The more my and Dominic's eyes keep flicking back and forth and meeting over his girlfriend's head the more I shift around uncomfortably. Why does he keep glancing over at me?
When through my peripheral I catch my best friend making her way down the corridor, I hurriedly call for her attention. She almost does not see me, but before she can walk past us, her eyes flicker over towards us and she slows down to a stop when she senses the urgent desperation in my eyes. Our gazes communicate with each other. She frowns at me in confusion and I plead with her to come over here.
Eventually, after blinking away her bemusement she reluctantly strolls over towards us. Once close enough she yells loudly to announce her presence, jubilantly waving her hands which breaks apart the couple in front of me.
I notice how even after separating from the embrace, Jodie makes sure to remain close to Dominic by wrapping an arm around his waist and laying her head on his shoulder, a small grin causing the corners of her lips to tilt up. She seems... content.
"Hi, Taylor," she greets, the smile on her face widening as she waves at her.
"Jodie," my best friend reciprocates the expression on her face. "What the fuck are you wearing?"
Automatically my gaze trails over to study Jodie's choice of clothing today. Just like Dominic, she looks like she belongs in medieval times, in her frilly dress and the net hat on her head, her curled ginger locks bouncing against her shoulders elegantly.
"It's Valentine's Day," she justifies.
"Yeah, Halloween's in a couple of months," Taylor reiterates my previous words to Dominic to my satisfaction and I instantly hold my hand up for her to give me a high five, pointedly staring at Dominic when she does. He rolls his eyes but I also don't miss the glimmer of hilarity on his expression.
"I hate you both," Jodie mutters playfully.
"Lies," Taylor negates, pushing her hair back away from her hovering in front of her eyes.
"Secretly, I think she misses us too."
"I mean, spending all that time with Vannah has to get tiring. I remember when I had to do it while ignoring Seong Jin last year. Worst week of my life. I mean, it's bad enough that I have to listen to her being that she's the football team's captain, but she's also controlling when you're friends with her."
"Vannah isn't that bad," Jodie says.
"The fact that you have to preface it with that bad, means that she is that bad. By the way, how in the fuck did you manage to rope Dominic into dressing like that too?"
"Oh, I just had to ask," explicitly, she runs a hand up his arm and in my shock, my eyebrows flick up, "really nicely."
"Oh," Taylor exclaims, conveying her shock at this revelation.
My heart drops into the chasm of my stomach and I stare up at Dominic in question, wondering if what she was so clearly implying is true. Bashfully, he averts his gaze down to his shoes and I feel my heart painfully clenching within my ribcage. To hide the crestfallen look on my face, I bury my chin in my chest too. Beside me, Taylor loudly clears her throat as if to fill in the lengthening silence between us.
"Jodie please, don't make jokes like that," Dominic's voice is the first to speak and his words make me wonder if there was actually any truth to his girlfriend's words.
Giggling loudly, Jodie reaches up to touch his cheeks. "You're so adorable," and then she tiptoes to plant a kiss on the corner of his lips. For a nanosecond, his eyes meet mine again.
"Okay," Taylor loudly cuts into the entire interaction, grabbing my hand and I glance down at the touch, surprised that it's not making me feel uncomfortable as it normally does. It's oddly comforting, having her here with me right now as I'm on the verge of tears.
I swallow a gulp passed the lump in my throat.
"Seong Jin and I actually have this... thing that we both need to go and do, but it was nice catching up with you both and Jodie, please burn that outfit once you are done with it. Really, it is so unflattering."
"I think you're just jealous that someone like me could actually pull this look off," she retorts with her eyes narrowing at her playfully while perkily fluffing up her hair.
"Right... Anyway, Jodie; Dominic."
"Tracey," Dominic mutters with a curt nod and as my best friend drags me away, I am still locking eyes with him before it gets too weird.
"Oh my days," Taylor worriedly whispers to me, "I could actually hear your heart shattering beside me. Are you okay?"
Quietly, I nod my head while trying to obscure the hurt in my eyes with a smile but it proves difficult when I feel how stiff said smile feels on my face.
"I'm guessing you still like him then?" Even though she is asking me a question, I can tell it's more so a statement. I don't respond. My silence speaks volumes though. Incredulously, she muses, "Even after seeing him dressed like that, you still like him? He looks like a neek."
"Secretly, I find it adorable too," I reluctantly confess to her and she scrunches up her face in disgust, releasing a noise to convey her distaste for my cheesy words.
"By the way, did he call me Tracey?" I nod at her, amused that she caught that so late. At this point, I think he is doing it on purpose. With a scoff, she angrily mutters under her breath, "Fucking prick."
During recess, we are all sitting at our usual table and awkwardly, we all bounce gazes around at each other. Slowly I gather a ball from my tian bu la dish between my chopsticks and it travels up until I bury it in my mouth, afraid to chew too loudly lest I bring unwanted attention onto myself.
