CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
"Mathilda ditched you?" Tala cracked up into a fit of laughter, smack dab in the middle of the restaurant, "Burn!"
Bryan rubbed his face stressfully while Ian shook his head and Spencer looked dumbfounded, fork in one hand, knife in the other, and the steak on his plate waiting to be eaten. As for Kai, he really couldn't give less of a shit. He didn't even know what the story was but the conclusion for him was, and always had been, that Tala was immature.
Yes, the same Tala that had graduated from the Abbey and nearly helped Boris take over the world a few years back.
"Not that I even really give a fuck but she didn't ditch me," Dylan defended, fork in hand, which of course was being used to eat and not stab the redhead in the eyeball...hopefully, "She was busy,"
"She blew you off, Dill Pickle. Face it, she doesn't like you,"
"And no one likes you,"
Tala dipped a fry into the ketchup on the side of his plate, "That all you got?"
True; was that really all she got? Kai raised a brow at the blonde's surprisingly lame comeback. Subtly observing her from the other side of the table, he practically cross-referenced her behaviour from the time she called Mallory from his room over the Facebook password frenzy to her behaviour right now and they were the same: her blue eyes wandering from thing to thing stopping every so often at something random, her finger tips circling the rim of the glass of water absentmindedly, and the biggest giveaway of how she was really feeling under her well maintained blonde hair and that cheerleader outfit was how she blatantly ignored his presence.
To the outsider, she looked bored to death, to him...well now he knew the truth.
"Like, honestly, I don't even know her that well anyway," She'd shrugged nonchalantly and in the process, perked up suddenly pushing herself to sit up straight, her lips curving into a smile as gave half a wave to someone at another table in the restaurant.
From his seat, Michael Parker raised an arm in the air in a wave and grinned, "Yo! Tala Junior! Sup!"
The real Tala had looked up also, his face scrunching up into a 'oh no you did not!' glare at the All Stars' team captain.
"Watchu lookin' at, foo'!" Eddie was quick to comment, "Go back to Cali and take a dip in Venice Beach!"
"That's right: Venice Beach, Palm Springs, Hollywood, we're the Golden State, and the Terminator was our governor," Tala crossed his arms just to add to the mock, "So go back to Philly and eat your cheesesteak,"
Michael and Eddie tried to conjure up a worthy comeback to the California vs. Philadelphia battle, Rick wasn't even part of the conversation as he had his headphones over his ears, and while Max rolled his eyes and made his way over to the table to greet Kai, Emily had come over as well, but for Dylan.
"We rented a car to explore the city," The ginger spilled, "You can come if you want,"
The blonde smirked, "Coolness,"
"Hey smart one," Tala smacked the cheerleader across the head, "I don't remember you asking me if you could go,"
"Are you insane?" Ian threw himself into the situation, "You have to let her go, man, she needs to get acquainted with this place ASAP,"
"Fine," Permission was granted, "But," Under certain conditions of course, "Bring her home by dinner," He eyed both Emily and Max, "She has homework,"
"No problem!" Max assured, "By the way, don't diss our cheesesteak."
x x x
Walking in between racks and racks of clothes, Mathilda paused and fiddled with the ruffles on a black top hanging off a hanger. Her fingers quickly trailed to a nearby pair of jeans, her other hand occupied by a latte. Upon hearing Hilary's change room click open, the pinkette promptly made her way over to the vicinity, just in time to catch Mariah making some adjustments to the dress the brunette was trying on.
"It looks nice on you," Mathilda complimented with a smile.
"You think so?" Enquired Hilary as she twirled around, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror.
Mariah winked, "Definitely Tyson-approved,"
"Well, I'd tell you to go for his friend like I always do," Julia started as she stepped out of her own change room, "But Kai's an asshole,"
Mid-sip of her latte, Mathilda raised a brow but remained silent while Hilary dished out her opinion, "Kai is...different," She'd taken some time to pick the right word, no matter how vague it was, "But he's not an asshole, trust me," And trust her everyone should, after all, other than Tyson, Ray, Max, and Kenny, Hilary was next in line to have known Kai the best, and although it might have sounded a bit off, she actually considered him as close a friend just like the other Bladebreakers, "He's just really quiet and I think people misunderstand him for that,"
"No," Julia shook her head, "I thought he was alright and all but not after I realized he has something against me and Tala going out,"
As Mariah wrinkled her nose, particularly because she'd never had that problem when she was seeing the redhead, the brunette gave her two cents, "That doesn't sound like Kai at all. Why do you say that, though?"
"Just his vibe,"
"I wouldn't worry about it," Hilary practically waved off, "I know it doesn't look it, but he's really defensive when it comes to his friends and Tala's one of his best, and since I know Kai, I'll arrange something where you can get to know him better."
