A Lover of Rain

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER NINE:

The arrival of my friends was a surprise to everyone. Yohan couldn't contain his excitement from seeing Maya while she was practically hopping towards us because in her head, she'll have a quality time with Jae who only gave them one look before going back to finishing his food. Clyde was looking at them with annoyance on his face because they were also his sister's friends whom he didn't like hanging out with. On the other hand, Kylo was a bit confused with what was going on. He was not yet close with any of my friends but had a brief introduction with them during his welcome party where they were invited to. When I became friends with the girls I live with at the moment, Kylo was already living in Los Angeles.

With everything that was going on, I held Julian's hand to sneak out from my friends. We quietly ran away from everyone while Shay introduced Jacob to the group as her friend which probably hurted Jacob in some way. When we were far away enough from them, Julian couldn't stop himself from chuckling from how ridiculous the situation was. Looking at him being genuinely happy made me feel like my heart is going to explode just by watching him laugh. I wish we could just stay in this moment where I get to watch him smile like everything is perfectly fine. The corner of my lips started raising as his laugh affected me as well. Julian looked at me, seemingly mesmerized before I felt his gentle touch on my hips, grabbing me closer to his body like he would break if I'm not close to him. His eyes were fixated on one thing only. He looked at it like he was craving for a kiss and when I felt his thumb grazing my bottom lip, the only thought racing through my head was how much I wanted him to kiss me. Julian slowly closed the gap between us and it felt like fireworks exploded inside me when I felt his lips on mine.

Or at least, that's what happened in my head.

"Guys, this is Jacob. He's my–he's..." Shay was stuttering when I snapped out of my thoughts. A sweet smile appeared on his face as Jacob rubbed her arms like he was assuring Shay about his feelings. "I'm her special friend." Jacob continued the sentence for her instead. After visualizing in my head how to sneak out with Julian, which ended up with a breathtaking kiss that I would admit was taken too far. My own thoughts even made my cheeks flushed like my deepest desires suddenly came out from my subconsciousness into my imagination.

When I realized that everyone was distracted by Shay introducing Jacob to our friends for the first time, I held Julian's hands to sneak out like I originally visualized in my head. I tilted my head slightly to the side to gesture to him what I wanted to do, but Julian took a second to understand being finally nodding as we quietly stood up. Before we could even take one step away from everyone else, I heard Kylo's voice calling the two of us out. "Where are we going next?" He asked a question, making the others glance at us.

"How about Anchor's Away?" Jae suggested, making Clyde agree with him. They started standing up from their seats after almost finishing their sandwiches, so we could get moving. My head slowly dropped from frustrations after failing to sneak away with Julian. I saw Shay mouthing the words I'm sorry that made me show her a thumbs up since it wasn't her fault anyway. Kylo was sipping his drink when they walked past us, his eyes stole a glimpse at my intertwined hands with Julian's. "You know, I suddenly remembered that time when you almost puked after riding Anchor's Away, Aryn. I hope it doesn't happen this time... nakakahiya naman sa date mo." Kylo suddenly indulged a memory that happened when we were sixteen.

My jaw quickly dropped when he tried to embarrass me in front of Julian while we were quietly walking to the location of our next ride. Kylo had a teasing smile plastered on his smug face that I just wanted to wipe off by giving him a punch. I was glowering at him while realizing this was how things were going to be. Fine, I'll bite.

"Guys, let's not go to the Space Shuttle, alright... Kylo's a bit traumatized from that ride, he started crying like a baby while we were still in line." I started provoking him, even emphasizing the word while to make him remember his cowardice that I knew he still has inside him. His mouth started parting when he realized I wasn't backing out from the little games he wanted to play. I raised my eyebrows at him like a test, before hearing Jae almost choking on his drink as he burst from laughter to tease Kylo about it.