Chapter 27- Edward's POV

 Malcolm walked slowly and stopped at the door, just a few centimetres away from me. As I stood there, still baffled, he walked past me and into the classroom. I turned around swiftly, making myself dizzy. I stopped, my world running around in circles. I heard Malcolm laughing, and I looked up. He was looking at me, albeit laughing at me. Great.

"What are you doing here?" I asked with an accusatory tone, remembering that he could very well be the person sending me the notes, messages and photos. I stood still near the door, unable to do much else. 

I anxiously waited for him to answer me. 

Malcolm folded his arms and looked at me from head to toe briefly. The look on his face seemed to be one of disgust. "You know what? I'm glad my sister chose your friend, not you." I felt myself heat up with rage, and opened my mouth to speak, but Malcolm continued. "Are all the teachers in this school as rude as the two of you are?" 

I gave a non-committal shrug, trying to put away the horrible image that Malcolm had managed to put in my head. Ella and John. I shuddered. "You haven't answered my question," I said. 

Malcolm looked up. "Oh? You haven't answered mine either. What question?" 

"I asked why you're here." 

"Aah. Yeah. I came to ask what your opinion is. Regarding the issue with my sister and... that guy." 

I chuckled. "You know, for a person studying law, you're really not that good," I said. 

Malcolm narrowed his eyes. "And how would you know what I'm studying?"

Darn. I had not thought about this. Of course, Ella had told me, but I couldn't really say that. 

"Just a guess." 

"As if. I know everything, Edward." 

The silence that followed in the room was shocking. It wasn't just because Ella's brother had addressed me by my name, indicating that perhaps he knew me well, but also because he said that he knew. What did he know? Did he know about Ella and I? 

He was waiting for me to react or answer, but I didn't. I was too busy wondering. 

Did he know about us because he'd been the one following me? Because that seemed to be the most logical answer right now. 

He paced around the room, looking around, while I stood there, motionless, my eyes following his every move. He stopped in front of the canvas, the one I had hidden for no one to see. Ella's portrait. I felt myself panic, but couldn't find the energy to move. 

But Malcolm didn't reach for it. Instead, he turned back around, and said. "I've been receiving notes and photos regarding Ella. Was that you?" 

I couldn't believe it. Malcolm too had been receiving the notes... or claiming to have been, anyway. And he was asking me if it had been me. I could do nothing but shake my head. "No. I thought that was you."

Malcolm frowned. "You've been receiving them, too?"

"Yeah."

I walked over to my chair and sat down, not knowing what else to do. Malcolm dragged a chair over and sat down next to me, drumming his fingers on the desk top. He caught my eye and did not break the contact. Suddenly it felt like the room was a thousand times smaller. Like he knew something that he wasn't telling me. But I couldn't bring myself to ask.

I didn't have to. He spoke soon enough. He didn't use words to speak though, he merely put his hand into his jacket pocket and took out a set of folded papers, and left them on the table. I didn't react, apart from looking at him without understanding. He pushed the papers towards me, inviting me to take a look.

I swallowed the bile that had risen in my throat and reached for them, knowing what they would contain. More notes from the psychopath, no doubt. But I'd been so sure that it had been Malcolm who was the pyschopath. Now I couldn't be so sure anymore.

I slowly opened the sheets, to find out that they contained scribbled and printed notes, and photos.

The first note, written by hand, said, Malcolm! Did you know that your sister has been fooling around with teachers? Not just one teacher, but two of them. Keep an eye on her, we don't want her expelled, do we? I could easily tell the principal, you see...

I gulped. I couldn't help but wonder that the writing was somewhat familiar, but I couldn't bring myself to focus to whom it belonged. I shrugged it off and turned to the next note, aware that Malcolm was watching my every move and facial expression.

She's in a relationship, the second note said. You're not being a good enough brother, that's all I can say. He's some ten years older than Ella.

I looked up from the notes. The person who was writing this did not want me with Ella, that I was sure of. And the notes was clearly about me. "Where did you get these?" I asked.

"I found one of them in a book, and one of them on my car windscreen. But, there's more," Malcolm said, raising an eyebrow, His gaze bore into mine. I looked away uncomfortably, and focused on the next sheet, which was an A5 one. It said PROOF on one side. I took a deep breath, and turned the paper. It was a photo.

A photo of Ella and I holding hands. My heart almost leapt out of my chest when I saw it. The people in the photo were very recognizable, so I had no doubt. Malcolm knew. I didn't dare look up at him, but quickly turned the sheet over, only to be met with another photo, this time worse. Ella and I kissing.

There was no doubt that I was blushing furiously after seeing this photo. I lifted my hands and hid my face behind it, waiting for Malcolm to comment. It didn't take long for him to say something.

"Yeah, I figured that that would be your reaction," he said simply.

"Mmph," I managed to say in a muffled tone. I didn't look up, but I was wondering, why wasn't he mad? He seemed to be just so calm.

"I've known for a while now," he said, still as calmly as ever. "I knew from the first time I saw you that you were interested in her. You made it so obvious. But I didn't know what to do. So I followed her sometimes. I didn't need to receive these notes and photos to know."

"Did- did you know about John?" I asked, removing my hands from my face.

