Chapter Thirty-Three: Designated Discontent

Math, he hated math. He hated it more than any other subject because the students seemed to be even dumber when it came to math. So, like every time he attended the class he was asking himself why the hell he would waste his time with this. Mr. Collins' horribly annoying voice cut through his thoughts every minute so he couldn't even try and distract himself with something else.

Annabeth Rosswill had just asked why the root of two wasn't 1. As pretty as she was, she was also as dumb and Kai rolled his eyes because he had to react somehow. Actually he wanted to get up and leave the room but the principle had informed his father about Kai's recent tendencies to stay away from certain classes and Joshua Parker hadn't been too happy about it. It was not that he cared about what Joshua thought or did but Kai wasn't too keen on spending the entire summer in school and that was what Joshua had threatened him with. So at least once in a while he would show up to his classes and pretend to be interested. But it was horribly hard to do so with math and Mr. Collins' way of screwing up every explanation. This guy was incapable of teaching, no wonder all of these windbags didn't know how to add one and one.

Kai leaned back in his chair. He exhaled loudly and started playing around with his pen. The boredom he felt was nearly unbearable. He tried to see if there was anything interesting outside of these four walls and turned his head left to the windows. The trees around the school area were all blooming now and every time you stepped outside this horrible rosy smell would fill your nose. It was disgustingly beautiful and Kai always felt the need to puke. When he was watching a pair of birds building their nest in the tree right in front of the window he accidently lowered his gaze and locked eyes with a certain girl he had been trying to avoid for weeks.

Bonnie Bennett was focusing on Mr. Collins just as much as he had been but instead of looking outside she had been watching him and Kai quickly turned his head back to the board. Annoyance quickly built up inside him like it had always done the past few weeks. Annoyance, spite and something else. Hurt. No matter how much he tried not to think about it- there was still hurt mixed within all the negative emotions he had towards Bonnie. He didn't want to feel hurt. Of course, what she did made him mad and he wasn't anywhere close to forgiving her but the hurt really annoyed him. What else could he do so this would stop? She hadn't even been that important to him, he always tried to convince himself. So why would he stick to these feelings?

"Mr. Parker?" Mr. Collins voice reached through his thoughts, the sound of shuffling in the background.

"Heh?" Kai looked at Mr. Collins who was standing right in front of him. Everyone else was getting up and changing seats or getting out the room. Kai looked around, confused. He had missed something.

"You are supposed to meet up with your partner to solve the tasks on page 67." Mr. Collins explained.

"And my partner would be?" Kai asked.

"Me." Bonnie slammed her book down on his desk and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Kai groaned. "Of course."

"Is there a problem, Mr. Parker?" Mr. Collins wanted to know.

"Nope, not at all." Kai smiled at him and Mr. Collins went on to bug someone else with his presence.

"So, you want to stay here or get outside?" Bonnie asked, not bothering to sound nice. She had stopped doing that since last Friday where they met at his father's company. Maybe he had finally gotten her to understand that it made no sense trying to convince him about how sorry she was about everything. Good, the sooner she gave up the better.

"Out." Kai commanded and stood up, taking nothing with him. If he had to spend time with Bonnie he could at least try and spend it in a better place than this. Kai headed out the door and didn't bother checking if Bonnie was following him or not. After a while he heard light footsteps catching up with him and Bonnie appeared by his side, books and papers in her arms.

"You could have at least waited." She complained but Kai didn't reply anything to that. He had made a habit out of it only to talk to Bonnie as few as possible. He knew he was being bigoted and stubborn but he wasn't ready to treat her fair yet.

Kai headed outside and finally placed himself in the shadow of a tree. Bonnie didn't seem happy about the work place he had chosen but he didn't care. If she wanted to she could sit somewhere over there at a bench and do the task, he wasn't going to help her with that anyways. After a while Bonnie sat down on the ground and opened the books.

"So, are you going to help me with this or not?" Bonnie sounded pissed.

Kai looked at her and then lay down into the grass. "Not really."

