Chapter 34: Revenge

She stated firmly, her mouth set into a hard line. “And Orlando is coming too. We’ve kept him out of the loop long enough.”

Lani chuckled softly, gaining Dipi’s sharp glare.

“Are you sure he won’t just stay nice because he is talking to a prominent figure?” Thulani asked laughing softly. Dipika continued to glare at him, and eventually, Lani broke. I chuckled at the sight, breaking my sister out of her stare.

“Common Dipi, he is my soulmate. And I have been with him for a while now. I think that I would know if he was a dick.” I laughed, gaining a pout from my older sister.

“That is for Orlando and I to decide.” Dipika stated, finishing the conversation by bringing a bit of waffle up to her mouth. I rolled my eyes and continued to eat my breakfast as well.

It was the morning after I had spent the evening at Dean’s place. I immediately told my friends about it and the first person to speak was Dipi. I wasn’t too sure of what they thought of the situation. And, other than Dipi’s predictable reaction, I was honestly a bit curious about them.

“I’m not super sure about him.” Warlo said, picking at his eggs and toast. “The stories that you told haven’t necessarily been the best and he is famous. We’ve all heard about how crazy some famous people are.”

“True,” Harvey added, not surprising anyone with his agreement. “I hate to be pessimistic but I have no idea if this guy is legit and I worry that he could be taking advantage.”

I opened my mouth to respond but Nick was already defending me.

“Advantage?” Nick asked, his voice low and icy. “Advantage of what? Sebastian’s sad mind or weak body? He could break all of the bones in that old man’s body if he wanted to and not break a sweat. Sebastian is not a simple puppet being controlled. He made the choice to start dating this guy even after finding out that he was indeed famous. I think that we should trust that.”

Nick sent me a discreet nod and I returned it in kind.

“Well . . . ” Sam trailed off, her bright white teeth biting down on her bottom lip. “I don’t think that it is that simple. Sebastian, you have been a fan of his for a long time. Maybe he used that to his advantage when pursuing you?”

At that sharp glare that I was sending her way, Sam quickly backtracked.

“Of course, we don’t know! We weren’t there.” Sam added quickly, raising both of her hands up next to her head. “But maybe this is something to think about.”

I shook my head and sighed, everyone’s comments going through my head.

“He didn’t do that, just so you know.” I told them quietly, eyes trained on the table. “And just so you know, I am having him meet you because you are my friends and I would like for my boyfriend to know you. You are not the sole factor of whether I continue to date him or not so know that unless it is rightfully founded, I will be ignoring anything you say about him.”

I saw them settle into their seats and try to accept the announcement but Dipi was still not backing down.

“Don’t forget what I did to all of your other ‘girlfriends’.” Dipi told me, giving me a dark look. I frowned and ignored her comment.

Dipika was a great sister, but she was unnecessarily protective over me. She fully encouraged any crushes that I had, but whenever I tried to do anything serious with girls, she came like a momma bear to chase them away. While it did irritate me, it usually proved that the girls weren’t worth it. One girl had even tried to flirt with her and at that point, I had thrown her out myself.

My brother was more of the quiet type when it came to judging my dates. He used to watch them and eventually decide if he liked them or not. He was often the last thing that my sister needed to scare them away. He would mentally tell my sister what he thought and she would run them out.

This time, though, I wouldn’t let them do the same. I was fully invested in my boyfriend and the last thing that I wanted was for him to be run out by my sister’s antics. He had to stay and I was going to make sure of it.

