~ 29: A Gamble ~

"Who's that?" I asked after I had managed to yank him away from hunting the poor soul down.

"My archnemesis," he answered coldly. "We have been enemies since the world was born."

I chortled, sending his emerald eyes to look at me. There was no way I was going to miss the golden chance to laugh at his statement.

"I'm sorry," I apologised. "It's just that the two of you are so young to be able to decide what the world has kept in store for you."

"And what are you? An old lady?" he yelled. "Do you even know how long we have battled to come here? We would be practising in the dead of night, trying to get better than the other."

"And what was the result? Both of you fell sick before the event, isn't it?" I asked in amusement.

I couldn't help laughing when he turned his face away. His angry face looked like a cute pout. I received a glare in return, but I continued to laugh and hold his arm, saying sorry as he humphed and walked ahead.

'Turns out that it served the two of you a good lesson,' I mused.

Irking him had somehow become my source of entertainment, like how he liked teasing me to the point of irritation. At some point, I started noticing our similarities, notwithstanding the vast differences.

We treated ourselves with an ice cream before we walked our way to the hospital. Aidan had planned to play a game with the two of us munching at the ice cream at the same time. I refused but he gave an ultimatum.

"Don't play the game, you pay up for it," he said cooly.

"I wouldn't be paying for it if I won't be eating it," I said indignantly. "That's why I told you to get the stick one and not the one in the cup."

"Not my problem. If you don't pay up when you lose, then you don't get the notes I got for you. And I'll make sure that not one soul gives them to you except myself. A rumour would be enough to spark the fire, right?"

'Tch, what a bully,' I told my psyche in exasperation. 'What do you want me to do now?'

'Play it already,' it said in a bored voice, making me yawn. 'You got to do what you got to do to get your hands on those. Or else you are finished for the term and the year. Your scholarship will be revoked, remember?'

I could see the smug smile behind that those innocent, expressionless eyes. I wasn't given a choice so I had to play by the rules to get what I needed. But if he tried bullying me again, I will set the rats on him. Mel and I had seen him screaming once when we had brought a cute little mouse from the claws of a cat. I never saw such childish behaviour in him thereafter.

"Fine, I will do it," I said in a determined voice. "How much would it be?"

"Oh, the fiery girl has arrived at an opportune time," he remarked. "I would like to see how this game goes down. Twenty would be perfect, don't you think? I gathered all materials for the day."

"What?! No way! Twenty is way too much!"

"It's not after having collected materials and clothes for the both of you. Either that or I will create a rumour of you having skipped class on purpose yesterday. You don't have the little certificate the hospital gave you so it wouldn't take a second to burn it up. And you can't afford another one unless you are asking for a hundred."

I twisted my lips in discontentment. Here everyone, including myself, thought that this was one nice person. But he surely was a devil when it came to betting around the house.

He set a timer of thirty seconds, after which he declared the rules and that whoever ate the most in that time would win.

"Considering the opposite situation, what would you do if you lost?"

"Follow you around like a puppy for one day? How does that sound?"

'Sounds like someone trying to intrude into my private space,' I scoffed internally.

"I think I will decide that when we see the result," I answered.

I wanted to give him the right punishment at the end, and hold him by his tail in suspense. His uneasiness increased my confidence, and I felt more valiant to face his challenge.

"Time. Starts. NOW!" he yelled.

We bit into the core of the ice cream, gobbling away the crunchy outer crust before it fell apart. I felt something rise in my throat, but I pushed it down, telling it to come out later.

I would have succeeded if Aidan hadn't taken to playing dirty. His nose would be exactly in front of mine, even when I would avoid it. It made my heart race and slowed down my speed. He even licked my nose mid-game, startling me and causing me to lose my hold on the stick. That would have cost me the twenty if I hadn't been quick enough to slap his arm away.

When we had closed in on the top half of the stick, only the ice cream stuck of the stick remained. I carefully tried to lick it away, but somewhere in the middle, felt his tongue brush mine. I retracted a millisecond after the timer rang.

I immediately jumped away and covered my face with my hands. There I found myself being pulled to Aidan's chest.

"Good try," he said, smooching me on the cheek with his cold lips. "Looks like we have drawn."

I pulled away from him to see the result. I found that what was caught up in my throat spilt out at its preferred moment. I sank into my knees and spluttered out blood and black phlegm. In the bright light, there was no mistake in my recognition. The white plastic floating in the midst of it had come out along with the fluids.