"Duru?"
"You scared the life out of me, Sapphire!"
I pressed a hand to my racing heart and let out a long breath. With a frown, she put her hands on her hips and studied me.
"Why are you still here? Everyone's waiting inside to talk to you."
"I forgot my phone in here. I came back to get it."
"Okay then. If you have your phone, let's go."
As we left the restroom, I figured it was a good moment to say what I still had inside me before we rejoined the others. I touched her arm.
"Feyza, wait a second."
"What is it? What happened?" Under her curious look, I shifted awkwardly, cleared my throat, and let my gaze wander.
"Um… I just… while we're alone, I wanted to apologize properly for earlier. You were right to be mad. No matter the reason, I shouldn't have kept things from you. I'm sorry."
When I glanced at her and saw her smiling, I lifted my head and asked hesitantly.
"Do you forgive me?"
Her smile widened. She nodded and rested her hand on my shoulder.
"Of course I do. And I overreacted a little too. You know I lose my filter when I'm angry. So if I hurt you, I'm sorry too."
Laughing, I hugged her.
"It's fine. I already forgot."
After a few seconds, we pulled back, and she hooked her arm through mine, dragging me toward the others with excitement.
"Slow down, Sapphire. What's the rush?"
"We have a big revenge to take and a lot of work to do, Red!"
"What revenge? What are you talking about?"
"What else? That filthy psychopath. Do you really think I'm going to let that bastard hurt you right under our noses and then keep living his happy little life? I'm going to show him what it means to mess with my friend. Don't worry, Red. Just let me get my hands on that piece of trash and I'll hang his favorite organs around his neck like a leash."
The image of her wild plan flashed in my head, and I grimaced in disgust.
"Oh my God. I think I'm going to throw up. And you think my revenge plans are disturbing."
Because we'd reached our table, our friends looked at us. Seeing Feyza smirking with pleasure and my disgusted face, they turned to me in curiosity. I waved a hand quickly.
"Trust me, you don't want to know."
Without commenting, Feyza moved to the other side of Mete. I sat down next to Kerem, but I could still feel people's eyes on me. With quick glances around, I realized most of the people we'd seen when we first arrived were gone, but the newcomers were no less interested.
Hoping to reduce the attention, I tried to slide away from Kerem a little. At the same time, his hand landed on my waist and pulled me even closer than before. He laughed at my quiet protest and leaned into my ear.
"Hang on a little longer, Sunshine. We'll leave the second we're done talking."
After he whispered that, he pressed a tiny kiss to my temple. I lowered my head to hide my smile. Even though my hair fell forward and covered part of my face, judging by the delighted grins on all our friends, it was too late.
"Demir, any news from Bora and Nil?" Kerem asked.
Demir nodded and pointed at his phone.
"Frizzy just texted. Their professor extended the class to finish the topic before leaving for the symposium. He says it'll be about an hour before they get out."
Right after Demir spoke, the waiter came by, cleared our empty glasses, took our new orders, and left. The moment he was gone, Feyza leaned forward, scanning the area suspiciously.
"Kerem, are you sure this is a safe place to discuss this? Wouldn't it be better if we met at someone's place?"
"Actually, being here draws less attention for now. And don't worry. There aren't any strangers at the tables near us," Kerem said.
I looked around in surprise at the people sitting nearby. Behind us, a crowded group of girls were laughing and chatting loudly. In front of us, a mixed group looked like they were doing homework, buried in papers spread across their table.
At the small tables diagonally to our left and right, there were two couples so good-looking they could make models jealous. One of those couples was busy kissing like they were determined to drain each other down to the bone, completely cut off from the world.
I stared at them with my mouth open and muttered to myself.
"Sure. With that going on, who's going to look at us? I'm not even interested in us right now. Wow. Look at her. She's about to choke him. Not that I can blame her, he's pretty hot…"
"If you don't want me to pull your attention back to us, Duru, and trust me, you really don't, turn around right now."
That voice by my ear was calm in the most terrifying way. I slowly turned my head. Despite the horrifying look Kerem was giving me, I tried to smile innocently.
I failed.
How could someone with such a blank face look this intimidating? He kept staring without blinking, so I looked away, uncomfortable, and turned toward our friends, who were watching us with smug little grins.
"Right. Where were we?"
No one spoke. I pouted and leaned back with my arms crossed. Kerem rolled his eyes at me and continued.
"First, for those of you who don't know yet, let's start with the leads we got from the file Demir and Aylin obtained…"