⁂⁂⁂

As I stare into Cade's menacing eyes, I realized this is the Cade from that night. The one with the colder exterior.

His outfit only adds to the his whole demeanour. He is on Calvin Klein's black-ish denim on denim pants and jacket. He doesn't have on the silver hoops earrings that I have taken a liking to. A sliver necklace rests around his neck, along with some sliver rings on his fingers.

His brown curls are no longer existing. It is now styled like Eugene's hair in Disney's Tangled. I thought I loved those curls, but that was nothing compared to this look.

He looks far more mature now. And hotter.

"And why would she need tutoring?" I look away from Cade's beautiful face to my Dad's displeased one. It's clear that he doesn't like him.

I didn't notice it before, but he has been drilling a hole at the side of Cade's face the whole time. Cade was standing just before the door, my parents both by his side.

From Cade's grin and expression, he seems  to not mind my Dad's immediate dislike for him. My Father has always been protective of me, so I'm not surprised at his deportment.

How the fuck did I forget about him tutoring me?

I mentally facepalm myself.

"So you're her friend and her tutor. Nice." My Mom elaborates, a radiant smile on her face. Unlike my Dad's expression.

I just realised I've been standing like a goddamn mannequin.

"It's just math Mom." I say, walking towards Cade.

I ignore the stupid grin present on his perfect lips and my Dad's scrutinizing stare on him. I grapple Cade's hand without much thought and start heading upstairs with him behind me.

We didn't make it to the stairs before hearing, "whatever tutoring you guys wanna have, do it where my eyes can see you." My Dad directs the you to Cade.

"Let's leave them to it, shall we Simon?" My Mom tells my Dad. One look from her and he complies. Although, he still shot a warning look to Cade, before they both disappeared to the living room.

I'm aware of our hands still connected. With that thought, I pull him to the dining room.

"Seems like your old man doesn't take a fancy to me." Cade says like it's nothing.

"Yeah not just him." I take my hand away from his. He easily understood what I meant. I didn't mean to get upset, but seeing him all unruffled and grinning like freaking pennywise, rubs me off badly.

No it's because he doesn't like you dummy.

I block out the voice in my head, uttering the next words out when Cade didn't say anything.

"What are you doing here?" He arches a brow at me.

"To tutor you." I roll my eyes at him.

"We both know you resent it, I know you don't give a shit." I deadpan. I remember how objective he was that day, the look on his face.

I don't know if he heard what I just said. He looked down at me like the words just passed through his ears. His eyes left mine to my hair, his grin never fading for a second.

"I like your hair." The words left his lips in a low tone, creating goosebumps on my skin. He has so much effect on me, it's insane.

"You should wear pigtails all the time." He runs his eyes over my body with things behind his irises.

"Cade stop." He needs to stop making this unnecessary comments when he doesn't like me.

"Stop what?" He seriously did not just ask me that. He takes his lower lips in-between in teeth.

The sight was the complete opposite of innocent. It made me want to jump him and attack his lips that I know are as soft as they look.

I can't tell how much more self control I have left.

"I need you to stop with these flattery remarks of yours." I lower my voice, conscious of the fact that my Dad isn't far from us. How I got those words out after the thoughts I just had will remain a mystery to me.

Cade's grin enlarged. "Oh is that what you think flirting is? Then that means I need to up my game." He winks at me before going to take a chair around the dining table.

I stood there speechless. What did he mean by that?

"Were you in school today?" Cade questions. I just realised I was standing like a fool with my lips parted. I gain life to my legs and take the chair beside him.

"Were you?" I throw back the question to him.

He chortles, "yeah I was."

He places his backpack that I hadn't seen earlier on the table. Probably because I was too focused on his facial beauty and features.

No matter how many times I see him a day, I will never get use to how unacceptably beautiful he is.

I like him so much.

"Would you guys like me to prepare something for you?!" My Mom suddenly yells from the living room.

"That would be lovely Mrs-"

"No Mom, we're good!" I cut off Cade before he could finish. Few strands of his hair had fallen to his eyebrow level. My hands raised up to touch them, then abruptly drop down when I realised what I was about to do.

I start coughing again. I immediately bring my hand to cover my mouth. I look at Cade but his eyes were on the text books and notebooks he was spreading out.

I hate that I want him to show a bit of concern. My heart stings with hurt that he doesn't care.

At this point, I am just pathetic.

I stand up to take a glass of water. "You're a bad host Freya, you can't even offer your guest something to eat or drink at least."

"You're not my guest. You didn't even tell me you were coming." I sit down, grateful the cough has vacated for now.

"If anything, you're an intruder."

"Oh really?" I nod.

"And what did I intrude?" He didn't let me say anything. "Let me guess, your sleep section or movie time?" It was more of a statement than a question.

I narrow my eyes at him and he laughs. He knows he's right. Unfortunately, the cough didn't enjoy it's vacation because it was back again and stronger this time.

I bet I look like someone who has tuberculosis.

"Are you okay?" Cade's voice drips off with worry and so did his face. For the first time today, I don't hate that question. It's from someone that means a lot to me...even if he doesn't know it.

Only in this moment did I remember the words of Ophelia. She's gonna confess her feelings for Cade and any moment I spend closer with Cade, increases the intensity of my own feelings for him.

I cannot betray my best friend. Even if my heart is breaking, I will bare the pain no matter how wrecking it will be or rather it is.

I'm already dealing with one problem, I shouldn't even be thinking about Cade anymore.

If only it's that easy.

"No, I'm not okay." I stood up. "You need to leave." He looks at me with confusion.

"Is everything okay?" Even as much as I didn't wanna pound on it, it felt like I was staring at the other Cade. The softer and benevolent one I fell for.

