I Don't Need Your Attention!! {xiaoven} {Albexiao}

Ch.13 ★ Get Ready!

2/12

🅇🄸🄰🄾

It was Saturday.

"You wanna tag along with us to this party we're heading to tonight?" Venti offered, chewing on his already burnt out cigarette as it hanged from the bottom of his lips whenever he spoke.

The two of us were back on speaking terms, (thank god for Venti's patient soul). Half his body was leant over the rails of the bridge, staring down into the pond as Albedo sprinkled breadcrumbs into the water for the ducks. Venti's arms were crossed onto the metal bars as Gorou scolded him.

We all lived within 3 miles of each other, so the four of us had decided to meet up. Albedo's house was just a few blocks away from the bridge and Venti, Gorou, and Xiao came straight from school out of their clubs.

"....ehh...to who's house?" I asked, unsure if it was right of me to waltz into a stranger's home based purely on the fact that other strangers had invited me to come inside.

My head was resting in my arms whose, just like Venti's, were crossed against the railing of the bridge—staring at Albedo as he motioned with his hands for the ducks to come closer. A puff of air escaped my lips before I bit back on my laughter seeing at just how cute he was.

"Mm, just Ajax's villa. His parents just bought it for him so he wants to celebrate the occasion with a big party or something like that." Venti explained to me, his teeth grinding against the weak, wet tissue that separated his tongue from the pure weed.

"Ajax?" I raised my brow, confusion hung up over my face. I'd never heard that name before. "Who's that?"

"Ahh, you probably don't know him by that." Venti said, his voice hinting towards a smile. "Childe? Tartaglia? That name ring a bell to you?" He queried, his body frame shifting over to face me.

Oh. "Oh." I grumbled out a soft mumble, the mention of his name coming back to me. "Err—, I guess I know him. He's a senior, right?"

"Yeah."

The only real significant memory I had of him was back when I was still a freshman, and Childe had volunteered to act as a substitute lifeguard for the public pool in downtown and nearly let five kids drown.

He'd also turned up the jacuzzi heat up higher than needed and gave Zhongli a nasty burn from his ankles to his waist that lasted throughout his sophomore year.

"So you coming?" Venti asked again.

"..I guess so." I returned his words with a weak response.

Suddenly, Gorou slammed his hands on the rails—letting the whole thing vibrate with his force as the three of us flinched and looked up at him.

"Jesus Venti, throw that out already! It's all chewed up—it's basically garbage at this point, and you'll damage your teeth!" Gorou nagged. "You stunk up the bridge with the smell of weed already. You know I hate it when you smoke," he glared at him before turned away and plugging his nostrils.

"Sorry, sorry.." Venti gave him an apathetic look, as if just realizing that, taking the cigarette from out his mouth and flicking it into the trash can that was conveniently next to us.

To be honest, I never would've known that Gorou didn't like smoking—seeing that he hangs around Venti a lot. Naturally, I expected Gorou to be a smoker too, but he'd denied being one when I brought it up after he'd cussed out Venti for leaving the strong scent of tobacco all over his clothes when he came in for a hug.