"Okay." Bonnie turned to the task before her. It was a little weird. No matter their differences Bonnie had tried really hard to be nice to him all the time. Right now was the first time he felt some kind of reluctance from her since their fight.

The silence between them became dampening. Bonnie had decided to ignore him and do the exercises on her own and Kai wasn't going to stop her. He just relaxed in the grass and would have fallen asleep if Bonnie didn't turn to him once more.

"Why can't you just talk to me like a mature person would?" she asked, turning around so she could face him.

Kai opened his eyes but kept quiet. He was arguing whether to answer her question or not but he gave into the urge to make her feel miserable about this situation. "Because, Bonnie, I don't know if you've realized but I am not mature. I am the definition of immature and I have no intention of taking any of the guilt you are probably harboring inside off your chest, because you deserve to feel every fucking bad feeling. That's why! I am an asshole and I like getting back at people. Tit for tad, Bonnie. That's my philosophy."

He sat up straight to get a better look on her reaction and shortly saw her blinking hard and then turning her back to him so he couldn't see her face any more. Kai frowned. Was she trying not to cry? Did he actually hurt her so much with what he said? A twinge in the general area of his chest flashed through him and for a second he regretted what he said and wanted to get over to her and apologize. But then he remembered, he wanted her to feel miserable. He wanted her to suffer and see what she has done. So he only let out a breath and lowered his head.

After that Bonnie didn't say anything else. When the time was up she just grabbed her stuff and went back into the classroom, not waiting for him to come along. He thought about staying right where he was but his stuff was back in the classroom and he didn't want to leave it. After a few more minutes of laying the grass he got up and returned to the classroom, only arriving minutes before the lesson was over.

When Mr. Collins actually released them Kai ignored his calling for him and went straight to his locker. He couldn't wait to get out of this place and he nearly regretted coming to school with Jo and Joey, so right now he had to wait for them to get home.

The feeling of someone walking up from behind him distracted him for a moment. He half expected a teacher, or even worse Bonnie, to stand behind him when he turned to address the person standing behind him like a creepy lurker but was surprise to see Annabeth Rosswill. She flung her long blonde hair over her shoulder and smiled at him with her Hollywood smile.

"Hey Kai. What's up?" She sing-songed in a high voice that sounded like she faked it to sound cuter. She failed in that task.

Kai raised his eyebrows and looked at her. Annabeth and him had never talked much. He had once dated her best friend for a brief time but that was pretty much all the encounters they had outside school. "Annabeth." He stated and turned back around. Whatever she wanted from him he was in no way interested in listening to it and hoped she would get the hint.

She didn't, of course she didn't. She was never known to be the smartest cookie. With two short paces she got closer to Kai and was now invading his personal space. It was funny because he usually was the one doing that to others but being on the other side didn't feel as good.

"I was wondering if you had any plans for the weekend." Annabeth said casually. Kai rolled his eyes, his back still facing her so she couldn't see. There was really no inch of his being that was interested in spending time with Annabeth Rosswill and he turned around so make her see that, with or without the necessary respect he wasn't quite sure yet.

But she didn't give him any chance to answer because she kept informing him about her plans for the weekend. "My parents are going on this cruise for the next few days and I am all alone in the house. My brother didn't want to come home from Brown to look after me, like my mother wanted him to do, so I thought I would ask a few people if they wanted to come over on Friday. It's nothing big, I wanted to do a movie night and that's it. What do you say?"

A movie night? Really? Did she think he was born yesterday? She most likely would claim that everybody else wasn't coming when he arrived. That gave Kai the idea of beating her to it and inviting some people of his own to make sure this night turned into a disaster but that would mean he would have to deal with Annabeth.

Kai just opened his mouth when Annabeth took another step towards him and he had to lean onto the lockers to keep a little distance between them. This girl was being really forward. Before he could answer he spotted Bonnie down the hallway watching them. She tried to keep her expression unreadable but Kai could see by the way her eyes widened a little and she opened her mouth to breathe in that she didn't like the way they were standing so close and it gave Kai some kind of satisfaction.

