The next day, we see Delilah in the morning again. She waves to me, and I wave back before ducking my head down in case Liam turns to look.
I poke Sheila on the side after we have passed. "Are my eyes puffy?"
She purses her lips.
"They're pretty. Like you."
She shoves her shoulder into me playfully.
During Modern History, Jisung comes to our table to say hi and introduce himself to Sheila as my new favourite co-worker. He whinges a little when Sheila tells him, rather absolutely, that that's her, and tries to get me to pick him, by saying that he will go sort through the cabbages the next time it is my turn to.
"See you after school." he tells me, when our teacher walks in.
Jisung scrunches his face playfully at Sheila. Then he heads over to his seat next to Kyle, who asks him something that makes him raise his eyebrows. Kyle sends me a funny wink when he catches me looking.
They are holding a pay it forward type of event at lunch. This time, with these cute mini cheese tarts. I buy one each for Sheila and me and stick my purple post-it note up onto the corkboard next to the stall, not bothering to write an additional message onto it.
A hand adorned with a shiny golden watch reaches out from behind me. My note gets plucked up right away.
"Hello Arden," Delilah says. "Creative. Thanks."
She grins when I hum noncommittally in answer, and hands the post-it over to one of the boys manning the stall. I see him swallow dryly and incline his head in when he takes it from her. Delilah scans the neat rows of glazed tarts before picking one out. Then she loops an arm through mine.
"I forgot how good these are." she sighs, taking a bite. "Dieting really isn't worth it. They had these really good matcha ones when I was in Japan. They were so tasty. Have you tried them? I'll have to find out where I can get them from here."
I cradle my two tarts closer towards me. Delilah has an animated way of talking. She continues to chatter on while she marches us rather quickly through the crowd of people in our school hall, not stopping to make way for others. We do not exactly have to though, because they seem to make way for her.
"Where's your friend? What's her name again?" she asks.
"Oh, Sheila."
Delilah smiles easily. "She's cute."
Then she stops, eyes flitting over somewhere. She drags me along with her as she makes a beeline towards someone.
"Liam!"
My brain immediately short circuits. I look up to see him, and my heart leaps into my throat. He catches sight of us, and his face freezes. My feet continue to move forwards.
"Hey!" Delilah demands. "Liam! Where do you think you're going?"
Liam manages to look a little sheepish, mid step and turned away from us. I can barely restrain the little spluttering noise that threatens to escape my throat.
He looks around. "Hi."
"I saved you some of my tart."
Delilah shoves her half-eaten tart towards him gracelessly. Liam wrinkles his nose a little.
"No, thanks."
"But Arden bought it for me. Doesn't her hair look especially nice today?"
I had trimmed my side bangs a little this morning. It does not look that overly noticeable though, they had only been growing out a bit too much. But Delilah unlinks our arms to comb a hand through my hair, pulling the side that is closer to her, up and away from my neck, as though she is about to tie it up. I bat her fingers away.
"Not really." Liam says. "Always looks nice."
Oh. My eyes dart up to look at him. He looks just about as surprised as I feel, mouth hanging open, as though he had not meant to let those words slip out. Suddenly, I feel a lot warmer than before.
"Stop smiling like that." Liam says lowly.
His eyes narrow into a glare, focused on Delilah, not even sparing me a look. Liam's cheeks look as though they have been dusted a little bit pink in this run-down hall lighting.
"Stop staring at her." Delilah counters.
The tips of my ears are hot. I look away pointedly. Delilah should consider getting her eyes checked.
"Arden, where did you get this?" Delilah asks. She runs a hand up and down the length of fluffy, fried chicken looking jacket.
"It was a gift, from one of my mum's friends."
"It's so soft."
Delilah takes a step closer and presses herself against me.
"I'm cold." she sighs. "I should have checked today's forecast."
"Oh, borrow my jacket." I reply instantly.
I have barely started shrugging it off when Liam stops me.
"No, just- Delilah. Here."
