Chapter 10: Sherlock (Caden's POV)

"What does that prove? What's your theory?" she asked, quickly increasing the distance between us. 

I smiled even wider. "You think you're so smart, don't you? Just like Sherlock?" 

"Sherlock?" she frowned in confusion. 

"Now figure it out. And let me know when you do, Sherlock." I stood up to leave but she grabbed my hand. 

"Wait, wait, wait, I don't even get a hint?" I glanced down at my hand which she grabbed. And she did too before quickly letting it go. "Sorry," she mumbled. 

"A hint? Hmm," I fell into thought. 

What hint can I give her without giving it away? Or actually, why don't I just give it away? It's better for her to figure it out than for me to explain it. 

"You, Ms. Princeton," I sighed while sitting back down. "Don't hate me." 

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. 

"And I-" 

She perked up, looking at me. 

"Don't hate you." 

She blinked, processing my words. 

"Or well, we do hate each other. But only because we have to. Personally, I feel something else for you entirely. Would you like to take a guess, Sherlock?" I stared at her for a minute, smiling. "Enola suits you better, no? Shall I call you that?" 

"Shut up, I'm trying to think," she huffed, clearly agitated with me. "It doesn't make sense. What else could you possibly feel for me?" 

"Maybe I... let's see, maybe I like you?" 

Her brow quirked up. 

"No, that's not it," I clicked my tongue. "Maybe I'm... in love with you?" 

She rolled her eyes, "Is this a game?" 

"No, that's not it either," I shrugged. "Maybe I... am simply attracted to you." 

"Huh," she mumbled, falling into thought about it. "And why would you, Caden Locke, who has despised me since I was born, before you even knew me... why the hell would you be attracted to me?" she chuckled. 

"Don't you know the saying, darling?" I leaned closer to her. "We always want what we can't have." 

"Yes, but you couldn't possibly want me. We could never love each other. The hate is too much between us and our families both," she replied. 

"That's true," I nodded. "But who says I want us to love each other? No, I had another idea in mind," I smirked. 

"What?" she asked, already wary of me. She always is. 

I lifted one hand, untwisting the thin, delicate straps of her dress. "Tell me, Ms. Princeton," I cleared my throat, pulling the strap slightly off her shoulder. "Are you still a virgin?" 

She smacked my hand away and fixed the strap herself. "Get your eyes off of me. I don't like you looking at me as if I'm a prize," she mumbled. "I'm not just going to be another girl on your list. You've already slept with most of our high school's female population. Leave me out of it." 

I wish I could. I wish I could leave her out of it. I wish I could stick to simply hating her with a burning passion. But it seems like my body has a mind of its own. Traitor. Well, I also suppose that wouldn't be a problem if I didn't think with my dick so much. But I can't not do that now when it comes to her. 

"You know what I saw yesterday, Vee?" That's the first time I've called her by her nickname. We both realized that. 

"What?" she huffed. 

"When I was leaving the locker room after gym class, you-" I glanced up at the bartender who was very obviously eavesdropping. "Oi," I said. "Keep your mouth shut, huh?" 

He nodded quickly, moving to a different spot behind the bar. 

"Where was I?" I turned to her. "Yes, after gym class, you went into the girls' locker room and I went into the boys' locker room, correct?" 

"Yeah, so?" 

"So, take a wild guess what I saw on my way out of there." 

"Pigs flying? I don't know, Caden. And I don't like that you keep me guessing. So either tell me or don't. But ask me to guess one more time and I'll leave. I don't know you, I can't make guesses about you." 

"All right, all right," I chuckled. "I saw," I leaned in even closer and lowered my voice. 

She raised a brow at me. 

"Come here," I muttered. 

She leaned in, putting her ear forward. 

I leaned in, my lips barely brushing against it. I could see the goosebumps on her neck and I nearly smiled. "I saw Venus Jade Princeton changing, " I whispered. 

She looked at me, clearly unconvinced. "You peep into the girls' locker room now?" she teased. 

"You wish. But no. You see, a few girls were holding the door open as I was walking out. And then there you were in nothing but a towel. Then you dropped that towel." I looked at her, watching her mask falter for just a beat. "Tell me, do you always match to your socks? When your socks are black is your underwear too?" 

"If that was the case, I'd have a rainbow under my clothes every day," she snorted. 

"Well, I don't know what you have hidden under your clothes now, do I?" I cocked a brow at her. 

Her cheeks started turning a little pink and she looked around the room. She looked everywhere but at me. 

"Tell me, do you always match? Or is it ever a black on the bottom, red on the top kind of day?" I taunted her further. 

She huffed, looking at me. "What do you want from me?" 

"Why do you give in so quickly? Don't you have a little fight left in you, Venus? Why do you always listen to me?" 

"Because if I don't, our families will have another reason to hate each other. Do you think I like hating you? I don't, Caden. I'm sick of this stupid feud between our families. I can't go one day without it invading my life." 

"And why is that so important?" 

"I can never even have a normal conversation with you, I can never be your friend, I can't even work on a project with you at school because of how dramatic it has become," she groaned. 

"Do you want to?" 

"What?" she asked. 

"Be my friend?" I'm surprised, to say the least. I never in a million years would have thought that she was bothered by this feud because she can't talk to me. 

She dodged the question and replied, "I hate this feud because we can't even act civil with each other in front of people."

"We're acting pretty civil right now." 

"Right. And who is watching?" 

I guess she's right. We're acting civil right now when nobody is watching. When no one can even see my face with the way I'm seated. We sat in silence for a little while until I asked her, "You didn't go on that brunch date with Nate," I stated. "Why not?" 

She didn't answer for a while and looked around the room. 

"Did you believe what I told you?" 

"If I believed you right away, I would not have gone to the cafe at all." She turned to look at me. "You know what you do to me, Caden?" 

I stared at her. She looks gorgeous. And I hate her even more for it. Because I can't have her. She won't let me. 

"You plant a seed of doubt in my head. And not just this one time, you do it all the time. With everything. You make me doubt myself and other people too. And then you leave me to dwell over it until I overthink so much that my head could explode. That's what you did. You told me something that made me doubt Nate. So when I had to go there, I did. And when I saw his friends sitting there, I thought of what you said. Maybe his friends were just there for fun, it didn't mean that he was joking. But because of you, I thought it did. And I left." 

"You don't have to listen to everything I say." 

"Once words come out of your mouth and I hear them, it's in my head. I can't get it out even if I wanted to. That's just what you do." 

"You give my words so much importance?" I questioned. 

She seemed to realize what her words meant. It meant that she was telling me that she listens to what I say and gives it so much importance that once she's heard it, it overpowers her own thoughts. That she listens to me more than she listens to herself. 

"Don't you listen to your heart at all?" I scoffed. 

"You do?" she questioned. "Being raised the way we were, to always plot against each other, you do? You think with your heart?" 

Fair enough. Both our families are very alike in that sense. Always plotting, scheming, running their minds. We were always told to be logical about everything. To lead with our heads not our hearts because leading with your heart leads you to lose. And nobody likes a loser. 

"No. But then I also listen to what my head tells me. Not your mouth." 

She sighed, looking away from me. 

"If I listened to all the things that pretty little mouth has told me, I would have been completely different." 

"Yeah?" she laughed. "I think you would have been a whole lot nicer, Caden."

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Chapter 10

he's so much hotter when I write in his pov lmao

next chapter: grammy