I felt an unusual flutter in my chest as I looked over to Ash being referred to. My cheeks dyed in a deep pink shade as I instantly shook my head and withdrew my hand, formerly intermingled with his.
"Oh, no no.We're not dating!" I almost instantly blurted out.
I looked over to Ash who seemed confused, nudging him as he silently hissed, causing me to scowl at him,
"Yeah, I'm not her boyfriend." He slightly shook his head after getting my gesture.
"Oh. I thought someone had finally gotten fortunate to have your attention -" Lottie chuckled before moving her face in Ash's direction, "I mean, there a lot of handsome guys swooning over her. But Sen seems to pay no attention at all. When they try to talk to her, she simply ignores them. Most of the boy population solely come to the library just to catch her attention. Many of them even tried to get her contact details from me!"
Ash's eyes had a glint of quirkiness as he looked at me with his signature taunting smirk.
"You two enjoy yourselves! I must get to work." She waved at us, "By the way, you two look cute together!"
I sighed and shook my head as I walked over to the vending machine, only to be overtaken by Ash who inserted his money into the machine before me,
"Skittles, right?" He asked to which I nodded, getting the approval, he punched the button as a crunch rustling pack of skittles was received and passed to me by Ash.
I could've asked him how he knew that I always had skittles during reading but I guess all the curiosity inside me was murdered by my anxiousness to finally get done with it.
We both gave Lottie a last look before aiming for another glass door and entering the main library. It was comparatively and exceptionally quieter in here. It wasn't crowded, but rather a maze of shelves and small tables around each here and there.
Some people were busy with schoolwork, some came in as groups, some were rebels; whose sole purpose of coming was to gossip and chat about irrelevant details, and some were bookworms with large rimmed glasses and faces dug into the musty smelling books supported by one hand and an unfinished espresso cup in another hand.
The silence was something that attracted me towards this place. It was the best part.
Ash's eyes flitted around as he observed the library. I hovered over to a shelf as I pulled out a salmon covered book that was recently hitting the nerd news at school these days, so why not?
Now was the time to decide a suitable spot to sit.
The seatings were classified into types. There were the normal seats; the wooden chairs with tables. Then there were the VIP seats; sofas. And last were the premium seats a.k.a bean bags.
Not that you had to pay for the seats, but rather it was a competition among the visitors to get the privilege of sitting on the beanbag, for which they had to rush here earlier than others to find them vacant. You could say it was a race.
I, however chose neither of these, being my unique self, I chose to stay in a more practical place.
My eyes then darted over to the window through which the sunlight seeped in. A striped cushion was settled on the relatively wide windowsill. This was where I chose to sit. I don't know, maybe because I loved the warmth of sunshine radiating through the panes falling on my back. Or maybe because this place went unnoticed by most population and I liked to sit in isolation.
Before, I could walk over to the place, Ash pulled the sleeve of my white chunky sweater, "Where are you going?"
"To sit, duh. I'm not gonna stand here all day."
"Oh, you're NOT sitting all the way THERE. Nobody even cares to look in that direction." He said as a mischievous smile appeared on my face.
"That's exactly the point." I smirked.
"No, Serena. If you recall, your sole purpose of coming here with me is to be noticed." He said.
"Sounds desperate -"
"Shhh!" He blocked my mouth, his index finger colliding with my lips.
He then dragged me to a more crowded corner of the sitting area, pulling out a random chair for me as he seated me on it. The feeling was unfamiliar and cold, the chair was far from my comfort zone, making me instantly regret my decision of coming along at the first place. I looked around and to my side was my classmate, Clemont busy reading a science fiction novel who lightly waved at me that I returned with a smile of gratitude.
My eyes then landed on a certain quiet blonde, sitting three tables away from me.
Her voluminous straight platinum blonde hair glistened in the lighting of the room, her bangs were neatly aligned on her forehead, contrary to mine that were swept to the side, tucked behind my ear. She looked a fancy kind of person, judging by her neatly ironed Ivory colored dress and Mary Janes flats. Her thin pink lips stayed unwrinkled, without any instincts of smile. Her emerald eyes glinted as she unnerved them for a moment only to continue contemplating her novel.
