Help! I unknowingly enrolled myself into a supernatural Academy-Chapter 68: Brushing

Aiden’s mouth twitched in frustration, and his thoughts spun far from Zane’s forceful kiss. His mind wandered, almost desperate to escape the weight of what had just happened.

Instead of dwelling on Zane, his memory leapt back to his wolf class teacher, Mr. John, and the way the man seemed to brim with open disdain whenever the subject of witches came up.

Then there was Rainbow, this sharp-tongue bird. Rainbow had just called wolves barbarians without a second thought. And what bothered Aiden even more was how natural it had sounded rolling off the bird’s tongue.

He could not help but wonder if witches and wolves were destined to be enemies, if maybe this hostility stretched back so far that it was stitched into their very blood.

But then again, Aiden frowned at himself, was he not thinking too much? He had no evidence, only the sour bias of one wolf teacher and the bitter sharpness of one witch’s bird. Could the prejudice of two individuals truly be stretched into a conclusion that two entire races were natural enemies? No. That was too simple, too careless.

At least, he thought, he had never seen other wolves and witches openly insult or fight with each other. They coexisted. His thoughts then shifted sharply to Ryker and Seraphina. A wolf and a witch. If there truly was some endless blood feud between their races, then Ryker’s engagement to her would have been unthinkable. That thought made Aiden sigh heavily. Of course. Ryker and Seraphina’s union alone proved that wolves and witches could come together, no matter what Mr. John or Rainbow thought.

But Ryker’s name in his mind opened the floodgate he had tried to close entirely. Aiden’s chest tightened. He had wanted Ryker to be his first everything, no matter how often he tried to deny it aloud, no matter how often he told Ryker to leave him alone. His heart had never stopped wanting. And now, when he thought about Zane, and the fact that Zane had stolen his first kiss.

Aiden’s teeth clenched. The more the thought lingered, the angrier he became. It shocked even himself, this murderous urge that boiled up from inside him. It was just a kiss, yet his body seethed as if he had been wounded in the deepest way. He could not believe he felt this violent over something so small. Or maybe it wasn’t small at all. It was his first kiss, and now it was gone, ripped away before he could give it to the person he wanted.

If this had been before he met Ryker, he knew he would have been angry, but not to this level. In fact, he could imagine a version of himself shrugging it off eventually, even consoling himself with the fact that at least the thief of his first kiss had been an undeniably handsome man. But things were different now. Ryker had changed everything. And that was why Aiden could not accept this kiss, why every part of him rejected it so violently.

He wanted to kill Zane. Every fiber of his body screamed against the memory of the kiss, and above all, guilt tore him apart from the inside. His entire being whispered the same bitter message: he had betrayed Ryker, even though he and Ryker were nothing yet. The weight of that guilt pressed down so hard that he nearly punched his mirror in pure rage, ready to shatter the glass just to feel it break.

But before his fist could move, Rainbow’s voice blared into his head, startling him.

"Aiden, what on earth are you doing? It is just eating maggots. You do not have to be that angry."

Aiden froze, eyes wide, then let out a long, exhausted sigh. Of all the times for this bird to drag him back into that disgusting maggot conversation, it had to be now. He was so frustrated he wanted to scream.

"What are you even talking about?" Aiden yelled out loud, his patience snapping. "When did I ever tell you I ate maggots? If you don’t know something, keep your mouth shut or ask properly instead of making up nonsense and jumping to conclusions."

The bird’s voice in his mind shifted, suspicious and probing.

"Are you sure you didn’t eat maggots, Aiden? Maybe you are embarrassed and trying to cover it up?"

Aiden was speechless for a long moment. His hands balled into fists at his sides, and then he growled in a threatening voice.

"If you don’t shut up and keep talking about maggots, I swear I will go out and find some myself just so I can make you eat them. Then you will know exactly what maggots taste like."

