He turned around and the next second Hera found herself laying on her back in her bed and he was hovering over her. 

He caught her wrists, forcing them down on either side of her head. “Why are you uncomfortable, Goddess?” He asked softly, and Hera detected the anger lurking in his eyes. She gulped as her throat suddenly went dry. 

‘Uh-huh, I made him upset.’ 

It seemed, her choice of words didn’t go right with him, and Hera didn’t want him to fight with her anymore. “No, I didn’t mean to say uncomfortable,” she said, and the substitute word that came to her mind next was ‘awkward’. She wasn’t that dumb to say it out loud. She knew he wouldn’t favour that word either. 

“I mean to say self-conscious. You make me nervous when you look at me like that,” Hera said, admitting the truth.. 

“I look at you like what, Goddess?” He whispered against her lips. “Like, you want to devour me in one bite,” she said, holding his electrifying gaze. His eyes softened, and lips twitched into a crooked smile. “That I want to, Goddess. I truly wish I could,” he said before locking lips with hers. He released her lips, and his head dipped into the crook of her neck. 

Hera’s heart thumped at a rapid speed, and her breath came in jagged gasps as his wet hot tongue tasted her skin. Her eyes closed on their own accord, and she tried to resist the urge to moan. He pushed the collar of her shirt dress back and eyed the hickeys he had marked yesterday. 

He sucked hard marking her again. Subconsciously he pressed his lower body into hers and alarmed Hera opened her eyes in a flash. 

“You should leave now. I don’t want you to point your finger at me if you score less in your test papers. You will have to study for tomorrow’s test, remember?” Hera said in a broken whisper. “And I’ve to prepare for the tests too. I can’t afford to flunk either,” she said, trying to push him off her but he wouldn’t budge. 

Hunter smiled into her skin. “You’ll get a tutor if you fail. Who would you prefer, Bianca or Samantha?” He asked in a teasing tone, flicking her nose playfully. 

Hera scowled. “As you know, I’m allergic to bitches and witches. So, I would preferably choose the hot and sexy guy who tutored me chemistry last time. His notes were helpful, and I could easily understand it. What was his name again?” She asked, pretending to think, and Hunter raised an eyebrow while his beautiful eyes looked amused. 

With his signature smirk plastered on his lips, he couldn’t look any more arrogant. 

“That hot and sexy guy would be too busy to prepare notes for you. Hence he can’t help you,” he said, pecking the tip of her nose. Hera rolled her eyes. “I was talking about Jake, not you and you’re annoyingly arrogant, Mr Hunter,” she said in a disapproving tone. Shoving him off, she pointed her finger to the door, gesturing him to leave. Hunter got off the bed and tugged her to her feet. 

Hera watched in bewilderment as he got down on one knee and his hand went inside his jacket. 

‘Is he going to pull out a ring from his pocket or what?’

Hera widened her eyes in disbelief.

‘Please don’t tell me he’s going to propose!’

“Hunter, we’re too young to get married, and I’m not even an adult yet,” Hera blurted out, and Hunter stared at her with his mouth open. A few seconds later, her room echoed with his laughter as the melodious rich sound floated through the air. 

She crossed her arms, arched her eyebrows, eying him indignantly. He toned down his laughter and reached for her hand. “I promise you, Love, we’ll reach there,” he said sincerely, and a crimson red smeared across her cheeks as she blushed hard. 

He grinned wide while his hand reached inside his breast pocket once again. “A beautiful flower for my beautiful Goddess,” he said, presenting a red rose to her. Hera’s wide grin perfectly matched his as she took the rose from him. “It was there inside your jacket all along? I wonder, how did you not crush it yet!” Hera said, teasing him. 

Hunter had plucked it for her from his grandmother’s garden before leaving the house, and he had made sure to remove all the thorns from the stem so that she wouldn’t get hurt. 

He took out a chocolate bar from the other pocket. “And a sweet for my Sweetheart,” he said, and Hera’s eyes grew smaller as she laughed merrily. Standing to his full height, he looked down into her eyes filled with affection. “I should get going now. Don’t get into trouble while I’m gone,” he said, brushing his lips on her forehead. “If you need me, you know where to find me, Goddess,” he said, and Hera nodded her response.

His hand went around the nape of her neck, his fingers laced themselves in her hair and with his free hand, he brushed away stray hair, tucking it behind her ear. 

“When will it grow back to its original length?” Hunter asked, frowning. 

Smiling, Hera wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly. Standing on her tippy toes, she placed her lips on his, and they shared another passionate kiss. “I love you, Mrs Hunter,” he said, kissing each of her eyelids. She watched him while he walked backwards blowing kisses her way, and waved goodbye. 

Leaning against the door, she watched him talking to the guard at the gate. Whatever he said, the guard nodded to that. As Hunter made his way to the exit of the Girl’s block, Hera’s smile slowly disappeared. 

She emptied her wooden pen stand and placed the orchids in it, using it as a flower vase. She let out a tired sigh while her fingertips caressed the orchid petals delicately. 

It had been an hour since Hunter dropped Hera to the dormitory. 

Something was bothering her ever since they returned from their date. Hera pretended to be ignorant even though she knew in her heart what was bothering her exactly. 

Her shoulders sagged as if something massive weighed her strength down. She inhaled in urgent need of oxygen as she dropped her head on the pillow. Lying on her back, Hera closed her eyelids shut. Her hands rested on her stomach, still holding the red rose by the long stem. 

Subconsciously, her fingers loosened the grip on the stem, and the rose fell to her chest. 

Hot tears escaped through the corner of her closed eyelids, no matter how hard she tried to hold them back. Every minute of the last two days started playing in reverse behind her closed eyelids. A cascade of images appeared and ran through in a slideshow in her head. 

Every memory, good and bad, their conversations, their fight, the overwhelming emotions, the moment they cried together when they confessed their feelings, the hug, kiss, and the dance, pulled her into the world of hallucination, recreating every moment. She saw everything happening in front of her eyes as though reliving those moments again. 

‘You were only eleven, not even a teenager.’ 

What Hunter said, echoed inside her head. He had been cheating on her for so long, and naive Hera didn’t even have a clue. She remembered what she had said the day they broke up. “Once a cheater, always a cheater.” She couldn’t forgive him that day, and she said she would never take him back. 

But what did she do now? He took her on a romantic date, and she forgave him just like that. Was it so easy to earn her forgiveness? Sweet talk, delicious food, exotic location, and a dreamy atmosphere was enough to manipulate her heart. 

Ridiculing the amount of self-respect and self-esteem she had, Hera laughed in anguish. Didn’t she feel ashamed of herself? Her thirteen-year-old self sounded more sensible than her. 

“I forgive you, Hunter,” she said out loud as though testing how would she feel after admitting to it openly. That day when she saw the guilt in his eyes, she couldn’t bear to see him suffer anymore. So, on the spur of that overwhelming moment, she uttered those words without any hesitation. She didn’t want him to feel hurt any more than that. 

“Did I truly forgive him?” She asked herself. She knew better than anyone else that it’s easier said than done. She could forgive him for hurting her, but did she has the right to forgive him for what he did to her friends? It wasn’t her right to decide and grant him forgiveness on her friends’ behalf. Her friends had the right to hate her for going back to Hunter. 

Hera opened her eyes. Wiping the wet trail of tears on her temples, she took the rose and placed it in-between the orchids. Sitting on her bed, she unwrapped the chocolate bar, expecting it to be a messenger sweet.