Early morning
As I prepared myself to head out early to meet with Nicole, I saw Cheryl standing outside of Darren's room.
She greeted me when she saw me and asked if I saw Joergen earlier.
"Joergen went out to buy some liquor. He should be heading back by now."
"He's drinking already. I haven't even brushed my teeth. Anyways, did you hear it too last night? Darren must've broken a thing or two. It was very loud. Then it suddenly stopped, like he just died of a heart attack or something."
"I heard it too. But maybe he was just moving his furnitures."
"Uh-uh. I don't know about that. But I wanted to make sure he's still breathing. So where the hell is that old man when he's needed?! Geez, we need his spare keys if we want to open this door. I've been knocking for god knows how long and Darren still hasn't opened the door."
"Speak of the devil. Joergen just arrived."
Cheryl quickly approached Joergen when he heard me and asked for Darren's spare key. And after a few arguments with Joergen, Cheryl finally got the key and opened Darren's door.
Then we saw him lying down on the floor. Cheryl had a worried expression as he approached Darren and woke him up.
"Oh my god! Darren! Hey Darren wake up! Don't you dare die on us now!"
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After the whole ordeal back on the shared house, I took Darren's bike and drove towards Athena city.
Nicole texted me last night and I convinced her that I should pick her up in her home. She was hesitant at first because of obvious reasons, but I still managed to do so.
The address that Nicole gave me was in Chariot lane, a wealthy residential district.
When I got in front of her house, I texted her and told her I just arrived.
While I was waiting for her, I surveyed the surroundings, and realized that Nicole's house was the largest one on their block filled with mansions.
I also noticed how there's too many surveillance cameras on the street, in complete contrast with the slums, which does not even have a single one.
As I stood there by the bike, I heard a footstep coming from inside the gate of Nicole's house. Then I saw her walking towards me from the inside.
"Good morning Ocho. Didn't know you were into bikes."
"Good morning. Ah, no this isn't mine. Darren couldn't drive today so he lend it to me. So, you ready?"
She smiled and nodded, I then helped her mount the bike from behind me and started driving.
She told me about her favorite pastry shop on Hermes district. Which was a short trip from were we are.
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When we got inside the pastry shop, we took a seat near the windows and ordered from the waiter. Nicole had a bunch of cake slices with different flavors, while I ordered some cookies and an iced coffee.
While eating, we talked about a bunch of stuffs like the school works, and why I enrolled late.
She even shared her experiences with the Vocals club and how difficult it was to enter a contest.
When she finished her red-velvet mixed with braso de mercedez slice, she excused herself and went to the bathroom.
While waiting, I surveyed my surroundings again and focused on the other customers conversations. It was pretty crowded even though it just opened, so I took my time focusing.
There were 2 interesting conversations that I just heard.
One was a man talking about some deal with a lady, whose voice I would recognize even in my sleep.
It was Ms. Melton. I remembered that I actually went to this area once when I escorted the drunk Ms. Melton. I decided to approach her later after I deal with nicole.
The other conversation that caught my interest, was a group of 5 men. I estimate their ages from around 20 to 25. I've also been feeling their gazes since I entered the shop with nicole.
"Damn man. Nicole's looking really fine today too."
"Hey bro. You still got that chloroform shit right?"
"Hell yeah. I wanna have my fun with that bitch too. Nobody snobs the alpha."
"A'ight. It's settled then. My bro told me that Nicole walks back every Wednesday after school. Says he always see her going inside this shop."
"Tomorrow's wednesday right?"
"Yeah man. But what if she goes home with that asshole?"
"Who? That guy? Man, look at us. Its 5 against 1. Use your actual head sometimes, you dickheads."
-------
When Nicole got back and sat in front of me. I asked her directly as she ate her last cake.
"Nicole. Do you like me?"
"Uhhm okay? Ahaha. Where's this coming from? I mean you're a nice guy so like, I like you as a nice guy."
"Is that so? I really appreciate you for spending time with me. But, there's something that really irked me since yesterday, it made me want to step on you like you're an actual shit."
"W-what? Where's this coming from? Did I say something bad?"
"Yeah. Did you know that my mother was killed and raped by her lawyer? He blackmailed her and did whatever the fuck he wanted after. And its all because we're from the slums."
Here it goes again.
My talent for coming up and saying random bullshits with a straight face.
While it might seem impractical to garner Nicole's hate rather than slowly build up our friendship.
My plans are still better than logic.
And the perfect scenario has just presented itself to me. So now all I gotta do is play it.
"Yes, I grew up in the slums and unlike you rich bastards, slum people would at least offer us a tea when we go to their houses."
"Is that right?....."
She paused for a second and raised her left eyebrow. She then harrumphed and continued.
"Then I'll excuse myself now. I can't breath another second with you."
As she stood up, I smirked at her and said..
"Hope you enjoyed your time with a slum person, as much as you enjoyed your last cake."
Her eyes widened as she thought of the possible disgusting things I did with her cake. But she only glared at me before walking out and kicking Darren's bike down.
Everything was part of my plan. I could not enact my plans right now in broad daylight so I decided to take a risky approach for the long run.
Nicole's actions took the attention of the surrounding people, especially the group of men that were looking at us, but the commotion soon died down and went back to normal.
After Nicole left, I decided to approach Ms. Melton who was now sitting alone and drinking her beverage.
"Goodmorning ma'am."
"What do you want?"
"You seem to be in a bad mood, did your date not went well?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
"Mind if I take a seat?"
"Yes, go away."
"Don't be like that Ms. Melton. I just wanted to make a deal with, in exchange for a little something, you probably even have an idea about it by now." I said as I took the seat in front of her.
"I'm not your cum rag Mr. Sta Maria." She replied in a low and annoyed tone.