Girls With Luv

TWENTY-THREE Liya

"No no." He laughs. "It's just that you three don't behave like conventional fans."

"What does that mean?"

"Umm. I should probably shut up before saying something problematic unintentionally. So, I'll just conclude by saying that you and your friends are a great company to be with."

"Likewise."

Julian parks the car in the basement of a cozy building and we get consumed by the sheer darkness of the hidden world. I switch on the light and we stay silent, suddenly super aware of the lack of space between us. I can literally hear him breathe and it's doing things to me.

"Don't laugh but I'm slightly afraid of going out there." He says and lightly rubs his earlobes.

I stare at him sans any pity. I understand the fear and I really want to do something about it. So, I undo my seatbelt and jump out of the car. I turn around before shutting the door and grin at him.

"Stay right here, I'll be back." I tell him and bang the door close before he can say anything.

Right, so. I walk into broad daylight and put my hand against my forehead to shield myself from sudden brightness. Wow, it is too dark in there. Good thing I got out before doing something I might regret later.

"I know I saw it." I mutter to myself as I quickly explore the tiny stalls scattered around me. I finally find what I had been looking for and smile to myself victoriously. I walk inside the stall and make a beeline for the seller. "Excuse me, could I please get two cloth masks?"

The man must be in his late forties or something, with ginger hair and a prominent mole on his right cheek. He smiles at me, nods and shows me a giant catalog of cloth masks, all of them pretty aesthetic and colorful. Now the problem is, I really suck at picking out stuff from a long list of options. That is why Spencer stays away from me when we have to place an order or something. It's like... I want everything but I also don't want the wrong thing, so I keep overthinking till Spencer actually screams and hits me on the head. It's the exact opposite when I have to pick stuff for someone else. I kinda know what they will like.

"Do you want me to pick for you, ma'am?" The seller asks and I look at him with unshed tears in my eyes. He takes away all the masks and leaves only two on the counter. One of them says GET, the other says OUT! So together, it becomes GET OUT!

"I love this!" I laugh, take the masks and pay for them. Very happy with myself, I hop my way to the basement thingy and find Julian coming out of it. I don't know why but I literally run towards him and push him back before he hits broad daylight, turning the whole thing into a hilarious remake of a Twilight scene. Oh my god, I just pulled a Bella Swan on him, which makes him my Edward Cullen. My teenage memories of loving that man come flooding back, it's almost cringey yet amazing.

"What the hell?" Julian laughs and stumbles, almost falling on the ground. "I forget how strong you actually are."

"Take this first and then, we can enjoy ourselves without entertaining the fear of someone spotting us for the tabloids." I hand over the mask to him and he looks at it.

"What is this, it's kinda dark here."

"It's a cloth mask. We can wear it and go out and have fun."

"You will wear a mask with me?"

"Of course." I say. "I need to protect my own identity as a swimmer too, you know?" I add, in case he felt uncomfortable or weirded out in any way.

He doesn't say anything but I do feel him wear the damn thing. As if the entire Twilight fiasco wasn't enough, he grabs my hand and interlinks our fingers together. My heart plummets inside my chest but I stay steady as he pulls me along with him and we go out, hand in hand, with bright smiles that stay hidden behind the cover of the masks.