Laia & The Transferee - Chapter 69

THIS DAY WAS supposed to go unsurprisingly uneventful.

The results of the examinations were announced by dismissal period as usual and Laia got perfect scores on all of her examinations.

The entire time while everybody celebrated and congratulated her she felt someone’s lingering stare on her. However, she didn’t check.

She just had a gut feeling she would regret it.

Laia had a shift in the Brewing today which at least made her day better, especially after she decided to tell everything that happened yesterday without any sort of filter and in a one-sided manner to Niel and Keith who may or maybe not be the ideal people to tell secrets to.

Oh well.

“What the actual fuck did he just do again?”

“Do you seriously want me to repeat everything that I just said?” Laia gave her friend a deadpanned stare as she sipped from her coffee.

Keith crossed his arms. “Did you call him out on it?”

“I just left,” Laia tried to look nonchalant but based on how both Niel and Keith looked at her dubiously she obviously failed.

“I didn’t know you were the type to walk away in an argument,” Niel sips from his pumpkin latte. Laia still has no idea why her friend likes pumpkin lattes. “Did he at least follow you?”

Laia shook her head. “No,”

“Ugh, he’s such an asshole,” Niel makes weird movements with his hands which he usually does when he’s feeling frustrated. “Was it awkward today at school? Did he attempt to talk to you or something along the lines?”

“We didn’t talk,” More like Laia ignored and avoided him the entire time. “I was busy,”

“Busy avoiding him?” Keith hands his coworker a cupcake which the girl happily accepts. Keith is a miracle when it comes to baking even if Niel doesn’t admit it. “Did you at least try to figure out why he suddenly acted like that? There might be something missing in the picture–”

Niel pushes his half-empty pumpkin latte on the taller boy’s hands. “The only missing in the picture is Samuel having decent manners–”

“Shush!” Laia glances around to see if anybody might have overheard. Fortunately, everyone seemed to be distracted by their own problems seeing that it was still examination week for the other schools. “Don’t say his name out loud!”

“Why not?” Niel rolls his eyes and takes a bite out of Laia’s cupcake making the girl smack him on the head. “Ouch! What did I say about violence not being the answer to everything–”

“What did I say about not taking a bite from the cupcakes that Keith gives me?” Laia stuck her tongue out to Niel who was still rubbing his forehead. “Keith, how about giving Niel a cupcake of his own–”

“Don’t bother,”

“Okay, on it,”

Niel glares at her friend when Keith disappeared inside the kitchen. “Why are you like this?”

Laia innocently sips from her coffee. “Like what?”

The boy rolled his eyes. “Instead of trying to create whatever you want to create between me and that annoying golden retriever,” Laia laughs at how Niel would occasionally steal glances to see if Keith would suddenly appear and overhear. “How about you fix your own love story first?”

It was Laia’s turn to glare at her friend. “Love story? As if,” She pulls her hair to tie it in a tight bun. “The only story happening in my life is the occasional hindrances that I have to encounter from time to time,”

Hindrances being the asshole’s family members, especially his father whose smile still sends shivers up to Laia’s spine until now.

“Hindrances or entertainment?”

“Entertainment,” Laia scoffs. “Really? You think being humiliated entertains my so-called monotone life?”

“I’m just saying,” Niel shrugs. “Not that I’m siding with the golden retriever, but you did mention how his mood seemed to have soured after getting those notifications on his phone–”

“And?”

Niel smacks her in the head making Laia yelp. “Let me finish,” He ignores his friend’s glare. “What if those notifications were that bad that it made him change his attitude real quick?”

“How bad can a notification possibly be for him to throw money on our table, leave without a single word, return with his girlfriend or whatever, and then after his girlfriend left he blames me for everything and even humiliates me in front of everyone?”

The boy was silent for a while but speaks after clicking his tongue. “What if his girlfriend planned everything?”

“Now you’re just talking nonsense,” Laia stood up from her seat but was stopped by Keith who arrives with a tray of cupcakes in his hand. Laia reluctantly sits back down. “Ugh, I’m only staying and listening to your nonsense because of Keith’s cupcakes,”

Keith glanced back and forth at his coworkers. “What did I miss?”

