Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 96: The school event (part 2)

Chapter 96: The school event (part 2)

A few hours ago. In the morning when the sun was just about rising. The windows of Mia’s room were tightly shut and her curtains were pulled down making the room appear dim as the light of her room was also turned off since last night. She laid on the bed with several blankets covering her entire body including her head as she was shivering from a severe cold. She had ignored the feverish feeling from last night but when she woke up this morning, she had felt like her entire body was on fire and her head had been throbbing like it would split into two. She could barely open her eyes from how weak she felt.

Because her mother usually woke up before her and would go to her eatery very early, Mia was left alone at home with no one to look after her. She had reached out for her phone and wanted to call her mother but then she decided against it as she wouldn’t want to worry her. She had been laying under the blanket unable to even get off the bed and prepare for school. Mia had no idea what had gone wrong with her all of a sudden when she had been just fine yesterday morning. She wasn’t the kind to fall sick easily but now she was ill all of a sudden.

Perhaps it was because she had been drenched yesterday with the wine, but she doubted that was the case. Mia would have wanted to stay at home today and rest but then remembering how Carlos and Rayne had worked hard to get her into the school event, she didn’t want to disappoint them in anyway by not showing up. However, the thought of standing up from her bed made her more exhausted and nauseous. She didn’t want to go, she didn’t want to stand up, but she had to, not for herself but for her friends.

With those thoughts, Mia pushed herself off the bed with her limbs still shaking. Unable to hold still, she fell back on the bed with a light thud. Not bothering to get up again, she stared blankly at her celling.

For some reason she suspected that the wine that gotten into her mouth yesterday, had something to do with her sudden sickness this morning. The wine had tasted weird on her tongue. And she would be dumb not to know someone had planned for all that. The student who carried the wine had pretended to trip over her and poured it on her head while making it appear like an accident. Mia was aware that most of the students in Ivy Grove didn’t like her but she couldn’t imagine them scheming so she would not make it to the event today. Who could have done such a thing to her and what was in that wine that was now messing up her body in a bad way?

A hot tear slid down the corner of Mia’s eyes as she continued to stare blankly at the celling because she couldn’t get up. She hated it when people schemed against her when she had nothing against them. She had never wanted to be a part of this event but she had joined because she needed the prize money, but then she changed her mind about winning as she believed she wasn’t good enough to stand with the rest of the beautiful women participating. She hadn’t taken the event as anything but yet someone was still trying to make her back out by scheming against her.

A faint bitter smile graced her lips as she clenched her fingers around her sheets and pushed herself to a sitting position. The person who played such a cruel game on her must have wanted her not to show up, but she would prove them wrong by showing up. Despite her head throbbing like there was a hammer banging her skull, Mia managed to get out of bed. She knew she needed to see a doctor but she would do that after the event. She wasn’t going to let Rayne and Carlos down nor was she going to let the person who didn’t want her to show up today win.

Mia forced herself to take a hot shower that only made the cold in her body worsen but she ignored it and went to dress up. She wore a baggy sweater and jeans along with thick socks as if she was going out In winter. She also wore a cap on her head. When she was done, she only carried her phone as the clothes she would be wearing were already in school. Besides, apart from the fact that she didn’t want to disappoint Carlos and Rayne, she was going to the university to glimpse the sight of a particular someone who had been lingering in her mind since yesterday night they had spoken.

When Mia arrived at the university, the grounds were already parked with people. Because of her winter style of dressing, heads were turning to her direction and people were staring at her weirdly as everyone were wearing formal attires but she was wearing winter clothes. She kept her head down and ignored their stares. To avoid getting even more attention on herself, Mia went to the changing room through the back door where only a handful of people were walking through there.

When she got to the changing room that were divided by wooden screens from every other participants, Mia enterd the one assigned to her yesterday where her clothes and make up artist was supposed to be in. However, the room was empty with no one inside but a mirror and makeup kits laying randomly on the table. Assuming that the makeup artist assigned to her might have gone out and would come back, Mia decided to wear her dress which she had hanged inside the wardrobe yesterday and wait for her.

