Laia & The Transferee - Chapter 57

THE ASSHAT was still sitting down on the same chair from earlier, gazing at the stars that finally decided to show themselves.

“You’re still not going home?”

He turns to her with a grin. “Are you that excited to see me leave?”

Laia shrugs and sits next to the asshat whose grin noticeably widened at the girl’s spontaneous move. “It’s already ten and we still have class tomorrow,”

“Would you let me borrow your notes if I decide to not show myself tomorrow?”

Her brows furrowed. “You do realize that our exams are just weeks away, right?”

The boy cocks his head to the side as if genuinely curious as to why the girl is so anxious about the exams. “And?”

“We have a lot of quizzes for weeks to come,” She blows a strand of hair upwards, making the asshat beside her chuckle. “Don’t get me started on how we have to get high scores because of how we flunked our History report,”

Laia cringes again upon remembering how bad their report was. Even if weeks had already passed since the details were still fresh on her mind that she couldn’t help but shake her head in agony whenever the memories resurfaced.

Her teacher’s disappointed (and amused) face still lingered on her mind. He was barely even able to look at their faces when they completely flunked their skit and how the reporting was a bunch of stuttering and missed opportunities of conveying the report’s details in a better way.

The asshat seemed to notice Laia’s internal turmoil and he grins. “Are you reminiscing our entertaining report?”

She gives him a deadpanned stare. “You mean our disastrous reporting?”

He couldn’t fight back a loud laugh. “Yeah, exactly,” He suddenly stands up from the chair and looks at Laia in a way that Laia couldn’t understand. “Sir Mathias’s face was funny since he seriously had no idea how to react,”

His laugh was annoyingly.. pleasing to hear.

Laia hides her smile behind her hand, trying not to look amused. “I don’t think it was funny how he gave us a barely passing grade though,”

“Yeah,” The boy clicks his tongue. “An eighty? Really? I, for one, thought that the skit was a funny one and was definitely entertaining everyone as well especially when I almost had to kiss Jake for a higher grade–”

“Are you seriously remembering that detail amongst every other detail?” Laia couldn’t restrain a laugh this time. “Don’t tell me you were looking forward to kissing your best friend?”

He wolfishly grins and once again cuts off the space between him and the girl in one swift motion. “Were you looking forward to seeing me kiss my best friend?”

Laia decided not to let the asshat win whatever competition this was that involved them staring into one’s another’s eyes and so leaned even closer. “If I told you that I did, would you have kissed him?”

“Would you have liked me to abide by what you want?”

“It would be refreshing to see you listen to what I want for once,” Laia leans back but kept her eyes on what the asshat might do next.

The asshat kept his gaze on the girl in front of him but said nothing. It was almost as if he was satisfied with just looking at her, almost like she was a painting that he would rather appreciate than touch.

Someone’s phone ringing interrupted the comfortable silence between the two and the asshat was quick to excuse himself to answer the call once he noticed who was the person calling.

Laia didn’t bother following after him or trying to eavesdrop on the conversation between the boy and whoever called him as she would probably do before.

Or to others.

However, she regretted it when the boy came back to where she was with an infuriated expression that she was something new to her as she was used to seeing his face with a carefree grin or a smirk that she somehow grew to tolerate.

“I’m going home,” He says, his hand already holding on the gate and pushing it forward. “See you,”

Laia didn’t let him leave easily and reached out for his other hand which was holding on to his phone. “What happened?”

The boy pulls his hand free from the girl’s grasp. “Nothing,”

A frown appeared on the girl’s face at how the boy suddenly became cold and dismissive out of nowhere when they were just having a good conversation not even five minutes ago. What could’ve been the conversation all about that it made him like this?

“You know that you can talk to me,” She tried to catch his eyes but he kept his gaze straight ahead, almost as if he just wanted to leave and not even bother explaining himself to Laia. “Samuel,”

The boy’s eyes widened and with a tug on his shirt, the girl was able to make him look at her for a while but the asshat sighed deeply and walked towards his car.

But not without having the final word, it seems. “Can I really talk to you, though?”

And before Laia could even respond, the boy had already left and the sound of his car’s engine was the only sign for the girl that he was there.

