Chapter 41: 34. 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐞𝐫

"That's all for today,the break is finished so don't be lazy. Remember you study history to make your own future" Professor Husting says and leaves the classroom as the bell rings. He never forgets to mention how important history is

The silence of the class has ended, all the students make their way to the exit while chatting with their friends. I glance at Julian who is still sleeping, he has been sleeping since the class started

I sigh, I would try to wake him up but for the past few days he has been acting extremely distant, first he used to be rude but now he doesn't even care. Even Max was worried for his friend.

Shaking off the thoughts, I pick up my bag and walk out, I could notice Julian waking up from the corner of my eye. I make my way to the cafeteria, the hallway is filled with students as everyone is going in the same direction. Our small break is finished and now everyone is back to studying

It's been a few days since we came back from Thailand. It was the best trip and birthday I could ever have, each moment I spent with him made my heart flutter even more. At this moment I feel like my heart is not mine anymore

His small gestures

His calming words

His tender touch

I just love every moment with him. And after the trip he isn't leaving my head at all, while eating, sleeping and even studying some way or the other. I start to miss him and even now

As I enter the cafeteria, I look around for Cami as we decide to have lunch together. I spot her sitting at one of the tables as I get closer to her I notice Max and Zuri there too "Hey guys!" I greet them and sit beside Cami keeping my bag aside

"Hey Stella. Long time" Zuri greets me back, yeah it's been a long time since I met her. I think I last saw her at the NYX'S after-party "How have you been?" She asks

"I am doing the same-"

"What happened to your arms?" Cami questions looking at my arm wrapped in bandage, the cut from Thailand hasn't healed it. The cut is long and I am worried thinking that it would leave a mark. All their eyes were on my injury, this made me a bit comfortable because of getting too much attention.

I quickly remove my hand from the table and rest it on my lap "Oh it's nothing! Just a bit of scratch" I say trying to laugh it away. I don't wanna talk about it and moreover no one knows about me dating Liam, except Jasmine and Zuri

Noticing my tensed up expression Zuri steps in to change the topic "By the way the NYX selected list was uploaded this morning? Did you check?" all their attention gets to zuri. I sigh in relief, Zuri gives me an assuring nod while talking to them

"Yeah I did check and I got selected!" Cami exclaims excitedly. Max and I both try to congratulate her but she cuts us off "I was happy until I saw their new rules" she says rolling her eyes in annoyance

Max looks at the three of us with a confused expression "what? But why? You literally got selected-" he says. Max didn't participate in it so he doesn't know. "They have selected one hundred candidates from thousands and now they kept another rule, NYX wants the hundred participants to submit their own designed work and then they will select the top ten who will work under Emily Carter" Zuri explains

This never happened in years, NYX just used to review our designs and recruit their students but now they are asking for an original design.

Max scoffs and shakes his head "seriously? This is gonna be hard for the first years. What about you Stella? Did you get selected?" he asks

"Me? Oh- well I didn't check yet. I will check soon" I quickly came up with the lie. Honestly, today I woke up at six in the Morning to check the results. Jasmine is always awake in the morning, and she was randomly buying new lipsticks because apparently her lipsticks finished. She was shocked to see me awake because I never wake up so early but this was really important for me

To my surprise, I was selected from more than a thousand candidates! My biggest dream! I was on the verge of screaming and yelling and dancing. I was crying too but my whole excitement and happiness died down due to the fear. I have tried to make a few designs of my own but they didn't turn out well….

This is really useless, why design when you can buy?

You are wasting your time Stella . Study instead of this shit

Oh please. You call this fashion designing?

His laughter rings in my head. I feel a hand grabbing my arm for a split second. I flinch and pull away, my eyes meet Cami's worried one. She smiles and moves her hand away "You zoned out, are you alright?" She asks gently

Oh!

I zoned out

Again.....

I try to smile at her and nod "I am fine, just thinking about results nothing else" I assure her "Don't think too much. It will be fine" she gives my hand a pat. Zuri leaves soon, leaving max and Cami with me. We grab our lunch and chat while eating.

I do feel guilty for lying to them but for me it's a huge thing, I may be worried for the next round but right now I want to enjoy the moment and be proud of myself right now because that whole thing wasn't easy.

More importantly I want to tell this to Liam first before anyone and for that I already have planned something for it. I quickly finish my sandwich and wipe my hands with tissues. I take out my phone and text him

Are you free this afternoon?

