I didn't even need the next day to start before I knew it would be bad. Christopher had stomped out on account of my decision to talk to Sean, understandably. I'd been chewed out by Eric over it too. Flo was a bit confused so I had to repeat my story. I'm pretty sure she was plotting a painful revenge.
Meeting Sean wasn't the only thing I had to look forward to. I still had to deal with the fallout from the fight with Elizabeth. Which meant people that would be openly staring at me, gossiping in my presence, and the weird looks. It meant I wouldn't have to hide or keep my head down anymore. I couldn't anyway. But I could deal with this. Gossip eventually dies out. I give it till the end of the week.
Eric still seemed a bit peeved when I got into the car the next morning. I held out a box filled with fresh brownies. He didn't look as I waved it by his head. "Sorry?" I'd just baked them as a peace offering.
His eyes flickered from the warm box to my face and back. He sighed. "I'm not angry, I'm worried. You don't need to meet him. Don't go today."
"I know I don't need to meet him." I replied easily. "But he knows where I work, and I'd rather he not show up at Anchor."
Flo reached out to take the box as my hand sagged with the weight of it. "That would be awkward. You, your boss and your one night stand." Flo twisted in her seat to face me, a mischievous grin on her face. "Was he good?"
Eric stiffened. He chose to start the car and move out of the driveway. I grinned back at her. "Oh, yeah." I giggled with Flo as she turned back.
"Don't touch my brownies." Eric warned as he sped up.
I smirked. "How long has it been since someone touched your brownies?"
"Fi, no." Eric gritted out as we burst into giggles again. He sighed as our mirth subsided. "I'll never look at brownies the same again."
On cue, the smell of fresh brownies filled the car. Flo popped one in her mouth. "Then, I'll take them."
"Then, you can start walking to school." He took one too.
"Hey, I'm your friend too. You share." She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Not with brownies I don't. I've gotten into fights for that." He hummed as he bit into one.
I nodded sagely from the back. "That's true. He got his ass kicked."
"Sh-shut up."
"Hey." I whacked the side of Eric's head. "Give me some credit for bailing you out all those times."
"You guys have to tell me this story." Flo stared at me in the rearview mirror. "Go on." She prompted, as I took a few moments to collect my thoughts.
"Well, basically," I began slowly "you know how I used to stay over at Eric's every year, right? So, I believe we were 13, I come over and Eric was ignoring me a lot. Turned out he liked a girl, I made brownies for him and he immediately took them to the girl. But, she had a boyfriend who was in a higher class and he beat up Eric. Eric came home so bruised."
Eric groaned in remembrance. "That was one of my first beatings. I'd never been a fight before."
"And so I-"
"I'll take it from here. Anyway, Fiera was in her fighting phase at that time-"
"Fighting phase?" Flo cut in. "Is it really a phase if it's still going on?" They laughed as I rolled my eyes.
"Shut up." I whacked her head as I also grabbed a brownie. "We used to move a lot so I take on a new sort of persona everywhere we go. It's fun."
"And this time it was the bully?" She replied dryly as I ate.
"Nah. I'd just picked up martial arts alongside school." My grin seemed to unnerve Flo.
"And—" Eric forcefully continued "—she went to the guy who did it, flirted with him, and then punched him in the face." Eric gave an impressed nod as he pulled into the school. "She knocked him out."
Flo gasped. "One punch?!"
I turned to Eric in confusion. "He fell to the ground but I don't remember knocking him out."
Eric groaned exasperatedly. "Why couldn't you have let that be, Fi?"
"Oh." I paused, realising how I'd messed up. "Sorry."
He continued to grumble under his breath as he pulled into a free space.
Flo chose that moment to warn me. "Be careful today, okay? Don't get angry if strangers approach you. Don't talk a lot. Just te-"
"-tell them to mind their own business." I gave a wry smile to myself as I reached for the door. "Not the first time I'm a part of the gossip. I may not have spent a majority of my life in this realm, but gossip works the same everywhere."
