Chapter |21|

I'm bad when it comes to impulsive decisions. Scratch that- very bad. I guess that's why I couldn't figure out why I kissed Daniel.

I mean, I knew that the shock of the kiss would divert his attention completely, but I didn't hesitate much. It had to be because I didn't want to get caught in something that could be manipulated.

Even though my brain was telling me how wrong this was, I couldn't stop thinking how right it felt.

My stomach was creating a havoc inside and the softness of Daniel's lips spread some tingly feelings. His shock was enough to make him forget the panic attack he was experiencing.

I faintly heard the door being shut and I quickly parted from him. I took a step back in whatever space there was.

Daniel seemed to be figuring out what had just happened. I saw him shake his head violently a couple of times before slowly opening the door after confirming that Saliva Factory had gone.

Neither of us uttered a word as we both scrambled out of the cramped space.

He took in some deep ragged breaths before calming himself and sitting down on the carpeted floor.

He fetched his phone and typed in something before leaning his back on the cupboard and taking deep breaths.

Meanwhile, I stood there awkwardly in a towel. Daniel seemed to notice this after a while, since he grabbed one of his shirts and gave it to me.

I muttered a small thanks and put the t shirt on top of my towel. "Did she go?"

He takes a moment before answering. "Yeah. She's waiting for me downstairs, in the living room."

I simply nodded and started my way out of the closet but stopped when I heard my name.

I turned around to see that Daniel had gotten up and was facing me. I have him a quizzical look to which he replied by scratching the nape of his neck.

"T-Thanks for-uh yeah. I know you just did it so we won't get caught so I don't hold it against you," he said, making me sag in relief a little. At least he didn't make wrong assumptions.

There was a tinge of disappointment but I ignored that part. I nodded with a small smile. "No problem."

"So, friends?" He spoke cautiously. It was a step ahead from acquaintances so I guess that was alright.

I gave him a small smile. "Friends."

With that, I took an about turn and marched my way to my room, not wanting to get caught like this.

Friends. Maybe it was a better building of trust. Who knew, maybe we could become really good ones by the end of the Ball. At least that would be a good thing.

With that thought in mind, I quickly changed into my own clothes and went to bed.

It had been an exhausting night.

****

A weird sound woke me up. A moment later, I realised that it was coming from my stomach. I looked at the digital clock on the bed side, it read 3:47 AM in bright green digits.

I was hungry and my stomach wasn't stopping the idiotic sounds, trying to convey that it needed food to be put in, right away.

Groaning, I got up and dragged my feet downstairs towards the kitchen. Once I reached, I noticed that the lights were already on.

Was there a burglar? It was the first thought that came into my mind. But then, why would a burglar switch on a light to steal something?

Entering into the kitchen, I noticed a figure hunched beside the fridge. Daniel was poring himself a glass of orange juice. I guess even he was having a hungry moment.

I walked towards him but before that, I grabbed some milk from the table top.

"What are you doing here?" I asked and he jolted in response, his hand flying up and tilting the almost full glass on me.

I shrieked as I felt the cold liquid crawl down inside my clothes. My jaw unhinged and involuntarily, I splashed the milk in my hand, on him.

It took me a moment to realise what had happened. My eyes widened as I looked at Daniel's t-shirt in horror and then snapped my gaze to mine, which was sticking to my chest.

Before I could say or do anything, a large bowl of flour was dumped on my head, making my jaw unhinge even more. My head snapped up and I saw Daniel smirking. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You're so dead." I warned.

"Sure."

With that, I grabbed three eggs from the fridge and quickly cracked them on his head. His smirk vanished as the yolk of the egg dripped down his hair. He abruptly turned and tried to look for something to attack me with and I did the same.

Roughly half an hour later, I was covered in mayo, ketchup, eggs, flour, orange juice, cranberry juice and some other gooey stuff while Daniel was splattered with pancake mix, melted butter, eggs, chocolate and strawberry sauce among a few other things.

One look at each other and we burst out laughing.

It felt oddly nice, even though it mean that I'd have to shower again.

"Let's clean before showering?" Daniel offered as he examined the mess around us.

I agreed. Emma wouldn't be happy seeing her kitchen in a mess. With that, we both started cleaning up whatever mess we had caused.

It took us a while but we managed to get most of it out.

I was about to head upstairs to shower when I remembered. My shower didn't work and it was too early to wake Emma or Chloe up.

I inwardly groaned. I was so not in the mood for a repeat of what had happened earlier.

