CHAPTER 55: HAPPY DECEMBER, COWARD!

Catherine’s POV

The first day of the month already started with pure chaos for me.

When I got to the dining room, Gabriel and Lucy were already seated at the long dining table.

As usual, Julian walked in last. The sight of him nearly made me choke on my orange juice.

Because there it was, clear as daylight, across his perfect, infuriating forehead. P E R V E R T.

In bold, permanent marker. My masterpiece, of course.

I wasn’t supposed to laugh. I really wasn’t but the sight of him while walking around with that written on his head? It was too much. My lips twitched and my lungs begged for mercy.

He looked annoyingly good, too. Grey sweatpants. White shirt. Barefoot. If he weren’t such a pain in my ass, I’d have been blushing instead of biting my tongue to stop giggling.

Lucy was the first to notice.

"Happy new month, Julian," she said sweetly, taking a sip of her tea. Then she frowned. "Wait... what’s that on your forehead?"

Gabriel glanced up. "Uhm, what—"

The moment he saw it, he froze for half a second before bursting into uncontrollable laughter. "Julian, bro! Please tell me that’s not written in marker!"

Julian blinked, confused. "What?" He rubbed at his forehead. "What are you—"

Catherine, hold it in, I told myself. Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh.

But when Gabriel fell off his chair, wheezing, I lost it.

A snort slipped out till it turned to a full laugh and I was now clutching my stomach.

Julian turned his gaze on me slowly, suspicion dawning. "What the hell’s going on?"

Lucy, trying to be helpful, passed him her phone. "Here. Use the camera."

Julian angled it to his face and stood still.

The vein in his neck ticked. His entire expression changed from sleepy to murderous. He looked up, straight at me.

"Catherine," his voice came out low and deadly.

I shrugged, forcing a blank expression. "What?"

"You did this."

I sipped my juice. "That’s an accusation right there. Why would you assume it’s me?"

"Catherine," he said my name like a warning.

I gave him a sweet smile. "Fine, it was me but there’s no need to get angry over nothing. It’s just ink."

Gabriel snorted again, covering his mouth with his hand. "Ink that says pervert, man. She really got you good."

Lucy’s expression turned cold. She set her cup down carefully, like she was trying not to explode.

"That’s not funny, Catherine. You went into his room and did this?"

I tilted my head. "Yes. And?"

"Unbelievable," Lucy muttered, turning fully toward me. "You have a very stinky behavior. How could you draw something like that on him? It’s childish and incredibly disrespectful."

"Relax," I said, rolling my eyes. "It’s just a joke. He’s fine."

"He’s not fine," she snapped. "You clearly don’t know when to draw lines."

I blinked. "Oh, thank you, Mother."

Her face hardened. "You really have no manners, do you?"

Julian sighed. "Lucy..."

"No, Julian, I’m sorry," she interrupted, "but someone has to put this girl in her place. This kind of behavior isn’t cute."

The entire table went silent for a beat. I put my fork down slowly.

"You don’t get to talk about cute or behavior when you’ve been crossing lines since I got here," I said, keeping my tone calm but sharp.

Her eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

Gabriel groaned under his breath. "Oh girls, don’t fight now, please."

Julian muttered something like "Not now", but I was past caring.

I leaned forward, meeting Lucy’s glare. "Oh, come on, Lucy. You act like his wife. You just forgot the ring part."

Her mouth fell open in shock. "What did you just say?"

I smiled. "You heard me."

Gabriel choked on his water. "Holy—Catherine, don’t—"

But it was too late. Lucy slammed her fork on the table. "You think you’re funny? You’re not. You’re a spoiled, immature little girl who has no idea how to behave."

"Better a girl than a desperate woman," I snapped back before my brain could stop my mouth.

Lucy’s face went red. "You—"

"Enough!" Julian’s voice cut through, high but hard. Everyone stopped.

He pushed his chair back with a scrape. "Both of you, stop. Now."

Lucy inhaled sharply, looking like she might cry. I looked away, pretending I didn’t care even though guilt crawled under my skin.

Gabriel cleared his throat after a moment, trying to lighten the tension. "So... who wants pancakes?"

No one answered.

Julian rubbed his temples, muttering, "I need coffee for this." Then he stood and walked out of the room, with his jaw tight.

I didn’t miss the faintest twitch at the corner of his mouth though, the little smirk he tried to hide. He was amused.

I knew that moron was amused.

I retreated to my room before anyone could say anything else. I flopped on my bed and groaned into my pillow. "That could’ve gone worse... right?"

I opened my phone and got to my photos, to look at the picture of Julian I took.

A soft giggle escaped my lips but a few seconds after, I remembered the warmth of his breath against my ear this morning when he caught me.

"What are you doing in my room, wildcat?" My stomach twisted at the thought of it.

And just immediately, a knock came on my door.

"Come in," I said, after finding out it was Gabriel..

He walked in, holding two mugs of coffee. "Peace offering?"

I sighed. "Please tell me that one of those has sugar."

"Both do. I know how you are." He handed me one and sat on the edge of the bed. "So... that was wild."

I groaned. "Hmm."

"I’m not judging," he said with a grin. "Just... maybe don’t pick fights with Lucy at breakfast next time?"

"She started it," I muttered.

"Technically, you started it when you wrote Pervert on Julian’s face."

I winced. "On Julian’s face not hers."

He laughed quietly. "I know and I hope you are aware that Julian doesn’t let things go? He’ll get you back soon."

Was that supposed to scare me? Because it didn’t, instead, it made me smile. "I’ll be ready."

Gabriel studied me for a moment, a soft frown crossing his face. "You like messing with him too much."

I sipped my coffee. "Because he deserves it."

"Maybe," he said quietly, then stood. "Anyway, we’re going out later for some errands. You want to come?"

"Depends," I said. "Are Julian and Lucy going?"

"Yeah."

"Then no."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "You’re one of your kind."

When he left, I fell back against my pillows again.

I sighed and picked up my phone, scrolling back to Julian’s picture one last time.

Another wicked idea popped in my head. Post this picture on the school page and maybe those annoying girls will stop drooling over him.

No way! I quickly shook the thought out of my head. That would be very extreme of me.

So what I did instead, was click on Julian’s number with the picture and a text "rate this picture from a 1-10".

Just then, his typing bubble appeared.. then disappeared. "Happy December, Coward," I muttered with a grin.