BURN

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN

Tuesday had slowly dragged by uneventfully and by Thursday I was convinced Malcom had finally taken a hint. The rumors had already subsided enough to let me go on living peacefully in Maseno. The sad part was that I could not stop thinking about him, about his damn smirk or his magnificent body. It was on Friday while Jade and I were heading to Chemistry 103, the last class of the day when the day got a little too eventful.

“You were right about Ben. During Math 106, he asked me for my number,” Jade giggled excitedly.

“And did you give it to him?”

“Duh! Of course I gave it to him because as it turns out he has a cousin in third year who is throwing a party tonight and Ben invite us to go with him,”

“You know I cannot go to parties,”

“If we are careful enough your brother won’t find out,” she said.

“Danny has friends everywhere in the damn university. We’d barely make it there before he knows,” Besides, I did not want to run into Malcom. He was already growing in on me and for the first time ever, I wanted to stay away.

“Is it so bad that I really hate Danny right now?” her shoulders slumped, frowning.

“Trust me, sometimes I hate him too but he is my brother and I know he loves me so much, that’s why he is so strict about me,” trying to see things from his perspective was probably the best idea. 

“You can’t just follow everything he says. You need to be a little rebellious sometimes, you know,”

“You think I don’t want that? I want to explore, to make my own mistakes and learn from them, I want to kiss strangers and know what it’s like to love and get your heart broken. But I’m a Mwachia, I can never do anything that will put a tint on the family name or Danny’s reputation,” I slid into my seat as Jade slid into the one beside me.

“You are really leading such a sad life,” Jade patted my shoulder just as the Lecturer walked in.

As soon as the class was over, we both hurried out and before I could fathom it, I ran smack into hard mass of muscles. I staggered back from the impact but strong hands grabbed me by the waist, steading me while at the same evading me from other students ramming into mine. When I raised my gaze to say a thank you, eyes the replica of chocolate stared down at me with pure amusement.

“Um…Thanks Malcom but can you let go of me now?” I stuttered, all my efforts to sound unaffected vanishing into the thin air.

“Sure, Munchkin,” His hands left my waist and almost immediately I missed the warmth of his hands.

Students had stopped walking and were now shamelessly staring at us while whispering. I wanted to move but my legs seemed to have caught a freeze bug.

“By the way, I thought about it and you are stuck with me Munchkin,” he smirked as though he could not see the widening eyes around us.

“Step away from her,” I snapped my gaze to find Danny grinding his jaw, his nose flaring with the rage of lion.

“Oh, hello Danny,” His smirk never faltered. How was it possible he stood unaffected by my brother? Most people would s**t their pants if Danny did as much as glare in their direction.

“Stay the f**k away from my sister Malcom,”

Malcom turned to look at me instead, his smirk even wider.

“Do you want me to stay away from you Munchkin?” the way his eyes stared at me with warmth I had never seen before made every single thought I had of saying yes disappear in the air. There was something about them that drew me in and every bit of energy I had dissipated into the thin air. I wanted to scream that I wanted him to stay away but no words seemed to come out of my mouth. My lips opened slightly then fell shut almost immediately.

“Clearly Munchkin doesn’t want me to stay away. See you around Danny,” Malcom walked away, the crowd that had formed a ring around us paving way from him to pass.

I did not want to see the look Danny had on his face but lucky for me Jade pulled my arm, dragging me out of the crowd. Nor Danny or his goons followed us but a part of me knew I would not be hearing the end of it from Jade. As usual my instincts were pretty much right.

“What the hell was that?” She thundered the moment she closed the door behind us.

“Please don’t Jade,” I slumped on the couch, all the energy in my body drained out of me.

“Don’t what?”

“Okay, I know I should have told him to stay away but I have no idea what came over me. I just froze,” I threw my hands helplessly.

“What do you mean you just froze?”

“He just looked at me and then I just could not bring myself to tell him to stay away from me,” I sighed.

I expected her to give me a tongue lash but she just squeezed my palms, before pulling me into an unexpected hug.

“Your brother is to blame for this,” she murmured.

“I’m pretty sure this time it was all my fault. I obviously made him look like a fool in front of all those people,”

“No, he is to blame for you being like this. Back even before we were done with High school, he beat up any boy who dared even mention your name. I know he wants to protect you but you are practically a woman now. He can’t shield you forever from the world but I also need you to promise me one thing Sophie,” she pulled back from the hug to stare into my eyes.

“Promise you what?”

“That you will stay away from Malcom. Obviously there has to be a reason why Danny is so insistent on you staying away from him. Besides, he is just too wild to be your first love,”

“Love? Please, even in a hundred years I can never fall in love with him,” it was more to convince myself than to convince her.

“That’s what I said about Brian too. Now look what that got me,”

“The principal’s son? I thought you said it didn’t matter,”

“Well, I lied. It hurt just too damn much to admit it. He was my first love Sophie but he did not waste a second in stomping over my heart like it was nothing. Its been almost two years now and honestly I’m still working my way through moving on from him till now,” her voice had dropped to sad low level.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t really know that,”

“Don’t be. He was that bad boy straight out of a novel and I was pretty much the foolish good girl who thought would change him. Trust me, bad boys have a way of drawing you in and twisting your mind in to believing that you are their one girl, their f*****g redemption. It usually feels great at first until they walk over you to the next naïve girl. Don’t make the same mistake I made Sophie,”

I nodded, barely able to form any coherent thought. Twisting my mind? Was that what Malcom was silently doing by making me think of him day and night? She stood up to walk to her room but stopped.

“You are still not sneaking off to that party with me?” she asked, her voice now cheery like I was used to it.

“Not a chance,” I was not ready to risk Danny’s anger on me.