23. Omniscient
Chapter twenty-three
Omniscient
“ D resses, heels, pants, shirts, brushes, laptop, hairbrush. GOD, what am I missing!” Delilah yelled as she continued to run back and forth around her room.
It was finally time for the trip to Paris, and she didn’t realize how hard it would be to pack for two, almost three weeks, out of the country. It hadn’t occurred to her how quickly their spring break had come around.
After three long months of nonstop classes every day, either at home or at school, she finally had an entire month of relaxation.
“I do believe the only thing you are missing is me, Ms. Delilah,” Nathan muttered by the door, ready to depart. It amazed him how she managed to fill three suitcases and two carry-ons in less than half an hour while his one bag and carry-on were waiting downstairs.
She turned to him in anger as she practically snarled, “Now is not the time for jokes, Nathan!”
He nodded. “Of course, Miss.” Like father, like daughter, he thought to himself.
Delilah rounded the room once more before nodding. “Okay, okay! I think I got everything. If not, I’ll buy it over there.” She finally stopped pacing.
Nathan wanted to sigh in relief but held it back as he looked at the amount of luggage he had to carry. He could only imagine how much Kimiko had, considering they were so much alike.
Delilah thanked him and went downstairs to see Brielle, ready to break out in tears.
“I’m going to miss you, sweetie,” she whispered softly, and Delilah hugged her with a smile as her mother continued, “I also packed you a medical bag. Nathan knows what to do if you have any reaction to anything there. I packed pain medication, cold and flu because you never know, Vitamin C supplements, EpiPens, essential oils—”
“I think she gets it, Mom,” Zachary commented, laughing.
She hushed him as she pulled out another carry-on and gave it to Nathan, who was already walking by with multiple suitcases.
“Thank you, Nathan. We love you!” Brielle said in all honesty.
“No, you don’t,” Killian said as he entered the room.
Brielle rolled her eyes. “Of course I do. He’s been with us forever and is doing everything the best he can. You need to give him a raise.”
“Is his average 60k monthly salary not cutting it?” Killian asked.
Brielle rolled her eyes. “Of course it isn’t! Especially with everything you put him through!” she seethed.
Delilah cut in, “Okay, parents, maybe spend the last few minutes with your daughter instead of bickering.”
Brielle smiled once again, and Killian brought Delilah into his arms. He placed a kiss on her head, and Ivory snickered.
“Be careful, Dad. Zach gets a little jealous of Dede.”
“I do not!” Zachary glared.
Killian paid no attention to them.
“My little princess. You be careful, okay?” he whispered to her, and Delilah nodded.
“Of course, Daddy.”
“Call me if you need anything. I know you have enough money and resources, but if you just want to talk, complain, or even come back home, don’t hesitate to call me, okay?”
“I know. I’ll call you if I need you.”
“Good. And no boys. No hugging, no talking, no kissing, no sex—”
She pulled away and nodded. “All right, I think I hear Nathan calling me to the car—”
“Delilah, why aren’t you agreeing to these terms…? Is there something you want to tell me!?” Killian asked in a nervous hurry, but Brielle pulled him away from Delilah.
“Killian, leave the poor girl. She knows to use protection—”
“Have you been having sex!” he asked Delilah, and Ivory slowly slipped out of the room.
“Dad, no! I haven’t done anything at all. Can we please drop this subject? I’m still a virgin!!” she exclaimed with a blush on her face, thoroughly embarrassed.
Zachary shook his head and spoke as he left the room. “I didn’t need to stay here for this conversation.”
Killian nodded. “Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’m going to make sure all of your things are in order outside.” He walked out of the room, and Brielle rolled her eyes.
“That man is so intolerable. Just so you know, I have some precautions in your medical bag for those incidents.”
“Mom, no. I said I was done with this conversation, which meant I was indeed done. I love you. I’ll call you when I get there.”
“You better! Have fun, my love!”
Soon, Delilah was sitting in a limo with Kimi, Avery, and Nathan, on the way to the airport to meet the other students. Kimiko reviewed the schedule as Avery helped her, and Delilah kept to herself.
She received a notification on her phone, and she looked to see a money transfer from Grandpa Burkley. She smiled as she opened it and read the message.
Grandpa Burkley: Delilah, I heard you’re going to Paris. That’s all your grandmother talks about. She’s so worried about how you will be across the world and keeps getting worked up. So worked up that she made me send you money, not that you need it, and though I have no problem with this, my only issue is that she’s planning to send more. Hopefully she knows we have bills to pay soon. Enjoy your trip, hon. Grandpa loves you.