And yet nobody responded to him and instead Niel continued on to what he was talking about earlier. “I’m just saying, didn’t you mention how he had already left and returned with his girlfriend? Do you really think it was a coincidence that he went back to the same shop with her? A normal guy wouldn’t bring his new date to the same place he went to with his first date–”

“It wasn’t a date–”

Niel shoves a cupcake on Laia’s mouth, rendering her speechless. He continues again. “And how fast did you say she arrived?”

Laia shows his friend a five using her hands since she was still chewing on the cupcake shoved inside her mouth.

The boy was quick to understand that Laia meant five minutes, which was a half-truth. Laia actually didn’t know exactly how fast was the interval between the asshole leaving and returning with his girlfriend but she was definitely sure that it didn’t take more than ten minutes to say the least.

Resuming his “thinking” position, Niel remained silent and completely lost in his thoughts while Keith would continuously hand him cupcakes.

Laia restrained herself from gagging at their sweetness. She could feign barfing openly but knew that she would receive another smack on her head if she did.

Finally, Niel speaks out regarding his thoughts. “Miss Girlfriend definitely planned everything from scratch–”

“Really? You were silent for more than ten minutes while munching on cupcakes and that’s your conclusion?” Laia deadpans.

“True,” Keith takes a bite from one of his cupcakes. “I don’t think it was the girlfriend’s idea–”

“Why are you siding with one another?!” Niel exclaims angrily.

Laia rolled her eyes and beckoned for her friend to sit back down. “Calm down with the hysterics, we have customers,”

“Oops,” Niel sheepishly waved at some of their curious customers who glanced in their direction. “Nothing to see or hear here,”

“More like a lot,” Keith chuckles and immediately earned a smack on his shoulder from a still angry Niel.

“We weren’t siding with one another,” Laia clarifies. She sighs when Niel still looked dubious. “It just doesn’t make sense to think or come up with the conclusion that it was all Amethyst’s doing,”

“Oh, I completely forgot about Amethyst being your asshole’s girlfriend,” Niel sips from his coffee again and then lowered his voice in a whisper. “And apparently also the fiancee of your asshole’s actor older brother–”

“Ah!” It was Laia’s turn to shove a cupcake down her friend’s throat. “Don’t say that out loud!”

Niel glared at her while he chewed on the cupcake inside of his mouth. He only started to talk when he finally swallowed it. “I was whispering, idiot!”

Keith glanced back and forth between his friends. “Uh,”

“What?!” The two hissed at the boy in unison.

The boy raised his finger and pointed outside. Laia tilts her head to the side to see who or what was Keith referring to and her eyes widened at the same time as Niel lets out a loud cackle.

“Here comes lover boy!” Niel starts wiggling his eyebrows at a very perplexed Laia who immediately averted her eyes from the figure outside.

The figure being the asshat, who else.

Honestly, Laia wouldn’t really be surprised if she ends up finding out that the asshole can know straight away if people are talking shit about him and where the location of those people are.

God, Laia wouldn’t even pretend to be terrified if she finds out that the asshole can read minds and hear thoughts like her earlier hypotheses.

“Great,” Laia stood up from her chair and quickly ran to the kitchen, hiding behind the door. Niel and Keith followed her with Niel having a teasing grin and Keith is torn between being worried or being amused at the whole situation. “Ugh, tell me if he’s gone already,”

Niel’s grin disappeared as he rolled his eyes in his usual dramatic way. “Babe, you literally saw each other earlier in class, what’s the difference?”

Keith agrees with a nod. Laia narrowed her eyes at him since they were supposed to be on the same team but he continues anyway. “Don’t you think he’ll find it suspicious that you’re obviously hiding from him?”

“I don’t care,” Laia says flatly. “I’ll treat you to some street food later just don’t make me cater to him–”

“Ah,” Niel glances at the door of the coffee shop which just opened. “Here he comes,”

Before his two friends could convince her further to come out of her hiding spot, Laia had already closed and locked the door.