Not even a minute later he replies back

Liam: For you? Yes

I Chuckle but cover it up trying not to grab their attention.

okay…..

I have a date idea

Liam: When should I come?

I thought about it for a minute, I still have a few classes and I also have to grab some study material so…

How about 4pm after my classes?

Liam: see you at the gate

➠

My classes are finished, I buy the study material from the Library and make my way towards the main gate. The weather is perfect today. The light breeze makes the trees flow , and the warm scarf around my neck protects me from the cold. It's been three weeks since Liam and I started dating but still we weren't getting the proper time to spend with each other and most of the time he took me out so today I planned something for us

It might not be that special but I always wanted to do this

As I walk down I notice Liam's car parked with other cars. I increase my speed to reach quickly

While walking an unusual sight appears in front of me, with the other cars parked there's also a latest BMW but the weird part is that it's covered in red and pink lines which looks like they are made from lipstick

I frown upon it

Who would do that?

Either the owner is crazy or someone pranked them

Nevermind, I stand beside his car and bend lower to match the height of the car. Liam is sitting inside, he hasn't noticed me yet. He is holding a small notebook in his hands

What is that? Something related to his work?

I knock slightly on the window with my fingers grabbing his attention. His head snaps to my direction and a smile forms on his face. He puts the book aside and leans towards the door and opens the door

"I have a request, I wanna drive today"

He tilts his head to the side looking at me, without thinking twice he nods in approval and gets out of the car "May I at least know where you are taking me?" he asks, opening the door to the driver's seat

"It's a surprise" I wink at him and get inside

He chuckles and doesn't argue and sits inside at the passenger seat, we both fasten our seatbelts and I start driving "that car looks oddly similar to Luca's car" Liam mumbles as we pass the lipstick stained car, he doesn't speak further

The car ride goes smoothly, it's been a while since I last drove a car. We both chat about how our days went. The anticipation was taking over me, I was trying my best to control myself and not blabber about it so soon. "Can I play something?" I ask while focusing on the road. I need some music while driving and also to divert my mind, when I say music it's always Taylor Swift for me

Liam gestures towards the audio system "all yours"

As I stop the car at a signal and browse through his playlist, my finger stops for a second when I find almost all of his playlists featuring Taylor Swift . When I glance at him to ask about it, I find him already looking away avoiding my gaze

"Didn't know you are a swifty" I raised my eyebrow, looking at him suspiciously. He chuckles but still looks away, that laugh dies as soon as he looks at my expressions from the corner of his eye. He sighs and finally looks at me before saying "I just made them for you but never got to tell you"

My mouth opens, I look at the playlists and then back at him again. He made them? For me? Each of them?

Oh my heart

I scroll through them reading the song names and playlist names. One has all the happy songs, another one was filled with sad ones, one was filled with romantic ones and so on

"You listen to them, then sort them according to mood and vibes?" He slowly nods "so what do you think?"

As I was about to reply, a car honk made me jump on my seat, and I realized that the signal was green again, oh I got too lost!  I quickly start the car and drive forward, after getting away from the traffic I speak

"I used to think I don't have a love language but now you have become my own love language"

Physical touch? Check!

Words of affirmation? Check!

Gift giving? Check!

Act of service? Check!

He is my personal love language......

The smile never leaves my face, I keep looking at the playlists in front of me as I drive. The butterflies never leave my stomach, it feels comforting to be with someone who actually values me. I was so hesitant to accept him, I never doubted him but I doubted myself for not being enough

I was never enough for someone

But with him I feel nothing like that. I can be myself and know that he won't judge or get annoyed.

I feel a soft cotton like touch on my cheek, I look at my side to see Liam holding a white rose against my cheek making me giggle "Thank you, at this point I will have a garden in my room" I take the rose from him and keep it on my lap

He have given me so many flowers till now and I wanna treasure all of them

"Not yet, because there will be a thousand more than this" he replies softly. Our eyes meet for a moment while we savior each other's presence, right now nothing matters than him

He has become my comfort zone

"I am doing this after so long" I say, Stella sits beside me while we both change our shoes. I glance at the huge ice rink in front of us. Both children and adults skate excitedly among themselves. Their voices mixed with the blades moving on the smooth ice

Stella brought me here, it's a huge ice rink open for everyone. The lights making the ice shine, they have even switched on the central air conditioners to give this true feeling of winter season. Honestly, this is a great idea for a date. Stella secured her skates and got up from her seat, she extended her hand to me "let's go?"

