Behind Me

9: relationships

True to her words, Del at the cafeteria with a fancy little plastic bag in her hands, plopping it on the table and dividing the three juice boxes among us as she greeted.

"Hi."

"hello. " replied Mei and I.

"so I got you guys these. Strawberry flavored, I'm sure you'll love them. " she said with excitement.

"I don't really like strawberry flavor. "I stated. He smile started to drop along with her excitement.

"oh. I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"it's okay I guess I could try this. I don't exactly hate it either. " I said hoping I hadn't hurt her feelings.

"good to know. " she smiled. "lunch looks good by the way."

"doesn't it always?" asked Mei earning a little laugh from me.

"Mei, you can eat anything. "

"that's not true!" she pouted. "I don't like bony fish. "

"no one does. " I said.

"alright, alright. Enough of that. The food will get cold. " Mei urged. If anything, I was very sure she'd been itching to start since the bell rang and I honestly couldn't blame her. Del laughed a bit and teased. "I also do not like cold food so no need to waste more time. " she said as she punctured her drink with a straw.

A while into the meal Del spoke up again. It almost seemed like something had been eating her up the whole time.

"I'm sorry. Not the type to ruin a good meal with boy talk but... Erica, do tell, what is the relationship between you and Noa? "

I stopped my spoon from entering my mouth and abruptly dropped it in my plate. While I did not see this coming, I also knew I'd hear this question someday.

"n... Nothing, really. " my voice had been unintentionally shaky.

"really? I hear completely different things though. It's not unpopular for gossip to spread especially when people see the 'new girl falls in love with school heartthrob' trope being thrown around willy nilly. " she placed her straw in her mouth and sucked like none of all she'd just said had any underlying meaning.

There were several layers in it and just then I realized how much I hadn't taken note of. For instance, Noa wasn't just your everyday highschooler. Besides his royal status and his several attractive qualities, if I had had a crush from merely listening to his voice alone, I surely couldn't rule out the possibility of many other girls fawning over him. I could be a speck of dust in a desert.

Even if Noa and I were involved, I had to be insane to own up to something like that knowing just how much attention I'd attract. Certainly none I was ready for.

"there's really nothing going on between us. I could say we're friends but there's nothing else. "

"that's what she says, " Mei chimed in " but really, it just seems like she wants something with him... "

"hey!" I exclaimed, hoping I'd cut her off from the thought of that entirely. I was wrong.

"... She spent the weekend with him at her house. " she continued.

I instantly regretted telling her that. We had indeed spent the weekend together but it had been nothing but platonic. I was almost certain going to buy groceries together meant nothing. And we only did that because he wanted to eat noodles and I had run out.

Del stopped sipping on her drink and her look of surprise instantly broke into a very sinister smile.

"is that so? " she asked, her voice sounded a bit devious, enough to scare me in fact.