandon's eyes caught mine.

Three, click.

I nodded at him.

Two, click .

He took a deep breath.

One, action.

Francis stood up straight, acting shocked to see Bella standing in front of him. His eye still assessed her from head to toe though, and I rolled my eyes, thinking boys would definitely be always boys.

I strained my eyes to make out Bella's expression, but it was impossible to see with her standing facing away from me.

My overworked imagination supplied me with the vision, and I could just imagine her expression marred between confusion and disgust while she tried to maintain her game face on.

Both of them exchanged some pleasantries, when her body shifted towards Brandon. He awkwardly stood up, and smiled at her.

She went closer, quite clearly swooping in for a hug, which I had duly noticed had not been given to Francis.

My nagging must have worked pretty well on him, because Brandon instantly moved away. I giggled and the person sitting next to me on the bench, gave me the weird look which clearly stated that I was weird.

Looking back at them, I saw Brandon shielded behind Francis, with their fingers twirled into each other's hand.

Oh good lord. Someone definitely needed to purify my thoughts.

Bella shifted again, and this time I could see her face. I smirked when I saw that her mouth was twisted into a tight line, clearly upset.

Though it was hard for me to decipher whether it was due to Brandon's rejection or watching the two of them together. Well, had to hope for the latter.

She opened her mouth again and started speaking. Curiosity got the better of me, and I crept forward to hear them.

I bent low, just like they showed in the movies to keep myself hidden. The detective work really suited me. I was feeling so utterly cool doing that, until a little girl smashed my fantasies.

"Mommy, mommy is she practising to be a snail?" The little girl pointed towards me, tugging at her mother's dress to make her look at me.

"I want to be a snail too. Can I please walk like that?" she whined, shaking her small piggy tails while pointing at me.

"Don't stare at her, Eliza. Come on, I'll buy you an ice cream," her mother said in a stern voice, pulling her away from me.

She gave me a warning glare before walking away. Something quite similar to what I had received few minutes ago. Great, so now I had been officially named a snail by a child and a whacky weirdo by some old bloke.

Just the achievement I have been wanting to achieve, I thought sarcastically.

I quickly changed to normal walking and tactically walked over to the small jewellery shop and started looking randomly.

Bella's back was just a metre away from me and I quickly caught on to their conversation.

"Brandon it's such a surprise to see you here," she spoke in a bright tone, her French accent hitting on strongly.

Such a faker, I thought reminded of the time when she had talked to me in perfect English.

I frowned, this was supposed to go down with her being angry. But she sounded not even close to that, hoping for the best, I listened on.

"I know! When this cute bubble told me about you, I was ecstatic. I never expected to meet you that day, such a coincidence!" Brandon said with so much chirpiness that I had to force myself to not to gag.

He even acted to flip his non-existent hair over his shoulder for extra effect.

"I don't understand, do you know him?" Her voice was shriller, as if she was beginning to understand what was going on.

"Oh. I think Francis haven't introduced me to you yet. I am Brandon, Francis's boyfriend." He took out his hand, but it remained in the air as Bella's hands remained at her sides.

"Isabela--" Francis started but was cut short when she spoke.

"Qu'est-ce qu'il a dit? Est-ce vrai?" Bella hissed in French and I saw Francis hesitate.

My mind immediately translated what she spoke, having made the effort to learn French when I had been dating Francis. I waited for Francis to affirm that whatever Brandon had been saying was the truth.

"Oui." he lied with conviction and Bella broke out into a loud laugh. Though it sounded far from being humorous.

"Excuse me, miss? Are you looking for something?" I turned my head to see the jewellery shopkeeper looking down at me with a smile.

"Huh? Oh no. I will be going," I said, smiling in return.

"Why? This one looks pretty." I whipped my head around to see Liam standing beside me, a huge grin plastered on his face.

I saw Leo and Seth walking towards us as well ,and my stomach churned in fear. If they noticed Brandon with Francis everything would be ruined. This was one alternative that I had been dreading to think about, and it was about to come true.

