Chapter 38 That isn’t Philip??

Chapter 38: Chapter 38 That isn’t Philip??

Killian’s arrangements made sense. He wouldn’t lie—the perfect way he had made sure the clothes were all hung and seemed too precise was almost unnerving. Noah stood there for a moment, staring at the tidy room, before shaking his head.

"I really hope that you truly are not evil because I am not going to recover from this if you are." Right then, he walked back to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Minutes later, he was done freshening up—eating, bathing, and dressing for class. He had looked at the schedule earlier, and his jaw had almost dropped. The classes they had today were incredulous. He couldn’t understand the dean’s decision. Was it to kill them with work or to protect them? The sheer number of sessions felt overwhelming, like they were being pushed to their limits right when everything else was already chaotic.

As he took the last bite of his toast, he realized he had eaten the food without even thinking that something might be in it. "Fuck, that was careless of me. What if he had poisoned it?" He dropped the final piece into his mouth anyway and shrugged it off. The contents were yummy. If he was going to die from something delicious, well, who was he to complain? He quickly made his way to the door, but Philip appeared right at it, holding a flower in his hands—no, not just one flower, but a gigantic bouquet.

Noah didn’t understand why he was rushing in, but before he could reach the door, Philip closed it to stop him from going anywhere. "Sorry, I had to do that to stop you from moving away." Noah raised a brow and saw that the flowers weren’t just little but truly massive.

"Hmm, I don’t know what to say. First of all, I want to apologize for being such a rude jerk, especially when you saved us not just once but twice." Okay, now Noah got it, but he wasn’t going to just stand there and listen to some fake apology. He still believed Philip would do this again. He wasn’t really going to change. What if someone lied against him next time? Was he going to start fighting again? Because he seemed to believe what he heard so easily.

"Thanks, but I’m not staying for all that. I need to be out there. I have classes, and I think my friend might be waiting for me." Philip nodded immediately but presented the flowers to him with a serious look.

"Happy birthday, roomie. And I’m sorry for being the worst roommate there is. Still, you didn’t complain once, and that’s something most people don’t do these days. So I’m personally apologizing." Philip was about to kneel and give him the flowers. Noah almost panicked and stopped him immediately.

"Oh fuck, this is weird. Don’t kneel please or I will die of shame." Philip blinked and smiled but still handed him the enormous bouquet.

So today was his birthday? How come he didn’t even get a sign? And how did Philip know? This wasn’t right. If he was right, Ashton was someone who didn’t like his personal days being thrown out in public, so no one knew about his birthday. How did Philip find out? Oh, now he knew—Rose, of course. Then he turned pale. That couldn’t be why Killian came to his room. He must have been told. And if one Moonlight Alpha knew, that meant the rest of them knew as well.

This was going to be a sucky day for him. Although he loved attention and celebrating his birthday big, in this school that wasn’t exactly ideal. "Awn, that’s so sweet of you. Thank you for remembering the worst days of my life."

Philip blinked. "Excuse me, did you say something?" Noah realized he had slipped something out from his mouth and quickly shook his head.

"Well, if you don’t mind, the birthday boy would be on his way." He immediately squabbled his way out, slamming the door fast and rushing down the hall, looking for Lamia’s room.

That wasn’t normal. He felt uncomfortable, like something pricked his skin, and that feeling with his roommate was disturbing. As he was leaving, he heard the door to his room open again. The eyes he felt on his back got intense, as if someone was boring their gaze into him. He didn’t need a soothsayer to tell him it was Philip.

"Oh jeez, this is out of hand." As he got to the middle of the passage in the dorm, he started hearing voices. A familiar one was instructing the males at the lodge on some sort of surprise.

"This is supposed to be a secret. We are having a huge hall party in honor of who saved us last night. As I told you all, we could have died. None of us would have been here, but Ashton saved us. So what should we tell him? Of course we owe him a deep apology for dragging his name through the dirt and being horrible to him all this time when he needed friends. Can we do this?" They all chorused, chanting Ashton’s name slowly.

"Ashton our hero! We love Ashton! Ashton we love you!" Marcus, who was the one gingerly directing the whole thing, shushed them.

"We can’t let him know, remember? So be quiet. I have made the school know any activities should be postponed till tomorrow. Today is Ashton’s day." Hearing all of these made Noah’s head begin to feel dizzy.

All this was too much. He suddenly felt emotional because aside from his sister, no one had done anything for him this way. He was really trying to get the public on his side, and it felt so kind. But at the same time, making the school stop its activities—especially when they were trying to train students at this critical time—didn’t feel smart. Throwing a party at night when those creatures might be crawling around seemed risky.

He wanted to stop them, but then the talk was over and the guys were now going outside. He hid himself, noticing Marcus searching for him. For some reason, it looked almost as if the latter had caught his scent in the air and was trying to locate him.

"Shit, I can’t let him find me." He was trying to leave when Philip got hold of his waist.

"Hi there. Were you trying to hide from someone?" He asked, and Noah almost screamed but stopped himself.

Fuck this dude. "Shit, that isn’t nice. You scared me." He complained and noticed the way Philip’s expression turned calm. The way he tilted his head looked exactly like the stranger he always saw in his dreams.

"Nope, you’re just being paranoid. The dude is dead and trapped in a coffin somewhere," he told himself. He softly took Philip’s hands off him. "Thanks once more for the flowers, but you don’t have to follow me. So bye." Philip looked at him. His eyes didn’t look the same empty way Philip usually did. This gaze felt like he knew him so well, and it scared him so much.

"I’m going in the same direction. Isn’t it Arcane Studies in Class B?" When Noah nodded, Philip shrugged. "Let’s head there now. What’s bad about going together? Aren’t we friends again?" Philip said at once, and Noah almost choked on his saliva.

Friends? Like they had just talked minutes ago as he gave him that enormous bouquet, and now this? At that moment, someone walked past and wished him happy birthday, waving at him.

"Oh, would you look at that? People now like you, Noah. You must be happy." That immediately caught Noah’s attention because his roommate didn’t know his real name. He never did. Only his two friends, Lamia and Rose, along with that creepy stranger, knew. If Philip suddenly knew his name, this guy wasn’t Philip. He controlled himself so that he wouldn’t give anything away and gave a little smile.

"Have to speak with my friend. Catch you at class." With mad speed, he rushed out and met more crowds that kept waving at him, wishing him the best. He didn’t give a fuck about most of it, but he tried to consider their efforts.

When he finally caught up with Lamia, he sighed in relief. "Finally, someone that won’t suffocate me with wishes." But as he was rushing to meet him, he immediately crashed into Marcus, who was also rushing to meet him from the opposite end. Their bodies collided, Noah losing his balance, and they both fell together. Noah pressed himself against Marcus, hands over his neck as his lips slammed into Marcus’s soft pink ones. Together they plummeted into a nearby pool, and Lamia, who watched what happened, grimaced.

"Ouch, that was the sexiest intense kissing I have ever seen." He wasn’t the only one watching. Philip stood at a corner, staring at the pool with a dangerous glint in his eyes.