"I'm sorry, you must have mistaken me for another person." The man said in a worried voice.
My face was burning red right now from embarrassment. This is not happening to me. Why can't this guy just do his part of the script. Surely he know of this cliché, right? Why can't he just play along?
"Babe, what are you saying? C'mon let's go." I said, gritting my teeth in frustration. I tugged at his arms trying to send him the hint.
I gripped his arms tighter around his, not willing to let go. I looked at his eyes and gave hin a pleading look.
"Uhmmm." He said, scratching his head in confusion. He tried to free himself from me, but I stubbornly held on. My nails started to dig into his skin.
"Please, just play along." I whispered to him, my lips was barely moving.
He, stopped moving and looked at me in worried eyes, as if he was unsure what to do next.
"Hey man, You're not from our school , are you? I can see your visitor's badge pinned on your shirt ." One of the men behind me spoke.
"Yes, I was invited here by a friend. Your school is nice, also are the people." The guy beside me answered in a clear and polite voice.
"Look, It's obvious that you don't know the girl. We heard your conversation. She offended us earlier and tried to walk away with it."
"Just walk away, as you should. She is coming with us."
"Ha ha ha. She actually attempted to scape from us by grabbing some random guy." Another one said and lit a cigarette.
My embarrassment earlier was starting to turn into anger and hatred. I looked at the face of the guy beside me once more and gave him a peircing look. I have already embarrassed my self, why not make the most of it.
It flung his arms away and stomped my foot on the ground. He was so caught off guard that he made a couple of steps backwards. I gave him another angry look before facing the three men before me.
"What do you want?" I asked in a sharp voice.
"Wow, from a scared cat to an angry lioness in a second. I like that." The man on the middle said and approached me.
"Just come with us and let's not make a scene here." The other one said and chuckled arrogantly.
The man on the middle gestured to grab my hands but i quickly made a stepped back. I braced myself to send a punch or a kick. I may be a woman with a small frame but I think I am capable enough to hande one of them, and hope that I could make a scene big enough to gather a huge crowd.
Once I get enough attention from the people around, surely these guys will live me alone.
"Uhmmm, C'mon babe, let's get out of here." The man i grabbed earlier finally broke his silence, as if finally aware of my situation.
He walked towards me and offered his arms. I was so dumbstruck that I just stared at him blankly. 'Isn't he aware that he is already too late for the script? Our attempted stage acting was long busted.'
He was standing in front of me and gave me a warm smile. I was about to say something when he was suddenly jerked backwards and pulled away from me.
One of the men behind us grabbed the back of his collar and punched him in the stomach. My saviour-to-be quickly fell to the grass and curled up, obviously hurt.
"Ha ha ha. Nice try dude. You are brave." The man who just punched him sent in another sharp kick to his face.
I clearly heard an audible cracking sound when the kick connected. I trembled in fear. This is too much. Shock overwhelmed me and I let out a loud scream.
The next moment flew by like an instant. I saw the crowd started to gather around us and the three men walking out of the scene, laughing to themselves like everything was good and nice. I just stood there rooted on the spot, unable do anything until my bestfriends came to my side.
"Gath, what happened. Did that guy do something to you?" Amanda said as she checked my face, looking for any sign of me being hurt.
The man she was talking about was the one I involved earlier. He was dusting himself off, standing a few steps from me.
Beatrice quickly approached the man and gave him a menacing look. "What did you do to my friend? Apologize now!" She demanded, her hands on her hips.
The man look at me for a second before meeting my bestfriend's stare.
"I'm sorry." He said softly that it barely reached my ears.
That's when I finally able to get back to myself. 'No, this is not right.'
"Wait, he did not do anything. Some people tried to approach me aggressively earlier and he stood up for me." I said hurriedly and wrapped my arms around Beatrice.
She might be an easy going girl but she is also my sister. She would willingly join into any fights that i am involved with.
It took a bit of story telling before all of my bestfriends became satisfied. We left the area and headed straight to Amanda's classroom. We were in no mood to continue to party anymore. I asked the man to join us but he quickly rejected my offer. He walked on the opposite direction and disappeared into the crowd.
"I did not even get his name." I mumbled to myself while stripping off my party outfit.
I felt slightly quilty for involving him earlier, but I was in a state of panic and I wasn't thinking straight. I just grabbed him when he walked passes me. I really shouldn't have done that.
"Don't worry, if I see that guy again next time in the campus, I will personally apologize to him for you." Amanda said as she combed my hair.
