𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚎 || 𝐅𝟒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 (editing)

eleven

chapter eleven:

he never should have introduced them
———

"That girl intended to kiss me!" complained Thyme. It was the day after Mira's party and his friends had invited themselves over to his house. MJ and Kavin were by the pool hanging out with two girls whilst listening to Thyme rant. Lia was laying on one of the plastic chairs with a random book she found over her face. Kavin swore that she was asleep but was slightly terrified of checking.

Yogurt drenched Thymes lips as he sloppily took another bite from his favourite morning snack. His two best friends were laughing about how messy he was eating. "It's all over your mouth. You're a messy eater, Thyme" yelled MJ as he threw a ball in the other boys direction. Thyme went to wipe his mouth but sighed when his fingers reached his lips. Kavin and MJ groaned, "he's lost all his cool".

"I forgot. That was Thyme's first kiss," mocked Kavin. Thyme attempted to deny it sending his friends into a fit of giggles. "If it wasn't, where was your first kiss?" asked MJ. "Yeah," interjected Kavin, "where was it?". The yogurt loving boy began to stutter and splashed water in their direction.

The girl underneath the book began to move around from the constant yelling and splashing. She let out a large sigh. Everyone — including the two girls that Kavin and MJ were flirting with — froze. The last thing they wanted to do was wake Lia. Just before she had fallen asleep she had threatened to take all of their teeth out if a single drop of water touched her.

When Lia's breathing returned to normal and it seemed like she had gone back to sleep they continued their conversation, but this time in quieter voices.

"Anyways," whispered Thyme, "let's talk about what's important. Now I know that Gorya is a hypocrite and she just wants me to approach her". A groan of displeasure came out of Kavin, "Fine whatever you say. When are you going to talk to Ren?". MJ leaned closer to hug the neck of the unicorn floaty he was on, "you guys have been fighting for too long and i'm sick of it. Aren't you going to apologise?".

"He should apologise to me! I have nothing to apologise for. Tell him if he doesn't then I won't speak to him for the rest of my lifetime".

Underneath the book was an awake Lia. After she was splashed with water she tried her best to go back to sleep but her nosiness kept her awake to listen to their conversation. She was a little disappointed that Thyme seemed to want to approach Gorya, or at least that's what it sounded like. But it wasn't like she was dating him or anything. She had practically friend-zoned him a couple nights before. But her heart was still aching from the way he spoke about Gorya.

Ren has been attached to the hip with Mira since the night of the party. Currently, he was laying down on her leather couch in the sitting room of her home. Mira was standing in front of the couch with a cup of tea in hand. She blew the hot tea in attempt to cool it down and watched as Ren sketched.

It was clear that the sketch Ren was making was of two figures — specifically two girls — but it wasn't quite obvious who the two were. This was because Ren had a thing for drawing the facial features of people last. Nevertheless, he continued to sketch and occasionally lifted his head to look at Mira every once in a while.

"It's been a while since I've seen you back with your crew, are you waiting for Thyme to make the first move?" asked Mira while scrolling through her phone.

He looked up from his sketch, "you know Thyme doesn't do that". It was true. In the countless of years that Ren had been friends with Thyme, Ren was always the one that had to go and apologise even when it was clearly not his fault. "So if you guys don't speak ever again you'd be okay with that?" she asked.

Ren looked down at his now finished drawing. The two girls were now completed and it was obvious that it was Mira and Liliana. He had sketched the moment where they linked arms at the airport and talked amongst themselves without caring for anyone else. It made him so proud to see the two girls get along. Especially since one of them was his crush and the other was his friend. Although, the distinction between which one was which was a bit foggy in his brain after not seeing Mira for a while and constantly hanging out with Lia.

"I'm okay with that," he replied.

Ren closed his book and gave Mira his full undivided attention, "have you thought about what you want to do after graduation?". She smiled at him, "oh so you're interested in the future now?".

"Im interested if it involves you".

"How so?" she asked teasingly. Instead of catching on to her teasing tone he responded with a serious one, "you can do everything. Business, modelling, advertising... Whatever you choose, I'm ready to watch and support you".

The hot tea tasted bitter to Mira even though she had shovelled spoonfuls of honey and mixed it well into the tea. She decided it was finally time to tell her childhood friend of her plans.

"What if everything I have is not the future I want?"

"Boo!" yelled MJ to Gorya as she was walking down the stairs. Gorya yelped in surprise and put her arms up in a fighting stance on instinct. Kavin laughed at the scene from afar with another two girls that he hadn't been with before.

"Gorya are you still afraid of us?" MJ teased. Kavin interjected, "We're not Thyme. We don't bite". MJ took this as an opportunity to make fun of her for sulking at the rooftop of the school. Earlier, Gorya was waiting for Ren at the rooftop so she could return a handkerchief that he had lent her the night of Mira's party.

"Did you come to see Ren? He's ditching today".

Kavin took out his phone and showed Gorya his screen. It was a photo that Mira had uploaded on instagram a couple of hours before. More specifically, it was a photo of Ren on her brown, leather sofa. "He's at Mira's house," Kavin said in a sing-song voice, "aren't going going to go look for him?"

Gorya did in fact go an look for him at Mira's house. She felt stupid for being so hung up on a boy that she had to rely on stalking him to return the handkerchief. It began to suddenly rain. The world must have been a huge fan of foreshadowing because Ren came storming out of the house with Mira at his heels.

"Ren, hear me out! You can always visit me when I'm there! Be reasonable Ren!"

"Reasonable?" Ren scoffed, "how can I be reasonable when you're about to give up everything you've built?". Mira looked at him with pleading eyes. She wasn't quite sure what reaction she was expecting from him but it definitely wasn't this.

"It's not that I don't care," she pleaded, "But what I choose will be beneficial to lots of people".

"So?" he exclaimed loudly, "can't you do that here?"

The girl sighed and bit her lip. She didn't want to hurt him but there was no other option. Mira definitely wasn't going to give up her dreams for anyone anymore. Her voice lowered to almost a whisper, "You know last week when I came here and I saw Liliana at the airport I realised that she did exactly what I wanted to do. I thought at first that I just admired her caring nature but I was just longing to do the same things she was doing!".

And that was when Ren realised he never should have introduced them to each other.

——— a/n
apparently some people didn't understand the ending of the last chapter so I'll quickly explain.

Essentially, Lia said:

"Romance is dead, Romeo. I'd rather be a friend that you might have feelings for than a lover that you abhor".

For those that may not know, abhor means a deep hatred for something so in this quote Lia was saying that she'd rather Thyme have romantic feelings for her and for them to be friends than for them to be dating and for him to realise that he actually didn't like her romantically.

:) i hope you all have a nice day/night!!