January

Chapter 19

There were about seven things that came to mind as soon as Erine realized two hands placed against both of her hands.

I need to get out of here.

But the two boys allows for no room of escape. Even Erine was a bit surprised at how tightly was Luke's hand gripped over her arm.

"Who are you?" Luke asked, but there weren't any hint of hate in his voice.

It was a great contrast to the tone of voice that Prince used when he said, "Let go."

Erine looks over to Elizabeth who was now getting a bit concerned about the situation. Even so, se was a bit taken aback of the appearance of an unknown man.

But come to think of it, it was the first time that these two finally met and she didn't expect it to be this chaotic. Erine was about to say something when Prince suddenly snaked his arm over Erine's shoulder, a move that she didn't expect from him. Even Elizabeth who was watching them almost choked on her non-existent food.

Then Erine gets to see Luke's reaction, which she was more surprised about. It was the first time that she gets to see him make that kind of expression. Although it was new to her it sure is wasn't unfamiliar as she have seen those kind of expression in every fairy tales she have seen in her entire life.

"I believe I haven't see you before. May you state your name and--"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, right." Prince interrupted with a snarl. "You're always like this, that's why I hated you."

There was a moment of silence before Luke could even talk. "Have we met before?"

Prince didn't say anything but continued eyeing him, like he could kill him any moment. It's as if he had deep-rooted feelings and it only just came running out of control.

Even though the two where having their mental fight, Erine was having one of her own. She just couldn't stand being stared at by people while two men are seizing her up like a prize to be taken. She wasn't having any of it.

That's why she's taken in into her own account to roughly shake both of the man's arm in both of her wrist.

"Don't I have any say if I wanted to be dragged or not?!" Erine said that made the two lose their concentration in each other.

Erine just slapped her forehead as she crossed her shoulders over her chest. Her chest rising and falling from trying to calm herself down.

"And I am not going anywhere with the two of you." Erine snapped...rather calmly as she shifts her gaze between the two who looked dumbfounded.

"Erine," It was Elizabeth who called her name. Her friend must felt the backward atmosphere. "Let's go?"

She knew perfectly what Elizabeth was trying to do, that's why when she heard it, she immediately went towards Elizabeth's direction and snaked an arm around her friend.

"You two should cool your head off." Erine said calmly. "Kids shouldn't fight."

Now there was two different expression set in front of them. One was surprised, and the other was...

Erine had to stare at Prince for she hadn't expect him to smile. He even went as far as to chuckle.

But then again, she has to say something first before she can escape the scene. There are many prying eyes, and it feels as if she just starred into an intense drama of a love triangle.

"Luke, we will talk tomorrow." Erine said.

"Yeah, buddy." The player from earlier interrupted. "We need to practice. And the coach is getting angry. What's taking you so long?"

Erine muttered a silent thank you to whoever that teammate was. Luke on the other hand seem hesitant to go back to the field but he still did with heavy footsteps.

She couldn't help but to stare at his retreating figure. There was no way Erine wouldn't concerned when she just witnessed a side of Luke she hasn't seen before. If she could name it, she can relate it to the word jealousy. But other than that, there must be something more.

"Are you really considering to go with him when I didn't arrive?" Prince just snap her out of her wondering thoughts and Erine was reminded that there was another problem she should face.

Instead of answering, Erine just calmly said, "Why are you doing this?"

"I just helped you. You seem like you don't want to talk with him." Before Erine could even say anything else about this conclusion, Prince added, "And I don't want when that person messess things."

Erine was a bit taken aback by the way he said those words, "Things?"

Prince quietly looks at her and sighed. "I just hate him, don't need to think about what I just said. You tend to overthink things."

Again with the word things, Erine can't help but to repeat it out loud.

She knew that something was weird when when she first met Prince, but now that he kept stating things that validates her earlier assumptions, Erine can't help but to get more curious of the boys past. He just kept getting complicated as time goes on.

"Um, hi." Erine and Prince turned both of their head at the same time when Elizabeth went in between their silent bickering. "Hello, um, nice to meet you. I don't believe we've met before."

Prince looks at her. His eyes in a tight line, as if he was juggling in his memory whether he have seen the woman before.

"His name is Prince." Erine said as a simple introduction. "And this is my friend Elizabeth--"

"AH!"

The two friends jolted in surprise when they heard him cried out a bit.

Seemingly conscious of his sudden reaction, Prince only scratched his head and cleared his throat. "I-I-- Um."

This scene looked oddly familiar, at least in Erine's point of view. She had remembered that time in the restaurant then when Prince saw Mrs. Harper, and he looked as if he was panicking and fidgeting.

Almost as if he have saw an acquaintance.

It was odd because when se first met Prince, he was being rude, as if he wasn't fond of her presence even though he seems as if he was an old acquaintance of hers.