The day out had come to an end and after swiping her key card to get into the White Tigers' hotel suite, Mariah dumped the myriads of bags on the floor.
Spotting a Victoria's Secret bag among others, Ray grinned from his position by the stove, stirring something in a fry pan, "What'd you buy?"
"Stuff!" The pinkette smirked, "What are you making?"
"Stir-fry," He lifted the pan off the stove and set it on the small kitchen table, "Hungry?"
"Not really, but I'll try some anyway," She set two plates on the table and grabbed a seat adjacent to the raven haired blader, and as she took her first taster, she smiled, "It's really good,"
"That's because I made it, not you," The remark had earned Ray a punch across the arm, "Ow, man," He rubbed the pained area, "So what'd you guys do? Just the mall?"
"Yup,"
"Julia go with you guys?"
"Yeah," Mariah narrowed her eyes, "Um, you know she's seeing Tala right..."
"Whoa!" Ray immediately raised his arms, "That's not what I meant. No, hell no, man. Not interested in sloppy seconds,"
"You and Tala aren't even friends so she wouldn't count as sloppy seconds for you,"
"I wasn't talking about Tala,"
"Then?"
"Nothing your little head needs to worry about," Ray flicked Mariah in the nose with his fingers and dodged another fist coming his way.
"Tell me,"
"Can't," He declined, "Man Law forbids me to speak of these things,"
"Come on, we've known each other forever, you know I won't tell anyone,"
"I can't. Max trusted me,"
Mariah's eyes widened, "Max?"
"Fuck," Muttered Ray at his slip up, essentially breaking one of the rules from this 'Man Law' thing.
"You have to tell me now, I have to know,"
"Why do you have to know?"
Because she was a woman. "Because we were just talking about Julia and then you mentioned Max and sloppy seconds and nothing is making sense – what happened?"
"Look, very few people know about this," Ray took a deep breath and let it out, "You know how Max and Miriam were going out a little over a year ago, right?"
"Yeah, obviously. They ended up going on a break though,"
"Exactly. And shit happened while Miriam and Max were taking a break,"
"What do you mean 'shit' happened?"
"Well," Ray massaged the back of his neck, really not wanting to spill the details on his best friend, "We all went out, me, Tyson, Kai, Kenny, and Max, and pretty much, we all got fucked up that night," He laughed suddenly, as he reminisced of that night; he'd unknowingly made out with a transvestite, Kenny's glasses had broke, both Kai and Tyson had gotten arrested for public intoxication on the streets of Philadelphia, and Max... "We bumped into Julia and she and Max ended up going back to his place, but in his defence, he was drunk as hell,"
"So?" Mariah raised a brow, "I know they didn't do anything,"
"Obviously you know nothing," Ray rolled his eyes, "Because they fucked,"
Mariah gave the other White Tiger a pathetic look, "Lame story,"
"True story,"
"Julia and Miriam were friends. She'd never sleep with Max in a million years, he's off limits to her. This is impossible, I'm not buying it,"
"Wake up. Where Max and Miriam were supposed to only be taking a break, they ended up breaking up for good and Julia and Miriam aren't friends anymore,"
Everything felt surreal for Mariah as she tried to digest it but ended up choking on her stir-fry instead, turning to the side of her seat and coughing it up while Ray thumped her on the back a few times for ease.
x x x
Shortly after Dylan had come home, the Blitzkrieg Boys had had their dinner, and after that, everyone had gone their separate ways like usual. Bryan and Tala were watching something on television, and judging by their laugh every other second, it must have been something comedic; Spencer was probably in the washroom, Dylan had to be in her room doing homework, and this left the unfortunate Kai and Ian to clean up.
"I hate this," Ian muttered as he passed the bluenette a washed dish to dry, "Hey man, what's going on with you and Hilary?"
From the glare Kai had given the indigo-haired blader, it was obvious he was going to remain silent, but then, "What's going on with you and Tala's beyblade?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You know very well what I'm talking about,"
Putting his chore on hold for a brief second, Ian stared at his teammate in awe, "Are you the one fixing his -"
"No," He put the last plate in the pile with the others and tossed the dry cloth on the counter before heading for his room. He faltered upon opening his door when he spotted an unexpected slut hanging about in his room, on his mattress, lying on her tummy with her feet flailing in the air with his iPod in her hands and his headphones over her head and ears.
This was really beginning to annoy him.
If, for some reason, Tala were to come upstairs and find her in his room, Kai knew he'd be the one getting in shit. She may too, but at least 99 percent of it would be shifted onto him just because he was a guy. They'd already had way too many close calls, some of which the redhead had even walked in on where Hilary was used as an excuse.
