The Blood's Elegance

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

SPRING IS TIME FOR FRIENDSHIP II

“You weren’t going to be mad at me forever, right?” I did my cutest face, and I hope I didn’t look disgusting for doing it. Man, who was I turning into? “Right? Right?”

“I didn’t say I was mad.”

I distanced myself a little. “Right,” I blew out.

We exited the building and traveled the short distance to one make-up cable stables which were situated on two out of the four entrances of the football field, the large space in the middle perfectly surrounded by tall, proud buildings made up of glass windows of the Estro Bersamus. We walked past in front of a group of people sitting on the benches before we reached the stables. The grooms were taking care of the horses while some students watch. I searched for the student committee or anyone who was wearing the same badge on the collar of her uniform, but a man with short curly hair who we need already approached us.

“Hi, good afternoon! Can I help you with anything?”

“We have reservations,” my friends told them the time when they reserved.

“And the student in the entrance booked us for three,” I added.

“What’s the code?”

Seth and I looked at each other.

“Have you heard her say something regarding a code?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Did she?”

“It’s black and yellow teeth.”

We shifted our eyes to James who answered for us; some laughed, but a lightbulb lit in my head.

“Right!” I agreed. “Black and yellow teeth.”

“All right, Madison reserved for you.” He looked at each one of us. “Be ready. The race will start in ten minutes. It is not totally a race if you came here for fun, so I hope you enjoy. The stablemen will later assigned you the horses, and in case that there is an injury, the administration will be held liable. For any question, you can directly approach me or other committee, and we will answer you to the very best that we can.”

Later, like what he said, the grooms walked out of the cables with the cordeo of the horses in their hands. The tall muscular guy gave me one brown horse. I accepted it and brushed the hair of the horse with my fingers.

“Hi, cute little girl!”

“She’s a he,” the guy corrected and winked before he left.

I rolled my eyes.

“Is he hitting on you?” Seth beside me asked. “Damn, baby.”

“Don’t forget Zia,” I said in a threatening voice.

“Who is she?”

“Have you forgotten?”

“Yes.”

“She was the one who was flirting with you earlier.”

“Oh.” His eyes glinted as he remembered it. “I didn’t know that was her name.”

“Yeah.” I smiled and rode the back of the horse. “Come on, baby.”

“Coming right up.”

I looked at Seth. “I am not talking to you. This horse is my baby right now.”

“Aww.”

I rolled my eyes again and told the horse to run. I knew Seth and others were left behind. I pulled the cordeo to turn around to wait for them only to see him laughing with an unknown girl.

Mary pulled her horse to a stop in front of me and glanced past behind her shoulder. “You know her?”

I shook my head. “Do you?”

“No.”

“My baby is so pretty; girls are chasing him.”

“He would be glad to hear you call him your ‘baby.’”

“In his dreams.”

I pulled the cordeo and ran the horse fast like the one in a race. If there would be no fun in riding this thing with him like what I had expected, then let the race begin.

“Hey, Seah! Wait for me!”

I ignored his call.

“Go, Seah!”

Poor man, the only way he could cope up with me if, first, he would run the horse fast which with would be too cruel of him to do with the horse, or, second, he would jump over the fences that served us our track, or third, he would stay in his position and wait for me to reach him. Unlucky for him, I wouldn’t run close to him, so he would need to do a calculation of which direction would he take that would take him quicker… That would be if he intends to chase me. Whatever! There were too many fishes in the ocean, and I could have anyone I want, but… isn’t that a childish thing to do?

I waited to run together with our company. The girls, surprisingly, guarded me in every side, so did the boys, not leaving any space for any horse to occupy.

“Seriously?” I laughed. “What’s this?”

“Man is dating you, but flirts with the other girls,” Drake answered from behind. “No unloyal dog is allowed in this group.”

I saw Seth already running his horse towards our direction, but he would fail to even talk to me with the group surrounding me.

“Has this happen before?” I asked Leslie who was the nearest to me. “This kind of thing…?”

