Chapter Sixteen

Isabell stayed outside of the office when Xavier and Sebastian were called by the discipline committee. Arine was there too, standing silently in a corner, waiting for her brother

Her eyes stare at tiles similar to Isabell's. But they never exchanged a single word.

Isabell darted at Arine in between her zoning in seconds. She was still amazed by her beauty and the fact of how similar she looked to Emily. She wanted to go and talk to her but she never dared to move her feet to her

Arine left as soon as Max came out of the office

Initially, the committee decided to suspend Xavier for three days but nothanks to his failing grades for pushing his reputation to rock bottom, they expanded his suspension to an entire week.

Sebastian had to pay fines because he got himself involved in the fight instead of stopping it.

Both of them came outside of the office together. Her lips stretched in a sad smile at Sebastian for an unspoken apology and he nodded in reply

Her smile disappeared when she looked at her brother. Isabell grabbed Xavier by his arm and dragged him with her. He never said a word in his defense

Isabell drove home and both of them stayed silent the entire way back, she was still somehow startled by the scene. All she did was stare at his brother in between keeping her eyes on the road while Xavier's head stayed glued to the window.

Evening fell around the home. The moment she knew their mother was out, Isabell banged in Xavier's room, holding the first aid kit Xavier opened the door at the tenth knock. "How will you explain everything that happened today?" She greeted, Xavier never replied "How will you explain everything that happened today, Zavy?" She repeated. "Can we please talk about it later?" His hair looked wet from the shower, hanging down to his forehead, his big brown eyes still visible from them "Absolutely not." Isabell crossed her hand over her chest while taking a seat on a chair. "Why did you fought?" She asked, he stayed silent sitting on his bed far from her sister "Why? Did. You, Xavier?" Her voice got intense with every silent moment of him "He- the guy from commerce is the one," He said and went silent again "The one?" Isabell questioned "The one who forced Jade to buy cigarettes"

"To do what?" Her voice raised "That- that day when- when you saw him smoking I asked Jade about it, and he told me that it was Max who forced him to buy them because everyone knows he is the son of VC and he is rich"

"You want me to believe that Jade Hilton was blackmailed by a guy two years younger than him?" She wasn't buying any of his words "If it's for Jade then it is possible" A mocked laughter was only her reply "You have seen him, Izzy. You've seen how much bigger and stronger the guy was from us" Isabell had indeed seen him being huge but the thing that was stopping her from believing her brother was the hatred she had toward Jade "I'm not convinced at all, Zavy" Maybe she was a little convinced and that was why she picked the first aid kit from the table and opened it finding bandages "Have you ever, like even one time seen me fighting?" He asked sincerely "No, but…" She didn't have words to finish "Then don't you think there should be something big that makes me behave like this" She agreed with her brother, he was just making sense "Okay, Zavy, Come here" Without saying anything in back Xavier stood up from the bed and sat on to chair next to her "I'll try understanding your reason" She covered the wound on his cheek with an ointment "But you know how wrong the thing you did today was" Xavier agreed with a slight nod "I know I was wrong"

"Not only that you was wrong but you got a professor in trouble too" Xavier's lips turned into a pout and his pout stretched halfway "But he butted in" The muscles of Isabell's face got tense, she felt a sudden jolt of anger "You should be apologizing right now" She pressed on his cheek hard putting the bandage "Ah!" Xavier shouted and then gently rubbed over his wound "When I will graduate, I am going to make a lot of money and pay him double the amount of his fine" Xavier said looking up at her. Isabell laughed at the way he was whining like a baby "It's not about money, Zavy. It's about getting better and learning from your mistakes" She lectured "Yes I do understand that" A moment of silence passes through them

"By the way, who was that professor?" Xavier asked, Isabell gazed at him and blinked and stared one more time and blinked "He- he was- was—"

"Oh, why are you acting so suspicious, IzyWizy" A smile touched his face, "What suspicious?" She inhaled in surprise, and that surprise was never needed in the moment, suspicious

"Was he something" Xavier smirked, his teeth were visible "Something like your—" "We were never talking about me!" Isabell almost yelled "Suspicious" He repeated "So, Mister Xavier" She called, he straightened up on the chair "Yes, Sir" His hand raised, fingers attached to the forehead "You are never getting yourself into trouble and going to behave like a good child,"

