"Zee." Trixie called out to me right after dismissal which made even Mia and Katherine turn to her in surprise. Then Mia slowly smiled brightly while Katherine discreetly raised an eyebrow at me.
This was the very first time that Trixie spoke to me on her own accord ever since we had that confrontation. Although she had been avoiding me, I've been treating her like nothing happened which probably annoyed the hell out of her and made her feel like I was not taking any of these seriously.
So when she called out to me after several weeks of ignoring me, I beamed at her. "Yez?"
"Can we talk for a bit?" Trixie sighed in defeat. The reality that she was no match against this oddball must've hit her hard. Finally.
"Sure!" I was in the middle of packing my stuff to prepare for our rehearsal for the play but I went with her without hesitation.
She really did her best in trying to hate me and I found that really cute. Whenever Mia asked her to hang out after class, she would find all sorts of excuses not to come whenever I was around. During lunch, she made sure to keep her involvement in the conversation to the minimum. And these only made things harder for Mia who was really trying her best to patch us up. But Trixie held her ground for more than a month to my complete surprise. Unlike Katherine, Trixie was never the stubborn type. She's the kind of person that can be very sensitive but she never holds a grudge. So the more she tried to avoid me, the more I became very clingy towards her.
We chose to sit on the bench in front of the classroom and just like back then, we sat in silence and she didn't show any signs of starting the conversation. If it was any other day, I would have patiently waited until she's ready to talk. But I have to be in the rehearsal in 10 minutes so I took the initiative to speak first. "You finally got tired of it, didn't you?"
"Huh?" She turned to me with confusion.
"You got tired of purposely ignoring me and trying to find excuses to not hang out with the rest whenever I'm around. Isn't that why you finally decided to initiate talking to me?" I didn't intend for my tone to sound that serious because I had a grin plastered on my face. So to make up for that slip up, I flipped my hair to one side and winked at her. "I didn't expect you to hold out this long against my charm, though. My pride has been deeply hurt when you kept acting like that even after a month. Kudos to your stubbornness."
Trixie frowned. "I don't know how you can be this cool with this."
I chuckled and racked my brain for the best way to keep this conversation simple. "Are you in love with him?"
Trixie stiffened and took a deep breath. "I am."
I wasn't really surprised by her answer. And my attention was caught by the late afternoon sky that was tinged with coral orange and pink by the sunset. It was the perfect view to have while having this kind of conversation. "What is it like?"
"What do you mean?"
I watched as the lower clouds slowly drifted without care and obstructed my view. So I turned to Trixie who had been watching me. "I'm curious. What is it like to fall in love? And how did you know that you're already in love?"
Trixie looked like she's really confused with my questions but she still answered nevertheless. And she answered it with a dreamy smile on her face as she looked at the ground. "I want to see him everyday. I want to be the closest person to him. I feel jealous when I see someone else being close to him. And I want him to feel the same way."
'And I'm that someone else, I guess.'
I nodded. "I see. So that's how it is."
My reaction made Trixie frown with confusion. "Do you mean that you don't feel that way towards him?"
"No." I answered honestly.
"Then you're not--"
"That's good news right?" I smiled at her then looked back up at the sky. And before I could stop myself from saying it, I accidentally muttered my thoughts out loud. "I didn't know that love was that selfish."
"What?"
Thankfully, she didn't hear me properly.
"Nevermind." I stood up and dusted my skirt. "Then I guess we're all cleared here? I'll be rooting for you then. All the best."
I held out my hand to her with a smile and she took it, even though it was pretty obvious that she was feeling quite confused by my words. "T-thanks."
As soon as I left Trixie to get my stuff from the classroom, I received a message from Arthur.
[Art: See me in the garden for a minute.]
I let out an irritated breath and went anyway. "Why am I so in demand today?"
But when I got there and he was nowhere to be found, my anger tripled. That's why when he arrived a minute later, I blew off my steam at him. "WHY? Why can't you people leave this garden alone?! What is it this time? Another confession?"
He raised his hands up and blinked a couple of times in shock. "Someone confessed to you?"
A scowl formed on my face and I crossed my arms over my chest. "Just tell me what you need and get this over with. I'm already late for the rehearsal."
"I'm here to confess a lot of things. Skip practice today." He declared.
"Are you crazy? You want Teacher Beshy to kill me?" I pushed past him but he grabbed my arm to stop me and that really pissed me off. "Aish! Seriously! What is this about?"
"I overheard your conversation earlier with Trixie." He finally said.
That made me stiff then I looked at him suspiciously. "I don't think that we were talking that loud for you to overhear."
He narrowed his eyes at me as well then let out a breath. "Fine. I was eavesdropping. But that's not important. What's more important was the topic of your conversation. Did you tell her that you liked Craige? Is that why things were being really awkward between you two? And what? You'll be rooting for her? Are you being serious?"
"That's seriously none of your business, brother." I eyed him with disappointment. I knew that Arthur was nosy but I never expected him to be this nosy. "I can't believe that you actually listened to our conversation. That was a really private matter. Have you no conscience?"
"Just answer my question. Do you really don't feel that way towards Craige? Is it really okay with you if Trixie manages to snatch him away? Are you seriously going to root for her?" His tone rose with every sentence which really took me aback.
"Why the hell are you overreacting?!" I snapped back at him, not answering any of his questions. I did not have the time for all these girly shits from him. I have a rehearsal to attend and Teacher Beshy will definitely have my head for being late. Not to mention Joshua who's messages I've been ignoring since I started talking to Trixie. "You do realize that you're acting irrationally, don't you?"
"If there's anyone being irrational here, that would be you." He accused with a taut expression on his face. "You know that you like him.You like him a lot."
"What's your point?"
He put his hand on my shoulder. "Don't root for her and stand your ground. Giving up without putting up a fight was never your thing, sister. Don't start now."
My eyebrows twitched and I smirked with irritation. "Why is everyone trying so hard to get on my case? Why are you all making so much fuss about this? Can't you just leave me in peace?"
"I can't do that. I'm sorry." He took a step back and crossed his arms. "I don't want you to regret this for the rest of your life. And not for someone who would resort to emotional blackmail to get what she wants."
"You think that I'm being like this because of emotional blackmail? Aren't you giving me too much credit? I'm not that good of a person, brother." I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of his words.
'Emotional blackmail? Me?'
"You are a good person, Zee. So stop pretending that you're not." He answered firmly.
I took a deep calming breath despite the boiling frustration in my chest. "What do you know for you to judge what I will regret or not? You don't know anything, Art. And meddling with my business was never YOUR thing. Don't start now."
But to my utter frustration, Arthur took his sweet time in answering me as he bore holes on my face with his glare. Then he started spouting bullshit with a very solemn look on his face.
"I like you."