Intermission - Girls' meeting.

Grace had expected it to happen eventually. Oliver’s sister was friends with Alice, so there was bound to be a time in which they would meet for some reason or another. She hadn’t expected it to be on purpose, however.

Alice told Isabelle she was friends with them, and Oliver had said his sister had stopped being so antagonistic about them, too. Was it possible that Isabelle planned this? To use this visit as an excuse for Alice to see them?

If so, if Isabelle really did plan this, she was a sweeter girl than Grace had thought. Maybe she really was Oliver’s sister. Just a joke, really, but she was in a good mood. To be able to sit down with her girls again, all four together, was a simple delight. That Noelle was here made things more fun, too, and this was their chance to grow a little closer to Isabelle.

On that last front, she’d need the thread carefully. Word had reached Grace weeks ago that Isabelle had broken up with her boyfriend. It was fairly wide-spread gossip because the two had only been together for about two weeks, but rumors stopped soon since it was all very simple to figure out. Ignacio was an ass, Isabelle had enough of him, she broke up with him. That was all there was to it.

Grace was now sitting on the couch with Sarah and Mila,

“I hope Alice isn’t a ****-driver, Noelle,” Grace said to the student council secretary. “There’s a lot she wants to do, but you’re probably left with all the paperwork, aren’t you?”

“N-No, it’s fine!” Noelle laughed. It was a cute, soft laugh that tried to hide some nervousness. “It’s all pretty easy to do. I just write suggestions, invitations to meetings, the proposals… Things like that. Alice is the one who has to come up with everything.”

“So long as you’re okay with it. Don’t be afraid to tell her to shove it,” Grace said, grinning and glancing at Alice, who simply shook her head with her own smile. “And I hope they’re not dragging you into it, too, Isabelle.”

“Huh? Me?” Isabelle asked, eyebrows rising.

With a closer look, one could really tell she was Oliver’s twin. Their eyes were practically the same, even to the length of their eyelashes. It wasn’t to say Oliver looked girly –he was quite manly, and Grace would fight anyone who said otherwise– but he was a nice mix of pretty and handsome. And sexy. Can’t forget the sexy. Isabelle was much the same, but leaning more on pretty than handsome.

“Come on, what do you take me for?” Alice said, crossing her arms. “I’ve only asked her help twice.”

“Twice more than you should,” Grace insisted. “She’s not part of the student council.”

“Ugh, I know, but our vice-president got sick and…”

“Hey, I don’t mind, seriously,” Isabelle said. “I offered to help. To be honest, I thought the student council was a joke, and the elections just a popularity contest, but helping Alice showed me that no sir, these girls have it rough.”

“Don’t overwork yourselves, you hear?” Sarah warned. “Midterms aren’t that far away now.”

“No, shut up.” Mila groaned. “Why am I even in this school? Exams are way too hard and I’m too dumb.”

“You’re lazy, that's what you are,” Alice told her. “30 minutes of studying every night would fix your grades.”

“I can confirm,” Noelle said. “Since I started doing that, I don’t have to spend nights cramming before a test anymore.”

“I still have to cram,” Isabelle admitted shamefully.

Time to take a risk. “Do you and Oliver study together?” Grace asked.

Isabelle’s face fell and she even turned a little pale. “I… No. We used to, but…”

“Um!” Oliver broke in, coming out of the kitchen with the kitten cradled in his arm and slowly feeding it milk with a syringe. Grace’s heart almost melted at the sight, and she had the extremely dangerous thought that she wanted to give him a baby.

Maybe someday. Not now. Someday.

“Y-You all came to see Cake, right?” he said. The syringe was practically empty, and Cake was only licking the tip trying to get whatever drops were left inside. Oliver set the kitten on the floor, and Noelle was the first one to rush to her, kneeling to play with her.

Unlike with her, Mila and Sarah, the kitten was happy to play with Noelle, even nuzzling into her fingers as she was petted.

“Whyyyy?” Mila moaned. “Why does she like you but hates me?”

“She hates you?” Noelle asked, surprised. “She took to everyone so easily.”

“Well, we did rescue her,” Alice said. “She ran at us out of some bushes when Noelle and I walked by near her house. And Isabelle and Oliver took her in. Maybe now that she has a home, she’s wary of strangers?”

“We have our theories.” Grace giggled. Really, Mila was taking it more personally than either her or Sarah. They’d win her over eventually. Patience was the key.

“Is she eating?” Noelle asked Oliver, looking up at him.

Now, it very well could’ve been her imagination, but Grace could swear she saw Oliver blush for a moment before he turned his attention from the petite redhead to the kitten.

“A lot. No problems there.”

“Thank God.” Noelle giggled and held Cake by the armpits. The kitten had no issues with the handling. “You need to behave, okay? Don’t cause trouble!”

The kitten meowed as if assenting.

Grace turned her attention back to her boyfriend. It was subtle, but he looked… uncomfortable. Well, that wasn’t a surprise, was it? There were five guests in his house, two of whom he didn’t know well. That was probably it, most likely.

But there was a chance that it was something else.

Something potentially… interesting.

God, she had to love this man more than was healthy.

Patreon.