True or Real

By: Curlysquirt95

Chapter 3: Classes and the Rumors

Man, I must be pretty messed up, I thought to myself.

I had found a safe place for me to cry in, and no, it wasn't my room. The weird and scary thing? I was sitting in the HQ's arsenal. I had my back propped up against one of the cabinets, my knees brought towards my chest. Guns and weapons were displayed all around me, boxes of ammunition filling up most of the cabinets. There were enough guns in here to supply an army for a year or more if needed.

Now the tears were falling freely, seeping into my clothing. Why was I crying? Why had I ran away from Braiden?

Because you couldn't believe it to be true, something inside me said.

I had to agree with the voice. How could I believe that Braiden would seriously be interested in me? He had such a gorgeously carved face, and an amazing body. I was just normal, ordinary. Nothing special. Why on Earth would he pick me? He had never before shown anything beyond friendship. Now, now he was laying out all the cards, obviously showing a major interest in me. Why now? What had changed?

I didn't know, and that is what was scaring me so much.

Maybe it wasn't me, maybe Braiden had been going too fast. He had caught me off guard, wanting to kiss me and all that just out of the blue. The only thing we were officially, were members on Team Alpha, that's it. And friends, but nothing more.

I stretched my legs out in front of me, discovering something. Now that I thought about it, I don't understand why I did run away. I should've stayed!

That's right you idiot! Now it has drifted away from you like sand from a sifter.

I would be in his arms and he'd be kissing me by now. I had missed a perfect opportunity to be loved by him, and here I am surrounded by guns, bawling my eyes out. I am such are freaking moron. A wimp. I could go and shoot people without a single care in the world, but when it comes to love I am frozen like a statue.

Someone rushed into the room, obviously in a hurry. I looked up and found Nicole standing there, her chest heaving. She straightened her little black dress, then came by my side.

"I ran," she said between pants, "When I heard," another pant, "You ran away. I'm so sorry."

"It's fine. I was just a little confused and surprised, I guess." I answered fiddling with my fingers.

She nodded and sat down beside me. "Why did you run?"

I let out a small cry, hitting the ground with my hands. That's gonna bruise. "I don't know if you saw, but Braiden—he… he wasn't acting like himself. He got real close to me, his voice deeper than usual, almost like he was holding down a lump in his throat and he looked like he was about to kiss me!"

"Heather, that's a good thing! Everyone always predicted you guys would get together." She told me as if it was obvious.

My mouth opened in shock at that one. "Everyone did? And yes, now I know it's a good thing he was getting close to me. I don't know, I guess it just surprised me a little."

"I can see that. The rumors are picking up, you know?"

I winced. "How bad are they?"

"Not too bad...Some people are saying you ran away and refused to be kissed by him because he was secretly cheating on you."

I gave a small laugh. That's the best they can do, really?"That's not too bad. Who did they say he was secretly cheating on me with?"

I turned to look at Nicole when she laughed nervously. "You'd never believe this...Um, they said me."

The relief in my voice fell. "Oh."

I knew it was just a rumor, but what if the gossip was true? What if they were secretly dating? I pushed the thought from my mind, knowing that would never happen. Nicole would tell me if she was dating someone. Besides, she had just told me earlier about James.

"I hope you don't believe the rumor, because it's not true. That's what rumors are: false."

I nodded again, knowing she was right. "I know." I sighed.

"Good. Now let's get you back out there." She stood up and adjusted her dress. Holding out a hand, she helped me back on my feet.

"Braiden, is he still out there? How did he handle it?" I asked. Part of me wanted to know the other part was trying to get me to plug my ears.

"He's still out there, he just seems a little...miffed. You might be able to fix it though." She smirked. "If, you laid one on him" She winked in a joking manner.

I groaned and followed Nicole back out to the dining room. When we reached the doorway leading to the banquet, I just stood there, suddenly not wanting to go back in. And then it was as if everyone sensed my presence. All heads turned towards me, taking in my apprehensive appearance. I jerked from the strange motion, and willed away the people. Why were they staring at me?

Nicole grabbed my hand and dragged me into the room. "There's nothing to stare at people! She had a problem with her contacts, now go back to socializing!" she announced.

The socialites returned to their food and chats, leaving me in peace. "Thanks." I murmured to Nicole.

"Don't mention it. Now Braiden's over there by the punch, go get him." She pushed me by the shoulders and I found myself stumbling across the way to Braiden. I managed to barely stop myself from toppling against the large punch bowl. Braiden looked at me, startled, and stood me upright, his hands on my forearms.

"You alright?" he asked sincerely.

"Never been better." my voice came out as a squeak.