The day was tough to get through. More incredulous stares and whispers than when I'd placed second in the Trials. That was almost kind of offensive. There were random people coming to me and feeling up my sides, asking if I was okay after having violated my personal space. After the first couple of times, I would pull up my aura anytime I saw someone approaching me. It tingled on my burnt skin but people usually refrained from groping me once they felt the heat.
Eric and Flo found this highly amusing. They were chuckled over it as they walked off to their Gyms after recess. My worries shifted from my apparent lack of personal space, to Rhaeya.
I was a bit afraid of how she would react. More appropriately, how much she would hurt me again. I still wasn’t fully healed, but I no longer wanted to curl up into a ball each time fabric brushed against my still-sensitive side. Eyes turned to me as I walked into the Gym and people immediately erupted into whispers. I recognised a few people who'd... 'met' me during the day.
It didn't matter if I wanted to keep a low profile. I didn't care about it anymore, and it's not like I would be able to with everyone just staring at me all the time. I had no idea what the gossip was. It could've been me summoning a dragon into the fight, or Elizabeth having stabbed me, or the two of us ending the fight in the makeout session. I honestly didn't care. I was more than happy to finish my day and move along with this.
"Fiera!" I heard a familiar voice snap my name.
I closed my eyes in an effort to curb the apprehension inside me before I stood up. Phantom pain flashed across my body and re-ignited the anger I still harboured. Rhaeya had her arms crossed in front of her chest. Her T-shirt had the 'No Pain, No Gain' motto stencilled on it in all caps with a very muscular looking anime character. The blonde one who levelled up depending on how hard he screamed. How could she still glare at me like considering what she’d done to me? Does she not have a conscience?
I walked towards her, but she turned away from me to walk into a corner of the hall. I could already hear the new rumors about me getting chewed out by Rhaeya for losing or for getting into a fight. At this point, they write themselves. Dammit, it's just one thing after another. I want a break already. Maybe I should’ve skipped school today too.
She turned to face me again once we were out of earshot. I stood out of her arm's reach... just in case things went south again.
Her sharp eyes scanned my body. The lingered on my side before she met my eyes. "Are you okay?"
Surprise passed through me, my anger shoved aside. Three words I'd never expected her to say. I sputtered out a reply. "Y-yeah. Kind of. I have bruises all over my sides and... and a first degree burn all around to my front."
"All around to your front?" Rhaeya bit her lip, signs of guilt in her features. "I didn't mean to hit you that hard. I just wanted the fight to end. I couldn't watch the two of you hurt each anymore."
"There are better ways to stop a fight." I couldn't help the bitter note that crept into my voice. "Once that didn't involve a fireball even my body couldn't handle, and then repeated kicks in my side."
She grimaced. "The kicks were... I'll admit, a bit over the line. But I didn't want you to get up and get back at it."
"Then, like any other teacher, you threaten to snitch." I crossed my arms across my chest too. "Would've stopped the both of us. Besides, after that hit, I couldn't even have gotten up without help much less get back to fighting. Thanks a lot." My eyes narrowed. "Really did me a favour with those kicks."
"Fiera... please." She sighed, more guilt formed on her face. "It was... It's for your own good."
I struggled to keep my voice low as I snapped. "My own good?!" I hissed. "You're—no... I'm lucky those kicks didn't cause any internal bleeding. Do you know how much that hurt? Physically, I can handle it. But can you imagine how it felt? Having a teacher you trusted to have your back, who's trained you, helped you get where you are... be the one to hurt you?”
She looked away as I continued. "You say I'm good. You say my powers are above average, but I'm still just learning. I'm still a junior. You had no right to use your full strength on me, elemental or otherwise. My body cannot handle it." My hand grabbed the edge of my top and tugged it up, careful not to let it lift from the back.
The jagged edges of my fading burns were visible. I could see it pile more concern on Rhaeya. I held it there for a few more seconds before I let the top fall back into place. She didn't look up from the covered skin as I turned away.
I snatched up my bag amidst total silence from my peers. I hope they didn't hear me. The only sound in the Gym was from the activity towards the senior's side, and my sneakers as I walked to the door.
I'd probably get in trouble for this later. With my hand on the door, I glanced at Rhaeya one last time. Her face was unreadable, her body language tense. She knew why I was leaving.
