Ruby

Adonis had dragged me along for quite sometime before my brain finally woke up and remembered that I wasn't supposed to let him pull me like that.

I was about to snatch my hand from his grasp when he stopped walking. As an effect, I bumped into his back which gave me more of his nice scent.

"Let's stay here," he simply said and I noticed the space was quiet and empty. I had no idea whether to be relieved or scared. "Are you going to say something?" his thick voice dragged me out of my thoughts and he turned to face me, a wide, gorgeous smile on his face.

"Why did you bring me here?" I finally found my rebellious tone.

" You didn't stop me. " His response shut me up without stress and I blinked toward my left. I was already training my eyes on the white wall opposite me when he said, "You look gorgeous."

What on earth is wrong with me?

My cheeks were growing warm at his words. I bet I could make chilled water turn warm with them.

Hopefully, I wasn't looking as red as fire.

"Listen..." I dragged a long breath which I eventually released as slowly as possible to let the miniature nervousness inside me slide away. "... Mr. Klaus."

My eyes met his which had started to glitter in a weird way. Maybe it was due to the partial darkness, but just as his eyes were intriguing during the day, they seemed surreal in the dark lights. "You should stop doing this."

"Doing what?" he asked, his voice wearing a hint of falsified innocence.

"Stop acting like talking about kissing me and wanting me is okay. You are my teacher for goodness sake." My palms jammed together violently to show how serious I was. "Do you really see nothing wrong with what you are doing? "

He blinked without emotions hidden anywhere on his face and my anger grew.

"Mr. Klaus, you could lose your job! You could lose everything you have if this goes wrong!"

His hands went to his waist and he watched me, his face still void of emotion.

"Mr. Klaus, do you not care about your future? You are young and if being cozy with me goes the wrong way, you could ruin that future. And mine too."

My brows lifted at his refusal to display how my rants affected him. "Will you please say something?" My firm voice softened while he remained silent.

"First..." I was about to walk away with growing annoyance within me when his first word stopped me. "The fact that you are this worried brings me to an interesting conclusion."

" Wh- What conclusion?" My steps danced backward and he took one closer to me. My entire senses which were furiously awake became frenzied.

His eyes twinkled some more. "I can't help but think that I am doing something right."

I watched with caution as one of his hands reached for my face and contrary to what I had hurriedly planned in my head, as his palm landed on my left cheek, I found it hard to snap his touch away.

It felt so warm and comforting and...

"I think that my words..." Adonis seemed to lean closer but maybe my imagination was just picturing his lips moving closer to mine. "... are doing more than telling you what I want."

" D- Don't be ridiculous," my voice shook slightly.

Okay, my imagination was real, his face was super close to mine and I am still finding it hard to push him away.

"No, I am just stating facts," he growled onto my lips, and the way his breath gently tickled them was making my head run. "It seems like you have been thinking about me a lot. Perhaps..."

I watched stilly as his head tilted to the side by an inch.

As his stimulating eyes left mine and travelled to my lips, he continued with his low, quite tempting voice. "Perhaps you have been dreaming about my lips being on yours. Maybe, just maybe..."

The air from his heavy cycle of inhaling and exhaling burnt my skin in a way that made me want to grab onto the hem of his shirt. But I didn't do that, I needed to show him he was wrong. I needed to tell myself I was being ridiculous for letting his mere breath make me feel like the inexperienced girl I was.

"I wonder if you have been wondering how it will feel..." His touch on my skin relaxed and his hand went to his side.

" Uh...?"

" But you know what..." Within nanoseconds, his entire drama ended and I couldn't be more relieved. "You are right. I shouldn't be so insensitive to how wrong what I am doing is."

" That's exactly what I am saying, Mr. Klaus."

He nodded. "Earlier, you mentioned my future."

For the first time, his eyes didn't attempt to bore sexily into mine. Mr. Klaus made his eyes dart towards the floor and he continued. "I haven't exactly lived my life in a way that would ensure I have a promising future. But I can tell how much of a bright one you have Ruby Powers. And I don't want to be the one to ruin that for you."

The smile he wore at the end of the statement made my heart squeeze with pity.

"Thank you, Mr. Klaus. I-"

"And regarding my job, I am a substitute teacher. In two months I'll be gone and-"

" You are going far away?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. I bet I looked like something disastrous was about to hit me.

He chuckled softly. "Not really. I will be around because I have to protect someone. "

" Oh. "

" Anyway Ruby Powers, I'll be drawing the line here and-"

" Wait, can't you just ask the principal to make you a permanent teacher or something? It might be hard to get another job. "

" I don't exactly have the credentials to become one. And Ruby Powers, you really need to work on making your actions match the fierce words you throw my way."

