Demian was just leaving his class a little over an hour later when he ran into Ophelia again.
She stood at the bottom of the steps, bouncing on the balls of her feet nervously. Demian was glad to see that she looked better.
Her cherry-red lips broke out into a breathtaking smile when she saw him. "Lord Demian," she greeted him wrongly. She had a bad day so Demian decided not to correct her.
"Lady Ophelia," he greeted her with a smile. "What brings you here?"
She looked away nervously. A faint blush spread across her high cheekbones. Remi had been right; Ophelia was a very attractive girl, and adding the fact that she was an omega made her a high commodity among the male students.
Ophelia glanced back at him, her long lashes fluttered over her eyes nervously. She held out her arms and nestled delicately in her hands was a small pink bag, the kind of bag that held homemade sweets.
"I-I," her voice stuttered softly, "made you so-some cookies to thank you for earlier."
Demian glanced at the bag. Etiquette required him to take the bag but his past mistakes made him hesitate. He was always careful to reject homemade treats for fear of them being poisoned.
Etiquette finally won out. He took the bag from Ophelia and thanked her. He would just have to have them tested to see if they were safe or just toss them in the trash later on.
That beautiful smile showed itself once again. "They just came out so they should still be warm," she said sweetly.
Demian felt himself cringe inwardly. There was no way he could just toss them in the trash now.
"Thank you," he told her again.
A thud sounded from behind him. Demian looked over his shoulder to see Remi standing there with his mouth hanging open and his bag on the ground. Dane was bending over to pick it up for him.
Demian felt his heart twist painfully for some reason.
He noticed Remi's gaze focused on the bag of cookies and decided to quickly shove them into his pocket, hoping to wipe that hurt look off of Remi's face.
"Can't change fate," Remi mumbled before bounding up the steps listlessly. Dane followed close behind him with a confused expression on his freckled face.
Demian felt his heart contract. He had never seen Remi look like that before. Albeit, he had only known the guy for two weeks.
"I'm sorry," Ophelia mumbled from behind, reminding Demian that she was still there. "I've seemed to have caused trouble again."
"No, you didn't." But Demian was pretty sure that he did, and he's not even sure what exactly he did wrong. It wasn't as if he was close to Remi, he was pretty sure the two of them couldn't even be considered friends.
* * * *
Demian shut the door to his room and slumped down onto his bed. He laid back and threw his arm over his eyes. The curtains over the large windows blocked out the fading sunlight, bathing the room in a hazy gray film. The usually soft mattress felt like stones beneath his back.
He had two other classes with Remi after that scene with Ophelia, and for some reason, he refused to acknowledge Demian's existence. Remi even went so far as to not even look at him. And he was pretty sure Dane had shot him a few menacing glares behind his back.
Why did his heart hurt?
Why did seeing Remi so despondent make him feel so miserable?
What exactly did he do wrong? And why was he feeling like this? Like he had spurned his mate?
Nothing made sense to him. He knew he was attracted to Remi, knew that he loved seeing the beta smile, and hated knowing how close he was to Dane. Demian knew that he wanted nothing more than to see Remi smile, to see that sly little smirk when he was up to something.
When Demian had first seen that listless, blank expression on Remi, he wanted to chase after him and beg for forgiveness-what he should be forgiven for, he didn't know.
Why was Demian acting and feeling like a fool in love? It felt like there was a string connecting him to Remi and it was confusing the hell out of him.
Two weeks was not enough time to fall in love. Not really.
Demian released a heavy sigh and rolled over. There was a sound of something breaking and the feeling of something pressing against his leg.
He rolled over onto his back and reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out a small crumpled pink pouch that was tied with a small white string. Right. Demian had forgotten about these. This was the whole reason why Remi looked down, or at least that's what Demian assumed.
He pulled on the string to open the bag. Inside were a bunch of plain butter cookies that were completely broken. They looked just like he felt.
Demian reached in and grabbed a piece. It felt soft yet hard, and crumbled slightly when his thumb rubbed it. He really should have these checked to make sure they weren't poisoned. But the longer he stared at the broken cookie, the sadder he felt.
Against his better judgment, he plopped the piece into his mouth. He chewed slowly. It really was just as it appeared, a plain butter cookie. And since he didn't drop dead that meant they weren't dosed with poison.
The more he chewed on the sad looking pieces of cookie, the hazier his mind became. Thoughts of Remi completely disappeared from his mind, slowly being replaced by a soft smile and cherry red lips.
He found himself falling asleep with his uniform still on. A small, troubled smile was plastered on his pale lips as strange dreams plagued him in his sleep. Passing, broken images of sunset pink eyes leaking crystalline-like tears. Golden waves bouncing tenderly and aquamarine eyes holding fake tender feelings in their icy depths.
