"Hi mom, Hi dad."
Aves, who was sitting at the dining table, begrudgingly eating a less-than-desired chicken sandwich, greeted his parents who had just popped up on the Laptop's screen next to him.
"There he is! There's my little bubba! It's been so long, I've missed you!" His mother, who had spoken, looked like she was about to literally jump into the screen to hug him.
"It's only been a week, mom. And, can you stop calling me that?" Aves spoke wryly, a handful of dry chicken in his mouth.
"You know that we love calling you that, and there's certainly a reason for it. Would you like to hear it again?" This time, it was his father that spoke with a slight smile on his face.
"No, no. You don't need to remind me." Aves quickly shook his hands.
Both of his parents looked like they were in their mid-thirties. Considering the fact that Aves was 18 years old, that was quite an impressive feat. There was a reason for that, however.
His parents didn't only look like they were in their mid-thirties, they were in their mid-thirties. Aves' mom had had him before she turned twenty, and his father was barely any older than her.
When it came to their history however, it was quite complicated. Aves' parents met each other when Aves' uncle, his father's brother, introduced them to each other. As for why they were introduced that way, that's another story for another occasion.
His mother was beautiful and his father was fairly handsome, so they ended up falling in love with each other and, soon after, got their first child and only child — Aves.
It would've been a happy story if the family hadn't fallen into debt later on due to Aves' father having been a gambling addict for a certain period in the past. That had prompted Aves' mother to quit her education and start working part-time jobs to keep them going. It was quite fortunate that they lived in a house that had been left behind by Aves' great-grandfather, otherwise, they would've gone homeless for a certain period.
The house was quite old and run down, but it was much better than living in the streets. And that was where Aves had spent most of his childhood; it was only him and his parents.
Unlike what many couples tended to do when having fallen into debt, Aves' parents always found the time to love and take care of him. So, even though his childhood was rough, and that had translated into him being unable to make friends very well, Aves had never once complained about it, as he had always had his parents to support him and vice versa. As lonely as it sounded, he thought of his parents as the best friends that he never had.
He didn't dare to speak those words aloud though, lest he received a mushy hug from his parents, or a beating from his classmates.
Fortunately, things turned for the better around the time he started going to high school. His father received a job that paid very well at a big company, which then allowed his mother to have some breathing space to resume her studies. So, she quit her part-time jobs to focus her 100% on her education.
It was the first time in Aves' entire life that things started going well for the family, and it was continuing that upward trajectory even now, as a matter of fact. Even though they were still in debt, their life had gotten much better, and much busier as well.
However, the fact that the family had gotten busier didn't diminish their love for each other, as evident by Aves' mother's weekly reaction to seeing him.
"Anyway, how's it going with you two? Dad, how's work?" Wanting to change the awkward subject, Aves swiftly asked.
"Oh, you know how it is. It's tiring but gratifying. Just this week, I was asked to go through some leftover files from a deceased co-worker; so, that was even more exhausting than usual." His father sighed.
"Aves, are you still eating the leftovers from that chicken I sent you?" His mother, seeing that Aves was stuffing his mouth with what looked like chicken, asked in confusion.
"I wish..." Aves' face quickly crumbled at the mention of his beloved stolen chicken. "My roommate ate it when I wasn't looking. So, now I'm eating frozen chicken instead."
Both his parents looked at each other for a moment before his father went on to ask, "From what I can recall, your roommate, Max, is a nice guy. So, why would he steal your stuff?"
'Well, the cat's out of the bag now.' Aves thought belatedly in dismay. He had sort of forgotten that when the first time his parents asked about how his roommate was, he had told them that he was a nice guy.
'In all fairness, Max is nice compared to the likes of Jason and his goons.' Aves wasn't going to tell his parents that though. They already had a lot on their plate. He didn't want them to worry about his life of being bullied on top of that.
"Well, he only does minor things like eating my food, but other than that, he's fine. In fact, we don't we really speak much, if at all."
What Aves had said was true. Other than the minor introduction they had at the beginning, they hadn't spoken at all. It wasn't for Aves' lack of trying either; it was just that it seemed as if Max had never liked him the moment he saw Aves. He completely ignored him whenever he saw him.
So, even though they were roommates, they were, in fact, complete strangers.
"But still... Shouldn't you report him or something?" His mother asked worriedly. "It might start small at first, but it could escalate into something bigger later on."
His father, noticing that Aves was looking a bit awkward, interjected. "Let's not make him uncomfortable, dear. He knows what he needs to do."
His slightly serious demeanour then slowly melted into something that looked a little sly, and said, "Since we are on the topic of college life, tell us. How's your mission of finding a girlfriend going?"
Aves rolled his eyes in response. "Dad, how many times have I told you? I'm not getting a girlfriend anytime soon."
