Chapter twenty-two: "Curse Too Much"

I heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs and Cloud saw Alice and Will looking disheveled no matter how much they try to fix their appearance, Cloud's eyes instantly went to Alice's neck
"Damn Will, the least that you could do is hold back"

Alice and I were looking at each other with puzzled looks when suddenly I saw it "Alice your neck"

I was at loss for words "Cloud was right Will, you should have held back, look at it!" I dragged Alice in front of him and he wasn't even embarrassed

"There is a hickey, not one, not two, but three Hickey's!" Alice said it in surprise as she saw her neck in the mirror, I patted Alice's shoulder
"So how will you cover that up?" I whispered

"Good on you dude but you are going to get Alice in trouble so you better help out right Angel?" He looked at me with a teasing smile, Will raised a brow and Alice gave me a look that I could only describe as confusion making their heads tilt sideways

I cracked my knuckles in trying to hold back my anger, Will slapped Cloud's back loudly and Alice was now in a position where she is ready to stop me
"What the hell?" Cloud spoke as he glanced at Will who was now in front of him like a shield

"I don't think you know this even in your preschool years but Penelope has a habit of making someone be sent to a hospital just like Jane does" Alice stared at him

I crossed my arms and raised my brow "Hey, I'm not the one who took a picture of a girl's underwear under her skirt you know. The guy was being a pervert!"

Will sighed as he sat down on the bed "He already confessed it out loud as you beat him up but you didn't stop until he lost consciousness"

"Jacob was being a pervert Will, good on you Penelope for beating him up" Alice supported me but Cloud has a different reaction, he has that blank look again like he was trying to figure me out

"Mind explaining why Penelope's nickname is now Angel? I thought we all agree to use our dwarf nicknames" Alice said as she look through her drawers to find something to cover up her hickeys that were the size of a thumb and some are bigger than the others

I shot a glare at Cloud who was now planning to say it to them, I shake my head multiple times and for the first time he actually listened to me
"I just remembered that it was her middle name and it suits her a bit, I will be the only one calling her that"
He call dibs on being the only one calling me that

Will was about to ask something when we suddenly heard a knock on the door, it was Stephanie. Alice's cousin who has the biggest crush on Cloud just like Danny, Stephanie was giving him flirty looks

I got uncomfortable, Alice was way different from her cousin from their looks all the way to their personalities
"Being a little slut again eh?" She said to Alice as she saw the Hickey's on her neck

"At least someone did, I doubt anyone would do it to you," she remarked, I just don't want to be in their passive-aggressive conversation so I wander my eyes around Alice's basketball themed room

Alice was a basketball player on our schools' all-girl basketball team and she was really good but she wanted to try out for a different club this time, she gave off a tomboyish look but still have some hints of her feminine side like sometimes wearing hair clips and beaded bracelets

I was happy for Alice and Will because I think they are a perfect athletic couple match, they might even be a power couple if they want to

I listened back to their conversation and this time I think things got a bit heated between Stephanie and Alice

"Stephanie stop being so nosy and bitchy" Alice forced her out of her room but Stephanie wasn't moving an inch

"I'm even surprised you even managed to snatch yourself up a boyfriend after you slept with guys" Stephanie spoke back and that was the last straw for me, Alice used to have a small history of sleeping with guys but she finally stopped and focused herself with studies and basketball

"Stephanie get the fuck out," I said in a low voice, I sat down on Alice's spinning chair and crossed my legs as I lean back to relax. Everyone in the room was quiet
"If not I can go on and listen to how a bitch can bark so loudly in the afternoon" I grinned at her but I made Stephanie pissed off, she was digging her long nails at the side of her pants in fury

"Why? Aren't you planning to bark bitch? Go on I can listen, you guys can go I'll stay here" I told my friends, Stephanie stomped away with a furious look

I groaned in relief that she is finally gone and I spin around in the chair happily, I stopped spinning to look at my friends that are giving me concerned looks
"Make sure you'll never make her mad dude" Will told Cloud

"I already know about that" he answered as he look at me with a somewhat either proud or disappointed look

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We ate lunch at a diner together, Jane was in her book club so she cannot join us. Cloud was silent after I cursed out Stephanie, he was still silent during the drive back to the penthouse

He took off his coat and took a shower and I prepared my clothes to wear after I shower in the other room that he had now made into a library lounge, I removed my clothes and felt the hot water run through my body
Did I curse her out too much?

I shake myself out of my deep thoughts and quickly finished showering, drying myself off in a fluffy towel that Cloud gave to me before he went into the shower. I wore sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt before going out of the bathroom

While drying my hair with the towel I saw Cloud who doesn't have a shirt on and was finishing a whole bottle of water in one sitting, his hair was a bit dry because of the towel that was hanging around his neck. I was about to go into his room to get my hairbrush that was in my luggage in his huge closet when suddenly he called out "Angel"

I stopped in my tracks and looked at him, he was gazing at me from the kitchen and I was near to the entrance of the bedroom door. I tilted my head a bit to show him I don't know why he called me

"Get all of my books related to math in the library" he ordered before facing back to the fridge to get something
"Sure" I mumbled before going into the room because I need to brush my hair first

I got my hairbrush and I stepped out of the bedroom and wandered to the library, I can feel Cloud's eyes burning the back of my head before I enter the library
What is with him? He kept looking at me so oddly

I traced my fingertips to the titles of the book on their spine as I slowly walk by to find every math book in the small library, the scent of books is just so different and I fell in love with it instantly as soon as I entered this room

I have found about 8 different Math books and I gathered them on the center table of the library, I took 4 books first because it was hard to carry all of them at once. Each book has about 500 pages based on my guess because it was thick as Natalie's study books during her exam week in her medicine course

Waddling out of the library I saw Cloud with a black v-neck shirt and was gazing out through a terrace, he sometimes kept looking through a telescope. I put the first 4 books down on the dining table before I walk back to get the other 4

I have come back with the books and this time I saw him reading one of them with so much focus in his eyes, he was naturally gifted in everything

Looks, status, IQ, and basically everything I could think of, even in sports he could easily beat Alice in basketball and Will in football

Putting the books down on the table, I sat across him and he looked at me funny "Angel, how am I going to tutor you over there?"

I bit my bottom lip slightly and I walked to sit beside him, he was looking down at me with a small smile then push the book he was reading in front of me
"Let's get started shall we?"