Please Break My Heart

Chapter 3

On the second thought, maybe Lilia was right. Maybe Ayanna’s little plan was really incredibly stupid.

The day ended rather eventless. She did not get a glimpse of Lake, not that she used to see him around a lot. They were from different colleges. The man was taking Sports Science after all while she was taking Creative Writing. It was like two different worlds that could barely meet each other.

In her two years of studying in the University, Ayanna could count on her ten fingers how many times she had seen the guy. And her meeting with him that morning was the closest she had been around him. But Ayanna was never the one to give up.

Instead of giving up, she walked over to the Sport Science Department’s library. She sat on one corner, hoping that she would end up seeing Lake and perhaps, would have a chance to approach him.

As if on cue, a group of noisy boys entered the library. They were talking as if they owned their place. Maybe they would have gotten kicked out of the place but the librarian was just so nice especially towards the five varsity players.

The one in the middle, walking a little ahead from the rest and wearing a black shirt was Ethan Yoshikawa. He had this really pale skin and small yet sharp eyes—a feature that further showed his Japanese decent. He stood tall, tallest among the bunch, but he appeared to be the goofiest. He played as the team’s center. The one on his left was Zaire Ramos, the team’s power forward. He had the sharpest facial feature in the group and appeared to be the coldest. He was uninterested in everything even when everyone else around him was chattering. On Ethan’s right entered Kurt Robles, the point guard. He was also very handsome with his olive skin, a classic Filipino kind of handsome. It goes without saying that he was a playboy too.

At the back was the shooting guard, Lucio Smith. This half-American guy had the biggest built in the group. His feature was that of a Westerner too. Among all of them, he appeared to be the friendliest and was the only one with a longtime girlfriend. Lastly, there walked Lake as if he got every eyes on him which was almost true.

Oh how Ayanna hated them whenever they were together. They looked like some attention seekers and were extremely superficial.

“They’re really handsome but they annoy me so much,” Ayanna huffed. Sounds cliché but she was one of the girls who kind of hated the popular guys for being popular—not to the point that she was trashtalking them but just enough for her to ignore their existence all together.

Her ignorance to their existence—and theirs to hers—proved to be a difficult barrier in asking Lake for a favor. It would be weird if she were to come up to him all of a sudden and confess her undying love for him or worse, tell him to make her fall in love with him!

“I can’t believe you broke up with Tiffany in just three days!” Ayanna overheard Lucio’s loud voice saying to Lake. “Dude, that girl is like the it girl in their department!”

Ayanna wanted to agree except that she had no idea who Tiffany was. But she had seen and heard a lot about Lake’s exes and they were all beautiful. In fact, Ayanna was a rag next to them. With that said, how would she get Lake to agree to date her? Her thoughts were disturbed by the screeching of chairs that the big guys did not even bother to carry, followed by their loud voices as they settled on the chairs two—empty—tables from hers.

“Tiffany and I aren’t compatible,” Lake replied. “She wants what she wants. I cannot be the perfect boyfriend, you know?”

“Yeah,” Ethan snorted. “You come up with that excuse every time. Just say that you got tired of her. When will you ever settle down?”

I have the same question, Ayanna thought as she listened in. What she was doing should not be considered as eavesdropping when the boys were practically broadcasting whatever they were saying.

“When I found the one, maybe,” Lake confidently reply, earning chuckles from his friends, even from Zaire.

His words, sounding so cheesy, made Ayanna snort out loud. She did not perceive Lake as someone who was hopelessly romantic so whatever he said sounded like an empty excuse to flirt with different girls almost every week. In fact, the female would not be surprised if he ended up dating half of the girls’ population in their university. Mind you, they had thousands and thousands of students in the university.

However, before she could continue judging Lake in her mind, she realized that the four basketball players were already looking at her in confusion. Embarrassed to be caught laughing while staring at them, she immediately took out her book and pretended to read. She thought that she finally escaped further embarrassment but not when Ethan spoke.

“Dude, she’s reading while the book’s upside down!” Ethan’s voice boomed.

Ayanna swore she could die on the spot.

*****

Maybe something was wrong with Ayanna’s head, even she would agree with that.

After the embarrassing encounter with the basketball players at the library, one would think that she would stay the hell away from them. But Ayanna was not the brightest in that department. Instead, she found herself following them in their usual drinking place—a pub near their university. Why it was permitted there, the female had no idea. It was already evening, around seven pm—yes, she stuck with them for more than two hours.

She stood by the door, snooping around. She was watching as the five friends sat by a booth, ordering a few bottles of beer. To be honest, Ayanna considered walking inside and drinking away like a normal person in order to avoid suspicion. But she could not even handle a single shot. She was also bad at drinking aside from dating.

She took her time observing Lake. He looked much carefree whenever he was with his friends. He smiled at everyone but there was something about his smiles around his friends. He looked genuinely happy. His eyes would curl, turning to crescents and the female could have sworn they were twinkling. He did not look like a player. In fact, he looked like any normal young guy—plus the god-tier good looks.

But he really was on a whole new level. Ayanna could not think of a single reason why he would date someone as simple and plain as herself. In novels, male protagonists would always fall for the female protagonist who actually had a hidden beauty. But Ayanna did not have that.

A sigh escaped from her lips as she leaned on the wall behind her. Then, she shook her head. She did not want to be distracted. She stood straight and once again started to observe.

What she saw surprised her. Lake was nowhere to be found!

“Oh, s**t,” she cursed which was rare. “Don’t tell me he went home?”

“Who did?”

“Lake.”

“Why are you looking for Lake? Do you like him?”

“What? No,” Ayanna chuckled as if it was the most ridiculous thing she had heard all year. “He’s just my speci—” she cut herself off upon realizing that she was actually talking to someone. She turned her head to her left and realized that the man himself was staring at her with amusement twinkling in his eyes. “Lake.”

“I’m just your what?” Lake did not sound offended, instead, he seemed quite bemused.

Ayanna did not find it amusing though. Against her better judgment, she narrowed her eyes at him. But she did not open her mouth to reply. After all, she did not trust herself to come up with anything other than some ridiculous lies that even she, herself, wouldn’t believe.

“You’re the girl who snorted at us at the library, am I right?” Lake asked, his voice coated with amusement. His eyes mirrored the same emotion.

Blush crept on Ayanna’s face as the feeling of embarrassment once again entered her system. She gulped before shaking her head rapidly. “I’m sorry, you got the wrong person.”

With that, she ran away.

And she swore to never deal with Lake ever again. She hoped to never see him in her life.

Ever.