The Caffeine Fix

CHAPTER 22

It was almost dusk. The twilight sky was reflecting in the dark sea waves which had become more tumultous by then. Far away in a corner, the lights of the city were visible which added more colour to the whole scene in general. As Tyla and Alexa stood by the water, Alexa felt something prick her as the waves splashed intensely on her feet. She almost stumbled and noticed that it was a seashell. She picked it up and both of them admired the beauty of the shell.

The silence was disturbed by the ringing of Tyla's phone. It was Nancy. Tyla excused herself and moved away from the shore.

Alexa also moved away from the shore, afraid of a violent wave that she could see approaching. As she stood in a spot pondering over something, a male voice saying "hey" scared her. She turned around to see that it was Darren, smiling at her.

"Oh….hey…..Darren," Alexa was a bit intimidated by his sudden approach.

"Um….look, I know this is out of nowhere but could you help me out with something?"

"Um, okay," Alexa was not sure how else to react.

"So, the thing is, I got a gift for Carla's birthday next week. And I want you to see if she would like it or not."

"Um, alright…."

"It's in the room…"

"Oh, well, sure….let's go."

Alexa followed Darren quietly to their room, though she was uncertain of his intentions. She maintained a safe distance from him and stood away as he searched for something in his bag. He brought a little wrapped box and opened it carefully. It had a beautiful locket inside with the letter C and a star next to it and the star had a coral stone attached inside while the C was lined up with rows of little shiny and colourful stones. Alexa, who was extremely fond of such accessories and stones, could not move her eyes away from it. She held it delicately in her hands.

"This is custom made actually," Darren added with a little smile.

All that Alexa could blurt out was a "wow". Her eyes beamed with happiness at the beauty of the gift and she smiled at Darren.

"Your reaction tells me everything. I guess she would like it," Darren replied with a sense of relief.

Alexa kept on admiring the beauty of the locket. She carefully observed the C and the star. However, she was displeased because she knew Darren deserved better than Carla, and she wished that the gift was for anyone but her.

"Of course, if she doesn't, you should dump her," She replied as she cautiously placed the locket back in his hands.

Darren chuckled thinking that it was a joke but Alexa had meant it in all seriousness.

"What are you guys chuckling about?"

The duo turned around to see Carla looking at them with suspicious eyes. Both of them were afraid and involuntarily moved further away from each other.

"Oh, no, no……nothing, it's just," Alexa did not know how to cover up the surprise gift.

"Alexa, you were standing so obviously close to my boyfriend in a room….."

"Excuse me?" Alexa was furious.

"Gosh, as if I didn't notice the way you have been oogling at him the whole day. You were just looking for a chance, weren't you?"

"Just shut up Carla. How could you even say such things about me?"

"Darren, how could you? I left you alone for some time and here you are!"

"Carla, Alexa did nothing wrong, I just…..ugh, I wanted this to be a surprise but well, I just wanted her opinion on a gift for you," He showed her the locket.

"Haha, you seriously think you can diffuse this with gifts?"

"Are you serious Carla? He got such a lovely gift for you,"

"Why don't you keep it then? And him too, since you obviously want him so bad."

"Well, you're just awful Carla!"

Alexa stomped out of the room. Tyla who was standing at the entrance followed after her and stopped her. Alexa hugged Tyla crying. Sarah approached the two upon seeing Alexa crying. 

"I do not want to stay with that girl anymore! She's the absolute meanest!"

"Calm down," Tyla stroked her back while hugging her.

"Hey, are you guys coming or not? We'll be late for work!" Michael called out after them.

They noticed Carla stomping towards the van with Darren following after her, trying to calm her down.

"So, what did she do this time?" Sarah asked her, as if she was used to this happening.

"Oh, I don't even wanna talk about it right now. Let's just go."

On the way home, everyone was sitting quietly, mostly because of fatigue and also because of the visible unease between Carla, Alexa, and Darren. Alexa slept on Tyla's shoulder throughout the journey back.

Alexa and Carla shared a room so it was obvious that the atmosphere in their room was going to be uncomfortable. However, Alexa repeatedly insisted on spending the night with Tyla. Tyla agreed as Nancy was going to have a sleepover at a friend's that night.

"It'll be fun! I'll get beer for us!"

Tyla could not deny as the thought of beer had cheered Alexa up.

As they sat in the room and shared drinks, Alexa had opened up to Tyla. She told her everything about Carla and what had happened between her, Carla and Darren that evening.

"What? Why would anyone do that?" Tyla could not contain her shock.

"She's a pretty terrible person. One time, we were at this club and Sarah got a crush on this cute guy there. Carla disappeared and about 15 minutes later, we found her and the guy kissing in the ladies room. Sarah just left and cried the entire night."

"What?!"

"Yeah, right. And then came all the sorries and she decided to let it go to protect the friendship. But I am not going to let this go Tyla, not even after infinite sorries. She insulted me. You know what, I wish I could be your roommate instead. You're so sweet and caring. And I just cannot share a room with her especially after this."

"Hey, it'll be fine….we'll try to find you a new place," Tyla pressed her hand on Alexa's.

"Yeah, but it's gonna take time. Can I just stay here instead?" She asked jokingly and the two chuckled.

"Well, if not roommates, I'd really appreciate if we could become good friends Tyla, because you're a sweetheart," Alexa added.

"Sure….," 

"I am really not sure why I used to think that you were arrogant before….," Alexa said.

"Oh, don't worry, I used to think the same about you…..," Tyla replied with a smile.

The two smiled at each other as they sipped some more of the beer and Alexa told Tyla more of Carla's antics.