Laia & The Transferee - Chapter 56

THE TWO FINISHED eating at around eight.

Laia watched how the asshat practically devoured everything in sight and she even offered to cook more chicken thighs for him but refused with a flush on his cheeks.

“I’m already full,”

The girl rolled her eyes at the asshat’s obvious lie but doesn’t insist.

He practically skips towards her when she was washing the dishes after they were both done eating. “Do you need help?”

Laia shakes her head. “Nah, it’s fine,” She cocks her head to the side. “But maybe you can help dry the plates?”

“Okay,”

The pair worked in silence. Laia would occasionally sneak glances at the boy beside her who remained silent contrary to how he would usually be the first to spark a conversation or just annoy her to no end.

“Is that all?” He asks.

“Uh-huh,” Laia accepts the dishcloth that the boy handed her and hangs it on one of the chairs. “Are you going home now?”

The boy turned to her with a curious look. “Do you want me to go home?”

“Don’t answer the question with another question,” She whacks him on the shoulder which the boy responds by sticking out his tongue at the girl playfully. “So, are you?”

“Am I?”

Laia narrowed her eyes at him. “Honestly, if you’re going to keep up with this–”

“What are you going to do?”

The girl’s eyes widened when the boy suddenly leaned in close. The proximity between them both confused and enthralled her, but she was quick to push him away. “Don’t you honestly have a sense of respecting someone’s space–”

“Why are you not looking at me?”

Not wanting to inflate the boy’s ego further, Laia looks at him. “Happy?”

He laughs and doesn’t take his eyes off her. “Yeah,”

Their eyes remained on one another until Laia looks away, clearing her throat. “Uh, let’s go out?”

“Like a date?”

“Idiot,” She rolls her eyes and pushes him towards the front door. “I meant to stargaze or whatever,”

The girl frowned at her words but didn’t take them back. She watched how the asshat sat on one of their outdoor chairs and started to stare at the sky above them which was bitterly dark. Laia followed him and sat on the chair beside him but pulled the chair a bit farther from him.

Having a small amount of space between their chairs is vital, especially when Laia doesn’t know what’s making her act like this and why the asshat is acting like how he is right now.

As if hearing her thoughts, the asshat turned to her. “Why are you so tense?”

“I’m not,” She kept her gaze above, trying to find stars but to no avail. It seems like the night sky thinks its presence alone is sufficient. “I’m just trying to get a good look on the stars,”

If there are any.

The asshat didn’t respond and Laia took the opportunity to enjoy the comfortable silence that lingered between them.

“Do you mind if I smoke?”

Laia turns to the asshat and sees him waving a cigarette. She frowns. “I didn’t know you smoked,”

“It’s sort of a reliever,”

The frown didn’t leave her face. “More like a silent killer, but knock yourself out,”

Instead of lighting his cigarette after the girl beside him let him, Laia was surprised to see how the asshat pocketed the cigarette and took out his smartphone in the process.

“I thought you wanted to smoke?”

He grins. “You didn’t want me to,”

Laia looks away. “I didn’t know you allow yourself to listen to other people at certain times,”

“Only to some,” He hums a familiar tune but Laia doesn’t comment on it. “Isn’t it disappointing to see that there are no stars tonight?”

The girl returned her gaze to the night sky above them. “I think it’s supposed to rain today, anyway,”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Don’t you watch the news? Or the weather channel? I mean, you obviously have access to a lot of channels,”

He folded his arms behind his head. “I don’t watch television very much,”

Laia rolled her eyes. Typical, he has a nice television set and he doesn’t even use it. He should just give it to her then, especially with how much of an avid fan her mother is when it comes to those cheesy soap dramas that they couldn’t watch sometimes if the signal was bad.

“What are you thinking of?”

“Huh?”

The boy stretches his arms and sits up straight, his eyes never leaving Laia. “I said, what’s got your head up the clouds?”

The fact that you’ve been staring at me the entire time. “Uh, nothing,”

He raises an eyebrow. “I don’t think it’s nothing based on how you still have that look on your face,”

“What look?”

The asshat mimics the so-called look that Laia had on her face and Laia burst into uncontrollable laughter, looking away for a moment to wipe the tears on her eyes from laughing too much at what the boy just did.

He honestly should try being a comedian. Or a mime.

She was about to suggest that when the gate suddenly opened and revealed a very drunk Layla who was barely able to walk. “Laia!”

