Sᴇᴘᴛᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 23. 2024.
Lunch time, Alessia walks into the cafeteria which goes silent. She has noticed many differences today in the way people look at her at school and now is one of those moments as she walks with her tray. Most of the looks shot her way are by the female population and they're mainly hostile.
And also, Vincent seems to be (not) lost, drawing even more attention by following her.
He's been tagging along behind her every chance he's gotten since morning and Alessia decides to question him about it now. "Why are you going everywhere I go?" She asks lightly, not bothering to slow her pace.
"Well," he shrugs, "you're chill and more comfortable to be around than my stupid friends."
"Nice." She states flatly, sitting down around her table.
He sits beside, leg grazing hers and their backs to their onlookers. Vincent doesn't want to be an annoyance to her because he she one who has been inviting himself into her presence and recognizing that she's not much of a talker, he puts in his air-pads. Alessia sees this and silently appreciates it. Her spirit lifts and she begins to eat rather peacefully, until noise starts to approach her table.
Her hearing homes in on the group of multiple voices coming closer, up until it gathers around her table.
"Disculpe, señorita." An Australian accented boy quips in Spanish.
Four guys appear in her view, and the one that had spoken dips gracefully in a mocking gesture of medieval respect for nobility. His pale, blonde hair flops and his light green eyes squint shimmer with his smirk. Vincent removes his air-pads, frowning at the friends he tried to ditch.
"Yah don't mahynd us droppin' aor asses 'ere, do yah?" Alex asks while blatantly dropping his ass anyway. The others follow in suit, with 3 of the 4 continuing there lot of laughing and chattery they had brought to the table.
Alessia recognizes the quiet one as the guy who was downright calling her depressed on the field the other day and she huffs inaudibly, trying to focus on her food again. He looks up, staring at the black roots of her hair now becoming visible from her scalp, then he guides his eyes back to his own tray awkwardly.
Vincent glances at Phil, then at Alessia, noticing her discomfort. "Douglas, Lee, Alex..." He snaps, frowning deeply once they turn to look at him, "Can you guys shut up?"
No one makes a sound for a few seconds, eyeballing the glorified Italian boy like he had asked them to jump off a cliff for him.
And, the blonde takes this as the opportunity for some mischief, smiling smugly, "Ah, i see what's going on here. Your little girlfriend doesn't like noise. Why didn't you just say so?"
Lee and Alex glance at each other, folding in their lips and sniggering.
"I'm not his girlfriend." Alessia says with a deadpan.
"But, he got some, didn't he?" Lee muses, expecting her to turn beet red and shy so that he can tease them more. However, her face stays as neutral as ever.
"Wouldn't you like to know." She hums, going back to her food.
"Ohh—!" Douglas begins loudly, looking at Lee who's flushed, motioning for him to shut up.
Alex chimes in, leaning forward on the table with his chin resting on the back of his wrist, "How'd yah aeven get sunny boy ova' d'ere to notayce yah?" Alessia throws Vincent a wry glance which he avoids expertedly. "Y'all keeypin' saycrets now? Cyute."
"Can you stop being fucking cuck for a sec?!"
They all turn to the raven-haired boy who has been getting uncomfortable every minute that went by with Alex's, Lee's and Douglas' unnecessary taunts. Vincent told them to shut up, but they just directed their bullshit at him and Alessia instead.
Alex burst out laughing, cutting through the silence again just as Alessia sighs, thinking they were finally finished, "Poor Phil, wahnts waht eh cahn't 'ave an' gettin' jehlly fayshes ova' d'ere! She's beeyn snahgged, Bob. Yah good? Yah wahnt sam lahve?? C'mere—"
"For fuck's sake, Alex, shut the fuck up! Alessia and I aren't like that!" Vincent slams his right palm on the table that creaks violently, glaring at the boy that doesn't know when to stop being an asshole.
No one notices Alessia's very stiff posture as their surprise is directed at the light-skinned brunette. She's frozen upright. Been frozen upright since she heard the Alex guy call out his English friend. Phil...Phillip? Is his name perhaps Phillip?
"So, you guys just fucked?" Douglas asks flatly when that's what they've been trying to tell them the whole time.
She catches herself, irked, releasing a heavy pressure as her eyes narrow into slits, her eyebrows crunch together and her tongue clicks. A glare is aimed at Douglas who immediately feels like he's going to wet himself.
"N-N-Nevermind..." He shivers involuntarily, shrinking on his stool.
Phil is out of it, taking the last bite of his donut, while the others are finally quiet and Vincent is smirking. He stands with his tray and walks away without a word and Vincent stares after him with a newly found interest, amused at how he doesn't notice the density of the atmosphere around him.
Phil doesn't know Alessia. He's seen her around, gotten a crush because of her athletic abilities and physical attributes, but he doesn't know her. He's not allowed to judge. I'm not allowed to judge, he keeps telling himself, but the jealousy swelling with the pain in his chest urges him to think about it. She was intimate with someone, yet there's nothing between them? He can't understand how that happens. He has heard of it, but it's now in front of him so he has to question it.
Phil is grown to be gentle, kind and disciplined. Respect others as how you would have them respect respecting you. Date before you do anything else. Get to know people before you let them in close to you.
He huffs. It's not like he knows the history between Vincent and Alessia. I'm not allowed to judge, he repeats, then stops short, no, I'm allowed to judge, but i don't have the rite to. I don't have the rite to judge.
She's just a crush anyway. His parents wants him to study. She'll always be just a crush.
Whatever happens in her life shouldn't matter to him. Not even Vincent, who's the embodiment of perfection to many people should matter. Even if he's continuously in her life.