"Yes, Sir" he yelled and saluted again "So, do you understand that you are not going to do anything like this every again, Sergeant?" Isabell shot him an evil look and got up from the chair "Understood, Commander" His hand stayed in place "No, monkey, you don't" Isabell grabbed Xavier by his ear "But I know exactly how will you learn your lesson" Isabell sneered "Isabell" Xavier jumped from his chair, "Time for the punishment" Isabell's hand slipped from his ear "No. You are not going to do anything right?" Xavier looked horrified "Wrong, Sergeant! For the next week I'm going to lock your room at seven every evening, and don't even think about sneaking out through the windows" Isabell slipped her hand into her pocket taking a metal gadget out "I got you window blocker and I'm going to install them right now, Brother" Xavier's mouth fell open in terror, air raided at his skin "No you are not going to, Isabell" She took her feet towards the window of his room "Yes I'm going to do it and I swear if you try to stop me I'm going to tell Mom everything" That was a big threat to him. Xavier definitely didn't want to be beaten by his mom and hear unstoppable lectures from her "Please, Izzy. I won't do it, I will never do this again. Don't do this with me" He begged, whining, at the edge of crying "Then you should think before taking action, Zavy" She said, working on the blockers "But you know it wasn't my fault! I didn't do it because I wanted to, Izzy" He begged again "You should think before taking action" She repeated and was done with attaching the blockers "They will be removed in seven days if you act accordingly, Brother" She turned around and went to the door "You should stop, Isabell" He said, Isabell's feet stop "Break them if you can" Xavier stayed silent, staring at his sister in anger "And yeah if mom asks about these bruises tell her you fell from the stairs, I'll help you to cover just this much" He again didn't reply but keep on his bed with a puffed face

----

Isabell was holding a box of chocolates when she entered the university, her steps took little anxious jumps and they took her straight to the black office.

One knock over the door and his voice allowed her in.

Sebastian glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, he swiftly collected all the papers scattered papers over the black table and removed his glasses

"Good Morning, Mr. Lightwood," She said, closing the door, her hands stayed at the back. Sebastian lifted his face

"Morning, Isabell…" he replied but his lips stayed parted

"Do you have something to say?" Isabell asked, Sebastian had never heard her talking in this soft voice ever before maybe thats why he paused "I was just- I-" He cleared his throat "I think Sebastian sounds better" As soon as his words finished his eyes traveled back to the table and got fixed there. Isabell bit the inside of her cheek trying to hold her smile

"But we are inside the university" She replied "Yeah, but not in the class" She shrugged his words off with light laughter, her toes were kicking the floor beneath them gently

"You can have a seat first," Sebastian said, she nodded and took the chair in front of him across the table

"I want to apologize, Mr. Bastar-" Sone habits get you in trouble and they were about to cause a hell of a lot of trouble for her, Sebastian corked a brow at her "Mr. Lightwood" She finished

"For?" His voice compressed and he chose to stay ignorant when his lip still looked swollen from the punch of her brother "About the trouble my brother caused you yesterday," Isabell bends her head down. Her hands moved upwards lifting the box and Isabell slid the chocolate towards Sebastian over the table.

But giving chocolates to Sebastian wasn't really a good idea and deep down she knew it herself

"You want me to get food poisoning?"

Sebastian nearly yelled in absolute shock almost horrified by the red sweetness over his dead table

"No no- I- I…"

was just really confused about how to say sorry to you, Bastarian and this was the first thing that appeared on Google when I searched for it. This method always works whenever I mess things up with Ashley and for a crazy reason, I thought it would work on you too, Mr. Bastarian. But I was wrong, wasn't–

"I?" He teased

"I don't know, okay people are supposed to like and smile when they see chocolates but I forgot Mr. Bastarian isn't normal" Her voice didn't even click now, and once again he left him stunned, "I thought you were here to apologize but this is not how okay people are supposed to say sorry" Sebastian evened

"Okay- okay, I'm really trying to stop calling you that, S-e-b-a-s-t-i-a-n" Sebastian's face glowed with a surprised smile maybe at the way she just called him

"Oh, come on, Isabell, it's not that hard" The same surprise appeared on Isabell's face now but quite opposite in appearance

"No, no it really is" Her face nodded up and down "I swear it is," She said and nodded again

"How," he asked, still smiling

"See" Isabell lifted her hand in the air "There are four syllables in your name Seb-as-ti-an" She wavered her thumb over four of her fingers "That's a lot of syllables to have, you know?" Sebastian never replied but he laughed, he mighr had not realize but he laughed loudly because the usually burning girl in front of him was being too cute for him to handle

"Do you want to change it to Seb?" He offered in between giggles. Isabell was lost and completely zoned out because her shining brown eyes were now staring at Sebastian laughing as she had never seen before and it took her seconds to arrange his words in her mind

"No" She rejected as soon as the words completed their placement "Why?" his smile was shallow now "I like Sebastian better" His smile reappeared and widened this time and so did Isabell's

"I'm okay with anything as long as you don't call me that," he said

"Call you what? Basta—-"

"Stop right there" He raised his voice pointing a finger at her mouth to sprinkle magic "Okay Okay I will, I will" His spell worked at her

Isabell sat on the chair comfortably, she wasn't irritated: afraid of Sebastian now. Some thing had changed and it could be her heart

"So" She said after a pause "Don't you think, Maybe like maybe we should be planning something" Her words left Sebastian confused

"Something?"

