• (Ch9)***(The Truth)

    The rest of the break passed without anything else exciting happening. Alaya continued to avoid Justin even more while Mairi just seemed to get closer and closer to him. All three of the boys were very confused. The term also passed by like lightning, soon it was the beginning of spring. Birds started chirping and flowers sprung from the ground again in a beautiful array of colour.

    It was on a fine morning such as this that something interesting happened. Alaya returned to her room, after successfully avoiding Justin at breakfast, to find that someone had left a gorgeously wrapped present on her bed with a note. Alaya was confused, it wasn’t her birthday, and the wrapping paper looked too festive to be just a regular, out-of-the-blue gift. She was about to unwrap it, her curiosity was killing her, when she noticed a note attached to it. She scanned it quickly, but was so shocked by what she had read that she slowly reread it, taking in every word.

    Dear Alaya,
    Why oh why have you been ignoring me? Did I do something wrong? It so, please tell me and I’ll fix it. I miss hanging out and talking to you. Sorry it took me so long, but here, finally, is your Christmas present. I really hope that you like it and that we can become friends again.
    Love, Justin

    Alaya was in shock. She didn’t know what to think. If this was the gift he had been meaning to give her, then who gave her the bar of soap with his name on it. She would get to the bottom of this and make whoever did this dirty trick pay. She slowly and carefully unwrapped the gift and gasped at what she saw. Lying in a bed of tissue was a rhinestone collar for Angel and the most gorgeous little heart locket necklace studded with diamonds.

    *

    “Why do you guys think that Alaya is avoiding me so much?” Justin mused to Alex and Artemis.

    “Probably because she’s jealous.” Alex replied, “Jealous that you’re going out with Mairi that is.” he added at Justin’s confused stare. “ You know that she likes you right?” Justin shook his head.

    “But I thought that you told us that she finally told you that she likes you?” Artemis asked. Again Justin shook his head.

    “That was Mairi who told me that she liked me, not Alaya.”

    “Wait,” Artemis stated, “you’re saying that, for the ball, you were talking about Mairi?” Justin nodded. “But, we were talking about Alaya! We thought that she had finally got up enough courage to ask you out. So that’s why she’s been so miserable!”

    “And we were wondering why the heck you were dating Mairi after Alaya had just confessed her love for you,” Alex added, “it all makes sense now.” The three of them immediately ran off to set things right. Alex ran off to find Alaya while Artemis and Justin went to find Mairi. They agreed to meet back in their room when they had finished. Alex wished them luck, they would need it the most seeing as Justin was going to dump Mairi, with Artemis for support.

    *

    When Alex found Alaya, she was still staring transfixed at the necklace and collar siting on her bed.

    “Alaya? Alaya!!” Alex yelled into her ear to get her attention. She slowly tore her gaze away from the gifts and stared at him with wide eyes, full of surprise and astonishment. Alex stepped back a step, he had never seen her look like this before. Then suddenly she shook her head as if coming out of a daze.

    “Huh? What? How long have I been sitting here?” she asked confused. Alex just shrugged his shoulders in response and then asked about the gift on her bed. Alaya replied that it was a late Christmas gift from Justin.

    “Speaking of Justin...” Alex trailed off. Alaya motioned for him to continue. “Well, he wants to talk to you about something, something really important. He wants me to take you to meet him in our dorm.”

    *

    “Mairi!” Justin called, “I’ve been looking for you. There’s something I want to talk to you about.” Mairi turned around and slowly walked over to Justin, seeing the unusual seriousness in his eyes.

    “Yes...” she answered slowly, “What is it?”

    “We..., we need to talk.” Justin replied hesitantly, “ This, with us, it’s... it’s not working. I think we should end this, you know, break up. I’m really sorry, and I..., I hope we can still be friends and stuff... but... ya. I gotta go. I’m sorry, I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” Justin and Artemis slowly backed away, expecting a huge blow up. Then they turned and ran away. But before Artemis turned, he caught a deeply hurt look of anger in Mairi’s eyes.