And I'm pretty sure she could figure out that I wasn't coming back till she apologized.
I had nowhere to go so I just walked to the empty parking lot. Devoid of life, it looked like an expensive car show. The constant foot traffic, the chattering, the honking was what I'd come to associate this place with. It was a kind of socialising ground as well. I respected that, but it certainly was annoying when people stopped their cars to chat to their friends on the ground.
I took a questionably comfortable seat on the trunk of Eric's car. I was also waiting for the owner of the car to pick up my third attempted call.
He didn't. I struck gold on the fourth though.
"What?!" Eric hissed as a greeting. His voice was low, he probably wasn't enjoying the scrutiny.
"Hello to you too."
"I'll give you ten seconds, and then I'm hanging up."
I sighed. "Fine. I kicked myself out of training. Rhaeya knows I won't come back till I get an apology. I have my pride."
"This could have waited for after training. G-"
"No, no." I cut in. "Don't hang up. I called to ask if Sean was there."
There was a long pause. An uncomfortably long pause. "Sean?" Eric said slowly. "Why?"
"I'm free now. If you can get a hold of him, tell him I'm in the parking lot and I want to talk."
"Now?" Eric sounded confused. "Listen, I know that what Sean tried to do to you wasn't nice. And that you somehow still want to talk to him after that. However, this is an unreasonable request. He's a senior. He's training."
"Right." I scoffed, eyeing my filed down nails. "Like your seniors train."
"Alright, they don't. They're a bunch of lazy idiots who boss us around and go get high in the back." Eric went quiet after he spilled the beans. Then he sighed. "I'll... tell him. You'll have to wait though. It'll take a while for me to get a hold of him. And then he'll take a while to sneak out... if he agrees."
"He'll agree." Was my curt reply. "Sorry to disturb you."
"Yeah, whatever. Too late now."
I snickered as he hung up without a goodbye. I should feel bad for doing this to Eric but I'd been on the receiving end of several of his wrongly-timed phone calls as well.
Eric was one of the nicest people I knew. He was a quiet, shy guy unaware of his own good looks. It had often led to some blundering situations but he was smart enough to dig himself out of it. He did still have a habit of hiding stuff from me. We used to be close. The short durations of my visits weren't the most viable for cultivating a deep bond. However, we trusted each other. And he trusted me to do the right thing if he sent Sean my way.
However, I hadn't exactly thought of how to deal with Sean so far. I'd made it this far winging it but there are certain situations that should be faced with a certain plan, or atleast some preset dialogue options in mind.
I absently scribbled a few words on an empty page as I waited. Thought of a few scenarios, some unlikely, some plausible, but in the end, human nature was unpredictable. And fortunately, I didn't know Sean well enough to have even a basic ballpark of how this might go.
I scratched my head in frustration. A movement in the edge of my vision made me pause in my movement and I turned my head to watch Sean saunter up to me.
Looking at him in a more casual setting, I realised that I did indeed have good choice. His golden-brown curls glistened under the sun, green eyes still bright over his fading tan. He had a soft, hesitant smile aimed my way, hands tucked into the pockets of his sweatpants. Dammit, he looked good.
I closed my book and turned to place it in my bag, to stop myself from checking him out further like the shameless person I was. He came to a stop in front of me as I hopped off the trunk. He didn't bother hiding his scrutiny of me.
"You look good." He said with a smile, eyes lingering on my hair. "I like your hair messy. Not a lot of girls can pull it off."
I rolled my eyes as I remembered that he hadn't shown me this sweet facade when we last met. "Thanks." I replied curtly.
Sean raised an eyebrow. "Don't pretend you weren't checking me out right now. You're not as subtle as you'd like to think, Fiera."
Can't deny that. And I'm not going to. Time to bring him down a notch. His confidence was unnerving me and I had a script to follow. "I was actually looking for what went wrong." I could see some of his cheeriness fade away. "You're quite good-looking, and that was my main reasoning for sleeping with you. I should've looked beneath the surface."
His smile faded away. He looked down as he ran a hand through his messed-up locks. "Fiera, I... I'm sorry. After yesterday's talk, I realised you're right. Being drunk is no excuse for what I tried to do. I'm in the wrong and I have no idea how to make this right."