My eyes fall on her bandaged arm, seeing that gives me some uneasy feeling for some reason. Her bleeding arm still keeps flashing in my mind

I nod and take her hand in mine and walk towards the entrance of the rink, being careful on our steps. I first enter and Stella follows me, luckily I could still balance myself but a bit of fear remains inside me. I glance at my skates as a kid I never trusted skating in ice, I would go for bungee jumping without thinking twice but moving on ice with thin blades never looked safe

With a swift moment Stella takes my head and glides forward on the ice making me skate along with her. Her moments are smooth and easy, she has done this many times "you like skating?" I ask

She nods and turns her head towards me "yeah, I used to come here every Christmas with my family"

"Yeah, even me but I always used to avoid skating" I reveal, she turns her skates and moves in front of me while skating backwards. I look at her impressed by her moments "You are good at this,huh"

She laughs "yeah I wanted to impress you" I could catch the playfulness in her words. We move together, she glides her legs backwards with an oriented pattern, moving fluidly. I try to match her steps as we skate around the rink, our hands still locked with each other

As she slides backwards I make sure she doesn't bump into someone. There are many people around us who are also enjoying their time on the ice with their family and friends.A lively atmosphere of the rink almost brings the vibes of Christmas and with her it feels like home

After a while Stella changes her position again and we skate side by side matching each other's pace, trying to race sometimes too "By the way I got selected for the NYX'S next round" stella speaks casually

My heart skips a beat when I try to stop myself but instead I lose my balance and slip on the ice sliding forward and crash down with a groan feeling the pain "Damn it!"

A few kids skate by me, laughing at my condition while I just sit on the ice processing what just happened. Did I hear correctly? She got selected? Oh I definitely did hear correctly. I touch my head to make sure I don't have any injuries, my brain is not playing games right?

Stella slides towards me with a concerned expression "are you alright?" She extends her hand towards me to help me up. "I am fine" I grab her hand and lift my weight from the ice. I dust my clothes, the kids are still laughing at me. Well when a grown up man falls stupidly is quite a comedy

That doesn't matter right now!

"Seriously? You got selected?" I ask, holding her arms , she smiles and nods. "This is huge! Why didn't you tell me before? We could have gone somewhere to celebrate!" I blabber out not allowing her to speak, I can't control my happiness. But I stop when I notice her tense expressions "you don't seem happy. What happened?"

"Nothing, well I am happy. Really happy but I am a bit worried about the next round thing they added"

Oh it's about that. Even, I didn't like the rule it was so new and unexpected, if I was on board I wouldn't approve of it but it can also be taken as a good challenge to improve your skills

"I have tried designing once but it didn't turn out well. So I am anxious about it" She explains, her fingers fidgeting with each other. I take her hand in mine to stop her actions "without even trying you can't give up and I am here too "

"Oh No- I don't wanna trouble you-" Before she finishes her sentence, I peck her lips making her pause and stare at me in disbelief "I said I am here and that's all" I whisper against her lips looking into her blue eyes. Her gaze softens as she mumbles "thanks"

I wrap my arms around her and pull her into a hug "You did well. I am proud of you"

We spend some time together until the sunsets, afterwards I drop Stella back to her dorm. I picked up a few pastries on our way so she could celebrate the achievement with Jasmine and later on  headed back to my apartment. I park my car and get inside the elevator

I haven't contacted Jeff yet because I can only meet Jeff when he is hosting a race and that's tonight. The elevator's doors open and I step out walking towards my apartment. The corridor seems silent maybe my neighbors aren't home right now

I dial in the password and unlock the door stepping inside the apartment. I am greeted by, buddy sitting near the shoe rack with a dull expression. My golden retriever  is always cheerful like the sun, what happened to him? I crouch down to his level and pet his head "what's up, buddy"

His head lifts up but his tail remains down, it only happens when he is sick or upset. I keep rubbing his head but that doesn't change anything. Suddenly he moves away, making me stop.

My dog walks towards the door again and keeps his paw on a piece of paper lying near the entrance. I get up and pick up the paper, it isn't a paper but an envelope, I didn't notice it while coming in but it is clear that someone slipped it inside

But who?

I opened the envelope, it contained photographs? I put the envelope away and look through them. My grip tightens on those pieces of papers, the rush of rage takes over me

They all are pictures of her

Pictures of Stella

While entering her dorm building, while talking to her friends in the cafeteria, in the library, in her class too. I keep flipping them, there are also pictures of us skating today

Fuck-

Someone's stalking her and the person is everywhere. The anger inside me has now been mixed with fear and horror,

No

No

No

This isn't good, fuck! Who would do this? Who knows! My ribcage seems to be crushing my lungs because I can't feel myself breathing anymore, I could feel my palms sweating. Buddy barks loudly while walking around me and patting Mr with his paws, even he sensed something was wrong.