He returned to pouring some punch.

That's it? He wasn't going to apologize for making me run away crying? He wasn't going to ask why I had acted like that? Was he really going to act like nothing had happened?

Open your eyes! Something happened dude, that voice yelled.

Should I say something about it? Or should I just let the topic drop?

The uncertainty was killing me. I wished Nicole was by my side, she would know what to say.

I tried at explaining how I was feeling. "Listen, Braiden, I—"

He held up a hand, still not looking at me. "You don't have to say anything. I'm sorry Heather if I bothered you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have people I need to talk to."

The teen walked away from me, just like that, two cups of punch in his hands. My eyes followed his retreating form as he went to Nicole. I could see his mega-watt smile from all the way across the room as he handed her a drink. She offered him a smile back, one that was suggestive and flirty. Her 'seductive' one, she claimed.

I blinked, not believing what had just taken place. It had all happened in just a few seconds.

A few heartbeats.

A couple of miserable heartbeats.

I had the opportunity to be something more to Braiden, and I blew it. I just ruined the whole privilege and now it was gone with the wind. And probably never to return.

And now the good fortune had landed with Nicole. As usual. She always had guys' attention, when was that not something new? Never.

But Braiden—he had been kind of rude to me! The nerve of him to say something like that to me! Like he hadn't really cared about my feelings at all! "I'm sorry if I bothered you Heather, now if you'll excuse me, I have people I need to talk to." I'm sorry my foot! He wasn't sorry at all!

I strode over to a near dessert table and hastily grabbed a plate. I loaded it with cookies and brownies, until you could hardly see the plate holding them all. And I stormed off. I didn't care if it was a little premature, since the banquet had going on for hardly over an hour.

By the time I made it back to my room, my heels were off, my long hair touching my shoulders again. I plopped onto my bed, shoving another cookie into my mouth. I grabbed the remote and flicked on the TV hanging on the wall across my room. It flickered to life onto the news channel.

The newscaster announced: "The Black Hand is at it again. The terrorist group bombed another village on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia. We have reports that they are demanding power of all nuclear plants and power stations across the nation. We have no further information on the whereabouts of one of their supporters, Alexi Rutchovski."

I smirked through my cookie. Of course they didn't know where he was. I had shot him in the temple just hours before, he was most likely six feet under somewhere.

But it was some serious stuff with the Black Hand. The group had formed when they assassinated the Prime Minister of Serbia, triggering the First World War. They weren't to be messed with.

Majority of the public had believed the group had disbanded after their successful assassination. But that would be wrong. In the past recent years, the group had reformed, stronger than ever. Their demands were high and they had people everywhere. It was impossible not to hear something about them. Of course the only info we release to the people is just simple stuff. If we revealed the whole truth, then the public would cringe. They would demand for safety, protection, which we couldn't give to everyone. We were just barely sliding by controlling the Black Hand, how would we also increase the security of civilians too?

Easy: we can't.

The screen changed to shots of people crying out as bombs descended behind them. They covered their heads, running for cover. I felt bad for the people, I really did. I was doing as much as I was legally allowed to. I wish I could do more, but that would be against Professor Daniels's orders. I could only wait until she gave me a new mission, which would most likely be in a matter of days.

I turned off the TV, and pushed away the plate full of desserts. Leaning back on my soft bed, I found myself wanting Braiden to knock on my door. And that he'd apologize and then seal the deal with a passionate kiss.

Look who is missing him now, how do you think he felt when you just left him?

This head of mine was really stepping out of bounds.

Too bad that cute stuff only happened in Hallmark movies and cheesy romance novels.

I fell asleep that night, with sugar running in my veins and images of Braiden dancing in my mind.

I was woken from my peaceful slumber by an insistent beeping.

With my eyes still closed, my arm shot out from beneath the blankets and felt around for the source of the sound. I groped for my alarm clock on the night stand and I still couldn't find it. Angry, I opened my eyes and tried to find the stupid thing. Well, it wasn't on my stand like I thought it'd be. I looked down on the carpeted floor and found the black device. How in the world did it get there? I shrugged to myself, I had no idea. I turned off the alarm and dragged myself to the little shower in my room. I showered, and got dressed. The days we weren't on a mission across the world, we would be taking classes at the current HQ we were stationed at. Today was one of those days.

Luckily, we weren't required a uniform, except for our self defence class. Which I did have, first thing in the morning. Nothing like starting off the day with some roundhouse kicks.

I pulled on some cotton shorts, and a light blue t-shirt. After I had pulled my hair into a simple pony tail, I slipped on my Nike's and was on my way.

