Street Lights || Sim Jake

12 ¦ He knows

I have to get out of here. I have to get out of here. I have to get out of here.

With my brain on red alert, I tried to squeeze through the people. Shit, how stupid could I be? I think I was about to die.

My eyes searched for Melissa's and when I found her, she showed me how much she was rooting for me.

To explain this situation a little bit right now. I found myself in PE class. We were playing some game where you have to throw metal balls really far and somehow, I don't know how, my ball landed on my gym teacher's foot. Since he liked me excessively anyway, I took it upon myself to escape. Not that he'd give me a big hug if I didn't.

"Rodriguez!" His voice sounded anything but welcoming and once I made it through my class, I took big steps to get away from my death.

"Rodriguez! STOP!" That sounded like the police were chasing me, but in reality it was much worse. I just had a monster running after me.

"Rodriguez!" I raced across the soccer field and headed for the parking lot. There I spotted an all-too-familiar face and sprinted off.

"Get in the car!" I yelled hysterically, shoving the Korean to the driver's side. "What??" "What, what?" I ran back to the passenger side and was about to sit down when I noticed Jay hadn't moved an inch.

"Don't you understand English anymore? You want me to yell it at you in Korean?" He pulled out his car keys, still looking at me confused. Fair enough. I could partially understand him, too. It wasn't everyday that a helping elf was followed by a monster.

"Move! CHA-E TALA!", I then trumpeted one last time before the Korean also stirred again. As I buckled up and tugged on my leggings, my firend's voice rang out.

"Since when does our Estela know Korean?" He sounded amused and gave it a little gas. "Since a monster chased after her and tried to kill her."

Jay laughed and then looked at me. He noticed that I was wearing my gym clothes and drew his eyebrows together. "And what about your clothes?" I merely waved it off, though. "Melissa will already pick those up for me and then bring them to my house."

I eyed my clothes, wondering if I could even work in The Sim like this. PE was last period today, which meant I had my first shift right away.

I had only seen Jake very briefly today, as he was only staying at school until noon. I don't know why, but he said that I had to take the tramway since he wouldn't be here anymore.

"Where are you going now?" "The Sim." There was a jolt and I clung to my seat belt. "What are you going to do at the restaurant?" "Working..." Jay seemed a little surprised, but didn't talk about it further since I didn't really make any effort to want to tell more.

"Where's Heeseung? Don't you always go home together?" The Korean's face changed. His look became more serious and his expression seemed tougher in general.  "He and Aleyshia went out to eat." I nodded in understanding and looked out the window.

It was already hurting quite a bit. I was in love and all I could do was let it wash over me. I'd had these feelings towards Heeseung for so long, and I was clear that they weren't going to say goodbye anytime soon either.

"He knows..." "Mwo?" "He knows, Estela." I held my breath. What was he supposed to know? My feelings for him? And why did Jay know about this?

"He knows you're into him."

My heart skipped a beat and completely overwhelmed, I pulled my knees to my chest as I tried to take in Jay's words. "And he doesn't want anything from me?" I sheepishly looked over at Jay, who shook his head miserably.

"He's counting on the fact that if he continues to ignore that fact, you'll get over him."

My mood had dropped considerably now, even though I already knew all this. I knew Heeseung didn't want anything from me, but still Jay's words hit me in the pit of my stomach.

"How long has he known?" "Not that long, but Melissa and I have known for a while. We just stayed quiet because we knew you didn't want to tell us for a reason." Briefly, the Korean paused as he parked in front of the sim. "But now that he knows himself, I think we should talk to you about it and tell you that we know."

Not really sure about what to say to that, I then nodded and unbuckled my seatbelt as I was about to start my first shift. Even more, I wanted to avoid this conversation. "Thank you for telling me, and thank you for driving me here."

With a simple wave of his hand, my, at the moment, most honest buddy waved me off and gave me a friendly smile. "No worries, Stel."

As I slammed the door and turned to walk past the butler, I looked to the ground in disappointment, desperately trying to hold on to the last shred of hope inside me. The guy at the gate recognized me and smiled at me. Since I had decency, I smiled back and had the door opened for me, although I could have done it myself.

Inside was still pretty quiet, which meant I would probably make it through today just fine. "Ah hey, Estela."

I winced as Cayetana's voice rang out and forced myself to avert my eyes from the fat-lipped fish stuck to the aquarium glass. "Hey."

She gestured for me to follow and limply I trotted after her as we stopped at the counter and she told me what I got to do today.

"Well, according to reservations, etc. it shouldn't be too busy today. So you don't really have to deal with the staff and customers. I'd really appreciate it if you could take the coffee machine cleaning off Lisa's hands so she can help in the kitchen."

I nodded and looked at the 3 machines. Of course I knew how to take this shit apart and clean it...

"If you have any questions or need help, just reach out to someone. Everyone here is pretty friendly." "I will," I gave in response as I eyed all the jars and bottles, looking for a way out.

"Well, good luck." With those words, she disappeared and I found myself alone behind a huge counter. Focusing, I waddled toward one of the coffee makers and pulled myself forward.

I unplugged it and looked at the boarding.  Okay... How do you take this thing apart? I wasn't so subtle about it and just yanked on the loosest part. This even came loose and I just kept pulling on several things until this machine got smaller and smaller.

I had it completely under control.

My head lifted when I noticed the appearance of high heels on the floor and I caught sight of a young couple arrogantly peering around. Hell no... I knew me. I wouldn't be able to keep my mouth shut if they came at me.

That's exactly why I made myself smaller behind the counter and waited until they strutted past.

Even though I purposefully tried not to think about it, I couldn't help wondering why Heeseung kept bringing up these comments then. The most sensible answer to that would be that it was his way of making it clear to me that he didn't see me that way, and that message had gotten through in my head as well, and I was aware that I should let go.

Only that was much easier said than done....