"There she is." I blankly pointed as Ash turned to glance at her.
"That's - Lillie?" He asked.
"Well, now stop acting like you don't know her. Its her, right?"
"Of course its her!" Ash scoffed before rolling his sleeves up, "Now wish me luck."
"I always will." I mumbled, still entranced as he elegantly walked in her direction, leaving me to myself in a cold alien place.
He was never truly mine. He belonged to himself, but so did his memories. I wonder why they were buried inside my heart. I wanted him to vanish, but then again, I wanted myself to vanish too. We did not belong together, never in fate, destiny, coincidence or luck.
Unrequited love: She had enough love for the both of them.
Tossing my brokenness away, I fluttered open my book and dug into it. My eyes would regularly turn up to glance at Ash sitting in front of Lillie, trying to initiate a talk.
My heart sank as I looked at them, Ash saying something hilarious and Lillie giggling. They looked so adorable together. He was fond of green eyes. First Misty's and then Lillie's,
I wish he liked blue eyes just as much.
I then heard a screeching noise of a chair being dragged against the tiled floor. Startled, I looked up to find a tall guy being the source.
The towering figure had long jet black hair that reached down his neck and his icy blue eyes had a mischievous glint in them. The sleeves of his blue jacket were rolled up to expose his fairly built triceps.
The corners of his lips twitched as they formed a cocky grin and his blue orbs eyeballed me from head to toe, making me slightly nervous.
"Hello! pretty lady, Is this chair free?" He asked as he peered at me with a satisfied smirk.
The first response that came into my head was turning him away but then I peeked at Ash who had noticed this boy's presence and glared at me, gesturing to me the don't-you-dare look. I mentally rolled my eyes as I curved my lips into what was the century's most forced smile and looked at him. I took a deep breath before selecting the suitable words,
"No, it costs twenty five dollars."
He chuckled in return before being seated right in front of me, "Well, nice to meet you again, Serena."
"Pardon me, have we met before?" I blinked.
"Yes, of course, I'm Calem Xavier. Remember, at the mall - where the blue haired girl who was your best friend -"
"Oh! Now I remember. Silly me." I smiled.
"I'm also the exchange student at Wordsmith High. I saw you a couple of times but I couldn't approach you because your best friend was always around." He chuckled.
"Oh, you are? Gosh, I'm so sorry I never noticed. I mean, the bundles of assignments and projects got me so -"
"Oh, its totally fine." He laughed. He had a cute laugh admittedly, but if his laugh was barely a lamp then Ash's laugh was the darned sun of my cosmetology.
Gosh, stop dragging Ash to everything, Serena. Move the heck on.
"Anyways, I was running late for my training. I need to ask you something real quick." He cleared his throat, "Will you go out for a coffee with me?"
I gulped as I looked away in little contemplative way, comprehensively finding a polite way to turn him down but then Ash's words flashed in my head, 'You need to move on.' He was right. I had to, one day. Taking in another deep breath,
"I -" I inhaled sharply again, "Will think about it."
"Great! Here's my number," he passed me a piece of paper with numerical digits on them, "Call me if you make up your mind. Tomorrow, evening four at Java Jazz."
I nodded as he smirked before running his hand through his hair, "Hopefully, see you tomorrow."
With that, he went out of sight and I noticed Ash approaching me with a glorious smirk.
"I got her phone number!" Ash smirked as he slid his iPhone7 in his pocket, "What about you and that guy."
"Calem asked me out. Java jazz, tomorrow at four." I sighed as I looked down at my burgundy flat pumps.
"What a coincidence! I asked Lillie out at the same place, same time! This means we can go together." He happily pumped his fist in air.
"I didn't just say yes, I told him I'd think about it."
"What's to think about here? Just go, drink coffee and return." He frowned curiously.
"You are mistaken if you think I'd make a decision as big as this without consulting my best friend."