I stayed quiet. It seemed genuine. The words, the voice, the body posture. I mean, from what I did know of him, he wasn't a bad guy. He'd messed up when he was drinking. The frustration and anger from my rejection after the night we had must have taken over. When I'd talked to him at the party, it was obvious he was nice. Sincere, and easy to get along with. And when I remembered that... it made me worried about my own choices in life.
Sean had messed up. So had I. His mess up was a consequence of my mess up. He was this... hunk of a guy seriously into me and willing to actually do the entire dating shebang by pretending to go on a first date and everything. I felt absolutely nothing about that. There was zilch in the way of feelings towards him.
"Fiera?" Sean prompted after I had been quiet for a while. "Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?"
"No... no." I shook my head and took a step back. "It's not you. I was just thinking. Anyway, apology accepted. I apologise too. I shouldn't have been that rude. I should have let you down easily."
"Please, it was I who wasn't backing away, not you. And I should've figured out you didn't want me around anymore when you pretended to be asleep while I was changing."
I blushed this time, looking away. "You knew, huh?"
He laughed. His muscular arms went across his chest. "Nobody can sleep through all that falling. You were practically shaking with laughter."
"I did control it quite well till you smacked your hand against the mirror and stumbled backwards over the dressing stool."
He grimaced. One hand rubbed the back of his head in remembrance. "That was a painful one."
I chuckled to myself. Hard to believe that we were bonding over the very same thing that had led to all this. Yet this felt nice. Talking to someone new, clicking with someone new. I enjoyed this. But then why didn't I enjoy the idea of being with him?
"Now that I've apologised..." Sean began as he geared up for the big question "Would you like to come to a party this Friday night?"
"At your place?" Like I didn't know.
"Yeah. Nothing very big. I'm inviting a few people from the Trials. Since I was in third place and kind of—" he placed his fingers in an L-shape against his forehead "—the loser among the three of us, I'm supposed to hold a party. According to tradition anyway."
Aah, yes. Tradition, what it always came down to.
Christopher had been wrong yesterday. He'd assumed that Sean might hide the fact that he's inviting all the Trials contenders to get me, his main obsession, to show up.
"Now, now." He continued hastily as I stared blankly at him. "I know you don't get along well with some of them, and you did tell me you were worried some of them might harbour a grudge, but you're overthinking this." I cocked an eyebrow, silently demanding further explanation. "This party is supposed to be a place to make up any differences and nobody's allowed to fight. Then they're just called a sore loser." It would be true in his case.
My lips twisted upwards in a pitiful smile. "I don't know, Sean. My friends aren't too keen about you, and they won't let me go alone."
He sighed. "Well, that's a shame. You can bring them along if you're uncomfortable. It's not recommended though, and the others won't be happy. I know you don't get along well with your teammates eith-"
"They're not my teammates anymore." I cut him off.
"Seniors, then." Seeing that I still wasn't very convinced, he took a hesitant step towards me. "Come on, this might be a way for you to improve your image in school. Pull back from that defeat against Elizabeth."
"I didn't lose." I snapped defensively. "And Elizabeth just makes it another reason for me not to attend. I can't risk another fight and more rumors. I'm done being scared of her."
"But that's exactly what you're doing now." I stiffened as he said that. He took another bigger step forward as I looked away. "By not going to the party, you're showing her that you're still afraid of her."
"I'm not!"
"But she doesn't know that. The others don't know that." He cocked his head.
I scrambled wildly for an excuse, finally muttering out a weak one. "I don't have a ride."
Sean rolled his eyes. "Now you're just reaching. Come on, it's just one party. You don't need to stay very late. Enjoy some drinks, talk to some people, eat something, and then leave. No one's stopping you."
I knew he was playing me. And I hated that I knew he was playing me and yet it was working. I chewed my lip in thought. I really didn't want to face Elizabeth again. Everybody believed I'd been defeated by her and that was okay. Everybody also believed I was scared of her and that was not okay. Not even in the slightest.
I screwed my eyes shut, the shaking of my head betrayed the true feelings my answer.
"I'll... be there." I gritted out.