CHAPTER 9: CHAPTER 9 SEARCHING FOR ALORA

Caden’s words still weren’t enough to convince his friends.

Mason eyed him.

“If this was really for Brielle. You wouldn’t have beaten up Jacob like that. He’s literally still at the hospital fighting for his life! I heard his parents are having second thoughts about settling things, privately.”

The truth was, Caden didn’t want those photoshopped pictures to be released either.

Jacob kept saying he wanted to release them and Caden kept on telling him to wait for his permission.

A permission he never intended to give but Jacob went ahead to release it.

Seeing those pictures, even if they weren’t real, it had snapped something in Caden, something so raw and primal unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

And that was why he gave Jacob the beating of his life.

“Enough!”Caden let out to the boys, unable to take any more.

His heart hammered against his ribs and his thoughts were a chaotic mess.

He couldn’t deal with their interrogations anymore. He was finding it hard to understand his own feelings right now and the questions from the boys were driving him nuts.

Caden stared at the sea, his expression darkening with each passing minute.

The sun beat down, mercilessly, a physical manifestation of the burning anxiety spreading through him.

Why wasn’t she here yet?

Was she badly hurt by that video she had seen?

It was already past noon. The Alora he knew would have been here already.

He recalled she didn’t reply to his texts last night too.

His eyes dilated as he recalled his phone.

Yeah, his phone.

Where was it?

He hurried up to his backpack and searched through it.

He found it and his heartbeat accelerated to see that there was a text from Alora.

He quickly tapped on it.

Alora: Whatever we had is over. We’re done. Get lost.

Caden was immediately frozen on the spot.

The world around him seemed to freeze. The noise from the crowd fading to a distant buzz.

Those words were nothing like he had prepared for.

An empty feeling took over his body.

They were what?

Done?

She just broke up with him.

Over texts?

He had approached her because of Brielle. The relationship he had with Alora was because of Brielle.

It was all a game.

A bet for the amusement of his friends.

So why was he feeling empty?

Why was there this sudden hollow suffocating feeling inside of him?

Meanwhile, Mason was still rambling on and on.

“I think it’s time you left Alora alone. We get it. You’ve won and she’s just a stupid slut. Focus on what’s important. Jacob’s family might not be as powerful as yours, but if they decide to go public about this. It’ll cause a big scandal to your family’s name. You know how much your dad hates scandal, you should...”

The words blurred together into meaningless noise.

All Caden could think about was the text that Brielle had sent.

The finality of it.

The end of being close to her.

The end of holding her in his arms.

The end of making her laugh, watching her talk about the things she loved.

No!

He wasn’t ready to part with her yet.

“Caden! Where are you going?!”Chase yelled.

But Caden wasn’t listening to anyone.

He had to see her.

He was running like a madman, his heart thundering in his ears.

He couldn’t let her go.

He just couldn’t.

Not yet.

He ran all the way to the girl’s dormitory.

His lungs burning and his legs aching but the physical pain was nothing compared to the turmoil in his chest.

“Alora!”He shouted, frantically.

“Alora! Come out! We need to talk!”

A this point, Caden was genuinely furious, not at Alora but at himself.

At the fact that she could easily break up with him while he couldn’t accept it.

He was furious at the fact that he was about to lose his mind.

He had assumed that she was mad at how the past couple of days had played out. Plus seeing that video.

He thought he just needed to reassure her that he still wanted to be in a relationship with her.

He didn’t know that she would just end things between them like that.

She loved him, didn’t she?

She said she did. She said she had wanted her first time to be extremely special and that she was glad it was with him.

He thought she already had a bond with him.

A bond that she couldn’t easily shake off.

Then why would she initiate a break up?

Something that made him scared the most was that he knew that beneath Alora’s gentle exterior, she was strong willed.

When she was committed to something, she followed through no matter what. When her mind was made up, it was hard to make her change her mind.

When she decided to master a difficult scene, she practiced, stayed up late multiple nights until she fell ill.

When she set her mind to learning a new skill, she’d work at it relentlessly until she perfected it.

