"Why didn't you sit with us during lunch?"
"Can't I sit elsewhere?"
"I don't mean it that way, Kel. Your friends were there, why didn't you come over?"
I scoff, resisting the urge for an eye-roll. The six of us are seated in a japanese restaurant at the mall nearby campus. I managed to occupy my hours by sitting in several random lectures while the rest of them had their own classes. By 5:30, we gathered at the foyer to take a short walk for dinner.
"From the looks of it, I say they're friends with y'all instead of me." I blow at my spoonful of chawanmushi. Damn, japanese food will be the ultimate death of me.
We have a table full of platters of sushi and sashimi. Carson isn't a fan of raw food, hence he's the only one with a bento set.
"Bro, you're missing out. Look at how thick this salmon slice is," Drew holds his chopsticks in the air, waving the piece of orange meat in Carson's face.
Carson lets out a grunt, but remains quiet nonetheless. I think he's probably uncomfortable eating japanese, especially when it was Cass' and my decision to pick the place and he might have been too nice to object it. All I've seen him eat for the past week was fast food, fast food and more fast food.
"Is it not to your liking?" I question, feeling slightly selfish for not consulting the rest of their opinion prior to dashing here.
But can you blame me? Sushi is life.
"Don't worry," Zac chuckles lightly and I turn to my right to face him. He has been keeping to himself mostly for the past few days. In fact I find it weird that he's talking now all of a sudden. "Carson doesn't eats fish. Or any other seafood."
"Is he allergic?" I catch Drew and Wayne chuckling too, while Carson focuses his gaze on his teriyaki chicken rice with a deep frown.
"No, he's not."
"Tell us the story!" Cass squeals in anticipation. It took her some time to shake off her solemn mood from our lunch episode, but by the time her classes ended, she was back to her cheerful self.
I look up to see Carson squirm in discomfort, handling his food roughly. Clearly this is going to embarrass him as the other three guys laugh it off.
"Alright, alright." Zac begins. "So when we younger, like nine or ten, we followed our grandparents when they went on a fishing trip. We were at a lake, fishing with our kiddy rods. For some reason, Carson actually reeled in a small catfish within twenty minutes and we kept it alive in a pail. By the time we got home, he sat beside Wally the catfish and spent hours there watching it until our mum nagged at him to move his ass. Then dinner was served and Carson came skipping down, passing by the dining table into the kitchen where he noticed the pail was gone. He began searching around the house, calling out Wally's name and nobody knew what he was looking for; they assumed it's a toy or so. Mum got irritated by him shortly after and made him sit down for dinner. We were having steamed fish that night and mum commented that the meat was incredibly fresh, since she only killed it minutes before cooking it instead of the rest of granny's usual catch which were left to die out of water once caught. At that point, we didn't sensed anything out of the norm, until mum questioned why was the fish the only one in the pail. Carson's face instantly paled and he spat out the food in his mouth, looking like his eyes were bulging out of its sockets. He couldn't say a word and kept shoving his fist down his throat, then he started to cry and kept repeating the name 'Wally'. No doubt little Carson was traumatized and skipped dinner that night. From then on, he never eats fish again."
Cass and I burst out giggling while my brother wraps an arm around a grumpy looking Carson's shoulder.
"Really, Zacson? Is this the eleventh time you've recited this story to embarrass me?" Carson glares at Zac who's sitting opposite him.
"I didn't know you were counting," the other Gray laughs.
"You know what?" Carson puts down his spoon, rolling up the sleeves of his black sweater before reaching his hand into the box of new chopsticks. "Just to stop this tradition of my annoying elder brother provoking me, I decare that I, Carson Gray, will savour this slice of delicacy in exchange for Zacson Gray to shut his goddamn mouth up and never utter a word of that incident again!"
All of us stifle a laugh, watching Carson as he cautiously pick up the smallest slice of salmon sashimi. Before taking a bite, he holds the food in the middle of him and Zac's faces.
"Deal. Eat it without spitting out and I assure you your future wife will never hear this from me." Zac gives a mischievous smirk, leaning back into his chair.
Wayne offers Carson two gentle pats on his back, while the latter has a determined look, bravely placing the whole piece of raw meat in his mouth. His eyes are wide open as he begins chewing the food for a good ten seconds, but just as we thought he's finally swallowing it, he gags.
"Jesus fucking Christ," Carson wipes his mouth with the back of his hand after spitting out the mess of chewed salmon. "This shit is raw! How do y'all even enjoy this?"
"Oh crap!" Cass starts and we turn our heads to her. "I completely forgot to get that on camera!"
———
After the whopping two-hundred bucks dinner, which Zac refused to take any of our money for, we slowly stroll back to campus to get our cars while Cass heads back to her dorm.
"You know you can ring me up whenever, yeah?" I whisper to Cass, while the four guys walk ahead of us, shoving and and mildly strangling each other despite being twenty-two.
"Copy that."
We approach the almost empty parking lots, hearing a series of beeps coming from our individual car keys. I had parked my car at the far end of the carpark, while the rest of them had spots nearer to the entrance.
"Damn, that's sleek as fuck." My tone rich of envy as I witness an Audi R8's headlights come to life.
"Stop drooling," Cass laughs, pulling me by my arm forward to the car. "You'll be driving it in no time."
"In my dreams," I mutter under my breath but Cass hears it and shoots me a look. "What?"
"Well, we'll see! Ten bucks say I'll see you in that car by next week!" She pulls me in for a brief hug before bidding goodbye to the guys. I watch her retreating back, wondering what in the hell was she thinking about me driving that fancy car.
"Are you dreaming?" A low voice startles me from behind, making me jump and spin around.
"You scared me," I put my hand over where my heart is racing.