Brandon had been quite adamant to keep them out of the loop with the plan and I had promised to keep the secret and not let it out.

"Come with me." I grabbed his arm tightly, and pulled him with me, motioning Seth and Leo to follow me as well.

"What's up? Everything okay?" Liam asked, his blue eyes concerned as he looked over my face.

We stopped some meters away, and I opened my mouth to make up some excuse when my phone beeped, signalling a message.

I opened my phone and then read the text Brandon had sent me.

She is not buying it, we need some proof. Think of a Plan B, fast! Francis looks like he is going to faint soon.

"Guys?" I started, looking up and sending a small apology to Brandon in my head, "I need your help."

***

"That's one whacko of a plan, you know?" Leo laughed, staring at me as if I was a genius.

Which was something I seldom experienced, if I was being honest with myself.

"Only if it works as well as it sounds," I grumbled and Leo agreed, his voice a mixture of snickers and grunts.

A bubbly sort of excitement built up in my stomach, and I could see from the mischievous grin the three of them were sporting that they felt so too.

"I have texted Brandon, let's go!" Seth looped his arm around mine and we all set off towards the restaurant.

Bella had graciously offered to buy dinner to the both of them, and having no other choice they had agreed to it. It was still seven thirty and much too early to have dinner of any sort.

I couldn't help but feel that this was a trap and it was going to be impossible to get out of it without any backup plan.

We ushered in, and saw the three of them sitting next to the window. Bella sat alone, a smirk pasted on her face, while Francis and Brandon sat next to each other. Both of them looked a little out of it under her scrutinizing gaze.

Taking a quiet corner in the back with Leo and Liam, we waited for Seth to work his magic.

Brandon excused himself, scrapping his chair against the floor loudly and leaving Bella and Francis alone. He made over to us discretely and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Help me God, that girl is scary," he muttered softly, hiding behind the three of us.

"What happened so far?" I asked him, keeping an eye on Francis, who looked like he was about to choke under Bella's glare.

"Don't ask. She's the devil's incarnation if you believe me. Nothing can faze her, expect maybe public humiliation."

"Public humiliation, you say?" I leaned forward with a smirk. "I think we have that part covered."

"Huh?" he asked confused.

"Look," Leo spoke with excitement and we all turned our heads to see Seth enter the scene.

"Howdy baby? Been humping around lately?" Seth said in a loud voice and draped his arm over Francis, easily sliding in next to him.

"Why do I have such an embarrassing twin?" Liam whispered beside me, and I quickly hushed him.

"I-I am good," Francis stammered, before clearing his throat and attempting to grin back at him.

I saw Bella pause, her fork halfway in the air as she frowned at Seth. Her eyes eyed his dyed hair and piercings with disapproval.

She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off even before she started.

"What great days we had back then," Seth continued, biting his lips with a soft moan.

Sweet Lord.

The restaurant seemed to go silent for a second, as they digested whatever had been said aloud before politely ignoring and resuming again.

"Excuse me? Who are you?" Bella stiffened, watching Seth with hawk eyes, her voice cutting once again through the sounds.

"I miss those...mmhh..." Seth said loud enough again and smacked his lips against Francis cheeks this time.

The cutlery in Bella's hand clattered to the ground and she had to work to keep her mouth closed.

I watched with satisfaction that everyone was staring at them, with a bemused expression on their faces.

"Do you fancy another night with me?" Seth asked directly, and trailed his fingertips down Francis's face.

"Oh shit." Liam cursed as everyone, literally everyone inside the restaurant held their breath to watch Bella's reaction.

"You, go!" I whispered to Leo, taking advantage of her silence and trying to deliver the second blow.

Leo nodded excitedly and then composed himself before walking confidently and slightly like a girl to them.

Oh god, he is not...

