Chapter 31: Arcadia

(Michelle POV)

"I wonder what kind of friends she has that she won't even hang out with us. Anyhow, let's go guys." Angie said.

Eh? What did I ever do to her? Was there something wrong with her brain? Like, bitch, we just literally met a week ago. Though it's been longer than that for me. Oh, was it because of the photocopying thing?

Our blockmates looked at me apologetically, not really wanting a confrontation.

I wanted to say something in rebuttal, but she already walked away to open the door of our classroom.

Apparently, it was a good thing that I didn't have the chance to say anything, coz behind the door was Andy who was wearing a smile.

"Hi! Is Michelle Lui here?" he asked.

From where I'm at, I could see Angie's face turning red then purple. I wanted to laugh. That face slap must have hurt. Come on, which girl at this age doesn't know Andy Peng?

Angie turned to face me, and I just smiled, deep inside I wanted to smirk at her face and rub it in, but of course, I did not. As said, I wanted connections in this timeline. No need to make unnecessary enemies.

Andy looked at the same direction Angie was looking at and saw me. "Hey Mich! Steven and Lara are waiting at the parking area. Let's go?"

I nodded my head. Then, being the nice girl that I was, I smiled at my blockmates. "Uh guys, thanks for inviting me, but I'll go ahead. See you tomorrow!"

--

I tried to stifle my laughter as I walked with Andy to the parking area. Ah, the look on my blockmates faces, specially that of Angie, was just too golden. I know it's shallow, but I can't help it.

"You seem happy. Did something good happen?" Andy asked.

I turned to look at him and saw that he was smiling at me with his handsome face. 'Ah… so refreshingly handsome, truly deserving the title of Nation's husband.'

I shook my head, "Nothing really, I just remembered something funny.", then not wanting to tell him what exactly happened, I changed the topic, "By the way, which mall are we heading to? I would need to call my driver."

"Not sure yet as it was Lara's suggestion, though no need to call your driver. Since it will just be the four of us, we can share a ride in Steven's car."

"Ok." So, should I consider this scenario a double date? Ugh. Stop that. Clearly, this should be labeled as hanging out with friends.

--

When the two of us arrived at the parking area, the scene that welcomed us was that of Steve using his right hand to tuck Lara's hair behind her ear.

I know I said that I'm totally ok with it, but who am I fooling? It hurts. It's like my heart was being pricked by thousands of needles while my stomach felt like it's being twisted into knots. Could I just say that I don't feel well and opt out of this outing? Honestly, all I want to do now was go find some corner where I can wallow up in all my sorrows.

Andy cleared his throat and the two finally noticed that they have company.

Steve quickly pulled his hand away, as if he has been caught doing something he was not supposed to. He turned to face me and Andy but did not say anything. He just walked to the side to enter his car.

Lara was left leaning on the car, blushing with a shy smile of a girl in love clearly plastered on her face. Since Steve was already in the car, she turned to face Andy and gave him a glare.

"You really have impeccable timing. Couldn't you just have waited for a few more seconds before interrupting?" Lara complained with a low voice so that Steve won't hear.

Andy chuckled as he shook his head.

Lara gave him an eyeroll, then finally noticing me she greeted, "Hi Michelle. Sorry for not going with Andy to fetch you. Anyhow, how's your class been?" she asked as she moved to wrap her arms around mine.

I wanted to untangle her hold on me, but I knew that that was being unfair. Lara has been nice to me, and although it was just these 2 days, I can feel that she was being genuine. Aside from that, she and Steve were not doing anything wrong. There's no basis for me to blame any one of them for my feelings of heartache and jealousy. This was their timeline. I should get used to the sight of them together, stop over-reacting and just live with it. Telling myself those, I was able to recover my cool.

"Class was ok. So, where are we going?" I asked as I smiled back at her.

"To Arcadia, it's the nearest mall here and we'll get there in just 15 minutes. Now, let's go inside the car." Lara replied as she walked to the side of the car.

This was the time I noticed what kind of car Steve was driving and I can only scream in my head. A Lambhorgini Murcielago? Seriously? I mean, ok, I shouldn't be surprised as he was after all the son of the Sy's. But it's just difficult to not relate him to the picture of the Steve in my head.

Anyhow, I walked to follow Lara while hoping no one noticed how astonished I was. Don't want them to think I'm strange and only want to be friends with them because of their family.

Another thing which surprised me was that Lara chose to sit at the back with me rather than riding shotgun. It was very nice and considerate of her.

On the way to the mall, she engaged me in a girly conversation while Andy, who was sitting in front, interjected some jokes from time to time.

When we arrived, Lara chose to walk with me while the boys walked behind us. I noticed some people stealing glances at Andy but nothing excessive. Though there was one group of girls who asked to take a picture with him, and we somewhat became the cameramen.

Anyway, we shopped for our materials and ate lunch together. We even went to the arcade and played games. Everything flowed smoothly between us, and it just felt comfortable like we have been long-time friends.

Lara was the one who mostly led the conversations, I would answer and share inputs, Andy would also, while Steven just talked when spoken to.

When the time reached 2:15, we knew that we needed to head back to school as our next class was at 3:00 pm.

--

TBC