Valedictorian | Armin Arlert

food fight

Boy... friend...? Your lips went numb.

"Who's this, Armin?" the voice belonged to a girl who rushed towards you, clearly irritated and fumed. The way she curled her lips and the way she practically sang Armin's name in such an intimate fashion push more than enough buttons to make you uncomfortable. Once she saw Armin scoot away, she smiled at you. Well, it was more of a grimace than a smile, but you decided to be optimistic.

She looked familiar, like she was from school and you inferred she was. Only, you recognized her because her eyes were shaped the same as yours and mirrored the color as well. In addition, her skin was tinted the same shade. What's more, she wore her hair in the same way. If you hadn't subconsciously knew her, she could've been mistaken as a bona fide carbon copy of yourself. Besides the obvious differences, like clothes and facial structure, at first glance you could've been mistaken for sisters.

You stood and sat in the opposite seat to distance yourself from Armin. You couldn't say you knew who she was, you'd never formally introduced yourself. She was but a faint recollection, a fellow ghost who strolled of the drab, brick and wooden corridors of school, like any other student. The bottom line, you hadn't known her and you were not in the mood to be acquainted. However, you had a feeling you were about to whether you liked it or not.

She was strikingly beautiful. At least, in the eyes of most, but you didn't catch the hype. As you could tell, she was also around the same height as you. Despite your similarities, you were nothing like her. Although you knew she attended your school, she didn't cross your mind often. She didn't take any challenging courses and was likely attending college on an athletic scholarship.

A detail about Armin you envied was his emotional intelligence, which you lacked an embarrassing amount. Either that, or she was intentionally being hard to read. You couldn't tell whether she was genuinely being nice or she was hinting for you to back off.

Armin reached over, placing a delicate hand on your shoulder, you briefly tensed at Armin's touch. You didn't remember him being so friendly before, "This is (Y/N). (Y/N), this is Emilia, my... girlfriend..."

You blanked out for a second as the words reverberated into the atmosphere. It felt as if he held onto that word but you swore he said it suspiciously fast. Each syllabal unhinged in an odd calling from the tip of his tongue. The title marinated in your head. The

Girlfriend? Girl... friend...? Since when was Armin...

A weight dropped in your stomach. You restrained from slamming your hand over your mouth as you connected the dots. Armin told you be was talking to someone. Only until this point, you completely disregarded the possibility of him becoming involved anything more serious. The tension faded in an instant as she widely smiled, "Oh it's that (Y/N)! He talks a lot about you."

You looked around, confused. No offense to Armin, but he didn't seem like the kind of guy to pull a girl like Emilia. She wasn't particularly studious in any discernable way and she was highly materialistic. Not that there was anything wrong with that but as a person who operated solely on logic, it stumped you to the core.

You mentally shrugged, maybe that was his type. Like magnets, opposites attract. Then again, if that was true, why did you all of the sudden feel so bewildered by the news of their relationship?

Of course, you suspected it could have been your intuition warning you of Emilia. Armin was a rival, that didn't mean you wanted him to be with the wrong person. She seemed controlling and you haven't even gotten to know her. Then two arguments crossed your mind. Perhaps it was reasonable to get upset. The scene was not exactly advocating for fidelity.