Feather After // Chapter 62 // Lies

Aria's POV

Misty got pregnant? Why did she never tell me about it? Maybe I know the answer to that. I did, it was because we were never close. We were friends but I hadn't told her about my engagement, she came to know about it when the whole school did.

I wish I could have asked him more things but my mother came out. So I had to leave. Zachariah gave me a hug and I was more than happy that it wasn't a crazy ass kiss like before.

The other problem in my hand was how I was supposed to tell Ignatius that Zachariah kissed me. I know he wouldn't believe it if I told him that it wasn't supposed to happen. I don't know how he would react and to be honest I was kind of scared of what his reaction might be.

As I entered school the next day I saw loads of people looking at me, by now I was used to it. I could already tell that there were pictures of me on the tabloids considering the fact that there was a lot of paparazzi outside the hotel entrance the day before.

I met with Xavier who was waiting for me in front of Mr. Maple's statue.

"Loser," he greeted me as I saw me approaching him. I'm not sure if he had seen the newspaper yet. But anyway it didn't matter.

"Ola Amigo," I smiled as he leaned in for a hug.

"You smell like rotten eggs, Ariel," he said and crunched his upwards.

"Did I turn you on?" He scrunched his face up again and I smiled.

"Let's get going if you don't want to miss any class," he put his left arm around my neck as we started to move towards the main hall.

"Zachariah told me about Misty you know, I mean I don't know how much of what he said is true but yeah. It completely changed my perspective of Misty," I said and he nodded.

"Zachariah as in you're soon to be husband?" He questioned while I just hummed and then he continued, "Well I really don't know him personally but I just feel like you can't trust these business men, I mean what is in here," he said and pointed towards his head and said, "is very different from what is here," he pointed at his heart.

"Should I be concerned? I mean why are you behaving like a-"

"Oh please don't say, boyfriend, I mean there can be some relationship with a girl and a boy where they are not romantically involved."

"Yeah and that relationship is termed as friend zone just like what you did to me," I rolled my eyes at him.

"Well you didn't propose so I just wanted to be clear it out beside you are engaged, I don't think so you'll ever cheat, you're not like that."

By the time he has announced that we were standing right in front of my locker with my heart in my tummy. I debated if it was the right time to tell him what I have been up to; I wanted to tell him all that I felt and all about Ignatius.

I gulped and looked at him, "well you're invited to my wedding on Sunday, I'll bring you the card tomorrow," I tried my best to smile at him and tried to make it look like it wasn't a big deal, but to be honest, it kind of was.

"Well, I have something else to tell you or slash ask you, only if you don't mind," I said again, and he suddenly, looked out of my locker. His head which was buried inside my locker; and I don't know what he was doing there anyway, then he was looking at me as he was trying to figure out what he had in his mind. He raised his eyebrow at me and I gulped, I wasn't ready for this. I took a deep breath and said, "I hope you have a good day!" And I shut my locker and turned away and started walking towards my class.

As I was walking down the hall I could hear Xavier shouting out my name but I shit him off my waving at him.

"What are you up to, girl?" I heard from the corner, I knew it was Rachael by her voice. "I saw the way you did what you did, what is going on?"

"I'm late for English, maybe we can talk later," I told her and I started walking towards the main hall. Before I could walk a few more steps, I was pulled back; I knew it was the one and only Rachael. Who else would do that?

"Who are you fooling man? I know there is no English class today, it was canceled, apparently, the teacher bailed out last minute because she was not well," I looked at her again. I knew I had to spill the beans. God, I was going to be judged so bad now.

"Well, it's a little bit complicated and to be honest, kind of a long story.

I'll-"

"I have seen you like this before, so tell me what's going on?" She asked me. I knew she was dead serious and I knew I wasn't getting away with this one. I had seen the same look on the first day she had met me.

"I really don't know okay? Can't you just leave me alone?" I snatched away my hand. Only then I realized how rude I had said sounded. I looked at her, and her expressions fell down. I instantly felt bad, she genuinely cared for me and I was behaving like an asshole, "I'm sorry, it's just that I lot is going on, and I really don't know how to handle it, I really don't know what I'm supposed to, I have been caught in my own trap and now I realize that there is no going back. Let's go outside, I'll tell you everything."