She nodded her head. “I didn’t know how or when, but I think it was because Drake, Frank, Liam, James, Troy, and Seth were best friends, and it was an established rule in their group. It happened when Ann was dating Liam, and he cheated. The boys did not tolerate him even though they were his friends. They almost served as Ann’s bodyguards 24/7, and he couldn’t talk with her unless he was only there to admit his mistake, ask for forgiveness, ask her to be his girlfriend, or personally tell her that he’s done with her and leave their group.

“What did he do? It’s obviously not the last choice.”

“He admitted his fault and made up with her. He courted her for months first before officially asking her to be his girlfriend in the public.”

“It happened with me, too.” Mary controlled her horse to move closer to us, and I only realized that we have slowed down our pace. “It happened when we were in high school. Drake introduced me to them, but a week after, he was hooking up with another girl from our school who he met in the mall. They said that they confronted him, and he didn’t think that the boys thought that we have a thing going on.”

“But I heard from Frank that they only introduce the girl they like,” Leslie commented.

“That’s what they told me, too,” Mary agreed. “I did not confront Drake because I did not want it to be a big deal, and I didn’t want him to think that I assume things, so I let the boys handled it since they were the ones who had problems with him.

“A week after, I notice that Drake stopped hanging out with them, so I approached him about it because I felt that it was my fault that his relationship with his friends was ruined, but, then, he distanced himself from me, too. I like him because he was so open with me, and he was caring, but I tried to forget it because it seems useless until exactly one month from the time that the boys found out that he was seeing another girl, when, in the morning, he started talking with me again and giving me gifts, and we later on became official. When I became his girlfriend, he admitted that he really likes me that is why he introduced me to his friends because for him, I am his, but he was too afraid to commit because I was his friend since young. He was not afraid to ruin our friendship. He said that if we would be together, and we would break up someday, he was afraid that he would ruin me. He just didn’t want me to be devastated, so he tried to date another girl, but the boys knew it better than him… that he wants to be serious with me, so they urged him to admit his feelings for me, but I knew Drake. He doesn’t want people to act ahead of him or decide for him… which caused their fight.”

“That’s so sweet of him!” I exclaimed and put my hands in my heart.

Leslie opposed. “Sweet, but he was a coward. If he was afraid of breaking your heart and ruining you, he should have tried first to be the best man he could be.”

“He was trying now.”

I had to cut Leslie’s doubt on the past Drake. “How long have you been together?”

“Four.”

“I love your story. I hope you would stay in love forever.”

“Thank you!”

“What about you and Frank, Leslie?”

“One and a half years.”

Taking their job seriously, Seth failed to talk to me or even gap our distance. We returned the horses and I sat on the benches with the girls, but he stayed away from me. I bet he respected his friends protecting me from him or he was aware of his fault. It was his this time and not some girl’s.

The sky was getting darker; the moon showed its possessiveness in the sky and thrown out the sun. They open the lights for the football field. I stared at the scene in front of me. The wide lawn was freed from the fences and started to be occupied by seats and tables arranged by the students who I believed came from different year levels; they left a large space in the middle, and I had no idea what the setup was all about. They put long tables on the right and left and put red table skirts on them. People wearing servers of what looks like catering carried rectangular containers and put those on the table. The students, on the other side, were busy putting table cloths, utensils, glasses, and plates on every table. An hour passed and looked like they were halfway done despite their quantity. Then, eight students arrived with a big portable camping fire pit followed by a student with logs in a construction cart. They placed it in the middle, but amidst the area that it consumed, there was still space left that surrounded it.

“What’s going on?”

No one was able to answer. Everyone was as baffled as I am.

“It’s called the ‘Possessions Bonfire.’”

I heard Seth, but I did not react, so did the others who were my underlings today, and we were all against Seth.

A student climbed the benches and stopped in front of us.

“You can now choose your seats there before it gets crowded.”

“What will happen later?”

“A party.”

They were delighted upon hearing the great news. They immediately rushed down and chose a table for twelve. The utmost number of seats in a table were ten, so we chose one that is the nearest to the center and dragged two more seats in our table to be enough for all. Not too soon, people came from different directions and took their tables. Now, more than half of the tables prepared were filled with persons. Fortunately, we found a good spot, but unfortunately, this would be too embarrassing when one of us stands to go to the comfort room. Surely, it could attract attention.

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