Closing the door behind him, he stood by his bedside, his arms folded over his chest in his signature seriousness and when she'd noticed, she pushed one of the pads off her ear and paused the MP3 player, "Hi,"
"Get out of my room,"
"I have to talk to you about some -"
"Read my face: I'm not interested," He plopped down on the bed and proceeded to lie on his side, facing away from here, "Now leave," He felt her move around the bed but instead of getting off it like he hoped she would, she only travelled closer to him, taking one of his arms and rubbing and pressing it like it was playdough. He opened his mouth to protest but decided against it; it kind of felt good.
"You know," She began, "I had no idea Russia had movie theatres," The bluenette cracked an eye open and slowly glanced over his shoulder to give her a mildly offensive look, "What? I didn't know," She rolled her eyes in defence, "It's not like you take me out, hint, hint,"
"That's a lie; I've taken you out,"
"Maybe you should take me out more,"
"Don't count on it,"
"Well you'll have to take me out anyway so that I can help you with Hilary to prepare you for dates and stuff, and while I'm doing that you can probably show me around," There was a brief pause, and then, "Do you guys have malls here?"
"I'm not going to answer that,"
"What about IHOP?"
"What is IHOP?"
He heard her gasp, "You don't know IHOP? Everybody knows IHOP,"
"What is it?"
"It's this breakfast place, you get pancakes and waffles and all that kind of stuff. It's pretty cool and some of them are open 24/7," She pushed him slightly, gesturing him to lay on his front. He did, putting his arms over his head, burying his face into his pillow, and soon felt her weight on him as she sat on his bum. She really wasn't heavy, about 105 pounds if he had to guess, and he bench pressed more than that so this wasn't a problem at all. Her hands reached his shoulders and back and alternated between giving him a squeeze to her thumbs rubbing in circular motions, "It'll be easier if you just take off your shirt," She'd managed to add, and though she had a point, he knew she just needed an excuse. Nonetheless, he discarded the grey t-shirt; he figured if a bitch was going to give him a massage at the end of a long day, he was going to let a bitch give him a massage at the end of the day. With gyming and training, his muscles could really use this.
Besides, she was good with her hands. No dirty pun intended...yet.
"Other side," The blonde instructed as she lifted herself a little, giving him room to turn around before she took her 'seat' again. The rubdown commenced again, this time on his chest, and although it was purely innocent – for once, surprisingly – it felt a lot more intimate. Maybe it was because he was facing her this time. Maybe it was because he got to watch her hands all over his bare skin. Maybe it was because what she was doing wasn't something he could imagine another female like Hilary or Emily or Miriam or whoever doing without feeling weird about it. Maybe it was because the way she leaned over to grab his pecks gave him the best view of her cleavage.
Who really knows?
"So I have to tell you something," She didn't bother looking at him as she spoke, "But you can't get mad,"
Kai gave Dylan a quizzical look. She was irritating and constantly harassed him but she'd never truly made him mad, and thus, he wondered what she could have possibly done, "What?"
"You have to promise you won't be mad and you can't tell anybody I'm telling you,"
"Hn,"
"It's about your dad," And when he raised a brow, she'd gone on the defence, "You said you won't get mad!"
"You haven't even said anything yet,"
"You look mad,"
"I look like this all the time,"
She shrugged a little and nodded as if to agree before taking a deep breath, "Well," It was like the calm before the storm, "Basically,"
He was growing impatient, "Cut the bull and tell me,"
"He took me out the other day,"
As if his WTF facial expression wasn't enough, he'd verbalized it, "What the fuck?"
"I mean I didn't want to go or anything, he kind of made me. I didn't know how to say no, like, he's your dad, you know, so..." She trailed off, "You're mad,"
No fucking duh. What did she expect? For him throw sparkly confetti in the air? He was mad, so mad; he'd told her to stay out of his life and he'd told his father to stay out of his life as well and two people who he'd warned to stay out of his life were working together to pry their way into his life. But he realized his current behaviour would only keep her tight-lipped, "I'm not," He lied, at the same time giving her the okay to continue.
She told him everything from which restaurant they'd gone to, to what Alden had ordered, what she had ordered, and other unnecessary details only a female would ever give out like the name of their waiter and even what the weather was like that day.
"He talked to me, just normal stuff, like about your friend Hunter from when you were little,"
"I don't recall a Hunter from my past,"
She'd shrugged casually, "I don't know then, maybe you forgot about him or something, but anyways, your dad wanted me to tell you that he needs to talk to you about something," There was a moment of silence where he stared at her absentmindedly and she stared at him in confusion, "So are you gonna talk to him?"