"Sorry," Zac gives me a sheepish grin. "Do you want me to walk you to your car?"
"Uh, it's fine. Good night Zac, see you soon." I quickly say after realizing I've been standing right in front of his car for the past three minutes.
I turn to get my Countryman which is the only car parked at the far end. Drew had gotten into Wayne's car at this point, while Carson already drove off in his own. Right as I reach for my car door, I hear Zac shout out a good night before he pull out of campus, speeding off into the dimly lit street.
———
"You look like you're in dire need of coffee," Cass remarks when she meets me at the female washroom, leaning against the sink with her body facing my direction.
Drew had slept over last night, making a din up until two-thirty in the morning. The thing about me is that I either have my full eight hours of sleep or none at all. So going to bed at three and waking up at seven clearly wasn't a wise decision.
"No," I slap some water from the tap onto my face, ignoring the fact that I have light make-up on. "What I really need is a five-hour nap."
"That bad?"
"Considering that I dozed off for the two classes I sat in earlier, I'll say yes." I wipe my face dry with tissue paper, touching up my concealer and foundation.
"And how many more do you have?"
"Two, so since I can't get that five-hour nap, I think I need the coffee."
Cass chuckles, pulling the door open for me to get out before her. "Let's go then! I'm done for the day, but I'll see you for lunch!"
———
An hour later, it's proven that iced mocha does absolutely nothing in keeping me awake. I had sat in for an economics lecture, but possibly dozed off within the first ten minutes.
"Are you lost?" A deep, amused voice sounds from behind me as I stand rooted in the middle of a deserted hallway, checking my surroundings from left to right groggily.
I spin around, seeing ash blond hair standing out in a body clad in all black; an oversized retro aviator hangs on the tip of his nose.
Jesus, how can someone with hair looking like birds' nest look so attractive?
"I might be," I sigh, gripping the strap of my red leather studded backpack tightly in my left hand. "This is my first time in Building D and Cass was the one who helped me find my way here."
"Lucky for you, I know the way around here." Zac half-smiles and strides to my side—where I have to lift my chin up to face him since he's a head taller than I am when I'm not in heels. "Where are you going?"
"Subway."
He nods and leads me out the empty hallway to a flight of stairs. "You owe me a cookie."
"Fine," I chuckle. "Your classes are in D?"
"Nope. The drumline uses this block after hours for practice."
We carry on strolling side by side to Subway while I bombard him with questions about his interest in drums.
"You'll be surprised, I hated it at first." Zac answers, running his hand through his dishevelled hair. "As you know, EVU is a sports school where every single student has to participate in a sport one way or another. I was never an athletic person, so joining soccer or basketball was out of the question for me. But I had to make the decision either to take the extra P.E class or join a club that covers for it. So my advisor back then told me the band is one of the exceptions. Hence, I joined but it wasn't until the real training started that I found out it's barely a free pass because really, I couldn't have gotten this much muscles if it weren't for close to four years of training." He flexes his biceps, smirking.
I instinctively put up my index finger, poking him gently on his upper arm, feeling the rock-hard muscles beneath. Christ.
"Not bad, right?" Zac chuckles, putting his arm back down when we arrive at Subway. I spot Cass already seated at one of the tables with her tray of untouched food.
"Shut up and pick your cookie," I move behind the queue, aimlessly glossing through the wall menu even when I know I'll always end up ordering the same thing.
"I regret. I want a whole meal now." He says with a crooked grin while I roll my eyes at him. Technically, I can say no and simply refuse to buy him lunch but am I stingy? No. And will an additional ten bucks make me broke? Absolutely not.
"Hi, what would you like?" A seemingly young teenager—around my age, asks behind the counter when our turn comes.
"Chicken Bacon Ranch set meal with Fanta grape and a chocolate chip cookie," I recite my go-to order to the cashier before turning to my side where Zac is. "Tell him what you want."
The young cashier smiles after keying in my order, then looks up to Zac for his. "I'll take a Subway Melt, footlong please, upsized pepsi and two double choc cookie. Oh, upsize her Fanta too."
I raise an eyebrow, but kept my silence, not to cause any commotion when there're customers queuing behind us.
"Sure, that'll be a total of $16.95."
I unzip the purse in my hand, taking out a ten and some coins when I hear the cashier mutters a 'thank you'. I look up to see a veiny hand tap his card on the card reader. Zac scoops up the coins on the counter and lightly shoves me forward to the collection point.
"Keep it," he takes my palm and places the coins in it. "Then go take a seat with my bag while I'll get the tray." He passes me his plain black Givenchy backpack that must've cost more than a thousand before urging me to move.
A R8, Givenchy backpack, Yeezys sneakers. At this rate, I will begin to think that even the plain black t-shirt he's wearing must be of luxurious brand.
I approach Cass' table where she's fiddling with her phone and pull out the chair across her. She looks up instantly and flicks her gaze between the bag on my shoulder, the bag in my hand and me.
"Is that Zacson Gray's?" She probes, tilting her head to the right.
I nod, pointing to the counter where Zac is waiting to collect our food.
"You two are getting cozy," Cass wiggles her brows in a suggestive manner while I narrow my eyes.
"Stop that. I just ran into him, that's all."
"Of course! In a campus of eight-thousand students, fate will lead you to run into him."
"I'm warning you," I rest my elbows on the table and lean forward to her. "Eat your food before I stuff them down your throat."
She giggles, picking up her sandwich. "I'm still betting that ten bucks for next week."
• • •
A/N: I apologize for the incredibly slow update. I've been going through some stuffs in real life, and I haven't really had the time nor the right state of mind to devote my time in writing.
I will try my best to keep up with updating. Please allow me a bit of time while I sort my personal life out. Thank you for 500 reads by the way. :-)