The Elusive Prince

Chapter 40: Were You on a Date Perhaps?

Merideth

Ava dragged on her words and raising my eyebrows at that, they took that as a sign to continue, although that strange glint was still there.

"Fun day huh?" she smiled innocently but there's nothing innocent with the way she was looking at me right now.

"Yes. It was." I said with no emotion behind it which made both their smiles widen.

"Hmmm...it was wasn't it?" Sumire hummed mysteriously and their expressions were not helping so I slammed my hands on the table out of frustration. 

"What are you on about?" I gritted which made them laugh.

"Oh come on Merideth, no need to be so shy on us. You can trust us I swear." Sumire cackled and I almost threw her my fork if only Hailey and Reiss didn't come into view and plopped themselves beside me.

"Good noon Your Highness. Did you have fun?" for some reason there was something in the way Hailey said that and I was getting frustrated by every second that passes so I snapped.

"What the heck is going on? You guys seem to know something I don't. Spill it or I'm going to spill this on you." I raised the lemonade that I got threatingly.

"Sheesh, why so sensitive? I knew you were a little dense sometimes but not this dense." Ava rolled her eyes and sipped on her soda.

"If you drag this any longer Ava, don't be surprised if you walk back to the dorm soaked in lemonade."

"Fine fine. You tease me all the time but you never let me tease you, it's unfair." she pouted and I raised my lemonade again. "I don't know why you're the one threatening me when you're the one who didn't even tell us anything. If anything we should be the one threatening you but alas." she shook her head in mock disappointment. 

"I mean I knew there was something going on but it would've nice to know about it from you." she shook her head again which only made my confusion and irritation highten. Reiss must've noticed that Ava was in danger because she stepped in.

"You were on a Sundate with Cassian right?" the three of them laughed and high-fived Reiss with the clever pun but my brain almost mafunctioned.

"What do you mean Sundate? We were just roaming around?" I asked confused which made them laugh even more.

"Seriously? Holy cow, I didn't think the day would come where I would witness the Great Merideth confused like this." Ava cackled wildly which earned a couple of eyes on us which thankfully made her quiet down a little.

I was still a little confused when Hailey suddenly thrust her phone in front of me and loaded on the screen was the school's forum, specifically a thread of a certain topic. Picking it up I looked at the contents and almost flung it to Ava.

It was a thread talking about Cassian and I going around the school today. There were a couple of posts and even some pictures that I didn't even know where taken. I felt a little dizzy by what I saw and Hailey took that as a sign to snatch her phone back.

"Why is there a whole ass thread on the forum? And how did you even find it?" I mumbled.

"Duh, there's always stuff about us on the forum. You just don't check it often so that's why you don't know. Besides, how do you think Hailey knew where you were if not for that thread? Babygirl was about to go on a full panic aide mode before I shoved that thread on her face." Sumire chuckled and Hailey just flung a piece of rice on her direction which made her wiggle in her spot. 

"What?" if I was dumbfounded earlier, I was even more now. I'm going to have to check the forum later.

"It means, almost all of the whole school thinks you and Cassian went on a date and honestly, based on the accounts and pictures alone, I think you did. Now, tell us. When did things start going in that direction for you guy? I thought you and Kairo had something going on." Sumire pointed at me with her fork before taking a bite on it.

"Don't be ridiculous. You know for a fact that me and Kairo are just friends."

"Doesn't seem that way sometimes. I mean you flirt all the damn time. I was sure you were going to end up together someway somehow. That or you were already dating and you didn't just tell us which I think is not the case because Kairo won't probably shut up if that was the case." Reiss said and munched on her lunch. Right, they didn't know about the agreement me and Kairo had so understandable have a nice day.

"Can't we just flirt as friends?" she snorted.

"You know that sounds ridiculous right? Flirting as friends...hey can I use that excuse to flirt then?" she brightened up which made Ava clap her on the back.

"Who are you even going to flirt with?"

"That's a secret." she put her fingers on her lips which made me roll my eyes at her. Oh I know who it is but I'm not spoiling anything.

"Wait hey! We're getting off topic here! You sly girl, trying to change the topic like that. You know we won't stop till we know. So?" Sumire drawled on and I just gave her a look and she almost shouted in frustration.

"Oh come on! Did you and Cassian go on a date or not?!" she almost screamed but Ava squeezed her shoulders and made her sit back down because she was attracting attention way more than usual.

"I'm telling you we did not!" I whisper-shouted at her and she gave me the I-don't-believe-you look.

"Look it's a misunderstanding okay? We just happen to bump into each other on the kitchen earlier and then he asked me for a walk and seeing as I was going to do it anyway I agreed to go with him. Then midway, I saw that I can go to the stables which ultimately led to us missing breakfast and so we went to get breakfast together because I was the one to drag him to the stables which..." I stopped dead in my tracks because the more I narrate what happened, the more I see why people misunderstood. It does look like we went on a date. We walked together around the school, on a Sunday, our day off, with almost matching clothes...crap.

They must've caught up to my sudden realization because they almost howled in laughter.

"See! Oh my goodness, I already know half of what happened basing on the threads but hearing it from you is a thousand times better! And that's only half of it! Come on tell us everything!" Ava giggled and slapped Sumire on the side.

I groaned because how exactly am I supposed to tell them now that they had it ingrained in their minds that we went on a date? This is ridiculous and to these drama hungry girls, explaining won't do anything so I just decided to fight fire with fire.

"Yeah yeah it was a date." I sighed and they squealed while hugging each other but stopped when I smirked at them. "Friendly date."

"Oh come on! There is no such thing as just a friendly date Mori you know it!" Ava groaned, exasperated.

