Chapter 12 - 12
Eleanor
The moment the words left my mouth, I knew I had fucked up.
A pin drop silence settled in the class coupled with pair of eyes turned towards me, confusion and shock written all over their faces.
My gaze flickered to Mr. Harris who was still at the front of the room with his arms crossed and his eyebrows raised so high they nearly disappeared into his hairline.
Great.
I could feel Liam's eyes on me too, but I didn't dare look at him. Not now. Besides, it would only get me angrier.
Cursing wasn't exactly a crime, but for Theadora? The quiet, put-together girl who barely raised her voice in public? Yeah, she would never drop the F-bomb in the middle of chemistry class.
I'm really starting to consider using tape on my lips.
I blinked a few times and let out a loud, dramatic gasp, immediately slapping a hand over my mouth. "Oh my God," I squeaked, forcing my eyes to widen in mock horror. "Did I just say that out loud?"
I knew it was stupid but it was the best option I had here. Lying would definitely not help me out. Besides, everyone heard me.
Mr. Harris narrowed his eyes. "Yes, Miss Roberts, you did just say that out loud."
I quickly dropped my hand and let out a nervous laugh. "I am so sorry, sir! My little sister has been saying that word so much at home, and I guess it just slipped. Total accident...I swear!"
A few chuckles rippled through the class, and I caught Sofia stifling a smile beside Jake who had a somewhat half smug half impressed look on his face.
Mr. Harris let out a long-suffering sigh. "Watch your language next time, Miss Roberts."
I nodded furiously, trying to look as regretful as possible. "Of course! Won't happen again!"
I wasn't surprised that he just let me off the hook. I mean if you considered the fact that Theadora was a straight A student and almost never did any wrong thing or got in trouble, then it was most definitely expected.
Mr. Harris rolled his eyes and turned back to Liam. "As I was saying...Mr. Anderson, you'll be paired with Miss Roberts."
Right.
That was still happening.
I barely had time to process the disaster I had just narrowly avoided before Liam was moving toward my table, his expression unreadable.
Ugh. I got what I wanted, but at what cost. I had to survive working with Mr. Grumpy Grumps himself. What could possibly go wrong?
I let out a small sigh and secured my hair in a small bun before grabbing the burette and setting up our workstation. The sooner we got this over with this, the better.
Liam stood beside me with his arms crossed, watching me with that ever-present brooding expression. He hadn't said a word since he came, which was fine by me.
Too bad the silence didn't last.
"You know what you're doing right?" he asked, his deep voice cutting through the silence.
"Yep." I didn't bother looking up.
Liam didn't move. "You sure?"
I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes as I finally glanced at him. "What, you think I'm about to burn the lab down or something?"
"I'm considering all possibilities," he said flatly, making the rage bubbling inside me rise even higher.
I scoffed and turned back to the experiment. "Relax, Liam." I said with a long drawl, adjusting my gloves. "I do know how to conduct a titration."
"Good," he said, but something about his tone made me pause.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that I don't want you messing with my chances of acing this course." He said picking up an empty beaker. "That's what it means."
My eye twitched and all I wanted to do at that moment was pick up the acid and toss it in his face. There were a lot of other things I could do that would get on his nerves, but I chose to be the nice and mature one. Besides, I wasn't even supposed to know any of that. The only reason I did was because I didn't belong here.
"Here." I said, handing him a pipette. "Since you're so confident in your skills, why don't you measure out the sodium hydroxide."
From the way he stared at the pipette in my hand, I had expected him to argue and not take it, but instead he took it from me and began transferring the solution and I watched out of the corner of my eye, hating how steady his hands were.
Of course he was the type to be annoyingly precise in the chemistry lab.
Pfff.
As we worked in silence, I kept recalling how Jake and I had bumped into him a few days ago back at the arcade and even though I knew it was a really, really bad idea, I decided to confront him about it.
"Umm...about that day back at the arcade..." I began, almost giving into my second thoughts.
"If you're speaking to me about anything school related or concerning this practical, I'm all ears. If not, save it."
My hand slipped slightly, as I almost over-poured the acid. How could someone be so...so blunt and rude?
I didn't care if he didn't want to hear me out or not.
He was going to hear me out.
Whether he liked it or not.
"What were you doing in that part of the city on a Sunday evening?" I asked, focusing my attention on the burette.
If he didn't want to talk to me, I just had to blackmail him first.
"Didn't you hear what I said?" He arched an eyebrow.
"I've been living in that part of the city for years and the last time I checked, none of the people from our school live there." I said, completely ignoring him.
"Don't test me four eyes."
"If you're thinking of telling me that you were just there to have fun then don't because I can count ten different arcades that are in this part of the city that you could have easily just gone to but you chose Neon Nexus..."
I lied. I was aware that Liam was up to something but I couldn't exactly name 10 different arcades, I just wanted to blackmail him.
Turns out blackmailing was pretty easy when you had the right information.
I felt his gaze on me and I hid my smile. I had finally gotten his attention. "Why are we having this conversation when I clearly told you to save it?"
"Let's just say...if you don't talk about what happened between me, you and that guy over there..." I said, gesturing to Jake whose concentration was focused on the beaker in front of him. "...then I guess I'll stop talking."
His gaze lingered on Jake for a second longer before he turned to me. From the way he sized me up, I suspected he had a lot more to say but instead he just brushed past me, pushing me out of the way so he could come face to face with the burette.
He then started slowly adding the acid to the base, watching for the colour change.
I guess I'm going to take that as my yes and our silent agreement then.
I didn't need to worry about Liam coming back for me, he'll probably just assume I did some major stalking and figured out where he lived so I could blackmail him because I didn't want anyone to find out that Jake and I were in a relationship so it wouldn't ruin my image.
My eyes widened as the realization dawned on me.
Just then...a single drop of acid fell into the solution and the colour immediately changed.
I blinked, momentarily distracted by my discovery.
"End point." Liam said with a straight face.
I scowled. "Yeah, I know that."
He straightened, watching me closely. Maybe now the acid was diluted, I could actually throw it in his face without getting punished for it.
That aside....
My gaze drifted to Jake watching as he said something to Sofia and she frowned at him.
Was that really the reason why Theadora didn't want people to know about her relationship with Jake? Because of what they'd think and how they'll see her??