After breakfast, I returned to town, leaving the gluttonous pup still eating the leftovers from the morning’s bacon and eggs.

“I need to investigate this pup when I get back. Something doesn’t seem quite right with it,” I told myself as I walked into town. It was close to noon when I made it to Mr. Rozzali’s store, Invictus. I was still thinking about the pup when I got to the shop door, not paying attention to what was in front of me. I put up my hands to push the door open without realizing the door had already been held open by someone.

As I walked through the door, my hands landed unintentionally on what could only be described as two very soft but firm mounds of flesh. This sensation was new to me. My hands and eyes were glued to these two objects as I squeezed, trying to figure out what they were.

“Enjoying the feeling,” I heard a voice say. After hearing the voice, I snapped out of my stupor and looked up, only to see a delighted Claire looking at me with a grin that made my heart stop.

“Hmm, Daemon, nice to see you too. If I’d known we were this close, I would have already made a man out of you,” she said, blinking an eye at me seductively.

I stood there rooted to the floor, not knowing what to say. I knew what she meant, and I knew she was serious, too. I quickly removed my hands from her soft, firm breasts as if they had just been shocked by a 600V electrical current.

“I’m sorry, Claire, I didn’t mean to,” I said, turning red from embarrassment. I quickly tried to retreat as I didn’t want to make this misunderstanding any bigger, but she was not having it.

She walked up to me, grabbed me by the shoulder before I could move back, and brought her head close to mine. It seemed like she was moving in to kiss me, causing my knees to buckle from the fright, but right at the last minute, she veered off to the right and brought her lips close to my ear.

“You don’t have to apologize for anything, Deamon. I’ve said it before: I like you a lot, and I’m prepared to give you my all. Feel free to touch as much as you want; this only makes me happy knowing you covet me. For now, it can only be touching, though, but after me and you are officially together, I’ll let you enjoy my body as much as you want,” she whispered in my ear alluringly. This and the intoxicating perfume coming of her only made things a lot more difficult for me; I was still a man, so having such a beautiful girl openly declare her feelings was not simple.

“Hmm, hmm, hmm,” came the sounds of someone clearing their throats behind us.

“Are we done been all lovey-dovey?” the voice said.

I glanced past Claire's head only to see Mr. Rozzali staring intently at us.

“I hope you two are officially together after seeing such a display right now. If not, I will ask you to please behave and keep a semblance of decorum in my store,” said Mr. Rozzali as he eyed us from behind his counter.

I quickly moved back a few steps to allow some distance between me and Claire. On the other hand, she just turned around and shot her uncle a quick stare that said, “Thank you for ruining the moment!”

He looked at her and didn’t say much but shrugged his shoulders.

“We are leaving, uncle. We will be back after the fight is over,” said Claire as she walked out the door. She grabbed my hand as she walked by and dragged me along.

I didn’t even have time to say hello or goodbye to Mr. Rozzalli. Claire quickly dragged me away as we walked towards the BR arena.

“I was serious right now, Deamon. You know I like you, so if we can make it official today, I’m willing to go with you to your house tonight. By tomorrow morning, you and I would have graduated into adulthood,” she said, blushing slightly from her words as we walked hand in hand towards the arena.

I wanted to free myself, but she had an iron-clad grip on my hand so that I couldn’t do much about it.

“Claire, I know what you want, but you and I cannot be. Certain things in my past make this impossible, so please stop wasting your time with me,” I said somberly as we walked. I could feel her grip tighten on her hand. I glanced towards her, only to see a tear trickle down her cheek.

I knew she was hurting from hearing me now, but I had to be brutally honest to ensure she didn’t get any false hopes over us. Although my life is simple now, I’m not too sure about the future yet. I wasn’t willing to risk her or anyone else’s life by getting complacent.

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I could hear her wising and whimpering as more tears trickled down her cheeks until they became a waterfall. I wanted to grab her and tell her I’m sorry but couldn’t. If I looked down inside me, I would probably find some spark of sentiment about her. There was no way I couldn’t feel something for her, especially after all she had done for me and how she openly declared her feelings for me, but right now was not the right time. So, I did what I needed to do to keep the distance between us. This had to be the way.

As we continued to walk, Claire’s tears dried up after she settled her feelings. Her eyes, dull for most of the walk, regained some brightness as we got closer to the arena.

“I’m not giving up on us,” she said firmly as we approached the front gate, still hand in hand.

“Stubborn,” I mumbled.

“You know it, so why don’t you just give in and let me help you,” she said with a devilish grin and a trace of love in her eyes.

