Laia & The Transferee - Chapter 84

“IT’S BEEN THREE MONTHS since we last talked,” Laia says, trying her best to act nonchalant but was actually feeling the complete opposite. “I last saw him on our graduation day,”

“What?!” Vivi exclaims, splashing water around when she abruptly moved towards Laia. “You’re kidding,”

“She’s not,” Brie turns to her friend with a sympathetic expression. “Sammy didn’t even inform Laia that he was already on his way to Germany two months ago,”

“What the hell,” Thalia whispers on Laia’s left. “That’s just a dick move,”

Shane scoffs. “What the hell’s gotten into him?”

“He doesn’t even reply to any of Laia’s messages and his phone is always unreachable whenever Laia tries to call him,” Brie adds, anger evident in her voice. “He didn’t even bother to do anything to reassure Laia about their relationship–”

“We’re not in a relationship,” Laia interjects, her words immediately catching the attention of the four girls with her. “We weren’t officially together in any sense–”

“But he confessed to you!” Thalia cuts her off. “He even told you and showed to you how much he liked you!”

“How do you know that?” Laia asks, genuinely confused at how frustrated Thalia seemed to be at what she just learned.

Thalia’s eyes widened like she was caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to do. Nevertheless, she cleared her throat and started talking. “Samuel would confide to me sometimes,”

“Confide?” It was Shane’s turn to be as confused as Laia is.

“He tells me how he doesn’t really know what or how to show you how much he adored you,” Thalia slides down the hot tub until her chin was just above the water. “He asked for my advice, seeing that I have a boyfriend–”

“You have a boyfriend?!” Brie exclaims.

Vivi elbows her. “Of course she does, haven’t you seen her and her boyfriend flirting by the school gates every morning and during dismissal time?”

“Oh, he goes to a different school?”

Thalia blushes. “Yes, he’s older,”

“Spicy!” Brie wiggled her eyebrows. “I didn’t know you liked your men old–”

“He’s not that old!” Thalia exclaims in obvious embarrassment. “He’s just two years older, that’s all,”

“Hey!” Shane clapped her hands together loudly to catch everyone’s attention. “We’re diverting away from the topic! Thalia, what did Samuel say to you about Laia?”

“I’d rather not know to be honest–”

“Shush!” Shane goes as far as to cover Laia’s mouth with her wet hand which Laia pushes away. “Oops, sorry about the hand,”

Thalia cleared her throat. Her ears were still red from being put in the hot seat earlier but nobody said a thing about it and focused on her next words. “As I was saying, Samuel asked for advice regarding how to treat Laia right,”

“How did that treating me right turn out, I wonder,” Laia says sarcastically.

Thalia sympathetically places her hand on Laia’s shoulder before continuing. “That’s why I’m absolutely perplexed and frustrated to find out from Laia herself that Samuel had the audacity to ghost her after all the tips and advice that I gave him,”

Shane frowned. “Not that I’m defending Sammy in any way, because I’m definitely on your side Laia don’t worry,” She raised her legs and hugged them. “But don’t you guys think it’s a bit fishy for Sammy to suddenly act that way when he was everything but an asshole on our graduation day?”

“That’s true,” Vivi nods and lets out a cackle. “I even saw how timid he looked in front of your mother and grandmother! He honestly looked like he was about to piss his pants!”

Brie agrees with a nod and turns to Laia who tried to keep an impassive expression on her face. “Laia, what do you think?”

Laia was reluctant to share her own thoughts but decided to say it. “His father,”

“The Senator? What’s wrong with him?” Shane asks.

Brie visibly paled beside Laia. It was obvious that she already knew what her friend was referring to. “Do you think he had something to do about it?”

“I don’t know,” Laia says. “But he invited us to go get lunch with him during our graduation day and I said no,”

“Did he get angry? I heard he had terrible anger issues,” Shane leans closer, evidently interested in the current topic on hand.

Laia had a sudden thought that one of the primary reasons why Shane is interested in the topic involving the Senator is because of her father being a politician as well and it’s always a good thing to have blackmail material.

She shakes those thoughts away and replied to the girl’s question. “He seemed more interested to be honest,”

“Interested?”

“Interested in the whole situation between me and Samuel,” Laia adds, thinking back to the almost terrifying-like smile that appeared on the Senator’s lips after she turned down his invitation. “It was weird,”

“Well, he is weird,” Vivi shrugs and raised an eyebrow when the girls turned to her in confusion. “Don’t you think it’s weird and suspicious how his wife who literally looks more like his daughter or would even pass as Sammy’s younger sister if she stopped wearing those clothes that don’t seem to fit her image married him in the first place–”

“Helena said it was love at first sight,” Brie cuts Vivi off with an uneasy expression on her face. “They met when Helena was in her last year of college–”

“Met when now?!” Shane exclaims. Laia remembered just now how Shane had always been against relationships with huge age gaps.