Laia tried her best to sleep that night without thinking of the asshat’s expression before he left.

The next morning came quicker than Laia wanted.

Rubbing her eyes when the sun’s rays had once again crept from behind the curtains, she groggily made her way to the comfort room to wash her face.

After washing her face and taking a shower as well, she carefully checks on her mother who was still sleeping soundly. The girl was quick to come up with a decision to not bother her mother and instead made her way to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

“Hmm, maybe this amount of eggs is enough,” Laia whispers to herself as she cracked three eggs and started to beat them in a separate bowl. “Okay, here’s to hoping I don’t end up burning them,”

She slowly poured the eggs into the pan that she had already heated up beforehand and started scrambling them gently. When she deemed them ready, she sprinkled some fresh herbs over the scrambled eggs and placed them on another plate.

“Mmm,” Laia nods in satisfaction after taking a bite. “I really am a good cook,”

Her eyes drifted towards the clock. Still two hours before class starts and she’s already halfway through her breakfast.

She gazed at the textbooks that she could see in her open bag. Should she study more or is the amount of studying she did yesterday enough?

Laia grumbles when she remembered the eighty they received again. “Looks like it’ll be studying for the next hour or so,”

Washing her plate and utensils didn’t take much time like she expected and in no time she was already studying once again with her earphones plugged in.

The girl absentmindedly drummed her fingers on the table when she came across a particular confusing paragraph that she had to reread. “Huh? I don’t remember reading this yesterday,”

But again, she didn’t have the chance to resume studying for the whole day yesterday because of a certain asshat who decided to appear out of nowhere and yet decided to leave without a proper explanation.

Great. Now she’s thinking of the asshat instead of focusing on reading her History book and writing notes to ace a quiz or another performance task that their teacher might decide to throw towards them.

Laia decided that she hated his guts.

An hour passed quickly and the alarm that Laia set on her phone made it vibrate.

The girl closed her textbook and returned it to her bag which she zipped close. She was about to text Brie for a ride when a car suddenly honked in front of her house which she wasn’t surprised to see that it was Brie.

Laia sometimes thinks that she’s surrounded by people who can read minds or can predict the future.

“Good morning!” Brie greets, pushing the passenger’s door open for Laia.

Laia raised her hand to protect her eyes from the sun’s rays that seemed to want to blind her. “Good morning,”

Brie smiles sheepishly at her friend when Laia didn’t lower her hands from protecting her eyesight. “I thought it would be a cloudy day that’s why I brought my convertible,” She reaches blindly for a compartment in front of Laia and hands her friend sunglasses. “Here, use this,”

The girl looked at it with anxiety. “What if I end up scratching it or worse, break it?”

“Laia, you’re so tense for no reason,” Brie steps on the brakes upon seeing the red light and took the opportunity to help her friend wear the sunglasses. “Just wear them,”

Laia was still anxious but tried her best to not look too awkward but seemed to have failed when Brie would giggle every time she stole a glance at her friend.

It didn’t take very long for them to reach their destination, which apparently was the Brewing. She casts a bewildered look at her friend who was already taking her wallet from her bag. “Aren’t we just fifteen minutes away from being late?”

Brie ignores her friend’s concerns and left the car in a hurry. She soon returned with two lattes which she handed one to her friend who stared at the latte, puzzled. “What’s this?”

“A latte?” Brie innocently replies after drinking from her weird-looking latte. “I got you vanilla since I know you don’t like pumpkin,”

Laia rolled her eyes. “I mean, why did you buy me one? I already told you that you don’t have to buy me anything–”

“Laia,” Brie holds her friend’s hands tightly after placing her latte on the space between her thighs. “Don’t worry about the smallest of things okay? Just accept it without overthinking, honestly, it’s not even expensive!”

“But–”

“No buts,” Brie’s manicured nails glistened under the sun as she placed them on the steering wheel to resume driving again. “Are we late?”

Laia glances at her watch. Five minutes left before the flag ceremony starts.

“If you’re not counting the flag ceremony then we’re not,”

“Hmm,” Brie suddenly drove slower, making some of the cars behind them honk loudly. “I don’t feel like attending the flag ceremony anyway,”

Laia knew she should scold her best friend but she just laughs and sips from her latte which she grew to love.