I just shook my head in disbelief at how stubborn this girl could be, but unintentionally, a slight grin appeared.

“Ah, right there, a smile! You do have some feelings for me,” she exclaimed after watching me.

I quickly changed the subject as I had been caught laxed with myself.

“Aren’t you supposed to be reporting to the university in a few weeks,” I asked her as she stared intently, trying to figure out something.

“Hmm, yes, but I’ll be coming back from time to time,” she said as we approached the gate.

As we walked up, we formed behind the line that led inside. Some Shamae family members stood guard as workers verified that everyone coming in had valid tickets. After about a 20-minute wait, it was our turn to get scanned.

“Please present your tickets,” said the worker.

I quickly presented the tickets I had bought just two days ago; the worker promptly grabbed them and ran them through the scanner to ensure they were good, but something popped up on the hand reader the worker was holding as he quickly called for one of the Shamae members to come over.

The goon looked at the reader, quickly took out his phone, and made a call. He then approached us.

“Sir, can you and the young lady please step to the side? We need to confirm something before letting you in,” said the Shamae member to me as I squinted my eyes at him in suspicion.

“What seems to be the problem,” I asked very curiously.

“Yeah, why hold us back? We bought the tickets legally,” followed Claire, somewhat irritated at the situation.

“Like I said, we are just verifying something. It won’t be long before we have you on your way,” the guy said again but we could tell he was stalling for time.

After about five minutes of waiting, Claire had enough.

“Either tell me why you’re holding us back, or I’m walking in. Just try to stop us and see what happens,” she said defiantly as she grasped my hand.

The guy kept looking around as if waiting for someone to arrive, but no one stood out. He stepped back and was about to let us through when another voice interrupted.

“I’m sorry, Claire. They were waiting on me,” said a young man. Tall, blonde, with good looks, the young man’s eyes were filled with nothing but lust as he stared at Claire. This was Zane.

“You!” exclaimed Claire as she saw Zane walk up.

Zane looked at Claire first and then at me as he realized we were holding hands.

“Yes, I’m here for you,” he said, extending his right hand towards Claire. “Please follow me to my private room where we can watch the fight and talk privately. No need to have dirty, useless vagrants around us, Claire. They should stay with their kind, don’t you think,” he continued as he stared at me arrogantly.

Claire could feel her blood boiling as she heard Zane speak, knowing his last words were directed at me. This made Claire dislike him even more.

“What makes you think I want anything to do with you, Zane?” she said in a very unpolite way.

“I didn’t like you before, and after what you just said of Deamon, I like you even less now, so please keep your comments to yourself and let us watch the fight in peace,” she continued.

Zane felt like he had just been bitched slapped in front of everyone. How could such a beautiful and striking female not like him? He was the first son of the Shamae family head. He thought every girl should like him.

“Claire, are you turning me down for this beggar?” he said, looking at me with disdain.

“I told you many times before, I don’t like you, Zane. I don’t know how else to explain this, and now you insulted the only person I have feelings for. There is no way I’m going to let this go,” said Claire, with fire burning in her eyes.

“How could you say that, Claire? Especially putting this fucker in front of me for your affection. There is no way,” said Zane, aggrieved.

“You can only love me and no one else here on Serenity. No, here on Titan! If you don’t belong to me, you won’t belong to anyone else,” he said as he stared viciously at me.

“You don’t control who I date or fall in love with. That’s for me to decide, not you,” retorted Claire defiantly.

“Will see, all I have to do is get rid of him to make you see how serious I am,” said Zane with a crazy look as he pointed at me.

Through the back-and-forth, I was caught in the middle of what looked like a lover’s quarrel. I only wanted to go see the fight, but I ended up in the middle of this spat.

“Are you threatening Deamon’s life?” asked Claire, nostrils flaring, breathing rapidly. Her eyes showed great determination, as if she were preparing for a life-and-death battle.

Zane looked at Claire and didn’t plan on backing down. He wanted to show everyone here that if he set his eyes on something or someone, no one in Serenity or Titan could stand in his way.

As he was about to speak, his phone rang. He looked at the number and quickly told his subordinates before answering.

“Don’t let them through until I get back.”

With that, he walked away to take the call, and his subordinates surrounded Claire and me.

“Claire, why don’t we leave? We can always rewatch the fight later,” I whispered to her.

She looked at me, and her fiery stare seemed to calm down as if realizing I might be right.

Just as she was about to speak, Zane came back.

“Alright, since it doesn’t seem we will resolve this any other way. Let’s fight!” he said as he walked up to us.