"I can't be tutored today, I caught a flu. We'll do it some other time." I didn't wait for his response before walking out.

"Freya." He calls me but I don't stop. The feeling of melancholy dropped heavily on me as I walked up the stairs.

I lock my bedroom door and peel off my clothes once I got in. I throw on a massive t-shirt and crawled under my sheets.

I hear the front door open and close downstairs, telling me Cade is gone. A part of me told me he truly doesn't care, but a bigger part of me wanted him to stay back and run after me.

This isn't a fairytale movie Freya, be realistic.

Who do I think I am? Some princess in distress?

The great need to cry came but I held it in. I can't remember the last time I cried.

I liked when things were simple. I liked it when it was just Ophelia and I. I liked it when it was just me and the hours I spend with my films and snacks on my bed.

I liked it when Cade wasn't around, when I didn't overthink everything because of him. I liked the days when everything was boring and straightforward.

The warm tear that falls to my cheeks told me I had started crying without realising it. My vision turns blurry, tears threatening to spill out.

I like the days when I lived without having a life-threatening problem.

"Honey..." A gentle knock on my bedroom door, followed by my Mom's soft voice cuts into my thoughts.

"Are you okay?" I shut my eyes, letting the tears fall. I resisted the urge to open the door and break down into her arms.

I wanted to tell her everything but I knew I couldn't. It will break her and she will blame herself. She couldn't stop doing so after the accident that time. I can't put her through that again.

"Freya please talk to me." I hold in my sobs. I don't even know why I'm crying so much.

"I'm okay Mom, I just need to be alone." I manage to say without letting it show that I'm crying.

"There's something wrong." She says more than ask.

"I'll break someone's neck if I have to Cupcake, just tell me if anyone hurt you." I let out a little laugh at my Dad's words, despite my broken state. I didn't even know he was there.

"No one hurt me Dad and I'm okay Mom. I just need to rest, the flu is getting to me." I reassure them, hoping it will be enough for them to leave.

"Are you sure?" My Mom ask again. The silent sobs continued, making me unable to say anything.

"Just come down when you feel better. Your Dad will go buy you some medicine before you wake up and I'll prepare mashed potatoes and fried chicken for dinner tonight. Your favourite!" She cheers.

I indeed need some good food.

I hear their footsteps start retreating away from my door, telling me they left.

The cough resumes again, making this whole situation a lot more worst.

Somewhere between coughing till my chest hurt like hell to crying till I had a pounding headache, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was already dark outside. Cool breeze blew into the open window, that was covered by the open blinds and ground length curtain drawn to both sides.

A striking sharp pain shoots to my head, reminding me of the state I was before I slept. I stood up from my bed and made my way to the bathroom.

I try my possible best to maneuver my thoughts away from everything that is weighing heavily on me. It was hard, impossible even...but I made the effort still.

I decide to take a shower now cause I know I will be too tired to do so later. After showering, I dry my hair and packed it into a messy bun.

I put on eye patches under my eyes to conceal the puffiness and baggage from crying. I don't need my parents worrying over that.

When I checked the time, it was already some minutes to eight. I put on a comfortable matching pajamas, before going downstairs.

My nostrils instantly fills with the mouth-watering delicious scent as I stepped into the kitchen. My tommy grumbled in anticipation.

I was still not feeling any atom of joy, but maybe good food will cure me somehow.

"Evening Mom, Dad." I say, dragging their attention from each other.

"You're awake. I was just about to come up." My Mom says, taking the bowl of fried chicken to the dining table. Everything is already set.

"Here you go Cupcake." My Dad hands me a small disposable bag, medicine contained inside.

"Thanks." He places a kiss on my head before we all move to the table. I know the drugs are useless, but I'll take them anyway for my parent's sake.

They both told me about their business trip tommorow while we ate. I only nod as a response anytime I needed to.

I cleared and washed the dishes when we were done eating. Just when I say goodnight to my parents, after I was done, ready to head out, my Dad stop me.

"Freya..." He trails off, looking away from some documents spread on the coffee table. I furrowed my brows when I noticed the hesitation in his tone.

"You and that Cade boy are just friends right?" Should I be surprised, no. My Father just decided on destroying my attempt of not thinking about him.

"Simon!" My Mom calls out his name in a 'Are you serious?' manner.

"What?" He throws at her, "I just wanna know."

"Yes Dad. We are just friends, have I satisfied your curiosity?" I expected him to detect the sarcasm, but he just nods with a smile.

I turn around, ready to leave but he utters, "and he is just tutoring you on math, right?" Not intending to respond, my Mom dives in.

"I don't think their friendship---" she looks at me in some kind of way before continuing, "or any kind of relationship they have is our business Simon. We should respect Freya's decision if wants or doesn't want us to know about some aspect of her life." This is the last thing I need right now.

"Of course it's our business." Dad protest. I feel mentally and physically exhausted. I just want to go back to bed.

"I don't need some shady looking boy coming near her." I just stood quiet, refusing to say anything.

"How do you know Cade is shady? He looks rather bright and mature to me." She defends him. It looks like he's already on my Mom's good side for some reason.

I bet he'd be filled with pride if he knew.

"Freya is still my little girl." He retorts.

This is the first time a conversation like this has raised up amongst us, but it feels like we've had it a lot of times.

"Well sorry to break it to you but Freya isn't a little girl anymore. She's growing up and you have to accept that." My lips drags up into a little smile at her statement. My Mom throws me a soft, caring and understanding smile.

I left them downstairs when my Dad starts again. I could stand there all night till my legs hurt.

♡ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴs♡