Being provoked by Bonnie and wanting to rub it in her face to see her reaction Kai leaned off the lockers and closed the little distance that was still between him and Annabeth. Lucky for her she was a really pretty girl so it wasn't too hard to fake some kind of interest. He whispered in her ear that he would think about it and Annabeth nearly fainted, Goosebumps covering her arms. Kai didn't care about what he said to the girl or what kind of reaction this would have on her, he just wanted Bonnie to see. With hardness in his eyes he looked back at her and Bonnie tried hard not to break the eye contact but she was clearly struggling with overwhelming emotions until she finally looked away. Content, Kai stepped away from Annabeth ignoring everything she said to him and went out of the building.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .

The tear that went through her heart was horrible. The moment she stepped out of the classroom she spotted them standing close. Then Kai leaned closer to Annabeth and whispered in her ear. A smug smile on his face and Annabeth seemed very pleased with what he said, she was so smitten by him that Bonnie thought she might faint but she kept her grounds. Kai looked at her directly and then went the other way. Bonnie knew better then to cry over a guy that clearly didn't care about her feelings, otherwise he wouldn't have done that.

Maybe he wanted to get back at her, maybe she even deserved it and she most definitely would be able to accept it if she would think that after all his acts of craziness Kai would forgive her and they could go back to being… whatever he wanted. But he was doing it to her out of one reason: payback. And she knew Kai better than most people so she also knew that he wasn't going to open his arms to her and forget about everything that happened. She might have been the one destroying their friendship but he was the one destroying a way back to being friends.

No matter the reasonable thoughts that went through her mind it still hurt like hell. She looked to the ground trying very hard to keep the tears in. She wasn't going to shed another tear for something that Kai Parker did, or didn't do. She was stronger than that. She wasn't going to break down form this. With a heavy breath she straightened her body and turned to her locker. She was going to get through this day without any more obstacles.

When she ran into Faye a few minutes later she gave the performance of a lifetime. Faye had been skeptic about Bonnie's wellbeing for the past weeks, not buying her 'too much work' excuse. Also she witnessed that Kai and Bonnie didn't talk to each other anymore. Of course the story had been spread within minutes when Kai openly yelled at her in the hallway. But neither of her friends had pushed her to open up about it but Faye.

She was going to tell her at one point it was just easier talking to Elena and Caroline about it because they were far away in Virginia and Faye lived just around the corner. No matter what Bonnie would tell her, Faye's mother bear instinct would kick in and she would go kick Kai's ass for treating Bonnie like shit. She couldn't have anyone involved in their mess, not yet anyways. Kai wouldn't want that and neither would she.

So Bonnie agreed to meet with her friends in the afternoon to get Faye off her back. It was an exhausting night because she needed to pretend through it all. They went to their favorite diner and had dinner. All her friends were happy Bonnie had joined them, because they hadn't seen her outside of school for a while now. To her surprise she felt a little better when she said goodbye to everyone. Normality was taking away a bit of the pain.

"So are you still going to shut me out on what's been going on with you?" Faye asked as she drove her back home.

Bonnie stayed silent. She thought that Faye might have dropped it after tonight because the whole ride to her house she didn't mention anything. But now that they were nearly home Faye couldn't hold it in any longer. Of course not.

"Faye, I'm fine. Really-" Bonnie tried but Faye cut her off.

"Nah ah. You cut the crap right now, you might fool everyone else but not me. You've been acting weird for weeks and I thought to myself 'Faye, give her time she will come to you when she is ready' but all I see you do is suffer and I don't like seeing you suffer." A brief pause spread the air as Faye parked in front of Bonnie's house. The she turned to her and asked "What did he do?"

"Nothing, really. I promise."

"You promise what exactly?" Faye asked and Bonnie opened her mouth to answer but shut it when she realized she had walked into a trap.