Taking off her sweater in her weakened state seemed to be a challenging thing to do because of her shaking limbs and throbbing head. Nonetheless, she didn’t let it stop her from doing what she knew she had to do before the makeup artist shows up. From the voices in the other rooms, she could tell there were still a few participants getting ready in their assigned rooms. She stripped off her clothes until she was wearing only her bra and panty, the air conditioner in the building made her shiver in cold and she hugged herself as she approached the wardrobe. When she opened it, she was expecting to find the clothes and shoes she had put in the wardrobe yesterday but to her utter surprise...

The wardrobe was empty with nothing of hers!

Mia stood stunned before the opened wardrobe door for a moment before she began to look around the room to see if perhaps the people assigned to help her dress up had changed the position of her dress but even after searching every corner of the small room, there was nothing like her blue dress. After exhausting her little energy to search the room, Mia could barely stand on her feet again and crouched down grabbing her head with tears filling her eyes and blurring her vision. Who could have taken her dress and where was the makeup artist and the rest of the girls who were supposed to help her do her hair just like they had told her yesterday? Mia thought in anger.

First, they made her sick and now they took her dress. Who could have done such a thing? Mia thought as she continued to hug herself on the floor with rage swelling her head and mind. Her fists clenched tightly with her nails digging into her palms drawing blood, but she was completely unaware of it. The person who didn’t want her on the stage today sure was determined to keep her away. Why was she even desperate to be part of the event when everyone didn’t want her to be? Because she wanted to prove to herself for the first time that she was good enough for something. Mia decided.

She might not have wanted to join in the first place, but deep down in her heart she had desired to be on that stage and prove to everyone that she was more than the plain Jane they called her. She wanted to feel beautiful and confident in her own skin by at least winning third place, but it seemed fate didn’t want her to be there today. Mia thought to herself as she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them before burying her face between her pulled up knees in the corner. She would stay here until the event was over and she would leave as a loser just like the person who schemed against her wanted.

She had never been good enough anyway, so the heavens must have saved her the embarrassment she would face on the stage by forcing her to quit.

Carlos would be disappointed, Rayne would be disappointed, but she no longer cared. She would hide in the corner just like she had done as a child when she would be scared of her nightmares. As she curled in the corner, she could hear the loud music coming from the performance hall but she blocked the noise out by singing the only song that brought her solace, the song that had been carved into her heart and soul.

Longing. Her voice was shaky as she was trying her best not to cry from how much anger she felt towards the person who stole her dress and made her sick. Perhaps it was due to her sickness but her emotions were all over the place making her feel alone and abandoned at the moment. Deep down she had a feeling Diane had something to do with this but she no longer cared.

As Mia was sobbing in the corner, she didn’t realize the door to the dressing room had opened until she heard it click locked. Her head jerked up to see who had walked in, but because of the tears that filled her eyes, her vision was blurry until she blinked and let the tears fall was she able to see the person clearly. Her heart subconsciously skipped a beat at the sight of him. Thinking she must be hallucinating, Mia’s lips trembled and her tears began to slowly roll down her cheeks. Imagining her Ice Cube standing at the door, she felt her heart ache and she could no longer control her messed up emotions and stood up.

He was standing there looking down at her with an unreadable expression on his face. He was wearing a gray suit with it’s tie let lose, his black hair looked disheveled as if he’d ran his fingers into them. His forehead glistened with sweat under the light of the room as if he’d run all the way here. As Mia took in his appearance, she belived he wasn’t real because he had no reasons to be here. Then without thinking, she walked to him and slipped her arms around his narrowed waist and hugged him tightly.

Mia felt his body stiffen under her embrace but she tightened her hold and allowed herself to cry. Thinking he wasn’t real, she didn’t care that she was only wearing her underwear and rubbed her face against his chest with her tears streaming down her eyes. "Leo... Y-you are here. Please, don’t leave me, I feel lonely..." She pleaded with a shaky voice that was choked with emotions and tightened her hold as if she feared he would disappear. If she was hallucinating, then she wanted it to stay like this until the event was over and she could leave.