Laia & The Transferee - Chapter 41

Laia had already expected Brie to stop by at Brewing before she could even finish her shift.

And she was right.

“Laia,” Brie immediately rushes towards her and hides her face on Laia’s neck. “I missed you,”

Laia pulls away from her friend’s hug and flashes her a teasing grin. “Even if we just saw each other five hours ago?”

The long-haired girl nods. “Yeah.”

Laia beckons her to sit on a nearby chair, seeing that they had a shortage of customers at the moment. Niel had also told Laia earlier to make Brie at least take a seat, seeing that she probably has been standing around since she arrived and Laia was in the kitchen.

“What happened?”

Brie sighs. It was obvious that she didn’t want to remember what happened but she wanted to confide in Laia. “Well, we did go to an arcade,”

“The place was huge for starters,” Brie started to play with her hands. “Uhm, well, the girls were excited to try some of the game machines and so they went on ahead to purchase arcade coins,”

Laia noticed how Brie’s lips curled in a frown. “I was left with Jake because Sammy decided to smoke outside while the girls were gone,”

“Did he talk to you?” Laia decides to ask after her friend didn’t continue for a while and just absentmindedly stared at the window.

“Uh-huh,” Brie hums. “He told me that I wasn’t even trying to hide our supposed secret and it frustrates him,”

“Frustrates him?” Laia lets out a scoff. “And he thinks you’re not frustrated with the way he wants to keep your so-called relationship or talking stage, I don’t even know at this point, a secret?”

Brie was quick to grab her friend’s hand in an attempt to calm her down. “Laia,” She cocks her head to the side to imply that they had an audience. “Calm down, please?”

Laia reluctantly does her breathing exercises which miraculously were enough to calm her down just a bit. Emphasis on a bit for she hisses her next words through her teeth. “I just don’t understand why he’s so adamant about keeping your current relationship a secret, I mean, didn’t you talk already? Why’s he flirting so openly with both Vivi and Shane? What’s with this sudden change of character?”

“Yo,” Niel suddenly appears behind Brie and sends Laia a knowing look. “I don’t want to interrupt your conversation but I need a little help on the counter.”

“Shit, sorry,” Laia ran to the counter and attends to the customer there. “How may I help you, ma’am?”

“Just a mocha latte, thanks.” The customer replies and hands Laia the exact amount for her drink.

Laia relays the order to Keith who started making the drink. She steals a glance at Niel and Brie who seemed to have a serious conversation but decides to ignore it and attend to the next customer who recently arrived.

“How may I help you, sir?”

“A double espresso, please.”

“Right away, sir.”

Laia decides to make the espresso on her own upon seeing that Keith wasn’t done with the mocha latte yet.

After finishing the espresso, she carefully places it on a tray and makes her way to the customer who was reading the daily newspaper.

“Here you go, sir, one double espresso.”

The man hands Laia his card and a small tip before he started to drink.

“Good for you!” Keith says when Laia returns to the counter still holding the tip she received.

Laia grins. “Good for us both, you mean,” She subtly points at the girl who ordered the mocha latte who obviously had eyes for Keith. “She gave you a tip, too?”

Keith shakes his head. “Nah, just her number,” He shows Laia a tissue with a number on it. “I guess I gotta hide it before Niel finds out and goes ballistic,”

“Oh, you’re finally together, eh?” Laia nudges the taller boy with her shoulder playfully.

At least someone’s having a great time in the area of love and all that cheesy shit.

The boy shakes his head again, this time a bit aggressively. “He’s still adamant on insisting that I’m not into him and I’m just playing with his feelings,”

Damn, Laia missed quite a lot of drama during her day-offs.

Or did Keith confess during Laia had to attend to a shit ton of customers while he and Niel stayed in the staff room?

Traitors!

Laia takes back giving her blessing to the two!

“Well, are you playing with his feelings?” Laia asks, raising an eyebrow.

Keith sighs. “Do you really think I would even apply for a part-time job that’s miles away from both my school and my house just to play with his feelings?”

Okay, that was a revelation Laia certainly did not expect.

“So you had it all planned out?” Laia teases with a grin. “I didn’t know you had it in you, honestly.”

“What did you think I had in me?”

He really just had to ask, huh. “I thought you were just a random dork who didn’t know how to open the cash register and didn’t know how to spell our regular’s name–”

“That is harsh,” Keith feigns a scowl. “How was I supposed to even know if her Charlotte had two ‘t’s instead of just one?”

Laia shrugs. “You could’ve had asked Niel, for starters. He’s been working here the longest, you realize?”

“Can you blame me if I liked him so badly that I couldn’t even look into his eyes for more than a minute during my first week?”

The short-haired girl raises both her hands in the air as if to surrender. “Okay, we get it, you like him very much. You don’t have to rub it in poor Laia’s face that she’s sadly alone and lonely in this world with all of you being disgustingly cheesy with each other–”

“If you’re always gonna be like that then it would really be hard for someone to confess their feelings to you, you know?” Keith suddenly says all seriously making Laia laugh.

