MONDAY
4:37 PM.
Lucy and her friends waited for Violet to come out to the park so they could go out together.
"Hey Violet." she waved as Violet exited the social science building.
Violet paused on seeing Lucy with her boyfriend and Cole. Confused, her steps slowed because she remembered that when Lucy mentioned that they'd be having dinner together, she didn't mention anything about company.
"Hi," she nodded at everyone as soon as she got close to them. "So we're all going for dinner?"
"Yes and Clyde brought one of his mom's old cars to–ah, there he is." Lucy nodded, just as a honk sounded behind Violet.
Turning since she was the only one backing the sound, Olivia smiled at her from the passenger seat as she packed her long blond hair up in a ponytail. "Hello." Violet waved at the couple.
"Hey hey hey!" Clyde grinned, poking his head towards the passenger side window with a big grin. His bangs fell over his left eye as he yelled for them to get in.
Violet entered last and the only seat left was the one next to Cole who smiled at her when she sat down. "How was your day?"
"It was fine, yours?" Violet looked at him briefly before facing forward. She regretted agreeing to going out mostly because she thought it'd be just her and Lucy. Being around the others with the exception of Clyde made her a bit uncomfortable especially with the awkwardness hanging over her and Cole. She felt as though he thought they had some kind of relationship because they went out on a blind date and were still talking. Sighing inwardly, Violet knew that it was partly her fault because she hadn't taken time to address the problem.
Perhaps it wasn't the best time but the whole ride felt suffocating as the others chatted away and immediately it came to a stop and Violet got out,—briefly taking note of the fact that they'd come to The Inri Place—took a deep breath and turned to Cole. "Hi, can I get a minute of your time?"
"Yes sure." He smiled and although Violet was reminded of how handsome he was, it didn't have any significance to her afterall what was the point when if everytime he opened his mouth it made him more unattractive to her.
As Lucy walked towards the glass doors of the restaurant, she gave her friend a look that said; Don't do it, which Violet ignored.
Standing off to the side by the car as the others entered the restaurant, she faced Cole and started. "Uhm, so I wanted to make sure we are on the same page."
"Sure, about what?"
"The blind date, I mean, it was nice." she lied "But I don't think we..." she trailed off, looking away from him. "Blend well, you know, I don't think we're a good match. Right?"
Cole had a blank look on his face that soon changed to hurt and a tinge of something else she couldn't place.
"I mean, you're a really nice person, Lucy says so, so you probably are." Violet trailed off again, feeling bad, not about saying what she said but that it seemed to hurt him.
"It's fine, did I do something you didn't like?" He said in a low tone, his eyes sad.
"Ah, no. Not really..." she chuckled nervously. "I think we should go inside." She nodded, moving away from him even before he could reply.
"Have you guys ordered?" Violet asked, sitting down beside Lucy so her back was to the door. Lucy made a strange could, pushing Violet to look up just to see that the atmosphere was weird and Lucy and Adam were giving her annoyed looks while Clyde and Olivia seemed to not want to meet her eyes. "Hmm, what's wrong?" Just as she asked, her eyes drifted to the right to see that it wasn't just the door that was glass, the walls were glass too and they'd been able to see her conversation with Cole. "Oh."
Cole came in, not taking the seat opposite her but instead sitting beside Clyde.
"Are you okay Cole?" Lucy inquired.
Cole smiled and nodded but the smile came out a little forced. "I'm fine, what are we eating?"
Violet knew that they were all isolating her and although it hurt to see it coming from Lucy and Clyde, she decided to not mind too much as it was her who had made someone sad and ruined the mood. 'Maybe I should've picked a better time', she thought but wasn't convinced.
Since everyone's attention shifted to Cole, Violet sighed, and just as she started to relax into her seat, a cup of cold orange juice was placed in front of her. Sitting up immediately, she looked at the waiter. "I didn't order ye–"
The white-haired waiter held the plastic tray to her thighs and smiled, gesturing with her hands at someone three metres away. Violet followed her hand, eyes landing on Deon who was faced away from her, listening intently to the other suited men seated at his table. Like a switch flipped, the smile immediately came through and covered her face. Her muscles loosened up and the loneliness she had felt earlier disappeared.
As though feeling her eyes on him, Deon turned, seeing her smile made him happy. He locked eyes with her for a brief moment when the people at his table shifted their attention away from him. He'd caught a bit of what had happened and knew that there was some kind of tension between her and the others. He gave her a slight smile before shifting his attention back to the conversation.
Violet put the straw in her mouth, taking a sip as her mood had gotten better within the span of the few minutes she'd seen Deon. While the others hadn't caught the interaction as their attention was focused on Cole, Olivia was the exception. Olivia saw this interaction and raised a curious eyebrow.
"Let's order." Lucy announced. "Oh you already got something," she said in an accusatory tone.
"Ah..." Violet swallowed the liquid in her mouth. "Well you guys were busy."
"So selfish." Lucy scoffed.
"Ah, come on Lucy, don't be like that." Olivia said in a soft voice.