She nodded and she started walking with me, we sat on the table of the bench in front of the school lawn, and I huffed. She some way or the other got things out of my mouth and even though I didn't appreciate it, I was happy to tell my problems to someone.

"Okay, so I'll start from the beginning, so yesterday things happened," Rachael opened her mouth and I glared at her, so she had to eventually shut up. I looked at her and when she nodded I continued, " so I was talking to Zachariah, who is my husband, and he is the person, I'm going to marry very soon, that is this Sunday," I said that for her clarification and when I thought that she was at the same page as me, "he told me stuff. I know that it's not my problem nor it's my responsibility to get things done but he told me that Misty got pregnant."

I purposely stopped to get Rachael's reaction. She opened her mouth and closed it again. She gulped and looked at me. This was my chance; I could get everything cleared now so when I thought the time was right I asked her, "do you know something about it?"

"I know little tiny bits and pieces about it, but I, not sure how much of it is real, I mean I do know something about it."

She didn't say anything after that. She just looked ahead of us staring at the blank like or was something else. I didn't hear her say a single word. She just slipped water from her bottle once in a while and then stared at the road. She didn't say anything to me and I didn't say anything to her. We both kept quiet. I wanted to ask her things about it, I wanted to ask her things about the whole situation but I respected her silence.

"Okay, I'll tell you what I know, but I really hope that you keep it between you and I, okay? This is classified information and we don't talk about this anymore," she said and I nodded.

"Do you promise you won't say the things I told you to anyone?" She said again after examining me for five more minutes. When I nodded she extended her left pinky, and I wrapped my left pinky around her pinky.

"I don't know to remember the exact age but we had just started high school, Misty was one member of Royal Society and she was really popular here, just like you are right now, but she enjoyed her popularity. She made sure that she would make the best out of the fame and all the attention she got because she was the youngest debutante of the Royal Society in years, so she got almost a lot more fame than she should have gotten. You are with me?" I nodded.

"You said Misty and I are getting the same popularity and attention then what is with me? I mean I am not the youngest debutante?"

"Well, we are yet to figure that out yet, but as I was saying, the freshmen are rarely invited to a senior's party. So I remember she was invited to many parties, having her was like having a big celebrity at a party. She was like a princess, you know, raised the best way she could have been, she was given all the right values. She was raised keeping in mind the Royal etiquette. She was drugged and raped."

Those words where little thunderclaps to me, I was so shocked. I had never thought of Misty as such a brave girl, she was so strong. And suddenly all I felt was sorry, for treating her wrong, all long I was fighting for being tested right and here I was, the massive hypocrite, I hadn't even treated Misty right.

"What? Who did it?" I was still shocked, I took a deep breath, everything that she had wanted was ripped away from her, and she couldn't do anything about it.

I looked at Rachael, she was torn. She wanted to tell me the real deal but she didn't say anything for a while.

"As I told you it was at a frat slash senior year party, I don't know who that person is and I really don't want to point fingers at someone. But that person who was involved in this was also a member of Royal Society and he was kicked the same year as she was," she took a deep breath, I think she knew who the person was, the person who was behind this all, as she had told me, she didn't want to blame anyone because she did not know for sure, nobody did.

"That year a lot of families where kicked out of the Royal Society and that was a first time in history two-three families of different cultural background who were rich enough were invited to join the Royal Society," I nodded and she continued, "she wasn't the only one, my elder sister was in this too, she was at that party that night, when things happened, my dad flipped so we shifted."

I nodded again, there was so much I didn't know, so much I didn't even think about, so many people were getting hurt and nobody was doing anything, my body was numb after hearing what had happened with Misty. She didn't deserve it. "It wasn't her fault, why was she kicked out? She wasn't aware of it, she shouldn't have been thrown out, and this isn't fair!"

"Well, she wasn't kicked out but after that incident, she completely changed, she wasn't that same girl anymore, it was almost like some piece of her had died in that incident. She was in therapy for months. But after she came back, she left the Royal Society, she became what she is today, the free spirit died in her," by the time she said that Rachael and I both had tears in our eyes.

"And I thought she got pregnant," I told her as I wiped my tears. She nodded and I asked her my last question "is her child alive?"

"Nobody knows that for sure," and I knew she was lying.