Chapter 23: Troubled Waters
"Where is she?"
Craige looked around the station. It was already past 6 AM and Zeanne was still nowhere to be found. He also tried sending her messages but she's not replying.
[Clinton: Where are you?]
He tried calling her number, in case she was still asleep, and a sound caught his attention which comes from the pillar not far from where he was.
*I just wanna be...Awesome Girl!
Girl Crush! Cool! Everyday I do
Go, Girl Crush! Red color lipstick~*
He followed the familiar ringtone and found Zeanne blankly squatting down on the floor. He ended the call and squatted in front of her.
"How long have you been sitting here?" He asked and noticed the dark circles under her eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Craige, what do I do?" She turned to him but her eyes seemed to be looking far away. "I messed up big time."
He smiled faintly because he knew what kind of mess she was talking about. He was about to tell her something when their train arrived so he pulled her up instead. "Let's go. Let's talk later."
She lazily let him drag her all the way to their cabin. And as soon as he managed to make her take a seat, he gave her the frappé that he got earlier from MoonSunBox. She reluctantly took it and just stared at it for a long time.
He smiled. "It's caffeine free, don't worry."
She took a sip while looking at him and her mood visibly went up in an instant. She smiled as she looked at the drink. "How did you know?"
"That you like double chocolate or that you're not allowed to take in caffeine?" He felt proud for making the right choice of getting the drinks before coming.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Both."
He also took a sip from his drink and had the urge to clear his throat after. It was way too sweet for his taste. He would usually go for strong coffee or mocha flavors but he ordered the same drink out of curiosity. "Katherine mentioned you love chocolates and that you're not allowed to intake any caffeine."
She just stared at him and sipped her drink without saying anything.
"What is it?" He asked and took another sip, slowly getting used to the flavor.
She was watching him drink then suddenly, "I strongly object with you dating Katherine."
He spurted the drink straight onto her shirt which made her shout in protest. "YA!"
"I'm sorry!" He quickly gave her tissues for her shirt and used the remaining one to wipe his mouth while coughing.
"Look what you did to my shirt!" She whined while trying to wipe the chocolate from her white shirt. She was able to wipe off most of it but there were brown stains all over it, especially in the chest area.
"Do you have another shirt with you?" He asked, feeling really guilty.
She put water on the tissue and used it again to wipe her shirt. "I do. Can you get it for me please? It's in the second zipper of my bag."
Craige stood up to find the shirt in her bag. "Black or blue?"
Zeanne pondered for a while. "Black."
He pulled out the black shirt and handed it to her. Then he looked at the stains again. "I'm really sorry."
"It's fine." She sighed. "Can you cover the door for me?"
"Wh--" Craige did not manage to finish his question and hastily turned around to block the door when Zeanne lifted the hem of her shirt. "ZEE!"
He heard rustling sounds then, "I'm done. Thanks."
He counted to ten before turning back around. She had the black shirt on and the other was now neatly folded beside her. But he could not help but frown when he noticed that this new shirt had a very plunging neckline. "Too much skin."
She looked down and then frowned at him. "It's not."
"Yes it is. You want me to lend you my shirt?" He suggested without malice but it seemed that she didn't like the idea.
"You can't even see the cleavage!" She protested.
He frowned at her reasoning. Cleavage or no cleavage, revealing more than two inches below the collarbone was considered as showing too much skin in his vocabulary. 'And it's not like she needed to show cleavage to look... alluring.'
She probably noticed his silent disagreement because she suddenly pointed out. "This is not the first time that I wore this shirt. Why are you complaining now?"
"It's not?" He asked doubtfully as he sat back on the couch then shrugged when he could not remember if she really did wear this shirt before. "I guess I just noticed it now."
She glared at him then pulled the front of her shirt to the back which lifted the neckline all the way up to her collarbone. Then she went uncomfortably silent after that. He kept glancing her way but she was completely ignoring him and just kept on playing with her phone. "Zee?"
She didn't answer nor look his way.
'Sometimes, she really acts like a kid.'
"I'm sorry for staining your shirt." Still no response from her.
"I'm sorry for finding fault with the way you're dressed." She put down her phone and looked outside the widow.
"I'm sorry for not noticing that you've already worn this shirt before." He noticed that her jaw clenched for a second then she lay down on the bed. 'At least, I got some kind of reaction. What else is there to be sorry about?'
That was when he remembered. "About what you said earlier… about Katherine and me dating. Why are you against it?"
She sprang up from the bed that she hit her head on the top bunk. "Shit!"
'That did the trick.' He chuckled. "Language."
She glared at him. "Don't 'language' me, you hypocrite. Are you seriously dating Katherine?!"
"It was just a hypothetical question. I'm just curious why you would be against it." He leaned on his elbow and smiled at her, feeling triumphant that she's now talking to him even though she's sending daggers his way with her eyes.
She clenched her jaw then she took a deep breath. "Don't even be curious about it. The problem with you is that you're always curious about something."
