Chapter 172

Things had not gotten better from there...

Although Shields was finally willing to leave me alone, Arthur's apparent anger remained prominent all throughout class.

I can feel him glaring at me from across the room!

Of course, I was under the impression that today would have been like any other day which would have either consisted of note-taking or a quiz. Not today, apparently.

Mrs. Shields thought it would be interesting to try a certain exercise where all of the students rearranged the tables so that we were sitting in a circle, facing each other.

It came as a little surprise that Arthur had specifically chosen the spot that was directly across from me. If he wasn’t staring bitterly at me then his eyes were fixed on the table in front of him.

“Alright, everyone. I wanted to try something different since this will be our final day covering anything new regarding our unit on Shakespeare...” I tried my best to focus on her lecture but my mind kept drifting. “...Now, remember, most of the plays we covered in this unit are going to be on the midterm in some form of open-ended or essay question...”

A random student raised their hand. “Mrs. Shields, will there be anything else due this coming Monday, other than our Shakespeare reports?”

“Nope. All I’m requiring is your reports to hopefully give you all a break and a chance to start creating your study guides for the midterms,” she answered.

Well, I guess there was a silver lining in all of this somewhere.

Ben and I’s project was completely finished. After a final round of edits, we decided to leave it at that. Hell, if I knew that I wouldn’t end up in some sort of trouble, I would have handed in the report and walked out of class for the day.

But no.

Mrs. Shields wanted to cover some of the types of questions we would expect on the English midterm.

“What are some of the common themes we see in Shakespeare’s works?”

Some students were willing to raise their hands and answer.

“Corruption.”

“Politics and Power.”

“Very good,” the older woman commended. “Anyone else?”

Normally, Arthur wouldn’t go out of his way to answer questions in class as he preferred to observe. Suddenly, he parted his lips and called out another viable answer while looking directly at me.

“Fate,” he stated tightly.

I clenched my jaw and suppressed a growl. Not batting an eye, I called out another answer while glaring back at him with sharp intensity.

“Madness.”

He refused to break my stare. “Ambition.”

“Revenge.”

“Beauty,” he prompted.

“Identity.”

“Jealousy.”

“Death,” I snapped back.

“Love.”

That last one caused my heart to falter. I felt it seize inside of my chest. I forced my eyes to tear away from him.

“Tragedy...Betrayal...”

Back and forth, the two of us were locked in what seemed like an endless battle of words. Everyone else wasn’t able to make much more out of the verbal sparring but Arthur and I knew that we were having an entire conversation between ourselves.

The class waited a few moments to see if Arthur or I managed to toss out any other words.

“Alright, that’ll do. Thank you Miss Belmont and Mr. Winslow for that very insightful and intense debate,” Shields said pointedly.

For the remainder of class, I all but refused to look at Arthur and tried to focus on my notes. I felt Ben shift next to me. He subtly passed me a note, sliding it under one of my folders. I waited for Shields to turn her head before unfolding the slip of paper.

Ben: Are you okay?

I swiftly scribbled a reply on the back and slid it back to him.

Ella: Not really.

Ben: Is there anything I can do?

Ella: I couldn’t ask it of you.

This time, Ben leaned over to whisper in my ear. “Try me.”

I didn’t need to glance up to know that Arthur was utterly fuming across the room. Whether anyone else acknowledged it or not, I heard the venomous snarl coming from his general direction.

Right as the bell rang, I was quick to jump up from my chair and snatch my bag. I turned to face Ben. “Would you be willing to give me a ride back to my place today? I need a few days to get my thoughts in order.”

Ben easily nodded his head. “Sure. We can head out after classes.”

“Great! Thanks.”

...

The rest of the day came with little hassle, thank God.

After my first class, Arthur had kept his distance from me, sparing us both the uncomfortable confrontations. This allowed me to get through my remaining classes with less stress.

As I was making my way out of my last class, I found myself being snagged by Liam. He looked just as frustrated as Arthur did earlier.

“Liam, I’m not doing this with you right now. Let me go.”

“Not until we talk. You can’t shut me out, Ella.”

I pursed my lips and fought back a sneer. “Why not? You and Arthur have been doing it for God only knows how long. Don’t you think I deserve a damn break from the bullshit that’s been my life since we fucking transferred here?”

Liam’s expression turned solemn. “I can understand why you’re upset with Arthur but why me?” he asked.

“Because you knew about what his family did to my lineage and you never bothered to tell me,” I whispered. “It’s the fact that you chose to not tell me that makes me mad as hell to even look at you.”

I shoved past him and headed straight back to my room to begin packing. Bonnie greeted me when I came in with a sad smile.

“Are you sure you need to go home?” she asked. “I feel like you just got back.”

I gave her a slight nod and reassured her that it would only be for the weekend. “I just really need to think a few things over.”

“I know we didn’t actually talk much last night, but I take it that the talk with Liam and Arthur didn’t go well?”

I let out a long sigh while picking out a few outfits from my closet. “You could say that.”

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

I glanced over at my phone to see a new message from Ben. He’s just gotten out of class and was heading to his dorm to grab his keys. He mentioned that he was parked next to the History building.

I waved goodbye to Bonnie and made off. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Liam and Arthur were talking to each other outside of the English Building.

They spotted me almost immediately and tried to reach me but stopped short when they saw I was getting into Ben’s car.

Their expressions were stunned and troubled, causing my heart to clench in my chest. These two were supposed to be my mates—the ones that were supposed to stick by me.

What do I do if I can’t bring myself to trust them?

“You ready?” Ben asked.

I tore my eyes from them and nodded my head. “Yeah.”