Unfortunately, Damien catches my gaze and I stop chewing, my eyes widening like a deer caught in headlights. My gaze quickly averts and instead, I focus on the rowdiness in the cafeteria.
"Okay, I have about had it up to here with the tension between you two," Taylor snaps, glowering at both Damien and Edward who both bashfully glance away after getting scolded. "What the hell is going on? This has been going on for weeks now. I'm sick of it."
"Yeah, me too," I mutter distractedly reaching for some more food from my lunch and when I catch Damien's curious gaze, I hold the fish ball up to his mouth, making sure that it has been dipped in a sufficient amount of brown sauce. He opens his mouth and willingly takes a big bite of the fish ball. "It's good, right?"
While he's chewing, he bobs his head up and down and then holds a thumb up.
"Seong Jin, why are you distracting him with food? We're trying to figure out what's going on between them," Taylor now scolds me.
Sheepishly, I say, "Oh. Sorry."
Afterwards, she turns around and pointedly stares at Edward. Indignantly, he says, "I don't know what his problem is."
"You know exactly what my problem is," Damien snaps even though his mouth is still full of masticated food.
"Are you actually pissed that I didn't let you win the swimming tournament? How immature can you be, mate?"
"Why exactly would he let you win the swimming tournament?" Taylor asks the very question playing on my mind and to get the scoop, I neglect my food for a second and watch them.
"That's what I said. Why exactly would I let you win?"
"Because I told you what winning that tournament would mean for me. There were actual uni scouts there. I mean, you don't even wanna pursue a career in swimming so I don't get why you couldn't just take one for your mate."
"Yeah, I don't want a career in swimming, but that doesn't mean I was just gonna let you win. If you were gonna win, I would think you'd want to have earned it. I know I would've. Besides, I worked really hard to be in the best shape."
"And you're saying I didn't?"
"That's not what I'm saying. What I'm trying to get at is, the better man was gonna win that tournament. I mean, you came second, so I don't get what your problem is. The scouts are probably gonna reach out to you when they realise that I want fuck all to do with swimming anyway."
"Seong Jin, what do you think?"
Awkwardly, I glance over at him and my eyes widen at the expectant look on his face. Then I glance at Taylor through the corner of my eye and subtly I catch her shaking her head at me as if to warn me against commenting.
"Yeah, nah, I'm not getting roped into whatever this is," I adamantly proclaim.
"But you brought it up," he argues.
"No, I didn't. Taylor did. I merely piggybacked off her statement. Honestly, you guys can go back to ignoring each other for all I care."
"I think you should just hold the L on this one, Damien," Taylor says without sugarcoating her statement to soften the blow they deliver. "Edward out-swam you. It is what it is."
"No, this is my life we're talking about, Taylor. Besides, he's your boyfriend. You're supposed to take his side no matter what."
"First of all, I'm not some stupid, senseless girl who just goes with whatever her boyfriend says, Damien. Contrary to popular belief, I actually have the brain cells to make my own deductions."
Petulantly, Damien turns around to look at me and my mouth parts, incoherent sounds leaving past my lips as my brain tries to come up with the words I can say to console him but when it fails to, I simply grit my teeth into an awkward grin. To draw away from the conversation, I grab another ball in between my chopsticks and hold it up to Damien's lips again.
At first, he purses them until he gives up his stubbornness and opens his mouth. Merrily, I put the comestible in his mouth.
"By the way, Seong Jin, I spoke to the students in charge of The Moss newspaper to see if they needed a photographer because I knew you would keep forgetting to do it and they said they did need someone to take pictures at our graduation ceremony."
My face lights up with excitement. "Oh, that is amazing, Taylor. Thank you. I definitely would have forgotten to do it."
"Uhm... the thing is there is one catch," she prefaces before I can get overly excited and I gaze back up to see her pressing her lips together and averting her gaze awkwardly, "the person who is in charge of that department is actually Vannah so you are going to have to talk to her to get her permission."
My shoulders slump and a groan escapes my lips unwittingly with a mirthless grin making its way onto my lips. Of course. When has anything come easy for me?
"Really? Can I not just do it without her permission?" I plead, hoping to avoid the confrontation altogether.
Taylor shakes her head with her lips pursed grimly. "I'm afraid not. You will have to talk to her if you want to be their photographer. The other students on the newspaper didn't seem to mind having you on but because the graduation ceremony is Vannah's thing, you will unfortunately have to go through her."
I let out a defeated sigh.
"Just maybe put your pride aside this once. Remember that you're doing this for your future."
I frown because she has a point. With a nod, I steel myself for the inevitable encounter with my lifelong nemesis. When I feel my phone vibrating against my thigh, I prop the chopsticks in my mouth and curiously fish it out of my pocket to check the message. The name of the person catches me off guard a little, being that he has never messaged me before, but his message is what scares me, We need to talk.