Rainbow squawked in fright. The sound echoed both in his ears and in his head. The bird fluttered nervously, then suddenly bolted from the bathroom. Its voice rang in his mind even as its wings carried it out.

"I will not mention it again. I was only worried about you. Clearly you don’t need it."

And with that, silence.

For once, blessed silence.

Aiden slumped forward against the sink, savoring the quiet. Finally, the bird was gone, leaving him with his thoughts. He quickly closed the bathroom door, making sure Rainbow could not fly back in, then grabbed his toothbrush. Without a second thought, he began brushing his teeth and lips all over again, scrubbing harshly at every place Zane lips had touched. He brushed again and again, almost desperately, as if the bristles could erase the guilt still burning inside him.

Maybe, he thought, if he brushed hard enough, he could clean away the kiss itself.

He lost track of time. Only when his lips began to bleed, and his gums throbbed with pain, did he stop. His hand shook slightly as he set the toothbrush down. He stared at the blood-tinged bristles with dull eyes, then sighed again, exhausted.

Just as he turned on the tap to rinse the brush, a sudden knock sounded at his bedroom door. He froze, toothbrush still in his hand.

Setting it aside quickly, he rinsed his mouth, then opened the bathroom door and crossed into his bedroom. Rainbow was sprawled lazily on his bed again, already fast asleep as if nothing had happened. Aiden shook his head, wondering how the bird managed to sleep so much, before another knock rattled the door.

This time he moved to answer it, and when he pulled the door open, he was greeted by Julian, whose hand was still raised mid-knock.

Aiden smiled tiredly. "Oh, you’re back from cl—"

He never finished. Julian screamed loudly, the sound so sudden and shrill that Aiden flinched and instinctively shut his eyes. His heart leapt to his throat. When he finally opened his eyes again, he scanned the room, confused, searching for whatever had frightened Julian so much. But there was nothing.

Aiden turned back to Julian, frowning. "What on earth are you shouting for?"

Julian’s mouth opened, but no words came out. He only stared, frozen in shock. Before Aiden could press him, another set of footsteps approached. Ashton rounded the corner, his brow furrowed.

"Julian, why are you shouting like that?" he asked. Then he looked at Aiden and froze. His eyes widened so much they looked like they might fall out. "Oh my God," he breathed, his voice carrying the thick crispness of a British accent. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Aiden scowled, looking between the two of them. "What is wrong with you both? Why are you suddenly acting shocked and scared? What are you seeing that I don’t?"

Ashton finally lifted a trembling finger and pointed directly at Aiden. "Your lips. What happened to your lips? They look like mangled flesh. You only went to a meeting at the disciplinary hall, so how did you come back looking like this?"

Aiden blinked, realization dawning. So that was what had startled them. He clenched his jaw, fury flashing again at the memory of Zane’s kiss.

"This is Zane’s fault," he snapped bitterly. "He kissed me out of nowhere."

Julian’s eyes went round with horror. "If this is what his kiss did to you, then what would happen if you actually had sex with him? You would probably die!"

Aiden’s face burned red, and he glared fiercely at Julian. "Why would I ever want to have sex with Zane? Besides, he didn’t make my lips look like this. They got like this from me trying to brush the kiss away."

Both Ashton and Julian’s eyes widened even further. Ashton gaped at him. "How disgusted were you by that kiss that you had to brush your lips until they looked like this? Was his mouth that bad? Don’t you think this is a little extreme?"

Aiden glared back at them. "How can you two blame me? Zane is the one going around kissing people out of nowhere."

"I am not blaming you," Ashton said quickly, raising his hands. "I am just shocked. But honestly, would either of us brush our lips raw over a kiss? Julian, tell me."

Julian shook his head. "No. I definitely wouldn’t."

"See?" Ashton said, turning back to Aiden. "You are the strange one here."

Aiden’s temper flared again. He glared at both of them. "You two are part of the problem. You are the ones boosting Zane’s ego so much that he thinks anyone would fall for him the moment he glances their way. This is your fault that he dared to kiss me."