» 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞 «

C H A P T E R 11

"Just Like We Promised."

Clayden was approaching our table, and the sound of the girls sitting around our table squealing immediately caught our attention. We were startled by it, but we knew the reason why they were squealing. Zenji clicked his tongue and returned to writing the lyrics as he started playing music through his headphones. Clayden then asked the girl sitting beside me to transfer, and the girl completely allowed him to sit on her chair and left.

"Have you eaten lunch?" Clayden instantly asked me as soon as he took a sit beside me. I was about to answer him, but I haven't had a chance to since... Zenji answered for me.

"Yes. She did, and you would've known if you had actually eaten the food she prepared for you instead of entertaining your fangirls here at school." Annoyed without even wasting a single glance at him. Clayden only looked away, but as soon as I put out the lunch box that I had prepared for him this morning, he glanced at it and brightened up to see it on the table. He then opened it and prayed before eating it. "At least you have manners." Zenji said with a smug look on his face. Clayden got rilled up and was about to shout at him, but remembered that he had food in his mouth, causing him to stop shouting.

Clayden swallowed his food and glared at Zenji, pointing his finger at him. "I do have manners, Zenji. Shouldn't you remove that-" Clayden referred to Zenji's headphones but was stopped after noticing Zenji flatly ignoring him and continuing to do what he was doing. "Hey!"

I started laughing at the two of them. Come to think of it. Their relationship has always been like this since the day they learned about me being... 'It can't be...right?' My sweat dropped as I looked at the both of them arguing. I shrugged it off and was about to get in between the two of them.

"Don't you have an audition around 2 pm? Shouldn't you hurry...and leave?" Zenji reminded Clayden with a cheeky look on his face and got ahead of me before I could stop them. 'Zenji sure does know how to annoy Clayden. He reminds me of Tristan and Michael somehow...' I chuckled as I stared at Clayden's annoyed face and went back to eating his food.

Once Clayden was done eating. His manager came to school to pick him up, and fans flocked around him before getting in the car. He looked so troubled and was saved by the school bell suddenly started ringing, and that certainly caught the student's attention, causing them to go back inside the school building, leaving Clayden alone. I glanced to my left and saw Tristan was actually the one who pressed the school bell.

"Oops... I pressed it." Tristan pretended that he had accidentally pressed it. Meanwhile, Michael was behind him, looking pale. I narrowed my eyes at him in disbelief. 

"President!" Some girl from the student council called someone as she approached our direction. I looked at Tristan's direction, and his expression looked more serious than usual. "President!"

The girl got even closer to our direction. "What's wrong?" Tristan asked in a concerned tone. 'I couldn't process it all, Tristan... President?' I thought while looking at the situation. My eyes grew wide after realizing it. Michael still looked pale with a small smile on his face.

"Someone pressed the school bell ahead of schedule, causing a ruckus in the school entrance. We need your help." The girl said. 'What's this girl's position again in the council.' I thought as I couldn't help but get confused since I never really paid attention to any of these elections.

"I'll be there." Tristan replied as the girl hurriedly headed back in the direction where she had come from. He chuckled at my face, looking at him in disbelief. Michael looked like he was about to cry, but Tristan only let out a chuckle before heading in the direction where the girl went. Michael was left with me in the hallway, and he finally sighed in relief. He glanced in my direction and started laughing.

"Can't believe it, huh?" I was confused by what he meant when he asked me that. Tristan does look like a guy who seems to be perfect in other people's eyes and looks free with his friends and something more. 'More like a twisted personality.' I thought. Zenji must be friends with him for a reason. He does choose his friends. 'Why Michael, though?'


"You were just thinking about why those two perfect guys were friends with me, weren't you!?" He asked me, almost shouting. He cleared his throat and looked down. 'Am I really that easy to read!?' As my sweat dropped, I thought about how Zenji and Royce also read me like a book. "Well, it is unusual. Still, I don't care." Michael looked up and smiled. "If those two are special, I'm special too! in my own way." I chuckled and nodded in agreement with what he said.

'Yeah. Rather than special, they are lucky to have a friend like you.' I said to him through my thoughts and smiled as the actual time for the school bell to ring started ringing. I headed straight to my classroom, and Michael went to find Tristan to go to the class together.

• • •

Once school was done. Heather and I waited for Zenji and his friends to walk home together, though Heather would go in a different direction once we reached the next corner of the street. Heather started humming as she look at the sky and smiled, I stood there staring and listen to her hum. That made me wonder to why she came to like Tristan. 'She must have her reasons why, right?' I thought and noticed that she started looking at her phone while fixing her hair, and I just chuckled at her.

A little later, I heard Michael's voice behind us, making us look back in their direction only to see Zenji and Tristan along with him. Michael waved at us, and Heather started panicking as soon as Tristan started waving as well. My sweatdropped and just smiled while looking at her. "What's with her, Rae?" Zenji asked, making me look back to face him and answered.

"The usual." We both chuckled. 

We were about to leave when we saw Heather looking more flustered than usual, whilst  Tristan only had a small smile on his face. "You seemed to have noticed us quite fast, huh?" I laughed nervously and glanced over to Michael.

"You could hear Michael's voice from far away. After all, he has a loud voice." I answered. Zenji narrowed his eyes at me and let out a groan while placing his headset on his neck.

"If you wanna say that Michael is noisy, just say so." That is what he said. I started panicking and looking back and forth to Michael and Zenji, ensuring that MIchael hadn't heard anything that Zenji said. I flinched when I saw Michael that he was affected by it as tears started to come out of his eyes, and asked Tristan.

"Am I really that noisy?" almost wailing. Zenji let out a sigh and started walking away while Tristan snickered, looking away he answered his question.

"Yeah, you are." With a smirk on his face before walking away along with Heather, following Zenji. I stayed with the weeping Michael, trying to encourage him so we could all head home. 'Geez Zenji'  I groaned as stared at his back figure whilst he was walking away. He turned around to face our direction and just gave me a small smile as I started glaring at him.

• • •

Sometime after convincing Michael. Zenji was waiting for us by the corner near the school and heard from him that Tristan went to the nearest bus station with Heather. 'I think I should get used to this now.' I thought. Recalling that Tristan did the same thing yesterday. I sighed in relief as the three of us walked home.

Michael stopped in his tracks and started to go through his things, panicking. It caught my attention, and so does Zenji's attention. "I accidentally placed one of my textbooks inside my locker!" Michael panicked and started running back to our school. 

"Can't you get it tomorrow!?" Zenji asked him as loudly as possible since Michael was slightly far from us already. He turned around while running backward and shouted.

"I can't. Mr. Phillips gave us that stupid assignment, even telling us the due date was tomorrow. You know him!" as he ran farther away from us, the more we couldn't hear him. Zenji let out a sigh and placed his hands on his forehead. 

"Can't believe I also forgot about it..." I hear Zenji muttered, and noticed that I was staring at him, making him give me a small smile before rubbing the back of his head. "Let's go home?" Zenji offered his hand to me as I held his hand while walking home.

"What was that all about?" I chuckled.

Zenji started laughing nervously and answered. "I guess I got hang up with writing my music, that I forgot our assignment on Science." "Tristan was busy doing council work, and you know Michael." He added and let out a groan as I chuckled by his statement.

"You three are pretty close, huh?" I smiled.

"Doesn't compare to how long the three of us had known each other, though." He looked down at the floor while smiling and took a deep breathe. "No matter how close I get with Tristan and Micheal. I can never forget you...and Clayden ofcourse." He added as I let out a chuckle.

"Just like we promised, we'll always be friends."

To Be Continued...