I watch as Liam takes his sweater off. His arms unintentionally flex as he does, his biceps tensing from under the short-sleeved tee that he has on underneath. My brain manages to short circuit briefly again, because oh, Liam really does have nice looking arms.
He shoves his sweater at Delilah, taking the half-eaten tart from her as she puts it on.
"You're so annoying." he grumbles.
He scowls threateningly. Delilah ignores this, fluffing her pretty auburn hair up instead and sweeping it to the side.
"Try to control your fan club, Liam." she says calmly. "I can't be playing superhero for Arden every time."
Then she is dragging me away again, grip deathly tight and unrelenting. I am all tongue tied, voice still lost and mind fuzzy, so Delilah has to ask me repeatedly where I am meeting Sheila before I can get a straight answer out. She guides us over to the cafeteria bench that I had pointed out.
"Hey, Arden." Sheila says to me. Her lips press together a little tightly.
"Hey," I say back. "I got you a tart."
I slide down onto the bench opposite her and place the tart carefully in front of her, like a peace offering. Delilah follows suit. She sends a stunning smile Sheila's way. I have to blink and look back, a little stunned, because wow, are those sparkles in her eyes or something?
"Hi, Sheila is it?" she asks smoothly. "I'm Delilah."
Sheila, for some reason, does not look very impressed.
"I know." she replies simply. "I think everyone does, by now."
She picks up the tart in front of her and peels back the little tin foil cup, pressing her thumb into the edge and looking over to the side. The table descends into silence. The chatter of the other students in the cafeteria seem to grow evidently louder. Delilah gets up.
"See you around, Arden." she says, a little quietly.
She flicks her hair over her shoulder and takes off. Sheila avoids eye contact with me, choosing instead to look down at the little cheese tart in her hands. She catches her teeth in her bottom lip, presence more suppressed now that Delilah is gone.
"Sheila," I begin to say.
"I know." she interrupts in a bit of a guilty mumble. "I was rude. But Arden, you know what that popular crowd is like. I don't like them."
"They aren't all bad." I try to reason, reaching for her hand.
She rolls her eyes but lets me hold her fingertips.
"Why are they all friends then?" she asks resolutely.
"Delilah's nice. She thinks you're cute." I say instead. "She's really cool, like kickass could be the main character of a movie cool."
"I'm cool too." Sheila huffs.
I laugh and assure her that she is.
I walk into my English class after lunch. Liam is already seated at our desk, with Kyle resting a hand on its surface and standing next to him. Liam must have gotten his sweater back from Delilah. It is a tad oversized on him. Makes him look soft.
I sit down next to him gingerly.
"Arden!" Kyle says.
Wow, his smile is blinding today too. He runs his fingers through his raven dark hair and beams again.
"You're seeing Jisung after school today, yeah?" he asks.
I blink. I have not spoken to Kyle in ages. "Yeah."
He shifts closer, his hand now on my side of the desk instead of Liam's.
"Sweet. He said to tell you this."
Then Kyle leans forward. He makes eye contact with me, waits for a moment. He turns his face in to whisper dramatically into my ear.
"Haw yeah." he says lowly.
He pulls back to send me his funny looking wink again. He laughs shortly when he looks over to Liam, but I do not see why because I am frozen still, confused and staring at Kyle because, what was that about? He steps away with a smirk, then just leaves to make his way over to his own desk.
"What does that mean?"
Liam's face is unreadably blank, but eyebrows are furrowed a little in a way that makes him look a cross between concerned and irritated. His pretty blue eyes are startlingly intense.
"I don't know." I answer honestly.
Liam's eyebrows furrow in more. He huffs and turns away. He spends the rest of the lesson, ignoring the vast majority of people who try to talk to him.
☾☆♔
so my little sister said that this story is too sad, but i promise it's going to get happier! thanks for reading, i hope you're liking it so far and maybe leave a vote if you are hehe, all your support really means soso much to me c:
dedicated to @serinity, thanks for being such a sweetheart b x