Aves could've sworn that both his parents tipped their heads to the side at the same time. They stayed silent for a few seconds.
"Is everything okay?" Aves asked.
"Nothing. It's just... you seem a little different." His father sounded more confused by his statement than Aves was.
'This again? Old man Trevor said the same thing.' Aves thought.
"How?"
"Well, normally, whenever I breach that girlfriend subject, you often look embarrassed, and even trip over your own words at times." His father said.
Aves looked up at the ceiling in thought. He then replied in a half-doubted manner, "Personal growth?"
Aves' father nodded understandingly and said, "Either way, you're going to have to get a girlfriend sooner rather than later. You're running out of precious time."
"But I'm only 18!" Aves retorted.
"So you best start cracking soon, because if you don't, I won't allow you to come visit us tomorrow." Aves' father crossed his arms and gave his ultimatum.
"That's ridiculous. How am I supposed to eat mom's food without being there?" Aves almost stood up from his chair. He had always loved his mom's food. It was mainly the reason he liked going back to their house once a week.
"Yes, dear. Change his punishment; he is coming back home tomorrow no matter what." Aves' mother half supported Aves. It baffled Aves that she had agreed to him being punished though.
"Honey, the only reason he comes home every week is your food, can't you see? Honestly, I don't see what all his eagerness is about, considering it's just your food." Aves' father was just as determined as ever.
Aves wasn't there in the same house as them, but he could've sworn he could feel the temperature dropping a few degrees.
'Ah, father, may you rest in peace.' Aves prayed for his father.
"Oh really?" Aves' father half choked on his saliva when he heard his wife's ginger question. He knew that tone of voice very well. That voice alone made his butt clench.
"'Just my food' is it?" His mom suddenly smiled at his father. Aves thought that smile looked more horrifying than any of the smiles he saw in his vision.
"Hehe, Mom, dad. I'll be seeing you tomorrow. Bye!" Before he could catch a glimpse of anything mentally scarring, he ended the call.
Aves reclined back on his seat, sighed and muttered, "That was close... I love mom, but she gets really scary sometimes. Anyway..."
As Aves' voice trailed off, he thought back to his conversation with his parents and the ones he usually had with old man Trevor.
'Maybe they're right. Maybe I should just go and ask Isabelle out. I've always liked her, and even though I'm shooting way above my league, the worse that'll happen is getting rejected.' After having made his decision, Aves grasped the chicken wing in his hand with determination.
As Aves headed back to his room later that night, he thought, 'I hope I don't get rejected tomorrow.'
---
"Why am I doing this again?"
In one of the aisles of the massive library of Stars college, a certain student was pacing back and forth in trepidation and nervousness.
Aves had already lost count of how many times he had decided to back out of this gut wrenching operation but ended up staying there anyway.
"What got into me last night? Ask her out? I'm clearly not cut out for this sh*t. What should I do? She'll be here any minute." Aves had never panicked so much in his life. He was certain that if he wasn't poisoned with the encouraging words of old man Trevor and his parents, he wouldn't have even thought of coming here. He couldn't be blamed though, since they did say he sounded more confident than usual.
The reason why he decided to go to the library was because he knew Isabelle often frequented the library on Fridays, and so he decided to take advantage of that fact to make a smooth entrance.
'I planned on asking her about a certain book to start a conversation. But, what if that's too lame, or even worse, too obvious.' He was biting his nails at this point.
'Ah, screw it. I'm doing this! I have to, or else I won't be able to eat mom's food.' For some reason, he trusted his dad to bar him from entering the house if he didn't get a girlfriend.
Aves wasn't a glutton by any means, and in fact, his figure was quite slim, but his mom's cooking was just that good.
He could've lied to his father about being rejected and just bail the scene right then and there, but he didn't want to. Deep down inside, he wanted to know the answer to his confession.
Thinking about all of that, Aves smacked himself across the cheeks to calm himself down, picked up a random book off the bookshelf that he knew Isabelle would come to, and waited.
It wasn't until 2 minutes later that he heard the clacking of shoes come closer in his direction. He knew it was Isabelle.
When she turned around the corner and first came into view, oddly enough, the first thing Aves did was sigh in relief, albeit in a secretive manner.
He was half expecting her to appear in the library with an another male in tow, who would then go on to proclaim himself as her boyfriend. Aves had read many weird comic books, and this kind of cliché had happened in many of them. Thankfully though, she was alone.
'You can do it Aves! You can do it!' Seeing the figure out of the corner of his eyes get closer and closer to him, his heart rate quickly sky-rocketed. Grasping onto the book in his hands for dear life, he made sure that his act of pretending to read was as impeccable as possible. He wasn't sure if it was, but he was trying his best.
No one aside from Aves could've guessed how nervous he got, though, when she stopped right next to him and started surfing through the books on the shelf. He was sure that he was on the verge of breaking his act at this point.
