Immature Mistakes | mj.q✓

Twenty-Seven

‘The party was so fun Ava! I swear you should have come!’ Evelyn told Ava that Monday morning as they went through the school building entrance.

‘Yeah I bet it sure beat being with dad on the weekend.’ Ava answered languidly.

Ava noticed Jiaqi standing in the hallways, and he had been able to spot her as well. He looked like he expected her to say something, after all, it seemed there wasn’t any tension between them. But Ava didn’t say a word, instead she looked forward and ignored his presence.
Jiaqi was surprised, but he realized that Ava still probably needed more space. Or maybe he was wrong, maybe she just hadn’t seen him.

However, Ava was simply afraid to talk to him while Evelyn was around. Her father seemed quite stern and serious about her talking to Jiaqi, so she had to avoid him as much as possible.

‘Well girls are hard to predict,’ he thought to him before his phone beeped, indicating a message.

Jiaqi took his cell phone out of pocket and realized that it was a message from an unsaved number.

“I’m sorry”, the message read. Even though he wasn’t sure whose number that was, he could guess that it was Janine. He had deleted her number some time ago, so it made sense that she would be the one to send the message besides the fact that he had talked to her some few days ago.

He didn’t answer the message. Instead, he put the phone in his pocket and walked on over to class.

During lunch time, Jiaqi decided to try his luck again. After receiving his meal, he walked over to the table Ava was sitting on alone.

‘You can’t sit here.’ she immediately told him, looking around the cafeteria.

‘What? Why?’ he wondered.

‘Just go. You’ll get me in trouble!’

‘Trouble?’ he slightly frowned. ‘what’s going on?’

‘Just go! Please!’ she begged him nervously.

Jiaqi nodded then walked away from her table, finding somewhere else to sit. He didn’t know what was going on, but he realized it was something he had to respect. The club meeting that day was bound to be awkward, seeing that they were going to be in the same room along with the tension that seemed to have re-emerged out of nowhere.

…

That afternoon, the students of guidance and counselling club gathered in one of the classrooms. Jiaqi sat somewhere near the window as he waited for more students to gather inside, with Chengxin sitting next to him.

‘So how did it go with Janine? You never told me.’ Chengxin asked his friend.

‘Well I told her that I know everything that happened and while she did seem ashamed, I don’t know if that was remorse or she’s just scared I’ll tell people.’ Jiaqi answered.

‘Wait, what do you mean you “knew everything that happened”? What actually happened?’

That was the moment Jiaqi remembered that he hadn’t told Chengxin what he had discovered from Evelyn. He was too exhausted with it to tell Chengxin the entire story. ‘I’ll tell you later.’

To Jiaqi’s surprise, Ava walked over to him with his raincoat. He had almost forgotten about it, and probably would have never remembered until he graduated.

‘Your raincoat.’ She offered it to him, folded in her arms.

‘Oh thanks.’ Jiaqi took it and started placing it in his backpack. When he had put it inside, he looked up and was surprised to see that Ava was still standing there. She had avoided him for the day and now suddenly seemed like she wanted a conversation.

‘My sister isn’t here yet,’ Ava sighed. ‘So I feel like I should tell you what’s going on as quickly as I can.’

‘Ookay.’ Jiaqi replied with confusion, his eyes wandering to Chengxin’s then back to Ava’s.

‘It’s just that…you know how mad my dad was that day when you were with us? It seems he doesn’t like you for some reason which I don’t know about. So he told me to stay away from you and my sister has to keep an eye on me just to make sure I don’t.’ she told him quickly.

‘What?’ Jiaqi asked with surprise. ‘I mean…I understand. I’m just a bit confused as to why your dad doesn’t like me. Perhaps he heard about the Janine thing?’
Ava shook her head. ‘He wouldn’t. Even if he did, trust me he wouldn’t hate you for that. He’s not much of a stickler for the rules.’

‘Well then…’

‘I gotta go.’ Ava said quickly before walking away from the desk and sitting on the opposite end away from Jiaqi.

‘Why does it seem like there’s millions of things that I missed!?’ Chengxin raised his arms to emphasize. ‘What in the world is happening in your life?’

‘At some point I’m not even sure.’ Jiaqi answered honestly.

A short moment later, Evelyn walked in extremely focused on her cell phone. She walked over to the column Ava was sitting on and sat behind her.

‘What are you checking out?’ Ava asked her curiously.

‘Wang Yibo is going to land at the airport soon.’ She answered. ‘So I need to be there by 4 pm.’

‘But the airport is so far from here.’

‘I know! I’m gonna drive with Sarah and her big sister you idiot.’

Ava ignored the insult, realising there was a positive side to Evelyn leaving with Sarah and going to the airport. She would probably leave earlier, so Ava could be able to meet Jiaqi and actually explain to him in detail without having her sister catching them.

Jiaqi suddenly heard his cell phone ringing in his pocket.

‘Oh man, what the hell?’ he asked himself and took it out of his pocket. Once again, it was an unknown number, and once more he was sure who it must have been. ‘Hello?’ he said once he had put the phone to his ear.

‘Oh hey Jiaqi,’ Janine’s familiar voice answered.

‘Oh Janine, what’s up?’

Chengxin looked at him curiously, wanting to understand the conversation that was going on.

‘I wanted to ask you if you’ve read the message I sent you.’ She answered.

‘Oh I did, I just forgot to respond.’ he lied. ‘It’s fine. I told you it’s fine. Just don’t do that to someone again.’

‘Understood. And thanks for not telling anyone.’ She answered in a tone that sounded sincere enough to Jiaqi. ‘You’re a really good person.’

‘It’s fine. I have to go now. I’m in a club meeting.’

‘Oh sure. Have a nice day!’

Jiaqi removed the cell phone from his ear then hang up.

‘Are you guys rekindling things?’ Chengxin asked him.

‘What do you mean rekindling?’

‘Oh you know, because Janine always had a crush on you…so I thought you were secretly dating?’

‘We weren’t and I didn’t even know she liked me.’ Jiaqi sighed.

‘I think she may still like you.’

He glared at his friend and shook his head.