Chapter-6,part-2

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“I’m not upset. I’m…” I faltered. What the hell was I doing?

Alex didn’t need me defending him. It wasn’t like he was here,

listening to us. Even if he were, he wouldn’t care.

If there was one person in the world who didn’t give a shit what

others thought of him, it was Alex Volkov.

“Guys, you’re missing the point.” Jules waved a hand in the air.

“The point is, Alex did show emotion. Over Ava. We could have

fun with this.”

Oh, no. Jules’s idea of “fun” usually involved a heap of trouble

and a potential dose of embarrassment on my part.

“What kind of fun?” Bridget looked intrigued.

“Bridge!” I kicked her under the table. “Don’t encourage her.”

“Sorry.” The blonde made a face. “But all I have going on lately

are…” She glanced around to make sure no one was listening.

They weren’t, except for her bodyguard Booth, who sat at the

table behind us and pretended to read the paper while actually

keeping a sharp eye on the surroundings. “Diplomatic events and

ceremonial duties. It’s terribly boring. Meanwhile, my grandfather’s

sick, my brother’s acting weird, and I need something to take my

mind off it all.”

Her grandfather and brother, AKA King Edvard and Crown

Prince Nikolai of Eldorra. I had to remind myself they were human

beings like everyone else, but even after years of friendship with

Bridget, I wasn’t used to her speaking so casually about her

family. Like they weren’t literal royalty.

“I have a theory.” Jules leaned forward, and the rest of us,

even me, leaned in, eager to hear what she had to say. Call it

morbid curiosity, because I was sure I wouldn’t like what was

about to come out of her mouth.

I was right.

“Ava somehow gets under Alex’s skin,” Jules said. “We should

see how far it goes. How much can she make him feel?”

I

rolled my eyes. “All those long hours you put in at your

internship must’ve scrambled your brain, because you’re not

making any sense.”

She ignored me. “I call it…” Dramatic pause. “Operation

Emotion.” She looked up and drew an arc with her hand like the

words would magically appear in the air.

“Creative,” Stella teased.

“Hear me out. We all think Alex is a robot, right? Well, what if

she …” Jules pointed at me. “…can prove he isn’t? Don’t tell me

you guys don’t want to see him act like an actual human being for

once.”

“No.” I tossed my empty coffee cup into the nearest trash can

and almost beaned a passing student in a Thayer sweatshirt. I

winced and mouthed “sorry” before returning to the ridiculous

proposition at hand. “That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”

“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” my so-called best friend

sang.

“What would be the point?” I threw my hands in the air. “How

would it even work?”

“Simple.” Jules pulled a pen and notepad out of her bag and

started scribbling. “We come up with a list of emotions, and you try

to make him feel each one. It’ll be a test of sorts. Like giving him

an annual physical to make sure he’s functioning properly.”

“Sometimes,” Bridget said. “The way your mind works scares

me.”

“No,” I repeated. “Not happening.”

“It does seem kind of…mean.” Stella tapped her gold-polished

nails on the table. “What emotions did you have in mind?”

“Stel!”

“What?” She cast a guilty look in my direction. “I’m curious.”

“Off the top of my head? We’ve already seen him angry, so

happiness, sadness, fear, disgust…” A wicked smile slashed

across Jules’s face. “Jealousy.”

I snorted. “Please. He’d never be jealous of me.”

He was a multimillionaire executive with a genius-level IQ; I

was a college student who worked two jobs and ate cereal for

dinner.

No contest.

“Not jealous of you. Jealous over you.”

Bridget perked up. “You think he likes Ava?”

“No. ” I was tired of saying that word. “He’s my brother’s best

friend, and I’m not his type. He told me so.”

“Psshh.” Jules waved away my protest like she would a

mosquito. “Men don’t know what they want. Besides, don’t you

want to get back at him for what he did to Owen?”

“I don’t,” I said firmly. “And I’m not going along with this crazy

idea.”

Forty-five minutes later, we decided Phase One of Operation

Emotion would commence in three days.

I HATED MYSELF FOR CAVING.

Somehow, Jules always convinced me to do things against my

better instincts, like that time we drove four hours to Brooklyn to

watch some band perform because she thought the lead singer

was hot, and we ended up stranded in the middle of the highway

when our rental car broke down. Or that time she convinced me to

write a love poem to the cute guy in my English lit class, only for

his girlfriend—who I hadn’t known existed—to find it and hunt me

down in my dorm.

Jules was the most persuasive person I’d ever met. A good

quality for an aspiring lawyer, but not so much for an innocent

friend, i.e. me, who wanted to stay out of trouble.

That night, I climbed into bed and closed my eyes, trying to

sort through my racing thoughts. Operation Emotion was

supposed to be a fun, lighthearted experiment, but it made me

nervous, and not just because it erred on the side of mean

spirited. Everything about Alex made me nervous.

I shuddered, thinking of how he’d retaliate if he found out what

we were up to, and thoughts of being flayed alive consumed me

until I fell into a light, fitful sleep.

“Help! Mommy, help me!”

I

tried to scream those words, but I couldn’t. I shouldn’t.

Because I was underwater, and if I opened my mouth, all the

water would rush in, and I would never see Mommy and Daddy

and Josh again. That was what they told me.

They also told me not to go near the lake by myself, but I

wanted to make pretty ripples in the water. I liked those ripples,

liked how throwing one little stone could cause such a big effect.

Only those ripples were suffocating me now. Thousands and

thousands of them, dragging me further and further from the light

above my head.

Tears trickled from my eyes, but the lake swallowed them and

buried my panic until it was just me and my silent pleas.

# To be continued #

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