Faye raised an eyebrow. "Come on Bonnie, you practically admitted that something was wrong when you answered to my very vague question. I didn't mention a name but you still answered as if there was only one possibility to who I could be referring to. So tell me, what did Kai do to make you feel so miserable?"

Bonnie swallowed. "Like I said, he didn't do anything. I did."

Faye looked surprised. By what she admitted to or that she was actually admitting anything, Bonnie wasn't sure. She told Faye everything that happened between Kai and her, not even pretending like she wasn't completely into him, it made no sense anyways. When she was done she made her promise not to talk to Kai about all this and to go to him and unleash the beast that can be Faye Matthews. As a response Faye hugged her and Bonnie said her goodbye. She went back into the house and straight to bed. This day had been too exhausting.

. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . .

During the following days Bonnie spotted Kai in school more often. He had a new puppy following him around. Annabeth Rosswill seemed to think that she had a shot with him so she tried to be in his general space as much as she could. She would sit with Kai and his friends in the cafeteria or she would wait for him outside his classroom. At first she though Kai would accept this kind of behavior because he wanted to bang her, because usually he hated intrusive people. But over the course of the week she could see his expression change. He was annoyed, heavily annoyed until one day he turned around to her and yelled at her to leave him alone. That showed Bonnie that he had only done this for show, to annoy her maybe?

Bonnie dismissed the thought. If Kai did this to make her jealous that would mean that he would actually feel something other than hate for her and that was just not the case, Bonnie knew.

Sooner than she could think Saturday was approaching. She didn't want to work that day and she regretted agreeing to it a bit since Kai would be there and he for sure would find a way to make her feel bad. Or ignore her the entire night while flirting with some chick he would bring along.

Bonnie arrived a little early to the company but everyone else was already there. Lyanne handed her the clothing she would have to wear tonight and Bonnie was just glad that she could wear trousers and not a skirt. She wouldn't want to serve to a class of high ranked bankers, engineers, architects and business people in a mini skirt; it was awkward enough as it is.

Bonnie helped get everything arranged. There would be a banquet and after that a casual get together where apparently a lot of alcohol would be involved. Bonnie heard the others talk about the big surprise the boss of had for all of his investors and employees. Bonnie could only think that it would be the announcement of the international cooperation with someone or something like she overheard Joshua Parker and Lyanne talk about the other da. But to be honest she didn't even care.

When the day turned into evening the staff of the catering firm got busier and she got hushed around form one corner of the room the another. The room started to fill with fancy dressed people. Men in suits and tuxes and women in beautiful but completely over the top dresses. She had never seen any of these people and Bonnie had a feeling that the regular employees weren't even invited. What a strange way to celebrate your 100th anniversary.

Bonnie was finally stationed in the entrance area, giving out aperitifs to the incoming guests. She put on a friendly face because she knew she would get a bunch of money for working this night and she didn't want anyone to complain about her manners to her boss. When she walked around the room greeting the guest and handing them a drink she finally spotted a familiar face. Not one she particularly liked but still. Joshua Parker was pacing the entrance area like a king. People were basically pushing each other away to shake his hand and she even saw a young man bow in front of him. If she read it right Joshua Parker enjoyed this little charade way too much.

He was ignoring Bonnie even though she was standing within a few feet of him but he was probably too busy talking to an elderly couple he greeted as 'Bernard' and 'Emily'. Bonnie could only hear bits and pieces of their conversation but she heard the words 'tonight', 'excited' and 'surprise'. Everyone must be really excited about this big revelation.

When Bonnie passed them in order to get to a newly arrived couple she overheard Emily ask, "Where is your wonderful family tonight, Joshua?"

"Oh, my wife had to cancel last minute, she didn't feel well. Josette is already inside, I assigned her to keeping the Brooks company, we all know that they are very delicate people to handle."

"And Josette is just charming enough to do the job." Emily added.

"And where is Malachai?" Bernard asked.

