𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚎 || 𝐅𝟒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 (editing)

twenty three

chapter twenty three:

Flamingos vs Turtles
———

Tia Paramaanantra was a forced to be reckoned with. That being said, she was more humble and laid back compared to her younger hot-headed brother. Tia and Gorya sat in the back of the moving car as they chatted away about the date that Gorya had made. "I'm really worried," Gorya stated with a pout. Tia couldn't help but gently place her hands on the sides of Gorya's head as she reassured her, "Aww... it's going to be fine. Seeing that you're fine enough to be worried about this means that you're doing well,".

"You seem a bit odd Tia, is something on your mind?,".

"It's nothing you have to worry about," Tia said with a smile, "I hope you know that if you have any worries you can always come to be. That being said, don't worry too much about tomorrow. The date will go great, you'll see,".

Gorya hoped that what Tia said was true.

Beams of moonlight poured into the windows of Ren's condo. The owner himself was sitting on his white cloth couch and painting on an easel in front of him. The two newest additions to the group, Lia and Vin, sat on the floor and played cards on the coffee table. As always, Vincent was winning by a landslide.

"Ren! Ren! Ren!," screamed a voice that was easily recognized as Thyme. When he finally found the room that they all sat in he walked in with a dopey smile, "Hey guys! No big deal but I was just wondering what exactly a normal person wears to the zoo so... I wanted to try some things on to get your opinions!".

Lia groaned. She knew very well how terrible Thyme's sense of fashion was. He had great pieces in his closet but it was almost as if he was colour blind but instead of colours, he was blind to patterns. Thyme loved to mix and match crazy looking clothing and he didn't know how to dress for occasions. Since she grew up around fashion her entire life, curtesy of her mother, and owned her own clothing line, Lia was mentally challenged every time she saw Thyme's outfits.

"Don't wanna, Lia has to buy me canelés from the bakery next time we go to Switzerland if I win this game and I really want them," Vincent said before continuing, "plus, Lia picks out all my clothes because I'm apparently banned from doing so,".

"It's true, I do that," she said smugly, "you should have seen how atrocious he used to look,". Lia shuttered and gestured for Thyme to begin showing the clothing.

And he did. Thyme showed an array of different options. All of which were vetoed by Ren and Lia. By the time Thyme pulled out a full on safari outfit, Vinny lost it and began rolling around the floor with laughter. Ren also began to let out a small chuckle whilst Lia sat with her head in her hands. She let out a heavy sigh.

"Are you laughing? Are you laughing at me?," Thyme said in a joking tone and began to hit Vincent with a pillow from the couch. This only made Vin laugh more, "You just look so stupid acting like you've never worn anything casual before!," he said between laughs.

"Oh Vinny, sweet sweet Vinny," Lia said shaking her head, "when have you seen him wear anything remotely casual?".

"Lia he's worse than me! I've finally met a worthy rival!"

Eventually the laughter stopped and the four of them sat squished together on Ren's couch. "Speaking of which," Thyme began with a cautious tone, "how are you guys feeling about tomorrow?" This resulted in Lia sending him one of her heart-melting smiles, "I'm so excited! I haven't been to a zoo since I came to Thailand!,". And that was all it took for Ren and Thyme to become enchanted by her. Vin, on the other hand, shook his head, "I have to warn you two, this one will spend hours staring at the stupid flamingos— OW! Stop hitting me Liana!," he said after Lia punched him in the shoulder. "Then stop criticizing the best animal to ever exist!,". The two began to dispute with one another over which animal was superior: the flamingo or the turtle.

Thyme took this opportunity to get up and sit on the armrest of the couch next to Ren, "how have you been? you've seemed a bit confused lately,". Ren shrugged. He really didn't want to talk about France. He accidentally vented to Gorya earlier that night and he was beginning to regret it. "How about I pick you a shirt?," Ren said in an attempt to change the topic. When he got up and headed to the rack of clothing a phone fell out of his back pocket.

Thyme had seen this phone before. How could he not know who's it was? He literally bought the phone for Gorya and gave it to her just the other day. Thyme wasn't sure how to feel about his best friend having the phone of the girl he was seeing.

"Oh yeah," Ren called out in a louder tone than usual resulting in silence from the other two on the couch, "I was going to ask you to give it back to Gorya,". Ren nodded towards the phone to let Thyme know what exactly he was talking about.

That really didn't make Thyme feel any better.

Liliana didn't feel so good about that either.

———a/n

Hello! Today's update is a tad bit short because I haven't completed my art project and can't manage my time very well >:(

I hope you still enjoyed it!!