Chapter 55

KIRA:
I can do this, I tell myself as I wait in the school’s hallway while looking around for someone in particular.
It has been a long ten minutes since I got here waiting. A long ten minutes of trying to overcome my nervousness about what I plan to do. Every passing minute though has been tough for me because it becomes harder and harder to even feel better about myself.
I feel like I have set myself up for something that I cannot handle. But I have to constantly remind myself that what I want to do is just talk. Probably apologize too for my ill attitude. And all this is because of Kelvin who I am desperately waiting for to show up.
My height is sort of a disadvantage for me as I look through the crowd of students passing by me. Yes, that is how it has always been which is why it was easy for Sophie and her gang to pick on me. But not now. I don’t need such a disadvantage now. It should be nigh perfect in seeking out Kelvin from the crowd.
All of a sudden my nostrils pick up a familiar scent. Obviously, one that smells like the cologne Kelvin uses. And when I ask Alexia for confirmation about that, she affirms that he is truly nearby now.
I spot him a few meters away and so I go through the crowd to catch up with him. Even though it is obvious he can sense me approaching him, he chooses to ignore my presence but that doesn’t dissuade me from getting to him.
When I get to his side, he does not look like he is going to stop for a moment to acknowledge my presence. So I decide to do the needful by grabbing him by the arm with quite an amount of force instilled into it. At least it was enough to stop him from walking on.
“What do you want?” is what he asks as he twirls around to look me straight in the face with his hands in the pockets of his jacket. It even prompts me to let go of him lest I get a fracture on my hand from him turning his body to the side.
“I want to talk to you about something,” I admit as I respond to what he just asked me. Although I must say I did not sound any confident when I spoke.
He shakes his head and instantly turns around to leave but I quickly grab him by the arm again and say, “Wait!” In the process of doing that, I look around to see that all eyes were on us because of the little drama we were pulling off. Normally I should feel embarrassed by that but I decide not to even reflect on it.
“What do you really want, Kira?” Kelvin asks me and this time around his tone is icy cold which sums up his attitude of trying not to talk to me. At least he was able to stay which would be enough to talk to him.
“Let me start by apologizing for what I did to you. I’m sorry,” I tell him.
What he does as a response to my apology is snicker out loud. Clearly, he is mocking me but I am not going to let that get to me because it would only worsen the situation for me. Keep your cool, Kira.
“There is a lot we need to talk about, Kelvin. And I know you hate me now for the things I did but would you please forgive me and let us forget that all those bullshit I did ever happened?”
“So you could find something else to blame on me, right? No, thank you. I’ll pass,”
And for the second time since we started this conversation, I find myself trying to pull him back from leaving. My hands are even starting to get weary from the amount of force I was putting in to stop him from leaving. Wonder what type of strength he possesses.
“Please, Kelvin. I know I made a mistake—”
He cuts me off by saying, “Mistakes... a lot of them.”
Acknowledging his correction, I continue, “Yes, I made a lot of mistakes. But I am willing to correct that only if you give me the chance. I want you to give me the chance to. And I promise that this time around, I will act accordingly.”
“Words,” he mutters while looking away from me into the crowd of students that seem to not want to take their eyes off us. “Look, Kira,” he starts to say as he looks back at me, “Not that I can’t forgive you. But I do not buy the concept of your behavior towards me. Yes, we might not be friends but I treat you with respect. Why can’t I get the same from you?”
“But I treat you with respect too,” I say, sounding sober because of what he thinks of me.
“You don’t. If you do, you will know not to blame for things that you shouldn’t. Yes, I showed you the thing at school. But is it my fault that you started hallucinating about it? You got into trouble with the guards as well. And the person you should be blaming is the Night Blaze alpha yet it is me who takes the blame just because I made you go out of your quarters that day. Now how does that sound like the respect you say you are giving to me when it is all shit that you have been rubbing on me?”
My emotions get into a whirl as I realize how terrible a person I have been to him. It is just not my fault that things are not going well for me and so I decided to vent my frustration on him.
“I’m sorry, Kelvin. There is no justification for the way I treated you. I know I’m a mess and that is why I’m trying to do better now. Just give me another chance to do better and I promise not to let you down this time around. No, I won’t promise because I could end up breaking that. But at least I will try to do better.”
He nods, apparently acknowledging my words. And instantly it ignites a glee in me because I can now say that he has forgiven me. Perhaps he has.
“What do you want to see me for then? Because you said there was something you wanted to talk about,” Kelvin says, taking me back to the reason I approached him in the first place.
“Can we walk? I’ll tell you on the way,” I say to which he agrees to do as we start to move along the hallway together.
I tell him about meeting with Alpha Reid two days ago when he came to the pack, although at first, he thought that I had gone to the Night Blaze or something. Then I proceed to mention the things we discussed, most especially about the thing that he showed me.
“...he told me they call it the substance since they have no name to it. And then he mentioned something that has to do with the hallucinations I had about the thing.”
Kelvin was obviously paying attention to all that I was saying but he does not look in my direction all through while I do that in place.
“What was it that he mentioned?” he asks.
“He mentioned that all those that witnessed the thing in his pack also went through what I went through. Including him. And before you think he might not be telling the truth, he mentioned everything to me before I confirmed that I was going through the same issue.”
“So in summary, our packs are having the same issue, is that it?”
“Yes,” I nod to confirm that.
“And that is the reason he was here? To discuss it with Alpha Simon?”
“Exactly.”
“And you know about this because he told you everything that you need to know while also sharing a few things with him?”
I nod again, and before he could ask another question, I decide to throw a question of mine that has been eating me up to ask him since we began discussing. “Did you also hallucinate about the substance, Kelvin?”
The question seems to catch him off guard because he asks, “What?”
“I was asking about the substance,” I say. “Did you also happen to hallucinate about it? Maybe once or twice?”
He looks at me. And it was at that time that we got into the hallway upstairs. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because I just told you that Alpha Reid said all those that saw the substance hallucinated. This also includes me because I told you about that already. So I want to know if you also did?”
All of a sudden he looks a bit skeptical to say anything. Makes me wonder because it was just a simple question I asked him.
However, before he could possibly respond, a loud shrilling noise is heard all over the school.