"Hello, nice to meet you." Prince said rather politely. As a matter of fact, he looked more than happy even though it isn't clearly shown.

"Wow, how polite for a college student." Elizabeth said when she eyed the college ID that was on his uniform. "And I think I should be the one who should be polite considering that I am younger than you."

"What?!" Prince seems confused for a minute. But after a while of self-reflecting he immediately changed his statement. "Oh, nice to meet you."

"Isn't he an awkward young man?"

Erine just looked at them both while crossing her arm.

"If only you knew how rude he was to me." Erine said, whispering over Elizabeth's ears.

"What are you whispering?!" Prince said with a snarl that made Erine look at him with a c****d eyebrow.

"Do you really need to shout?"

"I am not shouting."

Erine rubs her forehead. "I am starting to think that you're biased when it comes to me. Honestly, what did I ever do to you?"

"You--"

Whatever Prince was going to say was interrupted when Elizabeth just chuckled out of nowhere, now the the duo looks at her way for the second time.

"What are you laughing at?" Erine asked.

"Oh, nothing." Elizabeth said, hand gesturing for them to continue with their small fight. Even though the former thinks it was a ridiculous fight, she still find them entertaining.

Prince and Erine just looked at each other and straightened their back. The movement were almost in sync that Elizabeth couldn't hep but to burst into heartful laughter.

Erine and Elizabeth parted ways with Prince on their way to the train station.

"Honestly, why couldn't you stop laughing? You're grinning the entire time." Erine said with a huge pout. "Don't tell me you are shipping me with that brat?!"

"What?!" Elizabeth backed away for a while, the first time she had lost her smile and looked at her with surprise. "I will only ship you with Luke, do not worry."

"Then why are you grinning like that?"

It's as if its a magic trick, Elizabeth's smile only became wider as they went back at the topic on hand.

"You see, he kind of familiar." Elizabeth said.

Erine tilted her head on one side.

"Mm-hmm, and you too seem so, so similar."

"What?!" Erine almost screamed. "That brat and me doesn't have anything in common."

Elizabeth just giggled once again, and Erine find it hopeless to argue more. Se just pouted and carried her file case like it was a baggage full of things she needed for a one month trip.

"Come on, you two are kind of close."

Erine didn't smile and just continued walking, pretending to hate what has been said, but e was quietly smiling. And it's certainly wasn't because of Prince. It has something to do with the way Elizbeth teased her. And on the other hand, Prince's appearance may not that be bad at all.

She admit it that at first she's not used having fun with Elixabeth and Michelle conspiring how they turned out to be in the future. But now it seems as if having fun like this, with the two involve, she can get use to it now.

When they parted ways and Erine has to get in to the train, both waved goodbye.

This time, however wasn't that crowded compared to the days whenever she would take the train home.

She gets a seat and sets her bag on her lap as she hums along to a song she bursted in her earphones.

As she continuously taps her foot along, she looks at the passing scenery in front of her. The afternoon sunlight blinking whenever it was blocked by a tree or by cities.

Thinking that it was a bit boring. She decided to check on the diary. She remembered then tat she hadn't able to check on it since she's been busy with things in relation the club. And she was feeling a bit proud of herself for once.

When Erine flips through the pages and gets to the end. She was surprised as she saw three entire. There was nothing particularly new in the first entry.

The second entry was a bit long, it went over two pages back to back that it almost seem like a novel. With this, she decided just to skip and go over to the last entry which ultimate shocked her when she read the first sentence.

And so my first date with Erine is nerve-wrecking...

Her eyes almost went out of its sockets when she saw this.

She wanted to curse out loud but she stopped considering she was at the public place.

Then she decided to read more.

We just kept bickering as usual. We really couldn't go to places without having a fight. When we went to the movies, we fought on what to watch. But we ended up agreeing to watch the movies we suggested, that's why we spent almost five hours in the theaters. And the entire time, I just left my and on the arm rest, hoping that she would hold mine, but in those five hours, she didn't even notice me.

There was an emoji-like crying face at the end of that pharagraph.

And when we had our afternoon lunch, we challenges each other whether our favorite is the best meals. We just couldn't give up on fighting. It seems like we aren't normal couples at all. Just friends casually dating each other!

Erine had to stop for a while to compose herself.

There was no way that this could happen when five days earlier, they were just strangers with unrequited crushes.

Then by the end of the day we went to arcades, and you can guess what happened then, Emi. She went as far as to shove me away we're playing car racing. I thought I just dated an Amazona!

The paragraph ends there. And it seem like an unsatisfying outcome. But considering it's a first date, Erine must be backward in front of the guy.

She was about to go back to the previous entry when she found something odd with the date. And when realization sinks in, she realized that the data wasn't today.

It was a month early then her date from now!