Money transferred: $1,500
Delilah sent the money back with an additional $200 and a red heart to say thank-you. He messaged her a thumbs-up, and she immediately received messages from Madam A, who was furious. Delilah sent her a heart as well and put her phone down.
“Don’t tell me not to worry, Avery!” Kimiko yelled, and Delilah looked at both of them, seeing Avery with an unimpressed look on his face and Kimiko with anger written all over hers.
“Kimi, you’re being overdramatic. You did it! The entire school is going to Paris. Everything is going to go smoothly, and I want you to relax your mind and enjoy yourself... you think you can do that?” Delilah cut in, and her best friend nodded.
“Of course I can! It’s not like the dean is watching my every move to see if this was a good idea. If it is, then I get to be on the school board in the future. If it isn’t, then I stay at the bottom of this whole thing with Luca still being in control of everything—and if that happens, I will lose my damn mind!” she finished, yelling.
Delilah gave Avery a look of sympathy, though he didn’t feel he needed it. In his mind, this was nowhere near the anger he’d witnessed Kimiko have in the last few years.
They reached the airport, and Kimiko quickly hopped out of the limo to greet the dean with Avery on her trail. Delilah lingered behind slowly and noticed how the majority of the gates were filled with students. One group had private planes, and the others still had massive school-funded airplanes.
Delilah scoffed. Not enough funding, my ass.
She walked with Nathan, who was holding her carry-ons, and for some reason, she found herself looking for him . He was the only person on her mind at that moment and she eventually stopped fighting her thoughts as they entered the terminal.
And lo and behold, there he was, already at the front of the line at private customs in his navy blue suit.
Delilah bit her lip as she watched his jaw clench in irritation as he answered his phone angrily. She slowly found herself wanting to go over to talk to him, but Nathan pulled her away as the dean started addressing the entire school.
Soon enough, it was time for them to get their tickets and make their way through baggage claims, and eventually, the students started to disperse into their groups. Other than the students of Highland Bridge Academy, there were few people at the terminal in general, most likely because at least twenty planes would take off in the next half hour or so for just a few groups.
Delilah walked through the lounge areas as they still had time to spare and made eye contact with Archer. He kept his eyes on her for a moment and examined her as she slowly walked towards him.
He eyed her attire, from her white dress to her blazer to her heels that walked across the tile with grace. Her hair was pin straight, tucked behind her ears, giving him a perfect view of her face. He looked away before she noticed his staring, and she stopped before him.
“Can I help you with something?” he asked her in annoyance.
She already felt awkward about the conversation. “I just wanted to say hello... I haven’t seen you in the past few weeks.”
“I think that’s for the best. After all, you did ask me to keep my distance,” he replied with a look of sarcasm.
Delilah furrowed her eyebrows. “I... thought we were past that. I mean, you didn’t listen to me in the library.”
“That was before I remembered that I don’t like spoiled princesses playing peacemaker. Thanks to you, I’ve been set back with my father’s business, and it will take months to get it all back to its standards.”
Calvin told her she would need to help Archer work on fixing his branch of the company in return for her trip, but she didn’t know he would be this upset. Does he even know I’m supposed to be helping him? With the look on his face, she didn’t want to ask at the given moment.
“Archer, I didn’t know—”
She flinched as she felt his arm wrap around her waist before he pulled her closer. A blush rose to her cheeks.
“Exactly, Delilah: you didn’t know. Ninety-nine percent of the time, you’re fucking clueless, and if it weren’t for the fact that Luca was going on this trip and I needed to speak to a few of my father’s colleagues, then I would be rethinking my choice of going because, with this time, I could be working and getting shit done, which I now have to do all by myself.” He spoke in a rage as she was flushed against his chest.
No one was around at the moment. Even Nathan was occupying himself with getting everything settled.
So he doesn’t know I’m going to be his assistant when we get back... oh boy.
“...You told me you were only going because I was. Did that change, too?” she asked him as he stared down at her, emotionless.
He wanted to be upset with her, to show her he was angry with her, but his anger slowly faded as he looked into her eyes. Pulling away from her, Delilah felt her heart sink, and he glanced down at his watch.
“I have to go. My plane leaves in ten,” he muttered, and Delilah nodded wordlessly as he walked away.
She’d known Archer for years and even knew he had a tendency to do certain things that would hurt her purposely, and in this case, like many others, it worked .
He would get overly upset about it, take it out on her, and eventually, things would go back to as normal as they could be. He told her he wanted to go to be with her… and that made her want to go even more than normal, only for him to ignore her at the end of it all.
Deciding to pull herself together as she could feel the sadness still evident on her face, she turned away from where she was standing and returned to Nathan.
Standing on the sidelines, Luca noticed the dejected look on Delilah’s face, as Archer seemed livid in contrast. They’re fighting, it seems… he thought to himself as Archer let her go and walked away without any remorse, a look of guilt still on his face.