I voiced my concern to Daniel who was hunched up, collecting the last of the mess.

He looked up, discarding the garbage. "You go shower first, I'll do it once you're done. Meanwhile I'll sort everything out so that mom doesn't skin me alive."

I chuckled and nodded.

This time I carefully took all my clothes and utilities inside, not forgetting even a thing.

Rinsing myself off of whatever food item is bathed in, a while ago, I quickly changed into my clothes and went into my room, before Daniel came up.

It wasn't that awkward now that everything was cleared and we had become friends. But still, I needed atleast a day to brush off whatever that had happened in the span of a few hours.

***

"Alright. Is everyone here?" Lisa asked, her eyes running through the crowd of people.

Once she heard a murmur of 'yes' she continued. "So, today, before we start with our next activity, we have the elimination round!"

Nervous jitters crawled up my spine as I tried to recall how I had performed in the previous activities.

I wasn't the only one nervous, though. Anxious looks were being thrown everywhere.

I tried to look for my new friend but I couldn't even spot him.

I was about to walk in some other direction to look for him but a nasally voice stopped me.

"Hey, you!"

I inwardly groaned as I turned around. I was already sweating in my belts and I didn't have the energy to face either of the devil's spawns.

Coming face to face with Lacey, I was ready to bury myself in the ground.

"Listen bitch, tell your wannabe friend to stay away from Daniel. He is mine," she sneered and I paused for a moment, confused.

"What friend?" I asked her, puzzled.

"You're so dumb. I'm talking about Skylar," she said and my mouth opened in an 'o' in realisation.

"Ah. Sure, I'll convey your message," I started to turn around when she grabbed my hoodie and turned me back around.

"I wasn't finished yet," she barked and continued,"Tell that hoe that I know that she was with Daniel yesterday."

I froze momentarily. "What?"

"Daniel has never asked me to wait for him so I knew it had to be that bitch who must've been trying to seduce him. Tell her that he is mine."

Now she was annoying me. First off, I wasn't trying to seduce Daniel. Hell I couldn't even flirt to save my life and seducing? That's like alien language to me.

And second of all, he only said that she wasn't his girlfriend. So why the sudden possessiveness?

"Why are you claiming him as yours when you aren't even his girlfriend?" I asked her and her expression displayed shock for a brief second.

"Who told you that?"

"I-uh, Daniel told Skylar and she told me," I replied and her expression returned the scowl.

"He would never."

I was about to reply when Daniel showed up. "There you ar-"

Both of us turned around and saw him flicking his gaze from me to her which made me wonder who he was looking for.

"Oh Danny! Look what this bitch is s-"

I rolled my eyes and tuned out to what she was saying. I didn't know what hold she had in Daniel, but whatever it was, it didn't seem healthy.

Returning my attention to Lisa, I listened to her as she announced the pairs who were going to be eliminated.

There were two pairs from each group, meaning that there would be a total of six eliminations.

A sigh of relief escaped me as my name didn't get announced but soon annoyance took over when I realised that Alicia and Lacey were still in too.

Lisa called all the remaining pairs for the next activity. I turned around to call Daniel when I saw him busy sucking faces with Saliva Factory.

Immediately my mind went to the feeling of his lips on mine and I tried to shake off the feeling.

Grimacing at the sight and my thoughts, I quickly proceeded towards my destination.

After what seemed like fifteen minutes, my lovely partner seemed to have gotten time to join me. Lisa was almost done explaining the activity by then.

"So what's the activity?" He whispered once he was done cleaning his face.

"It's something about finding our way in and out of the woods or something like that," I told him as Lisa called out the pairs to take a map for the woods.

"Each pair would be having a different map. Now for a separate briefing, I would like all the boys to come to my right while all the girls can go collect their required material from the bags there," she announced, pointing towards her right where huge sacks were kept in a line.

I trudged my way to the sacks and observed the items there.

There were water bottles, maps, match sticks, torch, a stack of sticks among other things.

Looking at the items, it felt more like going in for the Hunger Games. Amused by the material, I quickly grabbed a small shoulder bag and started putting in items that I thought would be useful.

Once I was done, I turned and stood by the starting point where all the guys were coming after their briefing.

Daniel came and stood by me. "Ready?"

I shrugged in response. "Yeah, I guess."

He nodded and got ready for the whistle to blow.

Once a shrill squeak of the whistle pierced through the air, all the pairs started their way into the woods.

Everyone had a different starting point so the pairs were alone in the woods.