If he had known that she would get this close to him right from the get-go, he would've picked a spot a few tiles away from his current position, because the unnecessarily elevated blood pressure and sweaty palms really weren't helping his cause right now.
It wasn't until an entire minute had passed that, amidst the ongoing silence, Aves realised that, in a bid to keep his act as realistic as possible, he wasn't paying attention to her whatsoever.
'Is she still looking for a book?' He hadn't heard her making a move in a while, and he couldn't exactly see her since she wasn't within his peripheral vision.
His curiosity quickly getting ahead of him, he turned his body slightly to face her direction, trying as hard as possible to pass it off as a natural positional readjustment.
It was only then that he realised that, though she looked like she was still looking for a book, evident by the hand covering her chin and mouth in thought, she was actually looking at him out of the corner of her eyes, if ever so slightly.
His heart pounding against his chest, maybe out of anticipation, or maybe out of impatience, or even both, Aves decided to end this long strip of torturous silence by starting a conversation.
Having determined what he wanted to say, he opened his mouth.
"What's that book that you're reading?"
It wasn't Aves who said that. It was Isabelle.
'What the —' Caught completely off guard by the sudden question thrown at him, he was surprisingly able to gather enough composure to help him out of the awkwardness of the situation quite quickly and replied, "This? Ah, this book's called..."
'What's this book called again?'
Never mind.
Whatever surprise Aves had had about his sudden burst of composure completely vanished when he started fumbling the book over in his hands as he tried to make out its title.
He was finally able to tell her its name but decided to continue on with the conversation to brush off his earlier blunder. "Well, I've been trying to look for one topic in particular and I think it's within this book, but I haven't found it yet."
'Way to go, Aves! That was smooth as hell!' Aves almost couldn't believe that the one who said all of that was none other than himself. He almost thought that someone else had taken over his body to just say that one sentence.
Contrary to what one might believe, Aves wasn't the type to shy away from a conversation with anyone, as long it wasn't in front of a huge crowd or something. Take Trevor for example; Aves was quite comfortable around him, regardless of the geezer's terrible personality.
However, if there was one person who could make a blabbering fool out of him, it was Isabelle. So to find out that he was able to talk quite smoothly to her, it naturally lifted up his spirits.
Isabelle seemed to stand there in thought for a few seconds; what she was thinking of, Aves wasn't certain. A few seconds later, she said, "This book's quite good. I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for."
"I certainly hope so," Aves looked down at the book for a moment before looking back up. "So, what book is it that you're looking for?"
His ordinary question made her eye brows jump for some reason. Her beautiful, brown eyes flitting about unnaturally, she finally answered him by pointing a hesitant finger at Aves' book.
"This book?" Aves held up his book in surprise.
'Am I lucky, or unlucky?' Of all the books that he could've chosen, Aves just happened to have picked the one she wanted.
How awkward.
He was about to give it to her since he wasn't actually reading it, and whatever he had said about him wanting to find a topic within was obviously complete malarkey. Seeing him hold out the book toward her, Isabelle waved her hands and said, "I don't want to interrupt your studying, so we might as well both read it at the same time. Ah! That's if you don't mind of course."
'At the same time? How is that supposed to work?' Aves had a little hunch that something fishy was going on, considering that it didn't seem like something she would say.
He had little time to think about it though, since this sort of development was within his best interest, and it would make it easier for him when he confessed.
"Okay!" Aves replied, a little too loudly to be passed off as nonchalant.
Whatever composure that was keeping Aves together quickly crumbled however, when Isabelle crossed the already-small distance between them to stand right next to him.
Considering that they were going to read the book together, it should've been obvious that they were going to be within close proximity to each other, but since everything had happened so quickly, Aves didn't have the time to think about all of the ramifications of his earlier decision.
A few strands of black hair tickled his nose as Isabelle leaned her head over the book slightly. That slight movement caused her natural scent to brush past Aves' face, making him thank whatever almighty being that was out there for having Isabelle not being able to see his reddened face.
A few seconds that felt like hours passed with both Aves and Isabelle standing there, looking at the first page of the book. Aves couldn't quite tell Isabelle's facial expression from his position and whether she was actually reading or not, but he was quite certain that even if his concentration could be quantified and multiplied by ten, he still wouldn't have been able to focus on the book in front of him.
His mind kept on going blank every few seconds, and during the moments he was able to think, he felt like screaming about how absurd this situation was.
This was not how he pictured himself asking her out, but being so close to the one he secretly liked while acting like everything was normal really tested the limits of his sanity. Deciding that enough was enough, and that this was good a time as any to ask her out, he solemnly blurted out, "Isabelle, I like you!"
Isabelle's head jerked a little in response to his confession before slowly turning her body around to face Aves.
"Come again?"