"I have no desire to speak with him, no,"
"But why? He seems like a really nice man, he's always asking about you, and he's trying so hard to talk to you; I have some friends back home whose parents don't give two shits about them. You have to have a reason to not like your own dad. Did he do something?"
"That should not be any of your concern,"
She let out a sigh, a sign that she was letting the matter go...for now, "Okay," Her fingers played around his bangs, "Goodnight."
The end.
...
Pssh, it was the end when Kai said it was the end and clearly it wasn't the end as he yanked her towards him by her arm. He moved some blonde strands out of the way as he kissed her forehead before releasing her, "Goodnight," And when she looked shocked, he decided to clarify, "For Hilary,"
"Look at you," She grinned, catching on, "Fast learner,"
"Hn," He rolled to his side, essentially forcing the blonde off of him, "Now get out of my room."
STORY HINTS. Analyze these things carefully (like magnifying glass carefully!).
Tala and Dylan. Examples: Chapter 30 Dylan's Facebook status and the comments; chapter 31 bathroom scene; and you can use Mallory to learn more about the siblings.
Dylan and Mathilda and Kai. Whatever was on Dylan's camera was shared with Mathilda but REMEMBER...Kai saw it too but Dylan and Mathilda (or anyone else for that matter) don't know that. When Mathilda dropped off her launcher she hid it in Dylan's dresser and left a note; Kai was able to decode the note and find out about the launcher.
Other secrets. Kai is also the only one that saw Dylan's jersey, saw her with Wolborg when everyone else was sleeping, and while everyone thinks he fixed his car only he knows that Dylan fixed it (ie., only Kai was exposed to the fact that Dylan knows about cars).
Dylan/Kai/Hilary. ANALYZE! Nuff said.
Tyson/Hilary/Kai. Analyze...
Dylan/Tyson/Hilary. ...lol
Mariah/Tala/Julia. Oh lawwwd!
Mathilda. She's her own fucking category! But watch her carefully. She may not be an IMPORTANT character, but she plays a very (VERY!) pivotal role.
Clearly there's some serious pimpin' going on here :P There's more but I'm just trying to make everyone open their eyes and watch out for any and everything.
R and R bitches!
Thank you...
SouthernDragon – Ooh! You paint? Pics! And if you're surprised by Kai's dad just popping up...let me tell you :P there's a lot more surprises coming up! And as for all the things you said in your review, I'm going to keep my mouth shut! Ha ha! Review!
Xxz0eyxx – Dylan did sound pretty upset at the end of last chapter :P
SongOfTheShadows
LovelyKitsune – Well it's KAI'S dad...he HAS to be hot! And he's not even that old! LOL! I'm not a pervert :( About 4/20, yup, its celebrated here! I've never actually smoked weed believe it or not (and I'm from Toronto! It's like weed central here lmao). My friends do it, my bro has done it, I don't know if I'll ever try it or not, I probably will, just to see how it's like. Btw the end of your review made me laugh haha.
Native-kitten
CryMeOut – IT'S OKAY! Lol I know what it's like to have a boyfriend...as soon as I got my first boyfriend (when I was 18), I wasn't on FanFiction for like 3 years! It was partly b/c my stories are like a journal and when I got a boyfriend, I figured he could be my journal and there was no point in this. But something brought me back to this lol...he doesn't know I do this LOL! About Kai's dad...we'll just have to wait and see! And yes...there is a LOT of shit-stirring going on with a big wooden spoon! Wanna lick the batter? LOL!
50525 – I went to King, what about you?
Kickstartmyhart – Thank you! I really wanted people to notice the character development!
PhoenixxLament – Before I say anything lol I just want to say YES! LOL! You're the ONLY reviewer that noticed the Stereo Love singer/names! I was listening to that song when I came up with the names and I needed something Russian so I'm like THIS WORKS! HAHA! Oh man, I couldn't believe you picked up on that! LOL! About all the things you came up with for the story, I'm going to say they are very good guesses! But that's all I'm gonna say! :P
Freekiellie – Your review totally made my week! I read it like 10 times LOL! And about the flame I got, yeah I pretty much ignored it lmao it wasn't even about the story it was about religion and I'm like waaa? LOL! And I'll try to give as many hints as possible for the story! Not to worry! REVIEW!
Zeratheliger – I was so shocked to read about the racism thing in your review! Yeah, I could never imagine something like that happening in American and Canadian schools! I know this one teacher in high school made a really vague remark about blacks (she said something like "you guys are lazy!" and she was joking too) and she got suspended for a year. About the swearing out loud in public LOL! Ha ha! That cracked me up LMAO!