Both, Daniel and I walked in silence for a couple of minutes before I started getting bored. Only our footsteps were being heard as I tried to follow the map that was given to us.

"Wanna continue the twenty questions?" I asked Daniel who shrugged in response.

"Why not?"

"Okay, I'll go first. What did you mean when you said Lacey wasn't your girlfriend?" I asked, hoping that the question wasn't offensive or anything.

He paused, clearly not expecting me to be so direct. He cleared his throat before speaking-

"If I tell you that, will you tell me why you don't like your sister?" He asked and I was taken aback.

He remembered that?

I thought for a moment. It was only fair if I told him since what I asked was also a personal question.

Moreover, weren't we friends now? I guess I could share it with him.

"Yeah. I'll tell you," I answered.

Nodding, he started with three words that nearly made me topple. "I love her."

I snapped my head towards him in surprise. That was so not what I expected.

"Elaborate?" I probed, cautiously.

He awkwardly cleared his throat before continuing,"Uh- actually she is my first love. I met her last year in some business function or something like that. We hit off well and I kinda fell for her.

I asked her out but she said she didn't like me as much as I did. I was about to back off but she suggested that she could be my girlfriend if I wanted to," he narrated and my jaw was almost grazing the floor.

I continued to listen with total surprise and a bit of shock, as he narrated.

"Obviously I did want her to be my girlfriend, so I agreed to her terms. She said that for everyone outside, she could be my girlfriend but she didn't want to be bound by a relationship so she wouldn't technically be in one with me. She is my girlfriend but personally we haven't labelled it as a relationship because she doesn't like being someone's girlfriend ," he explained and my mind was still trying to wrap itself around whatever he had spoken.

"So you mean to say that she is your girlfriend but she is actually not?" I asked, confusing myself with what I asked.

He simply nodded. "You won't understand. For me, she is my girlfriend and for her I'm her boyfriend but we are technically not in a relationship."

Holy moly. This shit was confusing.

I was about to accept the whole explanation when another thing struck me.

Why was he telling me all this so easily?

He could've easily dodged the question since it's just a stupid game of twenty questions. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at Daniel who was supporting a calm expression.

Was he even telling the truth?

"Why are you answering all of my questions so easily?" I finally voiced my confusion.

He looked at me with raised eyebrows,"Do you not want me to?"

"NO. I mean, that's not what I meant. I- just um. I'm just a stranger to you and aren't you scared that I'll go gossiping?" I asked curiously.

He shrugged. "I don't think you're the gossiping kind. Moreover, aren't we friends, now?"

Okay, I'll be honest and say that it was kind of flattering to know that he didn't see me as some telltale.

"Plus, I don't think Lacey would mind if I told people about it since she, herself has told a couple of guys, herself,"he shrugged.

I almost gaped at him. "She has told some guys about this-whatever it is that you two have- and you don't have any problem with it?"

"She said she just wanted to clear some confusion for them," he replied and I wanted to literally kick his butt.

Was he that naive or was this all an act? I don't think that a guy can be this stupid. Or was he choosing to ignore any fact?

"Okay, this might sound rude or stuff but right now I very close to not caring. So tell me, how do you know that she's not cheating on you?" I asked, not caring of it was rude.

I expected him to get angry but he was strangely blank faced.

"I'm not an idiot, you know. I kind of did suspect her of doing such stuff but then she always had an alibi for those times so I didn't have anything to prove that she was betraying me in any way," he said and walked with me in the woods.

"But then-wait. Where are we?" I looked around to see that we were somewhere off our trail.

I went a couple of steps forward to examine the area. I furrowed my eyebrows as I tried to locate exactly where I was. I opened the map and studied it.

"Hey Daniel, I think we're lost..,"I said turning around to face him but was surprised when I found no one.

No. Please don't tell me I was lost.

I quickly looked around, calling for him but I didn't hear anything.

I was about to run back from where we had come but stopped when I heard a girlish scream from somewhere towards my right.

I was about to rush in that direction when another faint scream from somewhere behind me reached my ears.

I was about to piece everything together when a gloved hand wrapped around my mouth, dragging me backwards.

My eyes widened when the person grabbed my hands to cease too much motion.

What in the world was happening?

*****

Hey guys!!

How was the chapter? What do you think about Daniel's somewhat confession? And Skylar and Daniel being friends?

Also... I need ship names for your ships. The one who gives the best ship name first, will get a mention in the beginning with the credit for the name in the next chapter.

Vote and comment! Your comments make my day!

See you next time!

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