Page 6 of TAINTED by TWINS

Jade kept silent about what happened at the cliff, only telling his twin that, "It went well."

"But how did it go?" Jonah asked.

"Well."

"How?"

"By going well," Jade shrugged before going to school on his bike, leaving his confused twin by his car.

The Deveroux twins didn't go straight for the parking lot. No, they stopped by a familiar pink-haired individual who was leaning against a lamp post.

"Good morning handsome..." Sasha Petrovna winks. "Oh, you're here too Jade."

"Your hair looks like the insides of an intestine," says Jade as Jonah holds in a laugh.

The latter hands Sasha an envelope. "Thank you for your service, Sasha."

"Mmm, I didn't get to suck your d*ck though..." Sasha purred while touching his hands before taking the envelope. "Want me to give you a freebie, Jonah?"

Jade rolls his eyes as Jonah smirks. "Keep seducing Dr. Wayne for me, and I might consider that."

"Mmm, anything for you papi," Sasha waves with his fingers as he struts away with his platform boots.

Jade scoffs at Jonah. "You're not seriously gonna hit that, are you? You'll catch like 20 different diseases and an undiscovered one."

"I'm just playing along, Jay. You never get Sasha's humor, don't you?"

"That's the point Jonathan, I don't wanna get anything from him." Jade puts on his helmet and revs up his engine.

Jonah entered the car while saying, "You know, people are starting to think Jonathan's my real name. If you're gonna give me a nickname, make it short..."

"Shut up, Joan."

Jade joined him, watching Lian breaking down. He wasn't crying like this when we were at the cliff. He was hiding how he truly felt.

"It doesn't matter what I was doing there!" Lian argued, "What matter is what YOU did in there!"

"I didn't recognize your student, I didn't even stay with him the whole night! I didn't expect him to do that, and when he did, I left!" Chris grabbed both his shoulders to force Lian to listen to him. "Sweetheart, please..."

"Don't call me sweetheart when I'm about to break up with you!"

"Maybe if we weren't a secret in the first place, this wouldn't have happened!"

Lian looked shocked. "What... I..."

The twins could no longer hear them when they started whispering to each other. Jade noticed his brother staring at Lian quite...

"Is it wrong to find him the prettiest when he's crying?" Jonah says.

Jade breathes in sharply, taking his eyes away from them. Then he sighs, "It's because you're gay or whatever."

Jonah's smile only grew. "It's like a rainy day with the sun out. It's like watching an angel cry."

Why would Jonah like to see him cry when he's suffering? Jade doesn't understand it, but he may feel a little bad for Lian.

"You didn't eat lunch today, Mr. Miller. Have something to eat."

I sniffed and patted my cheeks with my sleeves to make sure I was no longer crying. "Oh... thank you, Mr. Deveroux. Uhm... I'm kind of sick today, so I have no appetite. Why are you here so early?"

"When I'm out there, I get forced to interact with fans. It gets kind of exhausting..." Jonah removes his blazer, leaving his beige sweater on top of a white button up and brown tie. Half of his curly hair was free to frame his face while the other half is tied up. "Are you sure you're sick, Mr. Miller?"

I just noticed he has a bit of an accent... both of them do. They do not say the R in my last name, I am not sure what kind of accent it is.

To silently answer his question, I've only been depressed. I confronted Chris earlier about what happened at the bar... but he explained that Sasha came to him and suddenly kissed him, which made him leave. He said he was a regular there since... I widen my eyes at the realization. He said his sister owns the bar, which means—! "Your mother owns the bar?"

"Huh?" Jonah innocently tilts his head.

I stare at him in shock. "Nothing... I just uhm... it's raining, that's why I'm sick today."

Jonah puts the back of his hand on my forehead, making me pull away. He smiled down at me with the most handsome smile I admit I've ever seen on a guy. "Yeah, you're pretty hot."

"Huh?"

"Your body temperature..." he grinned, "Don't get me wrong, you're pretty hot in that sense, too. You should take either Tylenol or Advil if something hurts."

As inappropriate as it is, this is the usual Jonah Deveroux. I do appreciate his concern and the food. "Thanks, Mr. Deveroux...? You didn't really have to touch me, I know I need to take those meds."

"I know, I'm just using it as an excuse," he blurts out. I am awed and appalled... this guy is really charming as everyone says he is.

But I'm horrified. I still remember his hands exploring my neck and collarbones and his voice begging me for a kiss. I feel guilty for the slap, but I hope this boy learned not to corner me again. I hope he won't even remember the past me.

"He smells like fresh laundry in school but outside, he smells like a mafia boss!" Sasha gossips to his girl friends.

"Oh my god Sasha, time to fall down the stairs and get your legs treated by Dr Hottie..."

All I could think about was me pushing Sasha myself, but I held back and politely told them to stay silent while working on their revisions.

Sasha is the most stylish student with Jade following behind, and it's hard not to notice him with his pastel pink hair. He's effortlessly pretty and openly gay, something I might never be—

"Mr. Miller?" An umbrella appeared before my head and I looked up at Jonah, before rushing to wipe my tears and sniffing to further pretend I'm sick.

"Oh, Mr. Deveroux," I nervously greet Jonah, "I uhm... I'm very grateful for the food you brought me. I ate it after class, it was very delicious."

"Yeah, I saw you eat everything..." he answered, which made me turn his head towards him. Our eyes stuck, and I didn't know it was possible to get electrocuted by electrifying blue eyes. He stammered, "I mean... I just saw you for a second. I was on my way to Jade. You're going home?"

"Not really, I have to pick up cake for my mom... it's gonna be her birthday tomorrow."

