CHAPTER 7: BOOKWORM

All THE STRONG's members were staring at Lance with confusion. He was dramatically silent. They just seemed not to understand what mood he was in and kept asking with concern,

" Are you doing well?"

" Yeah."

" Are you sure you're not sick?"

" Yeah."

" Have you seen the doctor? You look sick."

" I'm okay."

" Did your girlfriend dumb you?"

He looked at them and sighed. What did they want from him?

" Why are you acting strange?" He asked. All of them widened their eyes, as eagles observing their prey.

" You're the one acting strange!" They said at the same time. Lance sighed again.

" Resume to work." Raven told them wearing a serious expression. They all, resumed to planting trees, telling stories. Raven took a couple of steps , going closer to Lance. She stared at him with that one lazy yet intense eye of her. Lance then looked at his chest. A sharp dagger was on his chest, threatening to penetrate anytime. Raven was the one holding the dagger.

" What's this?" Lance calmly asked looking at his chest and then at Raven. His eye color suddenly changed to bright purple.

" What are you?" Raven asked with complicated feelings. Lance's eye color changed to normal. He didn't even seem to notice that change neither did he understand what was going on. Raven stepped backward, almost falling.

" So now I'm a thing?" He asked calmly, holding her hand, then pulling her closer with no other intention than to prevent her from falling.Raven unwillingly blushed for a second.Eve who had been staring at them from the very start, tapped others to show them the scene. Lance let go of her hand immediately. But still her other hand was still holding the dagger tightly as if it was some treasure at his chest . Completely invisible to others unlike the hand holding thing. Lance looked at the dagger with many thoughts in his head and laughed.

" I wanted to be silent today. No big ... Can you first, please, put this dagger away, my heart isn't breathing well."

"..." Speechless, she put the dagger away.

" Thanks."

He then walked towards others. Raven stared at him murmuring to her self.

" So, his heart breaths."

" Were you guys flirting just now?" Lys asked.

* Who flirts with daggers?* Lance asked himself. He then smiled.

" No flirting." He said.

" Ah; hahaha, really?" Eve asked.

" What?" Lance blurted out.

" You're all speaking nonsense, doing nothing. You need to work first." Logan told them.

" What the spirit?? I'm sure you have repeated those words like a thousand times in your head before singing them out." Rene teased.

" Shut up." Logan told him calmly.

"You can't silence the truth." Rene said proud of himself.

" What truth?" Logan blurted out.

" The truth the truth." Rene replied. They returned to the work place after they were done , talking about novels. Jake then came towards them, politely greeting them and gave a simple beautiful wild flower to Raven. She took it with a warm smile.

" Thanks." She said.

* Too old fashioned.* Lance thought.

" Owkay guys, let's go elsewhere." Lys said pushing her group to the other side of the hall, leaving Raven and Jake alone.

" Lynx had told me you like flowers." Jake said. Raven spotted Lynx and smiled shifting her gaze to Jake.

" She lied." She said calmly.

" But since this is from you, I like it." She added.

" I've heard your family owns a library." She said again.

"Yeah."

" Mind taking me there, after work?"

" That would be my pleasure. I didn't think you like to read."

* I don't like to read. I just don't want to be with that wild cat.*

She smiled." I'm really into books. I can't imagine life without them." She lied.

" Let's talk later. " She tol d him tapping his shoulder. Passing past him . She then went to sit and drank water. Lynx suddenly came and sat beside her. Raven gave her a side eye but Lynx didn't care. Instead she smiled and gave her a flower.

" Please be my girlfriend." She said dramatically. Raven looked at her lazily and yawned.

" I would rather stay singer forever and ever." She replied.

Lynx then ate the flower.

" It's delicious. " She said.

" I know that you know where the onyx is." She whispered to Raven.Raven slowly turned and looked at her with a smile. She didn't know where it was.

" So?" She asked.

" Tell me."

" Why would I do that?"

"Because you don't want all these people dead."

Raven then turned to look at her work mates. They were all looking at them, confused. She then realized how close they were and moved backwards but still Lynx moved closer to her. She quickly stood up.

" You're crazy." She told Lynx with a frown.

" I'm crazier than you think." Lynx told her calmly. Raven then moved to Jake whose expression looked to complicated.

" You good?" She asked him . Jake looked at her and then at Lynx.

" I'm good." He said calmly sighing in his heart.

" Are we ready to go?" She asked.

" Let's go."

They were all silent along the way until Raven broke the silence.

" I like walking at night, when there's a lot people in the street." She said. Jake looked at her and then in front. It was still early.

" So, you always take a walk out at night?"

" Yeah, but there would be no many people in the street." She said.

"That's the library." Jake said pointing at the tall building ahead of them.

* I'm really not interested in these things.*

She smiled at Jake.

" I bet there are many people in there."

" You're right. The library is truly popular here. Most people are bookworms nowadays."

* And I'm really not one.*

" You might be one too." She told Jake.

" I'm not interested in books." Jake said frankly.

" Too bad for you. You should try it. You're gonna love it." She encouraged.

" Then let's go together."

They all went in the library together. Raven randomly chosen a novel to read. The moment she started to read, she felt her eyes heavy. Jake looked at her confused.

* I can't sleep!!!*

In the end she did sleep. Jake smiled and carefully observed her.

" This bookworm." He uttered with a smile.