Knowing her determination, cold fear began to replace Caden’s anger.

If she really stood firm on her determination to end their relationship, then nothing, not even his charm or manipulation would change her mind.

He ran a hand through his hair. He really wasn’t ready to end their relationship yet.

He didn’t want it to end.

His heart pounded painfully against his ribcage as panic completely overtook him.

He called her phone again and again but the call kept failing.

So he continued shouting beneath the girls’ dormitory, no longer caring about the crowd gathering around him or what anyone thought.

For the first time in his life, Caden was completely unable of his audience, he didn’t care that people were starting to gather and look at him, weirdly.

After all, no one on campus expected the great Caden Steele to be shouting like a madman in front of the girl’s dorm.

Caden didn’t care what they thought. His only focus was getting to talk to Alora and make her his again.

The dorm supervisor eventually emerged, her expression a mixture of exasperation and surprise.

“What is your problem, young man?”

If not for his reputation in school, as well as his family’s background, she would have reported him to the dean long ago.

“I need to see Alora.”Caden let out, desperately.

“Alora moved out this morning,”

Caden almost lost his balance at those words.

“Mo...moved out? To where?”

“She transferred schools. I heard you two were dating. Shouldn’t you know that? She even spent the night at the guests quarters...”

Caden didn’t wait for her to finish.

He took off towards the guest house. She might not have left the school premises yet.

His lungs burned, not from exertion but from growing panting that threatened to drown him.

She said those transfer paper wasn’t for her.

She lied to him!

The enormity of this situation was crashing down on him with each pounding footstep.

When he got to the guest house, he was sweating, profusely.

His breath was coming in ragged gasps. He was about to ask the front desk which took Caden was when a janitor walked by, talking excitedly to his colleague.

“Look at it. It’s real, right?” He was showing his colleague a small velvet box.

The colleague gasped.”It’s a diamond necklace. I have a friend who has the device to check if it’s real or not. If it is, it could fetch you a lot of money.”

Caden briefly glanced at the box.

But his eyes scurried back because it looked familiar.

He stared at the necklace closely as the janitor lifted it up in excitement.

It was the necklace he had given Alora when she officially accepted to be his girlfriend.

His stomach twisted and he snatched the necklace and box from the janitor.

He stared at it, scrutinizing it and confirmed that it really was the necklace.

But now, it had a bad spot, like someone had tried to destroy it.

Did she try to destroy it?

Does she hate him this much now?

Caden leaned against the wall.

He had thought that he just needed to see her, apologize and charm his way back into her life.

Now the hope of him doing that was gradually reducing.

Caden didn’t know what to do next.

He had never been this confused and disoriented his whole life.

Not even when Brielle broke up with him or when his team lost a competition.

He had never felt this way before.

He didn’t know how to process things.

The janitor angrily grabbed the box from him.

“What’s your problem, boy? I found this in the trash can. If you want to claim ownership of it, you better go find something that would convince me.”

Caden didn’t even have the energy to argue with him.

The necklace, once a symbol of adoration and care now seemed meaningless.

He pulled out his cellphone and tried calling her again and again but the call kept failing.

He had to talk to her. He couldn’t lose her just like this.

He rushed out again, heading for the art club.

She must have gone there, maybe to say goodbye to her friends or her friends could tell him where she was.

His footsteps echoed in the hallways as he ran, oblivious to the curious stares of student.

Caden Steele who had always moved like he owned the school now looked frustrated and desperate.

When he got to the practice hall, he stopped running as he panted, he glanced at the spot where he used to wait for her.

He recalled watching her look very happy to see him. She would run into his arms, giggling and telling him all what she learnt that day or how intensed rehearsals was.

He walked in and couldn’t see her but he found her roommates, Eve and Fiona.

He rushed over to them, almost bumping into some girls.

Grabbing Eve’s hand, he asked, urgently.

“Where’s Alora?”

The question came out more like a plea than a demand.

The girls exchanged surprised glances before looking back at Caden.

Something about that exchange made Caden grow even more unnerved.

“Didn’t she tell you? She transferred schools. She must be on her flight now to London.”