While biting into the softness of the inside of my mouth, I managed to look elsewhere while I decided that his words were true.

"Listen," Mr. Klaus continued, his voice now carrying a kind of softness. "From now on, I won't bother you, I don't want to be the reason your life comes to a pause. So, I'll be drawing a boundary line myself."

" And... You won't speak about kissing me?"

" No. That's part of the boundary I have drawn. But-"

The feeling of disappointment that befell me when he said no earlier faded when his voice took on an excited tone.

"In two months, I will be done working in your school."

"So?"

" I might consider demolishing the line by then. I am not exactly good with keeping my intentions caged," he said causally.

" So..."

He smirked. "Let's call it a night here. See you in school on Monday."

Without a word more, Adonis Klaus walked away, leaving me in the dark lights with weird emotions flying within me.

As an unenthusiastic sigh escaped me, I wondered why I just couldn't be decisive about the man. One minute, the idea of him wanting me makes me annoyed, the next, I am liking it.

And I really can't help but feel that the line he has drawn would make things worse.

Or maybe I am the one making things worse.

I was about to ponder more when my phone vibrated. It was a message from Abby which was practically screaming at me to make myself visible.

After a few minutes which involved almost missing my way, I made it back to the ravaging venue which was getting heavily fogged with fumes and smoke. As I made my way to the very spot Abby and Jake had left me, I noticed the back of Adonis Klaus's head slipping away at the other side.

"Where on earth did you go?" Abby fiercely asked when got to where she was.

Shrugging, I replied, "I met someone familiar. How did it go with Jake?"

I changed the subject before she could ask who the familiar person is.

"Well..." A bottle of wine appeared in her hand and she took a really long gulp from it and that worried me immediately. As she broke the noisy swallow, she faced me, smacked her lips, and said, "It didn't go well."

"He doesn't like you the same way?"

She nodded. "He likes someone else."

" Wait, what? He gave me the impression that I know the person he likes. Who is this person?"

" Uh..." She slightly turned to face the crowd who were now a bit tamed thanks to the low-tempo song the DJ was playing. "I don't know who she is. But it's fine. As you said, at least I got it out of my system. And that's the important thing, right?"

I could read the bitterness in her voice and with the way she grabbed the neck of the bottle, I knew it would be better to leave the place.

"Should we go back home?" I suggested. "We could continue our party there."

Her head flung in my direction effortlessly. Eyes suddenly looking like a doe, she said, "That sounds nice. Can we get some chips on our way?"

"And chocolates too."

"That too. That's why I love you. You know what's good for us."

" Technically too much of it is-"

Her finger landed on my lips. " Shush. Don't do that. Don't ruin our plan to get wasted in junk food."

I smiled and nodded. As she removed her finger, I scanned the room for Jake while asking the girl beside me, "We should tell Jake we are leaving, shouldn't we?"

" You tell him, I don't think I can face him till Monday."

Abby definitely needed the junk food treatment. Since that was already established, I saved myself the trouble of having to look for Jake and texted him about our plans to abandon him.

Minutes later, Abby and I were outside, our heels in our hands and her small bag which contained my phone, crossed over my chest.

In silence, we resumed a walk to the nearest bus stop. Immersed in the peace of the night, my mind went to Adonis Klaus and his boundary line. I wondered if that line would be sustained considering I'll still be seeing his fine face for some time.

Yes, I am acknowledging it, the man is really, really gorgeous.

"Oh. My. God." Abby's sudden enunciation snapped me out of my thoughts which were already picturing his lips.

"What is it, Abby?"

"Look over there." She pointed in a direction behind me and as I turned, all I saw was a cluster of people who seemed to be worried about something.

"Is there anything of interest there?"

"Look at the bloody scene, Ruby. The woman on the ground, doesn't she look like-?"

My frown deepened at her words. " Look like who?"

"So um... remember that woman that came to school with a party bus and all?"

" Diane?" I craned my neck at the scene ahead to see if I could decipher what Abby was hinting at.

"Yes, her. That woman on the floor, covered in blood, looks like her," she gently said.

I gave a short, unbelieving laugh. " Are you drunk already, Abby? Don't be silly."

"Let's get closer and make sure it is not her." Before I could argue, she was already dragging me across the street.

When we finally got to the scene, it was bloody quite all right and the people around wore distasteful and pitiful looks on their faces.

"Ruby, look. I swear it is her."

As I managed to leave the back of the tall man in front of me, I prayed within me that Abby's memory was failing her.

But when my eyes finally landed on the gore sight on the ground, my head lost blood and I fell onto the ground.

It was her. It was my real mother and she had been brutally butchered.