Demian woke up feeling as if he hadn't even gone to sleep. His head was pounding and his vision was a little bleary. He felt like a dead log to the world, and his body felt stiff like one too.
Slowly rising from bed with a stiff neck, he walked over to his closet where he grabbed a fresh uniform before making his way into the bathroom connected to his room. He was in a real need of a shower, and hopefully the hot water will wake him up.
After the refreshing shower and a change of clothes, Demian decided to head to the main cafeteria to grab a quick bite to eat. He grabbed his bag and left the room, not paying any mind to the forgotten bag of cookies, still laying on his bed, only half eaten.
The morning sky was a yellowish blue with tints of pink thrown in, fluffy white and blue clouds drifted lazily across the expansive sky. Birds chirped and fluttered their wings in the trees, answering the call of the crickets and other bugs.
Demian pushed open the doors to the cafeteria. Chatter was idle and quiet as not too many students were up and about this early in the morning.
He grabbed a tray and filled it with a light breakfast. Just as he was turning around, a faint scent of lavender and moonflower flooded his senses. He looked up to find Ophelia walking in. No one else seemed to smell her pheromones since no one else was reacting to her presence.
When she saw him, those plush red lips lifted up into a beautiful smile that could have literal songs written about it. His eyes drifted up to lock onto her beautiful orbs. She gave him a small finger wave as a greeting and his heart went aflutter.
What was this strange feeling that was overcoming him? And why could he smell her even though she was clear across the room?
All thoughts and questions flew away from him when Ophelia started walking towards him. It was as if time itself had slowed down.
"Are you all right, Lord Demian?" Ophelia asked, her lovely voice filled with concern. Her gem-like eyes looked over him as if looking for some hidden injury.
"Everything is fine, Ophelia." He smiled to reassure her, not even realizing the familiar form he used to address with. "I just merely had some restless sleep, nothing to be concerned about." He felt his eye trying to twitch but it impressively remained in place.
Why did he suddenly feel the need to be familiar with Ophelia and drop the titles? And wasn't he not fine? Demian was positive that something was eating away at him yesterday, but for some reason he couldn't remember what it had been.
"That's good to hear," she visibly sighed with relief. "Your health is very important. You must remember to get some proper rest."
"Of course, Ophelia."
She then proceeded with grabbing her own tray and feeling it up with a hearty breakfast. The two of them then walked towards an empty table and sat down.
They passed the morning away by chatting idly. Demian had noticed that Ophelia had only touched a third of the food she had grabbed. It worried him that she might be feeling ill.
After they were done, the two parted ways, since alphas and omegas couldn't have classes together. He arrived at his politics class with a heavy heart.
His heavy heart suddenly felt like it was constricting. Sitting in the front of the class in his usual seat was Remi. His constricting heart gave a painful rench when Remi turned his eyes away from him.
Why had Demian felt so worried about Ophelia when he had bigger problems that he needed to figure out?
He slid into the empty spot next to Remi. Dane for some reason wasn't there yet, which was unusual.
Demian sat his bag down on the floor underneath his feet before turning his attention to Remi. It was a good thing that they were still waiting for half of the class, so he could talk pretty freely.
"Are you mad with me?" Demian asked hesitantly, though he wasn't sure what he would have done to make Remi mad.
Remi slowly looked at him out of the corner of his eyes, their hue was more pink this morning. "No." His tone was curt and unfriendly like it usually was.
"I don't believe you," Demian challenged. Why was this so important to him?
Remi released a sigh. "I'm not mad at you," he admitted slowly, "I'm just disappointed in myself."
Demian felt his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. His hand automatically went up to rub the black stud that he always wore. "Why?" What would Remi have to be disappointed in himself? He wasn't like Demian.
Remi turned his eyes forward and swallowed hard. The movement caused his adam's apple to bob, though the movement was obscured by the black band he always wore around his neck. His tongue darted out to lick his thin, silky lips. "I thought I could change fate but couldn't. I can't get what I really want, that's why I'm upset."
Demian swallowed. He wanted to argue with Remi that he could change fate, but the words failed to come to him.
A shadow fell over him. Demian looked up to see a pissed off Dane. Demian sighed and picked up his bag, deciding to let the beta have his seat back. It wasn't like sitting beside Remi would change anything, not in the hour that class will be held.
Dane slid into the seat and immediately asked Remi if he was alright. Demian wanted to argue with him that he would never do anything to hurt Remi, but hadn't he?
The teacher came in just then and started the class off with a debate about taxes. Demian for once did not feel like joining in on the debate, and neither did Remi. It was noticeable to the rest of the students but no one was going to complain since those two usually hog the entire lecture period.
* * * *