Shane’s outburst had something to do about her cousin getting married to an older dude before and ended up getting cheated on once he found someone younger. It was really messy and Laia remembered how angry Shane was when she told them about it one rainy Friday.

“Uh–”

“Shane, calm down,” Laia gently placed her hands on Shane’s shoulders and massaged them in an effort to calm the girl down.

“I’m sorry,” Shane says after a while. “I just had flashbacks to how my cousin got cheated on by an old man,”

“Wasn’t he middle aged dude?”

“Not the point, Viv,”

“Anyway,” Thalia cleared her throat loudly to stop the impending argument between Shane and Vivi who were already staring daggers at one another. “Laia, what do you think? Do you think that the Samuel’s dad had something to do about his sudden disappearance and ghosting or was it all Samuel after all?”

Laia looks away. She didn’t have the courage to respond to her friends immediately, afraid of getting pity (which she hated) if she decided to agree with how the asshole’s ghosting had something to do with his father or having her friends have sad expressions on their faces if she decided to agree on how it was all the asshole’s doing (since they’re all friends with him and are probably thinking by now that he’s completely innocent).

“Hey,” Brie swam in front of Laia as if defending and hiding her from their friends. “Let’s not pressure Laia about what she thinks about the whole Samuel situation, okay? She needs some time to process everything that had been revealed in this circle,”

“Sorry Laia,” Thalia hugs Laia from the side. “I didn’t mean to pressure you,”

“It’s fine,” It wasn’t. “I know you didn’t mean to,”

“We’re just as confused as you are,” Vivi confides after a while of awkward silence. “We really had no idea that Sammy was doing that to you,”

Laia couldn’t stifle a laugh. “You’re acting like he did something really bad–”

“Laia,” Vivi suddenly swam in front of Laia and stared straight into her eyes. “You don’t have to act so strong in front of us,”

When Laia didn’t reply, Vivi continued. “We won’t see you as a weak girl if you let us hear what you really want to say and show us what you really want to show us,”

Thalia looped her arm around Laia’s. “We won’t judge you,”

“You’re our friend,” Shane smiles reassuringly. “All the conversations here would stay with us unless you want someone outside our circle to know,”

Brie herself swam back to Laia’s side and rested her head on her friend’s shoulder. “We would appreciate it if you let us lend you our shoulders but it’s completely okay if you keep things to yourself,”

Laia watched each of the four girls that she was with who had identical sincere expressions on their faces.

She lets out a few deep breaths and contemplated between telling her friends or not.

In the end, she decided against telling them since the fear of them judging and pitying her at the same time won.

Laia shook her head gently. “Don’t worry,” She tries to smile but failed after seeing the subtle changes in the expressions in the faces of her friends. “I’m seriously fine,”

She saw in the corner of her eye how Shane’s mouth opened and was probably about to say something but Vivi placed her hand in her  friend’s thigh which stopped her from saying a single word.

A few minutes passed of the five girls having small talks and meaningless conversations until Laia stood up and gestured at her watch which shockingly didn’t end up getting broken after being submerged in water. “I got to go home,”

“I’ll drive you,” Brie says and stood up from the hot tub.

The rest of the girls stood up from the hot tub as well. Vivi reached out for Laia’s hand. “You’ll be in the airport tomorrow, right?”

Laia nodded, accepting the tight hug that she received from Vivi with open arms. “Of course, Viv,”

She hugs Thalia and then Shane next, who apparently would stay for the night.

“Take care of yourselves, okay? Get home safe,”

“We’ll be fine, mom,” Thalia teases Shane who smacks her in the back in return. “I’ll return your car tomorrow unscratched!”

After Brie got hugs from both Thalia and Vivi who the three saw enter Vivi’s room after they completely dried themselves off, they made their way outside.

Thalia points at the car parked just in front of Vivi’s house. “That’s my ride,” She hugged Laia and Brie at the same time. “See you tomorrow,”

“See you!”

The drive back home was silent except for the radio that played familiar but title less songs (at least to Laia) in the background.

They reached Laia’s house in fifteen minutes and right when Laia was about to step out of Brie’s car, she receives a sudden tight hug from her friend.

“Laia,” Brie whispers in her friend’s ear. “I’m always here for you, okay?”

“I know,” Laia smiles. “Remember that I’m always here for you too, okay?”

Brie smiles brightly and after tightening the hug further, she finally lets Laia go.

Right after Laia locks the front door, the girl slid down to the floor and started crying, the sound of her sobbing the only indication that someone was in the room and in complete darkness.