Chapter 5

Alora was shocked to hear that and she couldn’t bring herself to make that call. But then, she didn’t want to have anything to do with Caden anymore. So what was her business if he was fighting? “It has nothing…” Before she could complete that, Fiona interrupted her. “I heard Caden traced the source of those pictures of you and discovered that they were released by Jacob. He got into a fight because of you.” That got Alora so confused. She then headed towards the location of the fight. Why was he fighting because of her? Was this another plan of his to get her under his control? Did he truly know nothing about how the pictures that has been released? What exactly was he playing at? This behavior of Caden got Alora so confused. There was a crowd gathered outside the building. When they saw Alora approaching, the murmuring grew louder. They parted to let her through. She could feel the stares, the side-talks. Oh, she should have known that things were never going to end well with Caden. She used to be a normal student free from scandal but now, Caden was messing up with her life! She saw him, Caden was on top another guy. The guy’s face was bloodied, yet, Caden kept punching him over and over. For a brief moment, Alora actually felt that Caden’s feelings for her were genuine. She felt that he really loved her. Maybe he had just said all those things to seem manly and tough for his friends. But did she really want to be with someone who couldn’t defend her against his friends? Alora shook her head, bringing herself back to reality. “I’m sorry. Please have mercy on me. I’ve always had a crush on Alora and I got jealous that she was with you! I just wanted to punish her. I shouldn’t have photoshopped those pictures, please forgive me.”The boy begged. But Caden paid deaf ears to his pleas and continued to rain punches on his face. The boy seemed to be losing consciousness and Caden kept beating him up. Alora had never seen him so violent before! What had gotten into him? She refused to see this as a protection. He was probably just doing all he could to impress her so he could keep getting into her pants. But she didn’t want him to get into trouble using her name. She ran towards him and yelled. “Caden, stop!” He didn’t listen. She grabbed hold of his hand. “You’re going to kill him at this rate!” Only then did Caden finally stop. But such an issue was hard to blew over. The incident blew up with the boy’s family wanting to press charges. But when they discovered what their son had done coupled with the fact that Caden was from a powerful family, they reluctantly agreed to settle the matter, privately. It wasn’t surprising that the school’s administrators were lenient with Caden. He was a top student and the best athlete, coupled with the fact that his father had made so many donations to the school. They left him alone to be disciplined by his father at home. Caden had minor injuries so Alora had to follow him to the infirmary to get himself treated. Staring at his bruised knuckles, Alora didn’t know how to feel at this moment. “Why did you do that?”She asked him, curiously. Their relationship wasn’t real to him. It never was. So why would he put on such a show today? It was too extreme. “We’re in a relationship. You’re important to me and news like that could be a stain on your career, I couldn’t let anyone taint your name like that.” His tone was so sincere that she almost believed him. Stain on her career? The same career he wanted to ruin? Why was he still lying? Why was he still leading her on? Did he want more sex from her?! She had class in an hour so she left the infirmary, and also needed to clear her head. As she sat down in class, her mind was somewhere else. She kept recalling the scene of Caden beating that boy up. The anger in his eyes and face. She had never seen him that angry? Was it possible that he truly liked her? As a drama major, she had watched and seen a lot of dramas where the main leads started off on a rough patch, sometimes, starting off on a relationship based on lies. But at the end, it turned out to be something beautiful. Was that her story then? Alora shook her head. She was lying to herself again. Wasn’t it enough that he had lied to her? Why was she lying to herself as well? A relationship built on lies was pointless and should never work. She was going far away and she had to forget all about him! After her class ended, she was still worried about him. He was someone who didn’t take his medication seriously whenever he was sick. She decided to just get him some soup, check on him briefly and then leave. This act of kindness felt both stupid and unnecessary but she wanted to take this as a final gesture and end to whatever existed between them before, whether real or fake.