I take a deep breath and try to calm down, I need to meet him right now because if Jeff is somehow related to this stuff then I am gonna kill him tonight. I grab my jacket and stuff the photographs in its pocket , picking up my helmet I lock the door and rush down towards my bike

The engine roared as I sped down the road making my way through the traffic , trying my best to handle the curves and turns of the road with the speed. I want to reach there as soon as possible before something happens

It takes me a good 15 minutes to reach the place where Jeff was holding the racing event. He keeps changing the venue for privacy reasons, hell with the privacy right now. I removed my helmet, even though I rode through a cold windy night the sweat was still dripping down my hair. I get down and leave the bike and helmet at the entrance.

There's a whole line of people who have to go through a security check up before entering inside but Jeff's bodyguards know me and hence it didn't take much time for me to enter. There isn't much of a crowd as the race doesn't start before 11pm. I removed the photos from my jacket while looking for him.

I spot Jeff near the huge trailers, he holds a cigarette in his hand while watching over the arrangements of the race taking place. I stride towards him and pull him to face me "What is this?" I ask, holding the photographers in my hand, my other hand gripping his shoulder.

He chuckles and blows out smoke right at my face while taking another drag of cigarette "Told you Carter, associating with her will only bring out trouble"

I hold him against the trailer's wall by his neck, my fury is getting the worst out of me but i don't care "tell me Jeff. Is this one of your doing? Are you fucking stalking her now?" my voice is sharp and harsh, gripping on him tightly I sense my veins on my arm.

He keeps his annoying smirk on his face not affected by the pain at all. He raises his hands in surrender "me? No way, I have no interest in getting anywhere near the Millers or their precious daughter. You called this upon yourself!"

I removed my hand from his neck, that's true. He never wanted to be on their bad side and messing up with Stella would bring him trouble. Jeff drops the cigarette and crushes it with his foot while rubbing his neck "It might be her father's enemy or something, that old man has whole Australia behind him" he mutters while coughing

"Do you know who they are?" I ask

He stops and looks at me again, with a subtle face unable to understand "I may know but I have quit selling information now" he speaks in a stern voice. "What do you mean?" I frown

"I just helped you until you benefited me but now as you left racing and don't care about the loss I faced anymore why should I bother by getting into your shit? In Fact I found your replacement" he points at a racer in a red racing suit, his face is hidden with a helmet but I recognise him. He is the rookie I raced with a while ago

"He has taken your place and earns me a good amount. I don't need you anymore. I already warned you many times but you didn't listen now handle it yourself " he finishes

I don't regret it, I will never regret loving her but what if she gets hurt because of me?

"Even if you know, you just wouldn't open your mouth?" he nods still keeping that devilish girn enjoying this. Of Course he wouldn't care. Why?

Because it doesn't give him any advantage

Two years ago he made me go to the Miller's party and introduced me to Stella thinking I would try to find out about my uncle's death but when I disagreed he backed off. But destiny had other plans. I met Stella again and even after trying not to get close to her. I ended up falling for her

Jeff helped me get some information about her family but in return he wanted money from my wins. Now he found someone else he wouldn't bother to help me. I knew that it would happen one day but not at the moment when I am in serious trouble

"So get the hell out of here. There's no use of you here anymore" he says in a mocking tone

Asshole

Arguing with him wouldn't take me anywhere, I need to find a way to keep Stella safe without giving her a hint of it. I turn around to go back home and think about everything

"Keep your eyes open Carter. Who knows where the bullet might come from?"

Who knows where the bullet might come from

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──

Author's Note

Okay I have to talk about this-

First everyone disliked Jeff but when his past was revealed everyone changed their mind. I always mentioned from the start to NOT TRUST Jeff but it's readers choice. I just gave a warning, because he is a type of guy who doesn't think twice before hurting someone and he doesn't care about Liam or Stella until it benifits him. I just said I might write about him but I never committed to it.

Jeff was introduced as a side antagonist

Remember - the main antagonist is still present there. Because a story needs a villian 🫢

But for now enjoy the cute moments between our leads, there are still many chapters left-

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Voting target-200+ votes and 100+ comments

-have a nice day/night 🎀