Fools in Love

29. I Smell Your Hypocrisy

The following day is spent together, kissing under the covers, cuddling on the couch, whispering cheesy lines that make my ears burn with a blush. Intimacy doesn't miraculously become less heart fluttering after sex. It's just as blush worthy, just as breathtaking, and over time it may become a norm, but the appreciation and the love of that intimacy remains, perhaps in a different way than before. I don't know when ours may change, or if it will since I'll always be a blundering fool, but I know looking back on these moments as the weeks and months and years pass, they'll still make me blush.

Staying the weekend at Matt's resulted in some sporadic messages from Tori insisting that I update him on my health. Is his mind ever out of the gutter? I ignored him since there's no way I can reply without bursting into a ball of flames then melting into a pile of bubbling goo. He can use his imag--wait, I'd rather he not...

Come Monday morning, I don't want to separate with Matt, which shouldn't be surprising. This is becoming our norm. I wake up for class but am incapable of getting out of bed. Matt is curled around me, arms and legs intertwined with my own. Our cocoon of warmth is tempting to lay in for a few more days, avoid the cold of winter and prying eyes on campus, but we give in to our alarms and make way to class twenty minutes later.

"Do you think it has calmed down on campus?" I ask. There were a few paparazzi outside Matt's apartment complex. Nothing compared to before break, though.

"I hope so," he replies. "If not then I seriously recommend a bodyguard."

"I'm not comfortable with you paying for that."

"I'm not comfortable worrying all day about your safety."

I pick mindlessly at the fray of my jacket. "I'll think about it."

Matt hums. I know he wants to say more, but all he does is take my hand. I interlock our fingers, enjoying the comfortable ride to school while hoping it isn't as chaotic. My hope pays off. We're briefly glanced at, some whispers start up when we pass by, but nothing more. Matt walks me to my first class without a hitch, even leaning in for a kiss that makes me as red as a fire truck when I go into class. Tori isn't with me this semester so I'm left alone, listening to our professor go on about the syllabus.

Paranoia takes over me. I search the room briefly, eyes glancing over other students. The hair on the back of my neck stands up. I turn around, thinking someone is watching me, but there's no one paying me much attention. Well, nothing more than the usual few whispers here or there that may or may not have to do with me. Who really knows. I'm being paranoid because of what happened before break. I shrug it off, at least until class ends and there's a commotion outside the school building.

Is it Matt? I told him earlier he didn't have to come get me afterwards since he's on the other side of campus.

It is not Matt waiting outside the school building. It's Marceline. She has the aura of a star, something of far away beauty that you should fear getting close to. She stands with her head held high, two men in suits at her side. When she spots me at the entrance of the building, she waves then beckons me over.

This can't be good.

I don't know what Marceline wants, or rather, what she hopes to accomplish. I sure as hell don't know how she found me so quickly and easily. I don't really want to know either. After hearing about who she really is, I only know that this is not a random visit. She has a purpose, one that involves controlling Matt to benefit her.

I search the area for any sign of him, relieved to discover he isn't nearby. Although we talked things over, I wouldn't blame him for panicking when seeing me with Marceline. Trauma isn't gotten over easily, sometimes it never fully is. I don't want Matt to be more upset so, when I walk up to Marceline, I take some notes from Matt and bluntly say, "I have nothing to say to you."