Turning to walk away, Luca toppled over as something was unknowingly placed in front of his path. He quickly turned over to see Kimiko with a fake pout as she crouched beside him. Only then did he notice it was her luggage that made him trip.
“Looks like someone took a hard fall,” she remarked before shrugging innocently. “Who knows, if you stayed to yourself and not in other people’s business, you may still be on your two feet. And I wish I could help you up, but… my hands are full.”
Luca chuckled threateningly as he looked at the coffee cup occupying only one of her hands. “Masahiko… I’d be careful if I were you.”
She stood up and sighed. “How unfortunate… you must actually think I take you seriously.”
Luca slowly rose to his feet. “I advise you to begin soon enough, sweetheart. You never know what lies ahead…”
“Well, currently, as president, the only thing that lies ahead is discussing the traveling agenda with the dean. And don’t worry; the rest of the students will be notified of any schedule changes soon enough.”
Luca’s jaw clenched as she sent him a smile. He shouldn’t have felt annoyed being grouped with the rest of the students, but there it was—a flicker of irritation he couldn’t quite suppress. He prided himself on being a step ahead, always in the loop, in control… and Kimiko’s casual dismissal stung more than it should have.
He glared in her direction as she turned on her heel, her luggage rolling smoothly behind her. “Enjoy the rest of your day, Crawford,” she called over her shoulder, her tone dripping with false sweetness.
Making her way to the dean, her smile of triumph lasted only a few seconds as a voice came from beside her.
“Kimiko, do you have a moment?”
She turned to see… Archer’s friend.
“Sterling, is it?” she asked him genuinely, and he chuckled.
“The one and only... Did you bring my suggestion to the board?”
She rolled her eyes. His suggestion was to rent out a nightclub for the students to “get to know each other,” as he put it.
“It wasn’t much of a suggestion. If anything, it’s a request; and respectfully, request denied,” she concluded, and he scoffed as he followed, hot on her trail.
“I’m renting it out! It’ll just be the students there. Those who want to go anyway. What harm could it do?”
“It could do a lot of harm—” she started, but stopped when she realized the dean was only a few feet away.
He turned to look at them.
“What harm could what do?” he asked.
Before Kimiko had a chance to speak, Sterling walked over to the dean and pulled him aside to talk as if they were the best of friends.
Kimiko sighed and walked over slowly to hear them chuckling.
The dean turned to her. “Kimiko, why didn’t you come to me with Mr. Reynolds’s idea?”
“With all due respect, sir, I didn’t think it was appropriate for the students to be invited to a nightclub on one of the first few nights of our stay.”
“Nonsense. The students only have to be with the group five hours out of the day. They deserve a bit of freedom. Besides, most of them will want to continue exploring the city or may not even be interested.”
Kimiko sighed and went to speak again. “But sir—”
“Kimiko—” Sterling cut her off, and Kimiko glared over at him. “I think you’ve done a marvelous job planning the trip, but the students want to live a little as well. The chaperones can even tag along. I’m sure Martin here wouldn’t mind.” He beamed, and Kimiko internally scoffed.
“Martin,” the dean’s first name. No “Mr.,” no “sir,” just “Martin.”
“Then it’s settled; you’ll find a spot in the schedule, won’t you, Kimiko? You can even send out a mass message of the change to the students.”
Kimiko looked over to the dean with a forced smile. “Not a problem, sir,” she responded.
He only nodded before he made his way to the many chaperones and board members who were getting plans in order.
Sterling looked over to Kimiko and gave her a small wink before walking off. Clenching and unclenching her fists, Kimiko heard Avery’s voice beside her.
“Mr. Reynolds is awfully close to the dean.”
“Yes. Yes, he is.”
“If he wanted to, he could have requested it to the dean himself; why go to you first?” he asked, and Kimiko sighed.
“I don’t know, and frankly, I don’t care. We now have more things to worry about. We depart in less than thirty minutes.”
Avery nodded. “I’ll alert Ms. Newman to let her know we’ll be boarding soon.”
Kimiko said nothing as he walked away.
Crossing her arms, she gave into the urge to look over her shoulder and witnessed Sterling speaking to Archer by his gate. Feeling her eyes on him, the redhead gazed over at her for a split second before biting his lip and turning away.
Abruptly, Kimiko turned away and headed to their gate. Anger began to build in her system. However, she remained poised as she rolled her carry-on.
She wasn’t, however, as successful in hiding the blush that threatened to appear on her face. Shaking away her ridiculous thoughts, Kimiko quickened her pace, determined to keep her mind in check as they prepared for departure.