Joshua seemed to hesitate on that one but he finally spoke in a voice of confidence. "To be completely honest, I haven't seen him here yet. I know he wanted to look after his mother, I'm sure he will be here any second." Joshua sent a glare in her direction. Did he think she had anything to do with Kai being late? How ridiculous was that? She had been here for hours and he must know that his son isn't the most reliable person when it comes to responsibilities, especially when they had to do with his father.

Like on cue Bonnie felt Kai approach before she saw him. A second later she spotted a tall, young, dark haired man in a suit walk through the entrance door. His father spotted him as well and waved at him to join him, Emily and Bernard. Bonnie could only get a peek at his expression and she knew that it would be very unlikely that this night would go down without conflict between the two male Parkers. Kai fiddled with something around his neck when he approached the three people, he hadn't spotted Bonnie yet and she didn't dare go there and offer something to drink. She rather took the opportunity and refilled the glassed at a table within earshot, half hiding behind a big fern. But secretly she wanted to watch Kai, because he looked marvelous.

The dark suit he wore complimented his bright eyes and now Bonnie could make out what he had been fiddling with around his neck. A tie was loosely hanging around his neck. It was strange seeing him this formal but Bonnie had to admit it suited him. When Kai arrived he greeted Emily and Bernard, not even giving his father a nod. They exchanged a little small talk before Joshua reached out to his son's arm, expression turned sharp.

"Would you excuse my son and me for a second?" Joshua asked and Emily and Bernard agreed instantly. When they walked away she could hear them talk about how nice Kai was. They clearly didn't know him very well.

Joshua had turned to Kai now, his eyes flaring dangerously, his mouth a thin line. He dragged him to the side which only gave Bonnie even better opportunity to eavesdrop, neither of the Parkers knowing she was there. Joshua's hand rose to Kai's tie knot, straightening it. With a harsh tone he turned to his son, "What the hell are you thinking?"

"Dad, it's just a tie…"

"I'm not talking about the tie, I am talking about the fact that you reek of alcohol!" Joshua hissed.

"Not possible, I stopped drinking hours ago." Kai joked but his father didn't take it very well.

"I am not in the mood for any of your shenanigans, Malachai. This is a very important night and you can't be running around like an alcoholic. I am going to present you as my successor tonight and it would be really shameful if you would fall off the stage due to your current state."

"You're gonna do what now?" Kai asked with raised eyebrows. The two men were practically the same height so Kai was able to stare his father directly in the eyes as he asked the question.

"I am going to introduce you officially as my successor so I need to you bring your A game, you hear me?"

"And when did you think you were going to tell me about this brilliant plan of yours?" Kai bit back.

"Don't even try and turn this around making me the bad guy. We talked about this a thousand times. We are going to honor the tradition of this company and you are going to take over one day. Don't even think about sabotaging this." Joshua said, sounding almost diabolical.

Kai shook his head, he was pissed Bonnie could tell. "Tell me, which discussion about this topic made you think that I would agree to any of this?"

"Don't make a scene. You know exactly why I didn't tell you in the first place." Joshua said finally. "And now go get to a restroom and make yourself presentable. I am awaiting you back at the banquet in 10 minutes, are we clear?" But Joshua didn't wait for Kai to answer.

When he was out of earshot Kai darkly said "Crystal" and glared after his father. Bonnie didn't dare to move. What she had just overheard was completely news to her. It seemed like Kai's dad wanted to force his son into taking over the company at one point but she knew Kai well enough that working in a construction firm wasn't what he wanted to do with his life. With a clenched jaw he turned his head and spotted Bonnie at the table.

Bonnie swallowed, already waiting for Kai to unleash his anger on her but he only looked at her, eyes completely blank and after a moment he just walked away. Bonnie breathed out a breath she didn't know she was holding and went back into the room, offering Champaign to the guests.

Author's note: Hello guys. Thanks for being such a patient bunch and waiting for my lazy ass to update. I have used a bit of my free time to write some chapters so I can at least update this story on a relatively regular basis. So I can kind of promise there is going to be an update at least once a month until February. So next chapter is going to pick up where this one left off. The celebration is not over yet and there is still something waiting for you. Thanks for reading. Until next time.