I must've taken longer in the shower than I had planned because the alarm clocks numbers blinked a bright red 7:12. I hurried up my pace through the corridors until I was in the Schooling Wing. I found the gymnasium and pushed open the double doors.

I looked at the students doing various moves on their partners. It was actually kind of entertaining to watch them. Sierra was sending punches to the foam pads Luke had on his hands, while Mark sidestepped a roundhouse kick from Laura.

"Mathews!" a voice barked.

I cringed, knowing it wasn't a good thing to be late to class.

The self-defense teacher stalked up to me, spit flying from the corners of her mouth. She resembled a bull dog with her foaming mouth, and angry demeanor. Ms. Chov was not one to mess with. She was rumored to be a Russian body builder. And if you took one look at her body, you would instantly believe it.

"You're late, Mathews! Now since you left your partner Peters all alone, you can show the class how to compromise your opponent in less than sixty seconds." She nodded towards Braiden and he stepped forward on the center mat, his eyes not reaching mine. I opened my mouth to protest, but decided against it.

The class gathered around the rectangle mat as I took my position a few feet across from him. His mouth was a thin, set in a determined line. He placed his feet apart in the ready stance. I did the same, one of my fist was just up higher than the other. I must have come across as a boxer. Braiden had strength, when it came to spars like these. But I had one thing he didn't—speed.

Ms. Chov stood before us, and then blew the whistle. "Fight!" Her voice yelled in a crisp sound.

She hit the button on her stop watch, signaling for us to go. Braiden took a step to his left, while I took a step to my left too, until we were slowly circling each other. I watched him, afraid of blinking in case it left my defences down. He threw a punch aimed at my shoulder but I easily ducked it, causing him to lose his balance. I seized the moment by hooking my foot around his ankle, causing him to land with a thud on the mat.

I almost felt bad for him just lying there. He was on his back, a brief look of pain on his handsome face. But then taking in his looks, I remembered the banquet, and what he had done. He probably hated me as much as I hated him right now, but at least the feeling was mutual.

With a grunt, he pushed off from the foam mat and landed nimbly back on his feet. His eyes seemed sharper, somehow. More clear.

Before I had readied my fists, a punch from him found purchase on the lower part of my ribcage on my left side. Pain exploded inside of me and I instantly put a hand to the injury. It felt bruised, hopefully it hadn't done any damage inside of me.

I looked back at Braiden, horrified he would've punched so hard. He was usually gentle around me when we practiced. What had happened to that, huh?

I ignored my side best I could and came at him with fury I hadn't realized I possessed. I channelled all of my feelings through my hands and feet, hoping, hoping, I would win this fight. And maybe it would mean whatever had happened last night, it wasn't my fault.

I just need to win once.

I threw a fist to his shoulder, barely sending him staggering. Sending another one to his upper side, I was surprised to feel muscle. Like pure muscle. The kind of muscle that would put wrestlers to shame. It still affected him, muscle or not, and he winced. I brought my knee up to his chest, hitting him repeatedly. He scrambled to try to get me off of him. He sent smaller hits to my shoulders and legs, but I refused to let them bring me down.

"Okay, enough!"

Ms. Chov pulled Braiden and I apart, both of us eying the other. I panted, trying to catch my breath. Someone handed me a water bottle, which I guzzled down.

Our teacher looked at us both, her eyes narrowing. I would've gulped if I hadn't been drinking. Then her face became… proud.

"That was one of the best displays I've ever seen! The both of you are truly talented. However, there was a major no-no. Peters, you hit Mathews pretty hard in the ribcage. On a guy, it wouldn't matter so much. But Mathews here is a girl, so next time you better take it a little more easy." she warned him, narrowing her eyes in slits.

Braiden nodded, but refused to look me in the eye.

Ms. Chov clapped her hands. "Okay, class dismissed."

Students gathered their things and left the gym. We silently got our stuff, neither of us daring to break the silence. I sat down on one of the nearby benches, retying my shoes. Braiden walked up to me, his gym bag slung over his shoulder.

He held out his hand and pulled me back on my feet. I looked at him wearily. He had a few scratches and bruises on his arms. I probably looked as bad as him, if not worse. He awkwardly hugged me for a moment and whispered, "You did good."

I stared up into his thunderstorm eyes. "Thanks, you too."

He nodded. "I'll see you around, 'kay?"

"Yeah, you will."

He sauntered away and I watched his retreating form for a moment. I sat back down on the bench, sighing. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion; he had slipped something into my hand. I opened up my hand and found a small slip of white paper. I carefully unfolded it, finding only two words:

I'm sorry.

Thank you to my beta-reader, I-am-happy! :)