SOCIALLY AWKWARD

08. All-time Low

Every negative feeling that had once been foreign to Ameri she had experienced that Saturday morning when Kenma had left her waiting outside the train station.

Her walk back home had been dominated by pure anger. And the emotion had been so overpowering that halfway through it, she had considered stopping by his house just to give him a piece of her mind. But luckily for him, she had somehow managed to set against the idea despite her great agitation.

The moment she had stepped into her room and the realization that she had been stood up finally sunk in, her indignation had directly given way to disappointment.

For a moment, her hopeful side had still given him the benefit of the doubt and gone over all possible reasons that could have held him back. If it had been a family or volleyball emergency, he would've let her know—it had happened before. And so, the rest of her day had been spent wracking her brain over it, and when all possibilities had been logically ruled out, it had become clear to her.

Kenma had chosen not to go.

The lack of contact from him over that weekend hadn't done him any favors, either. In all truth, rarely had he ever been the one to initiate it nor had she ever cared about it before. He had always been reserved like that, and Ameri had come to terms with it long ago. But this time around, his silence had held more weight and spoken volumes, causing her to start seeing their relationship in a different light. And every small detail she had once been blind to had started to wave at her like a red flag.

When asked, Kenma had always reassured her that he didn't mind her company, and she had even come to believe that he enjoyed it. But her self-assertion and over-confidence had prevented her from stopping to consider the probability that he wasn't interested in her that way, and that a friend was all he ever saw and would see in her.

She had once again been careless. She had ruined their friendship. And that her letter would now make him so uncomfortable and uneasy around her had brought so much mortification and soured her mood so much that by the time Monday arrived, she was drained of all spirit and had no courage to face him.

For the first time in months, she had not gone to him first thing in the morning and avoided him during recess. His lack of advance that day had only further nurtured her theories, and Ameri had gone on to cut all the habits they had set together.

"Ameri, you're not subtle at all," Misaki said upon noticing her friend stealing a glance at the volleyball team the second they walked into the cafeteria during lunch break.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ameri pulled her to stand in line.

"Even their captain sees you staring at him. Why don't you just talk to him? Ask him what happened. Maybe he didn't even read it?"

"Nonsense. I put it inside his volleyball bag, and he opens it every day at practice. This was what he wanted. And I got the hint, okay? I'm not that delusional," Ameri said. "Come on, I thought you'd be proud of me. You've always wanted me to stop going after guys who don't care about me."

"He does care dumbass," Misaki sighed. "And this isn't fair to him either. You'd just barged into his life and now are ghosting him. No matter what happened with the letter, you should at least be mature about this."

"Misaki, if he really cared and wanted to, he would've come to me, okay? I know him. He is not who you think he is. Anyway, I think I should branch out from volleyball a bit. The football club seems to have cute guys," she laughed, and though Misaki wasn't fooled by her levity in the slightest, she pressed no more.

Misaki and Ameri stepped out of the school building after classes were over for the week to head back home. Their walks weren't nearly as delightful and exciting to Ameri as the ones with Kenma, but she still preferred Misaki's company over the dreadful, lonely ones.

As they struck to their left, they were met with the familiar figures of some of the players of Nekoma who were loitering by the school gates.

Kuroo was the first to notice the pair, who had slowed down as Misaki fought to stop Ameri from bolting away, and tapped Kenma's shoulder to get his attention. The rest of the team gave him encouraging smiles as he set off towards the brawling girls.

"Hey, Ameri," he greeted in a whisper, "can I talk to you for a second?"

"Umm..." Ameri colored as she kept her eyes away from his and slurred, "sorry, we have to go. We're late."

"For what?"

"Remember we have that thing."

"We literally have nothing." Misaki raised one of her brows, and Ameri's lips twitched as she suppressed the growing urge to just slap her.

"Then umm..." Kenma trailed off as he took a deep breath before reaching inside his bag and fishing out a red envelope. With slightly shaky hands, he handed it to her. "Will you take this?"

Without awaiting an answer, he gave her an awkward wave and went back to his friends who promptly huddled around him, cheering in celebration as they scrambled towards the gym, leaving Ameri and Misaki to shadow the scene with wide eyes—the former with a racing heart as well.