The Almighty Heir's Return

Cameras

“Is everything alright, here?” The professor asked and Kayle got quiet, looking elsewhere. 

“No, actually, it is not.” the girl said and turned to the professor. “Mr. Sharman, those guys here were bullying our classmate.” She pointed to the respective people. 

“Bullying? Like in high school?” The dark haired professor asked, frowning while looking at the bullies. 

"Definitely. And here is proof!” She showed the professor all the small papers and flying notes. After the professor read two of the papers, he looked at Kayle and the others. 

“We’re gonna have a little chat after class.” He said and motioned with his head for the blonde girl to return to her seat, because the class was going to start. 

They spend the whole morning with Mr. Sharma, so Brandon only got the chance to talk to her by lunch time. 

“Ah, hi.” He called her while she was collecting her belongings. 

“Hi!” She smiled at him. Brandon tried to keep the thoughts about how beautiful and shining she was from his head. A few days before he had the worst experience ever with a woman and he was not going to fall for a nice smile again. “I’m Lucinda Fairfax.” she offered her hand for him to shake it 

“I’m Brandon Ashford.” He said and shook her hand, feeling a tingling where their skin touched. He hurriedly recollected his hand to himself. “I just wanted to thank you for…” 

“You’re welcome! That was nothing, just… the right thing to do!”

She was very warming, but Brandon kept his cold stare, emotionless. 

“Not everybody thinks like that. Anyway, thank you.”

“Hey, babe!” A tall, tan skin guy, with a charming smile and ocean blue eyes appeared at the door, looking at Lucinda. “Ready?” 

Brandon noticed that her smile did faltered, but that was none of his business. 

“Hey, Damon.” She answered, with much less enthusiasm as the young man talked to her a few seconds before. “Finish packing.” 

“Hurry up, love. I’m hungry.” By the way he was speaking, Brandon inferred  Lucinda and him were dating.

“Sure.” She finished putting her books in the backpack and looked at Brandon. “See ya around. By the way, would you like to have lunch with us?” 

Brandon looked quickly at Damon, who gave him a death glare. 

“No, thanks. I’m good.” He answered. Not that he was going to accept, even if Damon was cool with that. Brandon was not going to give another girl a chance of mocking him. No way He couldn’t trust her. What if that was just a play, a role, to get him into another humiliating situation? 

“Oh… ok. Bye!” She seemed quite disappointed, which made Brandon suspect even more that she might have some sort of plan. Why would she be disappointed with his refusal? 

She left with the guy, who gave Brandon one last glare behind his shoulder before leading Lucinda out. Brandon got his things and headed to the door, not seeing anyone to bully him, that time. 

Brandon decided he was not going to have lunch at the Campus. No, they had the afternoon free and so he was going to use his time to buy some clothes. He needed it. Then, since he was already outside, he would have lunch and look for a job. His savings were not going to last for long. 

After buying a few things, Brandon was heading to grab lunch, when he saw Lucinda. She was inside a store, looking at dresses. He stopped walking to observe her. Yes, he was going to keep his distance from her and from people, in general, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t stare, right? She was pretty. Actually, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He looked around and saw no sign of Damon. 

When Brandon turned his eyes at Lucinda again, he saw someone near her. One of Kayle’s friend. Brandon frowned, and automatically, started to walk in Lucinda’s direction, ready to defend her. But Diego didn’t hit her or anything. No, he did something worse: he put something inside her purse, that was with the zipper opened. 

Before Brandon could say anything, Lucinda dropped her hand from the dress she was intently looking at and started to walk away from the store, but the sensor on the door beeped, very loudly. 

She was confused for a few moments, stopping and looking around, until a security guard appeared in front of her. 

“Miss, please, we need to see what’s in your backpack.” the guard said and Lucinda was astonished, but just nodded. 

“Sure.” She said, because she definitely didn’t know that inside her backpack, was a store item. 

Brandon got near them right when the security guard was asking Lucinda to accompany him to the police department. 

“She didn’t steal that.” He said and Lucinda, who was with her eyes watering and lips trembling, nodded. 

“And how do you know?” The security guard asked with a cold tone. 

“Because I saw someone put this inside her backpack. Why don’t you ask for the security cameras? You’ll see for yourself.” Brandon retorted and the security guard clicked his tongue. 

“Sir, just step away. What ? Are you with her in this?” 

Brandon takes a step closer to the man and whispers something. Lucinda is so terrified that she doesn't notice anything. 

“Brandon Ashford.” He whispered to the man. “Now, look at the cameras.” 

Brandon hated to use his family’s name in order to get anything, but Lucinda helped him once and since Kayle’s friend tried to frame her, it was probably because she was not working alongside him. He owed her.

Lucinda was about to talk to Brandon, but he shook his head, slightly. It was better if the guard didn’t know they had met before, or he could think it was all a scam, even with the security cameras. She understood and remained quiet, waiting. 

The security guard received his answer a few minutes later and looked at Lucinda with displease written all over his face. 

“Yeah, they confirmed. Sorry for the inconvenience, miss. Sir.” The security guard left them both alone. 

Lucinda turned to Brandon with grateful eyes. 

“Thank you, Brandon!” She said and grabbed his hand. “I.. I thought he was going to make me get arrested!” 

“It’s all over, now. Relax. No need to thank me. That was the right thing to do.” He used her own words, from earlier and she was stunned for a few seconds, until she smiled at him, a huge, bright smile. Brandon’s chest beats faster. 

“Friends?”