“Eh,” She waves his concerns away. “I don’t care about that. As long as I graduate valedictorian and be successful enough to buy my mother everything she wants, I’m good.”

It took Keith quite sometime before he stopped staring at Laia without saying anything. Before he was able to utter a word, however, both of them were startled by a bunch of noises from outside the store.

And it looked like they weren’t the only ones who noticed, as the conversation between Brie and Niel ceased as both of them craned their necks upward to see what was happening outside.

“What’s happening?” Laia asks when she reached where her friends were, Keith behind her. “Is there a fight?”

And there indeed was a fight.

A fight between a familiar-looking boy and another boy who seemed older than they were.

The asshat?!

“Hey, stop that!” Laia couldn’t stop herself from yelling out as she made her way between the two boys whose fight was momentarily stopped.

The other boy who Laia had no idea who retracted his clenched fist and turns away. Laia noticed how the other boy’s actions were obviously because he didn’t want Laia to recognize who he is.

Good for him since Laia absolutely still had no idea who he was even up close.

“Sammy!” Brie dashes towards the asshat whose lips and nose were already bleeding probably from all the punches his face received.

“I’m fine,” The asshat pulls away from Brie and narrowed his eyes at the other boy who was currently standing behind Laia.

“Is that all you got, Sawyer?” He even had the energy to goad the other boy.

Sawyer, or the other boy, immediately responded to the asshat’s goading and rolled his eyes. It was evident that he was barely keeping his anger in check. “Do you really want me to continue in your current state?

“Enough!” Niel yells and pushes the other boy away without fear. “Do you want me to post this video on the Internet?!”

Sawyer waves his hand dismissively and he steps back. “That’s unnecessary,”

“You should know out of all people that violence is never the answer,” Brie stands up in front of the asshat who was still on the floor with a defensive stance. “Leave him alone, Sawyer!”

“Brie,” Sawyer turns to Brie with a bored expression on his face. “Apparently, you just have to be here,”

Brie glares at him, irritation obvious in her features. “Why are you even here in the first place and punching Sammy in public no less?! Don’t you care about your so-called crystal clear reputation of being a good person on or off stage?!”

On or off-stage? What does Brie mean?

Is this Sawyer a celebrity or an influencer to say the least? Laia should definitely start watching dramas more or see her YouTube recommendations to keep up with everything or more like everyone who’s gained popularity.

Sawyer laughs dryly and glances at his younger brother who was still on the floor. “If only my little brother here decided to go on his merry way after I greeted him instead of irritating me so much then he wouldn’t have a fresh bruise on his face right now,”

Of course, it was the asshat who started the fight, Laia thinks. But isn’t she missing something more important?

The short-haired girl’s eyes widened in realization. Little brother?

Oh hell, Laia turns to the asshat who had a grimace on his face and back at Sawyer. So this is the fiancee of the girl that the asshat has a relationship with as well?

Laia definitely doesn’t know the whole story but she’ll probably kick the asshat in the balls too if he was dating her supposed fiancee.

“Or maybe you were just angered by how true my words were–”

“Stop it with the self-justifying act,” Sawyer cuts his brother off immediately and gives his brother a disgusted look. “Get over your high horse for once.”

Before even waiting for his younger brother to respond to his words, Sawyer left with a brief wave.

“What an entrance and an exit,” Niel whispers.

Laia was quick to elbow him in the side.

Brie helps the asshat to stand on his feet. “I’ll definitely tell uncle about him don’t worry–”

“Don’t bother,” The asshat pulls away from Brie and awkwardly wobbles towards the door of Brewing. “It’s obvious who the old man will side with,”

“You don’t know that–”

The asshat glared at the long-haired girl who flinches. “I know, Brie. I know more than you will ever know.”

Laia could only watch the asshat slowly make his way inside of Brewing.

Keith approaches the girl after the asshat settled to sit down on a nearby empty table. “Hey, shouldn’t you at least clean his wounds?”

“Why would I?” Laia asks.

Why should she be the one to attend to the asshat’s wounds? Brie’s literally over there–

Brie was gone.

“Where did she go?” Laia turned to Niel who pointed to the opposite direction of Brewing. “But–”

“I really think he needs help,” Keith points at the asshat again with more urgency in his tone this time. “There’s no maliciousness involved–”

“I will murder you–”

“Uhm, I think he fainted due to him seeing his blood,” Niel elbows Laia whose eyes widened upon seeing the asshat’s unconscious state. “Maybe take him home so we won’t be accussed of murder?”

“Who’s taking the asshat home now?!”

Niel gave her a deadpanned stare. “Who else has a house just a kilometer away? Of course you, dear.”

Laia hates her friends.