'Guilty as charged.'
He chuckled at her on point judgement. It's strange but he really likes it whenever she gets irritated. Aside from the fact that it's fun to tease her, he just thought that this was one of the few times that Zeanne was candidly showing her true self. Because most of the time, she would have her guard up and 'acting' mode on. Although, he could no longer remember when he started thinking this way, but when she gets angry, he just knows that it's for real and not a pretense. So he tried pushing her a little more. "Why?"
"Just don't!" She snapped.
Craige chuckled. "You do realize that you're now acting like a kid who doesn't want to share her toys, don't you?"
"A kid?! I can support you liking Ameera. Heck, I'll even help you out if you need me too. But not Katherine. Do you hear me, Clinton?" Zeanne's voice was gravely serious and the way she said his last name after a long time pierced straight through his chest.
That's when he realized that he should stop with the teasing and get serious as well. "Why is Ameera okay and Katherine is not?"
She stared at him for a long time and he started thinking if he would get his answer by the end of the ride.
Then she looked away. "Nevermind. Date her if you really want to. It's none of my business."
He could only smile bitterly because this was not the answer that he wanted to hear. "I won't."
They were silent for a long time until, a few minutes later, Craige heard a soft snoring sound. He turned and saw that Zeanne was already sleeping on her stomach. When she shifted her position, her shirt untucked from her pants and lifted up which revealed a small area of her waist. Craige reached out and pulled her shirt down then took off his jacket to cover her with it.
"She completely forgot that she was supposed to tell me how she 'messed up big time'."
Craige knew that Zeanne was talking about the audition. And judging by how she easily fell asleep despite being annoyed with him, she probably was not able to sleep properly last night because they have both been selected to be a part of the play. After what she did during their performance, he was really not surprised by the results. But when Teacher Beshy announced her name, he had to suppress a smile because he witnessed how she turned pale with remorse upon hearing it.
A soft smile crept on his lips as he watched her sleep peacefully. "Looks like I've gotten myself in deep trouble this time too."
Craige didn't know for how long he had been staring at her, but he dozed off while doing that and woke up only when he heard the announcement.
[This train is for Cape Hallows City Center]
[The next station is Cape Hallows City Center]
He cautiously tapped Zeanne's shoulder to wake her up. "Zee, we're almost in Cape Hallows. Come on. Time to wake up."
Zeanne slowly opened her eyes and yawned but she didn't move for a while. And when she finally tried to stretch, she suddenly cried out. "Ack!"
He was in the middle of taking down their bags from the luggage compartment when he heard her. He carefully put down the heavy bags on the couch and turned to her. "Why? What happened?"
She had a hand on her neck and with her eyes closed, she whined as she answered him. "Stiff neck."
He couldn't help but laugh and he would've earned another deadly glare from her if she was not having a hard time lifting her head up to look at him. "Don't move and let me see."
He massaged her shoulder to relax the muscles that probably became stiff because of her sleeping position earlier. And with every pressure that he put on her neck and shoulder, she would complain. "Ah! Ah! Ah!"
"Shh. Stop making that noise. People outside might misunderstand if they hear you." He said teasingly and knew that he well-deserved what was coming next.
Zeanne painfully swatted his hand away. "Enough! I'll put a patch on it later."
[We are now approaching Cape Hallows City Center]
Upon hearing the announcement Zeanne stood up and took her bag, only to cry out in pain again when she tried to put it on her shoulder. Craige quickly took it from her and put it on. "Let me carry this."
"I don't want to." She flatly declined and tried to take back her bag from him but he moved it away from her.
"Don't be irrational. You can't carry this thing in your condition." He also put on his bag and smiled with wonder when he realized how light his bag was compared to hers. "What's inside your bag? Gold bars?"
"Sanitary pads." She said with a straight face.
Even though he suspected that she was just trying to be smart with him so that he would hand over her bag, Craige just nodded because he could not completely rule out the possibility of her telling the truth. But, just when Zeanne opened the door of the cabin to prepare to leave, Craige could not stop himself from asking, "Are sanitary pads really this heavy?"
The lady standing in front of their door looked at them then smiled meaningfully. That made Zeanne's face burn up in an instant as she hissed at him. "It's not, dimwit!"
And as soon as the train stopped, Zeanne practically scurried out and left him behind but he managed to catch up with her after a few steps. And as soon as they exited the station she warily turned to him while breathing hard. She had one hand on his shoulder to support herself and another on her throbbing neck. "Your curiosity will seriously get the both of us in trouble one day."
'It hasn't yet?' He didn't say it out loud and just smiled as he stroked her back to help her breathe. He chuckled. "You seriously need to get some exercise."
Zeanne said something but he did not hear it as his smile slowly disappeared when he noticed a person, standing not far from them, look at them with his mouth gaping open.
"Are you two eloping?!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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HarpGrand Osu!
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#NeverLettingGo
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