“He won’t be the same, you don’t know Dean like I do.”

~~~~~

“Are you sure that this is alright?” Dean asked nervously, pulling on his jacket and dusting off his pants. I chuckled and raised myself up on tippy toes to kiss his left cheek.

“It’s fine. They might act a bit weird because most of what they know about you is from stories and rumours but when they get to know you, they’ll all love you.” I told him warmly, running a distracted hand down the front of his jacket. Dean gave a skeptical look but I simply returned it with a smile. “Really.”

Sighing, Dean finally relaxed and from there, the two of us made the rest of the way to my shared room with Warlo and Nick. It was a bit awkward having this type of meeting in the one room. But, luckily it was large and Nick and I both put our magic to use to removed the beds and replaced them with some chairs.

The dorm staff would never have to know as long as we replaced it before the next morning.

Dean and I could hear loud chatter before we opened the door. Looking back at my boyfriend, I noticed how he nervously played with his fingers, despite the fact that I had just linked his left arm through mine.

“Let’s go inside before any of my classmates see me cuddling up to my teacher.” I whispered to him, smiling when he jumped.

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” He said, clearing his throat as he spoke.

I reached forward to open the door, but I was beaten to it. The door swung open and we were met with Warlo’s smiling face. But, the smile fell a bit when he saw Dean.

In the seconds that it took Warlo to let us in and have my entire room of friends see him, I actually felt Dean’s confidence drop. I had thought my siblings to be the toughest crowd but everyone was being far worse. Cold looks, blank stares. It was so odd. Even Nick was acting distant.

It took a total of five minutes for me to get tired and run up to the first person I could, Dipi.

“Why are you all acting so weird? I thought we already discussed this yesterday?” I asked her, watching as they completely isolated Dean. Despite the fact that he was clearly upset, Dean kept his head up and acted as if the isolation did not bother him for a second. It only made me further upset. “Whatever it is, you need to stop it.”

Dipi discreetly glanced about the room before pulling me further away from everyone else.

“Although some of us wanted to great him, they didn’t like the fact that they tested you, so they wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine.” Dipi explained, her eyes ablaze with a new fire. Faster than she expected, I shook my head.

“No, Dipi, I don’t want revenge.”

“But-”

“What he did sucked but I don’t want to cause him similar pain.” I told, letting my voice raise and be heard by everyone in the room. “And, this is terrible, being isolated is one of the worst feelings and I hate that this is what you wanted to do to him. Just because he is famous does not mean you guys can torture him. He and I can go and find other people who respect my decisions and choice of partner.”

Walking back to Dean’s side, I took his hand and stared them all down. Dean looked shocked and tried to pull his hand out of mine.

“Wh- Sebastian. You don’t have to do that, I understand why they are upset. What I did wasn’t right.” Dean told me, pulling me to stare into his wide concerned eyes.

“That doesn’t mean they get to punish you for it. That isn’t their place.” I protested, my voice softening the longer I looked at him.

“That is alright, then.” He said, cupping my face in his and pulling me closer. “I can go through a terrible night to get so many more wonderful mornings with you. I would do anything for you.”

“And I would do anything for you.” I repeated, pulling at his jacket to bring him closer. “Whether that be ditching them tonight or doing that thing with my tongue tomorrow-”

“Alright! That’s enough!” Orlando boomed hotly, catching Dean and I off guard and pulling us out of our love haze. “Just so you know, I was not apart of their plan. I just stay quiet all of the time. Let’s have the pizzas and play some games. I’m tired of seeing these two flirt because you guys want to act like mean girls. Come on.”

I laughed, giving Orlando a hug before dragging Dean over to the table. Seeing and smiles and apologetic looks plastered on the faces of those around us made me feel better, but it was best when I noticed the satisfied look on Dean’s face.

“Did you start flirting with me on purpose?” I quietly asked the man as I pulled slice after slice from the large pizzas.

“I got the idea after I had stared in your eyes.” Dean answered swiftly, pulling a slice of meat lovers on to his plate with no issue. “My brother did it when I was odd around his last girlfriend the first time. I was so busy teasing him that I didn’t notice that I was already being nice.”

I giggled and gave Dean another kiss on the cheek.

“I like having a smart boyfriend.”

~~~~~

Slowly but surely --or as my mother likes to say-- slowly by slowly, people came up to us, talked a little bit, and apologized. Dean seemed to hold no hard feelings whatsoever but I made sure to give some killer glares when I got the chance. Which was often.

The tension slowly trickled away and I was eventually able to get the entire group laughing again. I noticed that my brother even got more comfortable. The best part of the night though came a bit later. As everyone was smiling and laughing due to a chain of jokes that Dean had heavily contributed to, I felt a thought nudge into my head.

A mind-link?

I glanced over at Dipika, but she did not seem to be paying attention in the least. So I shifted my gaze over to Orlando, who was looking right at me.

The message was short, simple, and everything that I needed to hear.

I like this guy. Orlando said- or thought. He’s a keeper.

Smiling, I replied, Then feel free to tell Mom and Dad, I’m sure that they’ll agree.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi everyone!

I was not sure if I had actually planned to update this but here we are.

What did you think of this Chapter?

Sebastian’s friends specifically?

I hadn’t planned on them doing that but it sort of happened, sorry if it was weird.

Anyhow,

The planning of this book is happening as I write, but it seems like this is far from over so . . . yeah.

Anywhore,