"He's not studying here. He was wearing a visitor's badge like this." I said, handing Amanda the badge from my dress.
"Oh, then we might not see him again in the future then. Too bad." Beatrice said, she was already dressed back in our school uniform.
"Will you recognize him when you see him again?" Amanda asked.
"I think so. I saw his face clearly. He doesn't have that easy-to-forget face. I will recognize him when I see him again." I answered.
"Are you curious of him? He's your saviour right?" Beatrice suddenly asked in a teasing voice.
"He tried to, but failed big time. I just hope to apologize personally for the trouble. But if I don't meet him again, It won't bother me." I said.
"Cold as stone." Erica chuckled meaningfully. She was just sitting in the corner, chatting with her boyfriend through her phone.
I just raised my eyebrows, and didn't answer. I am sorry for involving the man earlier, but it was on his free will when he chose to stand for me when I finally let him go. I thought that he could withstand a blow or two from the men following me. Who would have guessed that he would hit the grass on the first punch. I sighed to myself as I recalled what happened.
I heard a loud crack when he was kicked in the face. I really thought that his nose was broken and expected some blood. That's why I was overwhelmed in shock and screamed on that moment. But thinking about it right now, I looked at him a few times before we separated. His face was not scratched at all and he didn't look hurt in any way. If not for the few blades of grass that was caught in his shirt, I wouldn't think that he fell on the ground at all.
'Maybe it was just the night that hid his actual injuries.' I quickly reasoned to myself.
"Everything set? Let's go?" Beatrice broke the silence.
I looked at her and nodded. It's a bit early than our usual self-curfew but we were not in the mood anymore. We bid our goodbyes to Amanda and Erica then headed to Bea's car.
We spent the time in the road in silence. Beatrice will give me a concerned look from time to time, thinking that I'm still in a state of shock. I appreciated the silence, my head was hurting anyway. Maybe I'll just sleep immediately when I get home.
"Are you sure you're Okey?" She asked me one more time when she dropped me in front of my apartment door.
"Yes, Thank you. I'm just tired. Be careful on the road." I said, giving her a goodnight hug.
I quietly entered my apartment and did my night routine in silence. I am living alone here, my family are all living abroad. I plan to go there and live with them once I finished my studies. As of now, I am living a city girl's life. Independent.
I have a small kitchen and a small fridge. A simple bathroom and a comfortable bed. That's enough to make me happy. I don't have lots of hobbies and past time activities. I just did a quick scan on my phone and laptop, then went straight to bed.
I had a long night.
I got up early the next day and did my usual morning jog. My apartment is located not far away from the beach so I headed there while the sun was barely above the horizon.
My weekend is just as boring as my weekdays, I don't have a lot of friends and Beatrice lives a few kilometers away from me. I just headed to a coffee shop and had my breakfast there. I was in the middle of my coffee when my phone rang. It was Beatrice.
"Do you have anything planned today? Do you want to be set on a blind date?" She quickly said, not bothering to say goodmorning.
I suppressed a laugh. She is like this, always straight to the point.
"No, thank you. I plan to go and check for my car, I hate taking the bus everytime I need to go somewhere." I said casually.
"It's okey, I will set up your blind date tomorrow then." She cut me off quickly.
"Ha ha ha, Just drop it Bea, I'm not a fan of blind dates. But if you want to go on a date yourself, i can be your chaperone and bodyguard." I said, smiling at the idea.
Beatrice might have a bigger frame than me, but she has a soft and tender heart. It has always been my duty to turn down men that she can't turn down herself, afraid to hurt someone's feelings.
We continued to talk some more until my phone battery was finally drained. I forgot to charge it last night. I sighed. I stood up from my seat and started to jog back home.
My car was scheduled to be released a few more days from now and just made an excuse to avoid Bea's match making hobby.
I spent my whole day in front of my computer screen. I had my small TV on to drown the silence on my background.
It was around lunchtime when I heard the newscaster mentioned Erica's school on my TV. Curiousity got the better of me and I closed my laptop, focusing my attention to the news on my TV screen.
The news was about a fire that broke out at Erica's school last night before dawn. An entire faculty room was burned down and all the things inside was turned to charcoal and ash. No one was hurt and the authorities suspected that it was just some drunk students who did the act.
I can't help but remember the three men that followed me last night. They seemed cocky enough to do such things, but I quickly dismissed the idea. It's never good to point fingers to others. I'm just glad that I was spared from trouble last night and was able to go home safe.
I sighed and switched the TV to some music channel.