Dimitra found herself seated in total awkwardness, in between Shiro and Theo as Sophia had urged them to take a seat and make themselves at home while she went to the kitchen to bring something for the visitors.
In the meanwhile obviously, someone had to start a conversation yet no matter how much Dimitra glanced over Lisa to take the initiative she stayed quiet, leaving her in desperation to break this atmosphere so she started a general conversation using the first thing that popped in her mind.
"So what do you guys study for?" Dimitra asked, keeping a friendly smile on her lips in an attempt to make them all feel welcomed and wanting to leave a nice first impression.
"I study Photography," Shiro responded in a nonchalant way and with an almost uninterested tone on his voice.
"I am in the acting department." Theo continued, gifting a sweet smile to Dimitra and at that she felt an urge to scream, realizing that since he is in the Acting department, there are high chances that they might have some assignments or classes that they could share, as Dimitra was studying to become a movie Director.
"I study contemporary dance just like Jay does," Jamie kept the conversation going, leaving his eyes to travel from Dimitra to whom he was answering to a minute ago, to Lisa who had not said a word after the introductions and Jamie was worried if she was like that cause she thought that he disliked her because of the slightly offensive way that she had chosen to refer to him.
"Oh, Right. Jay, how did you got to know Lisa if you are studying in the dancing department? Does Lisa study dancing too?" Theo expressed his momentary wonder while his tone of voice and facial expression displaying his confusion about the explanation they gave earlier.
Lisa threw her gaze at Jay, in hopes that he was to answer his friend yet for the moment he seemed to be having it difficult to find a quick lie so she decided to take action herself.
"We met each other through a common friend." She calmly responded since what she said wasn't completely a lie, then her gaze averted to Sophia that made her entrance into the living room with a tray in her hands.
As Sophia left the tray on the table, Lisa's eyes grew wide, seeing slices of the chocolate cake she brought for herself just yesterday, served on small plates.
Sophia simply murmured to her that she didn't found anything else to bring and that it would be rude to not treat them with something but her words didn't tame Lisa's annoyed stare.
Shiro was the first one to take a bite to his slice of cake, deciding to leave a comment about its taste in an attempt to appear polite and appreciate their hospitality.
"Wow! This cake is really good. So tasty."
"I hope it gets stuck on your throat." Lisa made a quick remark, forcing Dimitra to laugh out loud to cover up her words, causing everyone to look at her weirdly, for surely her action was rather abrupt and unjustified.
As Dimitra stopped laughing, she gave them an awkward smile before turning towards her friend and giving her a warning stare because it was those poisonous comments of hers that had made her look like a madwoman at that moment yet Lisa chose to ignore her warning eyes, not caring much if Shiro had heard her or not.
"I'm so sorry. I just remembered something funny." Dimitra gave an excuse in an attempt to make herself and her unreasonable actions look less of what they were. Her face was now a little red from embarrassment.
"It seems you are a weird one. I like you already." Theo courageously commented as he giggled, his words making Dimitra's face a deeper shade of red, and making Lisa throw him a glare for she was not appreciating his flirty nature towards her taken friend.
"Just keep eating. Don't pay much attention. We are always like this." Sophia tried to light up the atmosphere and justify her roommates with a smile on her lips in an attempt to save whatever was left from this gathering.
"From where did you buy this cake? Now that we are gonna live here we should buy from there too. Right, bro?" Jamie talked to Shiro while Sophia and Lisa stood up reflexively upon hearing his words.
"What do you mean here? Did you moved to the neighbourhood, my Shiro?" Sophia dared to ask, as cold sweat had taken over her body and bad thoughts were travelling in her mind.
"From today onwards we will be living at the apartment above yours. This is the surprise I told you about, baby." Shiro responded to his girlfriend then winked at her playfully and she sat back down on the couch with a frozen smile on her face.
"What? Aren't you happy that you will have me near? He asked, having noticed her smile that didn't seem genuine.
" Of course I am happy. Why wouldn't I?" She responded, as she took hold of his arm softly and flashed him a cute smile.
" But I am not happy at all! "Lisa murmured to herself then excused herself and went to her room, finding it unnecessary to withstand their unwanted company any longer as she was feeling her anger rise in dangerous levels.
Nerves that did not calm down till she actually fell asleep and woke up the next day in a hurry and with a mind occupied by new things regarding her classes.
She arrived at her first class on time like any other day, regardless of the rush and her mind that kept returning to yesterday, annoying again and again. Why of all people her friend had to go become the girlfriend of that damned person. That good for nothing lier. She was so mad yet she couldn't do anything but keep it to herself for admitting that she knew him would only bring her into trouble.
And honestly, if she was to have the power to delete something from her life that would most likely be him so even she did not want to know him to begin with. It was unfortunate that after such a big amount of time they happened to fall into each other's paths again but killing him was illegal, unfortunately.
Lisa exhaled in irritation and tried to focus on her class yet because of boredom she passed most of that time span inhaling and exhaling, with her pen dancing among her fingers and her eyes staring at the board aimlessly. At some point, even her hearing detached from the environment and she ended up missing most of her professor's speech until her pen slipped from her fingers and she snapped out of her spacing out moment. Once she retrieved it from the ground and looked at her professor again she realized that he was talking about the upcoming project that they had to hand in till the end of the month.
"...your project includes a collaboration that as future reporters, I am sure you will find this experience useful. This time around our department is set to collaborate with the department of photography. What you will have to do is write a detailed article about the photographs of your partner and how they made you feel. You must choose a certain theme together and the photographer has to stick to that theme to take his/her pictures. The pairs have been chosen randomly and the list is already up, pinned on the announcement board near our department..."
After the professor finished his speech and walked out of the auditorium, Lisa lazily started gathering her stuff then suddenly she shot her head towards the direction of the door, as the professor's words -which she dismissed in her mind quite easily prior- returned in her head and sunk in, giving birth to a frightening thought.
Freaked out she now grabbed her bag and ran towards the announcement board, shoving the students aside that had gathered there before her rather rudely and harshly as they were getting in her way and were preventing her from seeing the list.
Her eyes started travelling through the paper trying to find her name while she felt a wave of warmth rising inside her veins and her mind got filled with prayers that were suddenly brought to a halt by a hand that touched her shoulder and drew her attention however she did not turn around, as she had frozen in place once her eyes had found the name of her partner for this project.
"It seems that something got stuck in your throat instead." A voice whispered in her ear, replying to her remark of yesterday that he apparently had heard.
"Who would have thought that I would meet the same snake twice in my life." He continued and Lisa turned around to face Shiro that was now standing before her.
"If you dare say something about my past to my friends. You are dead!" Lisa's gaze grew more serious than ever as it reflected perfectly the flaming hate she had for him as well as the fact that she was more than capable to make her threat, a reality.
---To be continued.....