"Oh my pinkie! Is that my baby Francy?" Leo exclaimed flailing his arms around and then crushing Francis with a back hug. His hips jutting out a little too much as he did so.

I slapped my hand against my forehead. Of course he had to act like that!

The palpable tension emitting from Bella was visible like waves around her as she watched her supposed fiancé being showered by hugs and kisses by his male 'friends'.

"Liam would you like to do the deed?" I whispered at him and he grinned, jumping up from his seat.

Everyone watched him, his tall height unmistakable as he walked towards them.

"Hey! Now I remember where I had seen them, they won the swimming competition today!" Someone whispered in a rush to their partner.

"Omg, I just Googled that girl and she's a celebrity!" The other partner spoke loud enough that everyone heard it throughout the restaurant.

A celebrity?

"Brandon, Google her fast," I whispered to him and he whipped out his phone.

"Daughter of major record-breaking food company. Constant head turner for her cooking skills and fashion choices," he whispered back and I hissed, but there was no turning back now, the damage was done.

"Francis baby? Have you been cheating on me? And Seth how dare you?!" Liam shouted and joined the mix.

Francis was being pinched, tickled, smacked and inappropriately touched everywhere now.

So much so that I heard an elderly woman shout,

"Security! Will you please let these hormonal boys out of here before they start an orgy right here?!" The waiters had been watching everything silently till now but their faces were starting to tell a different story now.

"Oh god! I am so embarrassed for her! I heard she was getting engaged. But looks like that pretty body is not enough to save any of them." I heard a high schooler snicker, her group of friends giggling behind her jeer.

Apparently it was enough of insults for Bella, because she instantly stood up, her face red with anger and embarrassment.

"Y-you... " Her finger trembled as she pointed it towards Francis, her eyes sweeping all of them with disgust.

"Ughh!" She smashed the glass of water in front of her and then I realised the depth of her anger.

"Oh dear!" The old woman clutched her heart and a few people got up to help her.

"Brandon are you thinking, what I am thinking you are thinking?" I nudged him, as I saw some scary looking guys, most probably security, closing up on the restaurant through the window.

"If by that, you mean, running?" he asked hopefully, eyeing the bulky people outside and I frantically nodded.

"Run! Everyone run!" I shouted, grabbing Brandon's hand and pulling him.

"What? What? What happened?!" Seth shouted, too engrossed in his acting to notice anything else.

"Stupid, run!" I shouted, pushing behind the crowd of people around the spasaming old lady, who winked at me before continuing whatever she was doing.

The waiters were cleaning up the mess, Bella was almost screaming everyone's heads off in French, when Leo suddenly shouted.

"What is happening here? Is there a fire? Huh, a fire or something? Tell me!"

"Oh my god, there's a fire!" Someone screamed on the other end.

"What, where?!" Another screamed, sending half a dozen people more to scream.

"Pull the fire button!" Brandon shouted and I pulled it, and immediately the room filled with a loud siren, red lights flashing everywhere.

"Liam, Francis get up!" I shouted, noticing that Bella now stood there with her eyes closed.

"Now is the time! Run!" Seth shouted as sprays of water started sprinkling down from the ceiling, drenching all of us.

All of us ran out of the restaurant, my last glimpse of of chaos everywhere, with the only exception Bella, standing calmly there, drenched to core with her eyes set on us.

Two waiters followed us out in a rush, shouting hysterically at us. Not blinded by whatever had happened inside.

"Get those scoundrels!" One shouted pointing towards us and the security staff turned to us.

"Save your lives!" Seth shouted, instantly running away, Francis and Liam behind him.

Leo sneaked away before Brandon and I could even blink.

Three of the security ran behind them, with only one left with us.

He looked at us and sneered, walking slowly towards us.

I took a staggering step back and Brandon's hand immediately caught mine. Keeping me close behind him.

"You won't be able to escape me, scoundrels." He rubbed his palms together and let out a throaty laugh, taking another step forward.

Uh-oh.

*****