"There is too. Ya'll just don't want to believe it because you want to tease me." I smirked.

"Right, like how you used to go on "friendly dates" with Kairo sometimes." Hailey supplied beside while air quoting the friendly dates.

"Exactly. You should try it, it's fun." I shrugged and sipped on my lemonade that I thankfully didn't waste on Ava.

"FIne, if you're going to be like that, we won't push you but just know that now that you've planted us this seed of hope, ha." Reiss didn't finish, trying hard to sound mysterious and threatening and I just rolled my eyes at her, not threatened at all. 

"Still though you looked cute together. Would definately cheer for you both and really, if I had to choose between friendly dating Cassian or Kairo, I would choose Cassian too." Sumire giggled and I just gaped at her.

"Don't give me that look, I wouldn't steal him from you. You could go on all the friendly dates that you want with him until it turns into romantic one's and we'll be right beside you, fangirling." Sumire giggled and Hailey and Ava followed while I scoffed at disbelief at them. Thankfully though, they seemed to drop the topic.

"So what else did you both do on your friendly date? We saw snippets but I still wanna hear the whole thing."

Or maybe not.

"You could piece it together all you want, I'm not having this conversation anymore." I said while leaning back and folding my hands in front of me, showing that I won't be budging anymore and they groaned.

"Fine be that way. Just know that I'm still getting the details later though. But for now, what are your plans for this afternoon?"

~~~

Finally escaping the interrogation team (aka my friends), I sauntered off into the Archery Range which had some of my teammates practicing in. They greeted me while I changed and prepared my bow and arrow. Grabbing the blunt arrows (that was usually used for practice), I stood on a designated spot away from the target as I fixed my equipment. I was currently alone in the range which was great because I needed the silence after that draining conversation with my friends who did not stop until they got called for their respective clubs.

Fixing my stance, I began gripping the bow handle gently as I place the arrow on the shelf of the arrow rest. Drawing the first arrow into the string gently, I began aiming to the target that was placed in front of me for practice. I was atleast 60 feet away from the target which is the suggested distance for beginners and I'm using it since I was just practicing for fun. 

Drawing the arrow back, I aimed for the bullseye, took a deep breath and released the arrow. The sound echoed as it soared from across the room and landed on the bullseye as I calculated. Drawing another arrow, I repeat the same thing and was about to release the arrow again when I heard someone clap behind me which made me lose hold on the arrow and accidentally released it. It landed a few inches away from the center though.

Turning around to see who disturbed me, I come face to face with Lia, a teammate of mine and the best archer in the team. She had her hands up, showing that she was sorry, with a smile on her face.

"Impressive as always Merideth." she clapped and shook her head teasingly which made me scoff in amusement as she took her place beside me and prepared for practice.

Drawing another arrow I aimed once again and we fell into silence as both our arrows hit the target. We were stuck in that routine, with only the sound of arrowheads piercing through the target can be heard between us.

"So...how's it going?" Lia suddenly asked as she released another arrow and set her bow down as we head to grab pile of arrows stuck in the target.

"Nothing much really, well except for what happened last week, we're fine."

"Is that so? Glad to hear that. I was a little worried about you when the news came around here. I'm pretty sure everyone was." she said and threw me a worried glance as we went back to our position.

"I know. But well, we already have been through so much so there's really no need to worry about."

"Hmmm yeah I know. Still, it worries me." she said and I just nodded. Lia and I were quite close, even though we only meet sometimes since she was in the normal classes but we were still close with each other.

"Thank you for worrying but we're going to be fine no problem. By the way, wanna join us for dinner? We haven't had one is a long time." I offered as another arrow soared though.

"I would be glad to Merideth but I already have an appointment. We decided to review a couple for a test on Monday together for dinner so I guess I'll pass."

"Understandable. You could join us for lunch though. I'm sure Reiss would be glad to have you over." I teased and she groaned.

"She's just going to rant to me again about how I have zero fashion sense like please, we all can't afford to dress up and accessorize everyday." I laughed at that because Reiss does always want to dress Lia up because as she once said dramatically, "Girl, she only wears a white tee shirt everytime I see her. It's as if she doesn't want to bother anymore. As her friend I can't make her keep on going like this. It hurts me." and true to her point, Lia was indeed wearing another plain white shirt and black slacks, like she always. Makes me wonder sometimes if that was the only shirts she owns in her wardrobe.

"Come on just let her do it to you. I'm sure you're going to look great in a hot pink crop top." I teased and Lia visibly blanched at that, horrified by the idea, which made me laugh out loud. She glared at me before setting her bow down and I drew another arrow.

As I was about to release the arrow, Lia decided that now would be the best time to distract me, probably payback for teasing her so much.

"Oh right! How come you didn't tell me you were dating the new prince? What was his name again? Cassian?" surprised by her sudden outburst I let go of the arrow and it swerved away from the target and landed on the wall beside it which made Lia laugh out loud.

"Were you really affected by the mere mention of his name? Dang, I didn't know you were this whipped." she cackled, clearly enjoying my panic. I threw her a glare which only fueled her on.

"What are you talking about? I'm not." I tried to say calmly because getting heated up now would only fuel her and I refuse to give her that satisfaction.

"You definitely are! No need to be so shy around me." she teased and I almost threw her the bow but didn't because I had an image to maintain and I'm pretty sure that would warrant an offense.

"So was today your first date perhaps?" she teased again and I just groaned.

Whoever posted this whole thing first, please come out, I just only want to talk about this and what spurred you to do this, I promise because this is getting ridiculous.

When I agreed to that walk, I didn't think for a second that Cassian and I would become the hot topic of these drama thirsty, fried-brain students of Irini Alliance. What did I even do to deserve this??