"I know you're looking out for me but I'm sure Violet didn't mean any harm." Cole added with a patronizing smile.
Violet paused for a moment, trying to process the fact that Lucy just spoke to her like that and had pretty much been taking Cole's side over hers since she'd met him. For the first time in a while, she wondered why she was friends with the group.
"I'm just annoyed, you're a nice person Cole, you're even still taking her side." Lucy shook her head.
"I guess Violet doesn't like nice guys, she's probably more into bad boys." Adam cracked and everyone at the table laughed with the exception of Violet.
She stared at Cole for a second as he laughed, wondering what was nice about him. He was just a big pretender and something else that she couldn't quite put her finger on, and it wasn't a 'nice' thing.
As the others ordered, her eyes drifted across the room to Deon only to see him already staring at her.
'Are you okay?' his eyes inquired.
The sourness she felt disappeared when his concern came through. Trying not to smile, she raised an eyebrow, asking, 'Are you?'
It was Deon's turn to smile and he did, before directing the smile to the people in front of him who stood up to go. Violet watched his lips move as he shook hands with them. He had a different vibe from what she was used to, she hadn't seen him with work face and now she did, it made him all the more attractive, the suit probably also OK had a lot to do with it. 'Wait, attractive like I'm attracted to him?'
"Won't you order something?" Olivia asked, but not before following Violet's gaze to see it was the same guy she'd been staring at before. 'Oh, interesting, the unfeeling unbothered Violet is actually paying attention to someone.'
"No I'm good." Violet answered, looking back at Deon who now followed the men out of the restaurant, not sparing her a glance as he did. "I already had lunch so I'm pretty full." she said, not necessarily lying as she had eaten some plantain chips from one of the snack stores in school and also didnt have an appetite.
"Just order something, it doesn't make sense that you're the only one not eating." Cole smiled.
"Right?" Violet visibly drew back, almost repulsed by the fake smile, how was it that she was the only one that could tell? Letting a bit of her annoyance slip through, she continued, voice not raising even a tiny beat but the sting clear. "A lot of things make no sense today, why don't you worry about yourself Cole?" She returned the smile. Silence filled the space they occupied as they all stared at her. "What? I guess I should've sat quiet while you guys sat on your horses and strutted around."
"We are just looking out for you, at this rate you'll be single forever." Lucy frowned.
"Are you cursing me?" Violet rolled her eyes before standing. "It was nice eating out with you guys, just leave me out next time, it's exhausting." Grabbing her cross body bag from the seat, she started to move but Lucy held her bag.
"Where are you going? Have you forgotten that you used up your last cash to buy those snacks and since you didn't bring your card, you transferred to my account so I was supossed to withdraw and give you in cash."
'Ah, that is true. Shit, my perfect angry exit is going to be ruined' but staying strong and focused, Violet glared at Lucy. "You can keep it, consider it payment for all the years you've been my friend." she pulled her bag from Lucy's hand.
"It's just five thousand you jerk, I'm worth at least five hundred thousand." Lucy yelled so she'd hear her as she walked away.
Violet cringed as soon as she got out of the restaurant. "I'm an idiot, how do I get home now?" she covered her face, knowing that buses and taxis in this area didn't take anything but cash as payment. "I should've gotten mad earlier at least then I'd have been able to follow Deon...if he was even heading home." In a bid to figure out a solution, she walked in the opposite direction of where she was supposed to, trying to come to a rational conclusion. "Think Violet, what is the alternative?"
"Alternative to what?" a voice came through, jolting Violet out of her thoughts.
"Oh." Violet looked up at the Familiar voice. "Deon." Her voice came out a mixture of relief, excitement and confusion at once. Walking up to him where he was leaning up against his car, she stopped just two feet away from him, letting out a breath. He always seemed to there at the right time
"Hi." Deon smiled, uncrossing his arms.
"Were you waiting for me?" the tone of her voice giving nothing away.
"Yes" Deon got off the car, turning to open the car door when he felt a tug on the end of his suit jacket. He looked at the source to see Violet with her head down, her hair falling across her face so it wasn't visible.
"C-can I get a hug?" she asked through a shaky voice.
Without answering, Deon took her hand still clutching on to his suit and drew her into his arms. Violet put her arms around him, making him fall back against the car as she buried her face in his chest. Good enough, the window was down so her hand didn't have to hurt from being pressed into the glass. Deon stroked her hair as she sniffed. mumbling something unintelligible which he didn't catch, he smiled. "What?"
"I'm not crying." she sniffed. "You probably think I like to cry, since this would be the second time, if I was crying."
Deon chuckled at this but didn't comment.
"I don't mean to burden you honestly, I know compared to me with silly friend problems, you're actually dealing with serious work things. I'm sorry, you probably think I'm an immature kid."
"Violet." Deon called her name softly.
"Yeah?" she started to look up but he pushed her head without much force, just so it stayed on his chest.
"Stop talking."
"Hmm." she hummed, her palms opening up settling tight on his back. Somehow this action made the hug more intimate and from then on for the next two minutes, the only sound in the dark parking lot was that of them breathing.
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