"Something like Cursed Abyss" Sebastian's smile disappeared

"Isabell, I know exactly how rebellious you are but I would still advise you to stop" The usual tension took place between the two of them "You exactly know how rebellious I am" She repeated his words giving him an answer

"Oh, Isabell" he ran a hand across his face "Why are you like this?" his hand stopped over his eyes as he sighed "Oh, Sebastian" His hand slipped and something like a loud beat in his chest too "Why are you like this?" No sighing, Sebastian stared at her for a lot of seconds, he licked his lips looking in the other direction. There was no way of him being shy and that's why ahe rejected the thought

"Do you have a plan?" He asked, "No" His eyes moved to her and Isabell's went to the side "No, but, like we can work on it, right?" She laughed nervously, his stare got intense

"Exactly how careless are you?" His head moved side to side "That's offensive" she whizzed "Sebastian" he wanted to be angry and disappointed but all his face could say was, I never signed up for this.

"Anyhow" he said "I think I have some sort of a plan" Isabell looked interested "Okay," she said "So as you know, there will be exactly three hundred people in there that night" Isabell's eyes opened wide "How do you know that? I never write it in the report" Sebastian smirked at her "I told you. I've done my research" She nodded her surprised and impressed face

"Since we can't mess with their numbering as it would result in an instant death. So this is what we are going to do" Sebastian rolled a map of the area covering by The Veritas University over the table "There is only one road leading to that building and thid is where the road starts" He encircled the point with a marker "So if we wait here, hours before the party start, we may find someone to distract or maybe punctures a vehicle or something" Isabell unimpressed her face

"And?" She asked

"And that will be all," Sebastian looked aware of how uncertain of a plan it was, Isabell cracked up, "I thought you were a genius" she laughed again "But here we meet the dumb Bastarian" His eyes twitched, unable figure with word to take more offense from

"The insecurity is at its peak," She said "Of course, So do you have a plan?"

"I-I—"

"Or you want to break through the window and mess murder everyone?" He asked, genuinely. Isabell's lips parted in amazement "That sounds thrilling" and She laughed at her own words, Sebastian rolled his eyes at her

"So if you don't have a plan then we can go with this one" He said staring out of the window "Okay, We will go with Sebastian's insecure plan" His eyes looked at her, blinking and annoyed; happy and annoyed

"Okay," He said

For the next few moments, they discussed more details and soon they were done planning

Isabell left her chair to leave "Isabell" Sebastian called, and she turned around "You- I think, you–" He stopped saying the words for a moment "Do you want to say something?" She asked, Sebastian breathed, he hesitated

"Your hair"

"What about my hair" She patted over her head to check if something was wrong with them

"You should cover them with a wig at the night of Cursed Abyss" He left her puzzled "Why?"

"Your hair" Sebastian exhaled "Your hair is eye-catching and they will make you easy to recognize" Isabell blinked at him and flashes her eyes again not aure what to speak when she asked "Was that a compliment?" Her mouth stayed open

"It was a precaution," He said in a rigid tone and she couldn't do anything but smile "Ah, I see precaution," She said and turned around to the door, still moving her head

"Isabell" he called again and she spun again

"It's not like I am rejecting it but I don't eat chocolates" he said anxiously "You should take them with you" Isabell's smiling lips suddenly turned downward and she moved towards his table

"I'll give them to my neighbor's dog, maybe he will stop barking at me," She said and stretched her lips into a plain smile "Hey, Isabell. I'm sorry, I mean it" His words didn't do anything good to her mood

"It's okay, Mr. Lightwood" Sebastian's okay face faded, she picked up the box, went to grab the door, and in an instant, she was out of his office with the same long face.

After a count of three seconds, the door opened again and Isabell's face appeared from it, Sebastian sat up on his chair.

Isabell smiled a sinister smile at him

"Once a Bastarian is always a Bestarian" As soon as her sentence finished she ran smashing the door without letting Sebastian reply, she couldn't manage to stand still seeing him throwing files or in critical cases, his laptop at her.

So she ran as fast as her legs helped.