Malcolm shook his head. "No," he said. "Did you?"

"No." I teared my gaze away from him. "Why aren't you mad?" I finally asked.

Malcolm chuckled. "Oh, I am mad. You know, you, and the other guy, both wanting my sister when you could have anyone you want. I just don't understand. And you are right. I'm studying to become a lawyer but I have absolutely no idea what to do about this."

I shivered and didn't say anything about the subject. Instead, I continued flipping through the sheets. The next one was also a photo... but it wasn't me in the photo. It looked like Malcolm himself. I picked it up, and leered at it to understand what it was all about.

Malcolm snapped it from my fingers before I had the chance to look at it properly. I looked up in alarm. "Not that one," he said.

"Why not?" I asked. I tried to grab hold of the photo, but he yanked my hand away.

"Personal. It was a threat from the person sending me the notes. Said that if I didn't look into my sister's relationship, he'd bail me out." Malcolm sighed.

"Sounds familiar," I muttered, feeling curious.

Malcolm grinned. "Oh yeah, right. Your old days. I'd forgotten."

I felt myself pale at his answer. Malcolm knew about my past too? Was there anything that he didn't know?

"I looked you up. I have access to these things," he explained. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna report you. At least, not about them."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

Malcolm never got to answer my question though, because a knock came on the door. Honestly, it felt like the whole world was suddenly wanting to visit my classroom. Malcolm scrambled to his feet and picked up all the papers, shoving them in my hands, and sat back down. I looked at him, stunned, and then at the door. And died on the spot.

It was Ella.

I could feel Malcolm's eyes on me as I looked at her. I still couldn't meet her eyes, and looked away. She looked so...fragile. I had to remind myself over and over that she was a liar and a cheater. Oh, and that her older brother was sitting next to me.

"You ready?" he asked. He glanced at her, she'd packed everything and had a bag strapped over her shoulder. 

"Yeah," she mumbled.

I turned to face Malcolm. "You told her to meet you here? Seriously? Couldn't you have met somewhere else?!" I sounded frantic, and I was. I didn't want to see her. Seeing her made it worse.

"Yeah," Malcolm smirked. "I would've thought you'd have liked to see her."

"Not at all." My eyes finally met Ella's, and my vision went blurry. She seemed to be so sorry. "You guys, just leave," I said.

"Fine," Malcolm said, standing up. He patted my shoulder. "See you around. Say hi to your girl for me."

I looked at him, confused. "What? What girl?"

"Oh, you know, that girl who was here just before I got here. Surely you know whom I'm talking about. I mean, you were kissing her. I think she's a teacher." Malcolm raised an eyebrow as I sank down further in my seat and turned to look at Ella.

She looked hurt, and as soon as our eyes met, she gave me a meaningful look and turned around to leave. I turned to glare at her brother. "Shit man, did you have to do that?" I hissed.

Malcolm chuckled. "Yeah, actually. I have to make sure you  guys don't get back together, you see." He turned away and followed his sister, who undoubtedly hated me by now.

She obviously thought I'd been cheating on her.

Well, that would make two of us, I guess. I took a deep breath and looked down at my hands, in which I was still holding the sheets that Malcolm had retrieved from his jacket. I didn't know if he'd left them on purpose, or if he'd been too busy making fun of me to pick them up.

I suddenly remembered that he had tried to hide one of the photos from me. I leafed throught the photos quickly, and very curiously picked up the photo. It was Malcolm, all right. And he was sniffing some kind of drug. So that's why he did not want me to see it. Because he knew my past, and my past was his present. Awesome.

The photo looked recent. On the back of it was written, I'll rat you out if you don't do what I've been telling you to do.

These messages were even worse than the one I'd been receiving. This person seemed to be... almost violent with Ella's brother. I sighed and turned to the next note, which said, The school's accepting volunteers for the live-in your sister's going to. Be there. She's not going for the literature, you know :) No, she's going because she wants to see two teachers.

I closed my eyes, unable to believe that Malcolm had known all along. Life honestly couldn't get worse. I had just found out that my girlfirend had been seeing my best friend, and she believed that I'd been cheating on her too. This thing with Malcolm was like the cherry on the cake.

I still couldn't figure out who the person sending the messages was, though. It couldn't be Malcolm, obviously, unless he was a freak.. which wasn't unlikely, anyway. I had run out of ideas thinking whom it might be.

My phone beeped and I reached for it. It was from a private number. The message said, "What an eventful day :) It's so unlucky that you had to lose Ella on the day she became legal. But still, don't forget that she's your student. And that goes for her, too. She's gonna get in trouble for messing around with you and your friend."

I closed my eyes once again, feeling completely drained out of energy. By friend, this person meant John. But I didn't feel like thinking about him right now. He had betrayed me. Ella had, too. But I didn't want either of them to get hurt, even though I hated them right now.

We could never, ever go back to how we used to be though. That I was sure of.

Hey guys, it's been so long :) I'm sorry, these past few months have been very stressful and I'm really busy. But I've finally updated :) Sorry, it's not my best work, I hope you enjoy it though, please leave feedback, nothing makes me happier.

Thank you!

Dedicated to my sister, MrsLeoMessi :) welcome to wattpad! Please check out her story :) it's awesome!