The Aldean Chronicles: Hidden

"How was yesterday," Grey asks me. Everyone is too busy to eat breakfast this morning and the dining hall is almost empty. Grey and I are sitting at an empty table chatting about our respective lives. "You went to see Arin Hames, aunt Freya was not happy when those pictures came out."

"The press twisted those," I complain. "It's not what people think." Students took so many pictures of me yesterday. On the bright side, they talked about how nice and approachable I was. On the bad side, pictures of me and Arin standing together and touching were taken out of context.

They took a picture of when he threw my hand off his project and made it look like we were holding hands behind his table. Or when he was showing me his project, they made it look like we were staring into each other's eyes. There are pictures of us walking around the whole school and sitting close to each other on the grass. I don't know if Tristan has seen the pictures but he's not answering my calls or texts.

"I know that, I'm just teasing," Grey says. "It's not all bad, most of the news is positive. The students liked you and your ratings among younger people have gone up."

"And among older people?."

"They think you're an immoral whore with no sense of decency. He smiles. "Kind of like me."

I bury my face in my hands. "Marvellous."

He laughs. "What did Arin say about all this?"

"I don't know, I'm avoiding him. I don't want Tristan to think anything's going on between us."

"That doesn't sound very fair to Arin now, does it?"

"When did you turn into some relationship expert," I ask. "I'll think about it, for now I'll give Tristan space until after the match is over."

He pops a grape in his mouth. "I just can't wait till our break in a few weeks. There are some people I don't want to see right now."

"Aww, tell me what's going on in your life." I rest my elbows on the table and balance my chin on my open palms.

"Too much drama for you, little sister." That makes me smile.

"First of all, you're only what, a year older than me. Secondly, I know a thing or two about drama, so start talking."

"Okay, Ashton and Mira broke up. And she showed up at my room crying and asked if she could stay the night."

I wince and shake my head. "Tell me you didn't."

He hisses. "I did. She spent the night and things may have gotten out of hand." He sighs. "So turns out they just had a fight and are very much still together. Now I'm the guy that stole his girlfriend, a little ironic."

"So you're back together with Mira?"

"I'm not, I'm over her. It was one night of weakness, a night I seriously regret." He runs his hand through his dark brown hair.

"What exactly is going on now?"

"Ashton is pissed, the only thing keeping him off my back is Unity Day. After that, I'm going to have to face him."

"Are you scared?"

He squeezes his forehead. "Of course I'm not. I just feel, I don't know...guilty. I shouldn't, he did it first. I just do."

"Greyson Adolphus Harrington has a conscience. I'm so proud."

He moans. "I hate it, how do I get rid of it?"

"You don't, welcome to being a good person." He fiddles with his bracelet. He catches me looking at it and stops immediately. There are some things we don't talk about. The election and pledge being one of them. The event is in four months, it's getting harder to ignore.

"Do you want to get out of here?" He asks me. "We can come back right before the match begins. I just don't want to be in school right now."

I think about it and nod. "Yeah, I need a breather. Where do you want to go?"

"Anywhere but here." He picks up his empty yogurt cup and tosses it in the nearest bin. I dispose of my tray and meet him at the door. "Where are you going? The administrative building is this way."

He shrugs. "What's the point, people are filing in and out of school. My mum isn't in her office, let's just go."

I decide to trust him. When it's time to show our passes at the gate, he makes up a lie. The guard sees that it's him and lets us go.

"I can't believe you just did that." He doesn't reply. We drive for a while and I soon notice that we're going up a hilly area.

Grey parks close to the edge of a cliff overlooking the city. He leaves his car and sits on an old bench. I sit next to him. "Hey." I shove him gently with my shoulder. "What's on your mind?"

He looks sad. "I miss her, Mira." He surprises me by saying. "People think we slept together last night. We didn't, just kissed for like a second. We spent the night talking, I miss telling her everything."

I rest my back on the seat and look at the busy city below. "Why did you break up with her, you seem to really like her."

"My mum didn't, she said she doesn't fit into the Harrington brand." His face tightens. "I hate that name."

"Yeah, Harrington's don't wear certain clothes, Harringtons never show flaws or weaknesses, Harringtons join Blue rose and only ever attend Brimstone." I scoff. "It's infuriating, no wonder Kat's a little messed up."

"A little," Grey asks. "Didn't you say she threatened Uncle Max with fire?"

"Yeah. Not to mention our grandparents are most definitely murderers."

He laughs. "Every single person in our family is a murderer, the person I'm named after personally lead a genocide that killed thousands of people." We stop laughing. "This doesn't feel funny anymore."

"No." I agree but crack a smile. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"What?"

"Arin mentioned something about attending Grovehills yesterday. It's all I could think about, you know, before the scandal."

"Dad and Aunt Freya will kill you."

I grimace. "Too soon." We both laugh. "We should get going, I don't want to be late."

"Yeah, maybe pick up some lunch for later first." He jumps up. "What are you going to do about Grovehills?"

"What are you going to do about Mira?"

"Suffer in silence and mask my unhappiness with the most expensive things I can find." He replies.

"Like a true Harrington." We place an order over the phone and pick it up at the restaurant. I take my part of the food with me when we get to school. "Hey, Grey," I say. "Whatever happens with Mira and Ashton, just know I support your decision."

"Thanks. And if you leave us and join Grovehills. I want you to know I forgive you."

"You're an idiot." I close the door. He gets out and I hear him laughing as he walks away.

I get back to my room and dig into my food. After that, I call Arin. "Hi, sorry I've been dodging your calls and texts."

"Hey." He sighs deeply. "I talked to my parents not too long ago. Still not sure if they're happy or angry with me."

I laugh. "Parents tend to feel that way about me. But how are you, your first scandal."

"Not how I expected it to go. I kind of expected more from the press."

"Sorry, here I was, thinking I was scandal worthy."

"You are," he says. "Scandal aside, I had a lot of fun yesterday. We should do it again."

"Are you inviting me back to your school? Oh, maybe we can explore the labs. There's this new project I want to try. It's both chemical and magical."

He laughs. "That sounds nice. But I had something else in mind." He's quiet. "Okay, here goes nothing. First time doing this. Do you want to go get dinner or coffee or lunch or any form of meal sometime?"

I go completely still. "Like a date?" My heart is pounding.

"Yes." He sounds determined.

"Um, Arin. It's just, I kind of have a boyfriend. I mean I don't, but we like each other and we're going out."

"Oh, okay." He laughs a little. "I wish I didn't do that, I don't know what got into me. I thought we had a connection." He curses. "It's the pictures, I was one of the idiots who read into them and imagined things. Just forget I said anything, good luck with everything. Bye."

I want to say something but I don't know what. "Bye, Arin."

He sighs. "The guy, the one you're seeing. Who is it?"

"It's Tristan," I whisper.

"Tristan Oisin? Yep, that sounds about right. Bye Cassandra." He cuts the call. I fall back on my bed. Did I flirt with him all this time? All our calls and texts, was there another layer to them? I check the articles online for pictures of us.

Our hands touching, him pushing me, us smiling at each other. Was there something between us? As I'm sitting there I realize something. This call was the first time Arin had called me by my name. Does it mean he sees us as just friends? And does being just friends bother me?