“Mom?”

The older woman wobbled left and right towards her daughter and almost fell flat on her face if the asshat didn’t hold her arm, helping Laia make her mother sit down on one of the chairs.

“Mom, I already told you not to drink so much,”

“Ugh,” Her mother waves the girl’s concerns away with her hand. “Can you get me a glass of water?”

“Okay–”

“On it,” The asshat was quick to move past Laia and walk towards the house, only to return with a glass of water which he handed to the older woman. “Here you go, auntie,”

As if seeing the boy for the first time, the older woman’s eyes brightened. “Oh, if this isn’t my daughter’s boyfriend,”

Laia and Samuel exchanged glances with Laia shaking her head in embarrassment at her mother’s wrong assumption.

The asshat merely laughs. “I didn’t know we were together,” He even winks at Laia who glares at him in return for he was obviously taking advantage of the older woman’s drunk state. “Since when have we been together, auntie?”

“Uh,” The girl’s mother starts to think and clapped her hands together in a childish manner. “Since the first time you visited!”

Laia cringes and even steps away from her mother who continued clapping her hands like she was on one of those reality shows that she adored.

The boy beside her didn’t seem to mind the older woman’s childishness and seemed to be entertained. “Really? Because last time I checked your daughter here,” He points at her. “Hates me to the bone,”

His words made Laia turn to him with a flabbergasted expression. Sure she hated him at first and even probably until now, but that doesn’t mean their relationship hasn’t improved over the months.

Or was it all one-sided? Was Laia the only one who thought that their relationship had improved and would probably even turn into friendship if she finally allows herself to see the asshat past their academic rivalry?

Was she the only person who thought of what’s next between them or that they are already less than enemies?

Oh well.

Her depressing thoughts were interrupted by her mother who laughs loudly, even hitting the boy on the shoulder. “Laia doesn’t hate you! She just has these walls that are harder for others to collapse and move past through,” She even had the gall to wink at her daughter like she had done her a favor. “My daughter wants someone to see past all her insecurities and make her feel like she’s worthy like everybody else is–”

Laia puts a hand to cover her mother’s mouth as she gently pulls her to stand. “Come on mom, you need rest,”

“But darling, I still want to talk to Samuel–”

“Samuel absolutely understands that you need to sleep,” She narrowed her eyes at him and silently threatens him if he ever decides to oppose. “Now let’s get you prepared for bed, okay?”

“Uh,” Her mother mumbles. “Okay,”

The asshat stayed back. Laia thinks it’s probably due to her silent threat from earlier or maybe he just didn’t want to see how Laia would have to help her mother shower and change clothes for the next thirty minutes or so.

“I’m sorry for getting drunk again,” Her mother says after Laia lays her down on her bed and carefully places a soft pillow underneath her mother’s head. “My coworkers just wanted to have some fun and I didn’t want to be spoilsport if I didn’t join them and don’t worry about the money, they paid for it! It’s the least they could do after they forced me to drink all those beers and cocktails–”

Laia sighs. “Mom,”

Her mother stops ranting and turns to her daughter with a sad smile. “All my ranting’s probably making your head hurt,” She gently holds her daughter’s hand. “Don’t worry about me and go back to your boyfriend–”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Laia interjects with a scowl because she seriously had enough of her mother’s false assumptions. “And would never probably be seeing at how out of my league he is,”

The older woman frowns. “What do you mean, darling?”

Laia exaggeratedly makes big movements with her hands. “He’s one of the richest students on our university mom,” She rolls her eyes upon remembering all the cars the boy owned when he was probably just the same age as Laia or older. “Don’t even get me started at how influential his family is–”

Even if his dad is an asshole.

“Oh honey,” Her mother smiles at her. “Don’t you watch those romantic comedies that I adore? Status is never an issue when both parties love another,”

Laia rolls her eyes. “That’s just the way they make their audience watch their shows more and milk our money dry,”

However, her mother didn’t seem to hear her daughter as she continued talking with an almost reminiscing tone.

“You might say that most romantic comedies are exaggerated but it is not!”

“Whatever you say,” Laia gave up and instead stands up from where she was sitting, kissing her mother on the forehead instead. “Good night, mom,”

The older woman waves. “Don’t stay up too late to talk with Samuel,”

Laia rolls her eyes but continues to walk towards where the asshat is.