"Why can't your dad pick it up?" He asked with his head tilting, something I notice he does quite a lot.

I looked away from him and into the rain. "Uhm... my dad's not in the picture."

"No way. If you look like that, your mom must not be far behind. Who would leave a female version of you?" He snorts, which made my heart beat a little faster because yeah. I thought the same. I'm flattered, but...

"I don't look like her, though..." I silently disagreed. "But yeah... I don't know why my dad left either."

The thunder suddenly tore through the skies, and I flinched a bit. I was scared until I heard Jonah say, "Let me take you to your car."

I shake my head, "Oh, there's no need to—"

He held his hand out, "It's gonna be late. If you're waiting for the rain, might as well wait for me to graduate."

"H-huh?" I stared at him and his hand, but because I didn't take it, he took my laptop and work bag instead.

"Come on..."

Of course, I chased after him, "Hey! Jonah, wait!"

I had to stick to him to avoid the rain, while Jonah carried my bags for me. He was laughing until we arrived at my car, and I rushed to unlock it so Jonah would stop carrying my bags for me, it's embarrassing.

"Thank you, Mr. Deveroux..." I put my bags inside while he kept the umbrella on me.

"Outside the school you can call me Jonah..." he says with the same voice, a more gentler tone than the unfriendly Jade. I looked up at him with a small smile on my face, extremely grateful.

But I won't offer him my own name to use. I'm afraid he might find out it's me. So I just offered him my smile as I get into the car. I watched Jonah walk across the parking lot, looking back at me once or twice and waving the second time.

"Okay, he's not so bad... better than his brother, for sure," I mumble to myself as I take one look at my phone with 17 messages and 22 missed calls, throwing it in the back seat to ignore it.

I feel like believing Chris when he said it was an accident. Maybe it's my fault. Deep down, I'm thinking that maybe...

"Maybe if we weren't a secret in the first place, this wouldn't have happened!"

In Sasha's eyes, Chris was single. I couldn't fault the boy. I couldn't fault Chris for not being aware of Sasha being a student. I slammed my head on the cushioned steering wheel, confused on what to do. "Ugh! F*ck!"

I checked it out, now standing outside with a cake and a bottle to drown my emotions out. It's not healthy, I might act like my mother... but... it might help me decide whether to forgive Chris or not. It still hurts, the betrayal. Even if the explanation checks out. Why?

I was a boy once, too. What if he no longer likes me because...

"Lian Miller?" called out a large man in black, both in height and size. There were three of them, and they scared me to bits when one of them lifts up their shirt to show a gun on his waist. "No questions, you're coming with us."

"H-huh?! Why... who are you?!" One of them grabbed me, and I pulled back while trying to preserve the cake. "I'm not going with you!"

Customers inside looked at me concerned, but one of the men blocked the door. The one who held my arm, gave me a printed CCTV picture. "Is this you?"

It was me in nightingale with a camera on my hand. The guy who got the gun grabbed my other arm. "You're not getting away until you give us that SD card. Don't make us shoot you and search your corpse, or go to your house and kill everyone in it."

My mom. "I don't have it, please let me go!" What have I gotten myself into?!

I struggle as they tried to drag me into the rain.

"LET GO OF ME! Help!" People inside the bakery barely knows what's going on, but I tried screaming to them, "HELP!"

One of my hands managed to get released, and that was the hand with the alcohol. I had no choice but to raise it up and smash it on the head of one of the men, the bottle unbreaking.

"LET GO OF ME!" Only when I hit the man holding me on the face did it break, making him release and my struggle caused me to get thrown to the road in the pouring rain. With me and the cake now drenched, I saw the third man pull out his gun, and possible end my life.

But a shiny black reflection of myself covered my vision when a black motorcycle skid in front of me, blocking me from the possible gunshot. For the first time in my life, almost being run over saved my life. I looked up to see a man removing his black helmet.

"Jade?!" Before anyone could react, the helmet hit the big man's gun while Jade unmounted his bike with his leg directly hitting the man's face.

"What the—?!"

"Come on gentleman, pick someone your own size..." he mocks them with a wide smirk, "I'm not even your size, you guys look like you run a Reddit sub."

"Motherf*cker!" Before they could pull out their guns, Jade pulled out a black umbrella and stabbed it right on the second man's stomach, before opening it to prevent him from having vision. With the other hand, Jade bashed the head of the third man before smashing the opened umbrella on him, breaking the thing. Before the first man could recover, Jade kicked him in the head and threatened the second man with a broken umbrella.

"I don't think you'd want to mess with the guy who can expose your slimy boss..." Jade pulled out an SD card. "I could've destroyed this thing if your boss agreed to pay me double what the other guy wants for it. But no, you chose to threaten this little guy, so I'm gonna have fun uploading this."

"You're the shark? The boss doesn't want that no more. He wants you dead, motherf*cker." One got up behind him and successfully pulled out a gun.

"Jade!" I scrambled to get up, open the box in my hand and threw the cake directly at his face, knocking him off guard for one second enough for Jade to hit the broken umbrella on his hand and kick the gun away.

"I don't f*ck my mother, but I'll do yours..." He walks to the man and asked him, "Doesn't everyone want me dead? Your boss ain't special."

Jade knocked him out with a kick to the neck, before walking towards me. "You. Put this on."

"What?! For what?! I'm not coming with you, you extort people—!"

"More will come for you and they'll track you to me. I don't give a sh*t if they get you, but I can't have them interrogating you and get me in trouble." He shoved the helmet on my drenched head and sarcastically says, "Get on the d*mn bike honey, or you're getting dragged behind."