Chapter 138 - Why Are You Just So Damn Nice?

"And I'll have you know I make a mean lemon meringue pie," Jonathan insisted. 

"Oh really? Then you'd have to show me some time. And maybe, I can bake a treat for you too!" 

Jonathan looked surprised, "You bake too?"

"Of course I do, why else would I have asked you if I didn't?"

Jonathan realised Indiana made a good point. 

He realised Indiana hadn't been eating much.

"Something wrong with the food?" He asked.

Indiana shook her head, "No, it's nothing. I just don't feel like eating."

Jonathan wondered if there was a reason behind why Indiana didn't feel like eating. 

"And why don't you feel like eating?" He inquired, only for Indiana to lower her head and admit, "I hid something from my friend."

"And who's this friend?" Jonathan asked. 

"My friend, Madeline," Indiana explained.

Jonathan's eyes went as wide as saucers.

"Madeline as in the same Madeline that's Alpha Xavier's mate?" 

Indiana nodded, a tad bit shocked Jonathan didn't know she and Madeline were friends. Then again… 

He blinked, "Woah, the two of you are friends?"

'I had always thought you guys wouldn't be close because of the whole… err… incident,' he thought to himself. 

"We are," Indiana answered. 

"Why? Does it come to a shock to you?" Indiana inquired, watching him intently. 

Indiana hoped he wouldn't try to lie to her face. That would only make things awkward. She knew he was shocked since his eyes went round the moment he heard they were friends. 

However, it was common knowledge throughout Eudora that they were. So how he didn't know that was quite peculiar... To Indiana, at the very least. 

"I mean, I am shocked. A little bit," Jonathan replied truthfully. He didn't try bringing up the incident since Indiana definitely wouldn't be pleased. But... She didn't seem like a person that liked being lied to.

Indiana was a relatively easy person to read. 

Jonathan could tell she didn't like being lied to, and that she regretted something. 

Her eyes shone with regret, so it had to be something. 

"So, what did you hide from your friend?"

Indiana told her, "I think she'd prefer if you called her Madeline instead of my friend."

"Alright, so Madeline. What did you hied from Madeline?"

Indiana hesitated before telling him, "That I knew someone she just got to know. The person I'm referring to is the new guest that arrived her a while ago. Her name's Rosalynn, and she was the person who told me about Eudora."

"So, what you're telling me is, without her, you wouldn't be here right now?"

"Exactly."

"And why did you keep it from her?" Jonathan asked, not a hint of judgement on his face. 

That surprised Indiana, since she expected him to judge her the moment she told him what she had done. But no. He just sat there, waiting for her to answer his question. 

Indiana must have had her reasons for keeping it from Madeline. 

After all, in Jonathan's eyes, she was a good person. Probably because he hadn't actually gotten to know her much, but he doubted that image he had of her would change even after he got to know her better. 

The look on Indiana's face faltered. Why…

Why was he being so nice to her? 

He didn't need to. He never did. Heck, if he just trashed her and insulted her, she would've just stood there, thinking it was what she deserved for everything.

He could have just told her what he thought of her, he could have just… Not been so accommodating to her despite everything he knew she had done. 

Jonathan had implied he knew about what she had done to Madeline. Didn't he think she was shameless? To accuse Madeline of something, and then befriend her at the next? 

When her friend group had left her, they would have used that as their excuse. They would have told her they wanted nothing to do with someone like her who turned their backs on her when she found someone better… When the truth was that they had supported her and even suggested the idea to her. 

She was simply the only person who had bothered to act on it. And when she did, she lost her title as delta. 

Jonathan must have lots to say to her, Indiana assumed. He must have had many things on his mind to say. And yet, he kept quiet and never once judged her the entire time they had talked. It was like he was giving her a chance to express herself freely in a place she wouldn't be judged. 

And Indiana had to admit, it was nice having someone like Jonathan, even though they had just met and only knew each other for a couple of hours and were practically strangers. 

When Indiana hesitated to tell him the answer as to why Indiana kept something from Madeline, Jonathan told her, "You don't have to tell me why if you don't want to, of course." 

Indiana pouted, "Do you have to be so damn nice?" 

She poured herself a glass of leftover wine from girl's night. They never managed to finish it anyway, so why not?

A fierce shade of red tainted Jonathan's cheeks, he asked, "What do you mean?"

Indiana looked at him, wondering if her previous friend group sent him. There was no way someone like him existed. Not unless he had other motives. 

What if he was trying to get to know what was happening before reporting it back to her friend group? What if he was their way of keeping an eye on her? What if they wanted their revenge for her leaving them for Madeline?

Not that she ever left them for Madeline. She would've stayed with them if they hadn't betrayed her. 

Besides, Indiana never left her previous friend group, she was kicked out of it and no longer welcomed there anymore. 

Of course, Indiana didn't make a big deal out of it and instead chose to accept it, thinking she'd be better off without them anyway. They didn't hesitate to kick her out the first chance they got. And if that was the case, they wouldn't hesitate to leave her even if she apologised and begged for them to take her back.

'They always treated me like utter trash anyway,' Indiana reasoned, adding, 'There's no point in trying to stay friends with people like them. Having people like them in my life will only worsen it.' 

Jonathan looked at her, wondering if he should have just retracted his statement and not asked her anything about it. 

'I mean, it was the most obvious thing to do. What else was I supposed to do when I was told that? Not ask her why she did it and change the topic?'

Jonathan paused.

'Come to think of it, changing the topic would be a great idea.'

However, before he got the chance to change the topic, Indiana answered, "I guess I did it because I didn't know how Madeline would react. Also because me and Rosalynn had a complicated past. One that I don't really like talking about."

Indiana was slightly proud of herself for answering his question, even if it had taken her some time to formulate and tell him her answer. 

"Moving on from me, what about you?" Indiana asked him. 

"What about me?" Jonathan asked. 

There was nothing much about him anyway. Nothing much she'd want to know, at least. 

"There's not much to know about me," Jonathan admitted, "My life story isn't anything special."

Indiana stared at him, "Don't dismiss yourself like that. And, I'm sure your life story is special."

Jonathan laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head, "Well, I guess you'd have to be the judge of that."

Indiana motioned for him to continue, staying quiet and paying full attention to Jonathan. 

At that moment, he felt special. Like he mattered to someone. The fact that the person in the room with him was Indiana only helped matters more than it already did.

No one else volunteered to listen to him. Or to ever have a conversation with him unless absolutely necessary. That was also what made him keep to himself. 

No one else invited him out to dinner. 

Indiana had even poured him a glass of wine. 

'I'm getting off track here,' Jonathan reminded himself. 

He told Indiana how he came to join Eudora - how he had been born from a family of werewolves and how he was an only child. Jonathan chose to skip a couple of topics, but he figured those details were irrelevant to the story he was telling anyway.

"Wow," Indiana said, in awe of Jonathan. 

His life story was anything but ordinary or nothing special. 

Everyone was special in their one way after all. 

Like how Xavier was special to Indiana, and how he had been for the past months. 

Except… for once… Indiana wasn't thinking about Xavier.

'Shocker,' she said to herself inwardly. 

This time, she was thinking about someone else.