Redamancy

Chapter 9

I was showing my pictures to Nate and Yuki and suddenly realized... THERE WERE A DOZEN PICTURES OF JAKE.

"Ahem." Nate purposely said.

"What?? He just looked cute while he was enjoying!" I wasn't lying though, that was the purpose of clicking those snaps. Bliss covered his whole face, I wanted to capture that. I looked at them again; he does look so good in them.

"Are you gonna keep staring at him or proceed with the pictures?" Yuki startled me. I blushed and moved forward with the pictures.

We were in the cafe, munching on snacks, sipping coffee and gossiping about random college drama. My phone began vibrating and I checked to see I received a message from Jake, my heart skipped a beat.

We decided on a place and time via text; Monday after classes at the spare classroom. I was kinda excited, to spend some time with him.

After we finished from the cafe we went back to our dorm to get ready for the party. Yuki and I decided to wear matching outfits, a purple crop top with black fitted jeans. We had our usual photo session before leaving for the party and caught up with Nate and Phoenix.

There were so many people that there was hardly any place to walk properly, some of them drinking, making out, dancing, all sorts of things. The usual party scene. I was looking around to spot any familiar faces when Yuki spoke rather abruptly, "I- I'll be back, give me a moment." and walked straight ahead. Nate looked at me, concerned.

"Wonder what's gotten into her, she has been acting weirdly ever since you were on the trip." Nate's voice resonating with care for her.

"Should we ask her about it?" I questioned.

"Maybe after the party."

Nate left with Phoenix to get a drink. I stood over at the corner observing the photo booth which had tons of accessories to wear and click pictures, it reminded me of the time with Jake in the Dark Room. Once again, my thoughts were interrupted by Yuki. "Hey!" she said.

"Yuki where were you? You got us worried."

"Ah, sorry about that, I just spotted somebody. Hey, wanna take a picture on this photo booth? Yeah, let's take a picture." her speech was fast and she was really acting in a weird way. I was pulled into the booth with her and we put on masks and clicked a picture. I couldn't smile properly knowing something is troubling her. After we were done she said she wanted to go to the washroom and I asked if I could come but she said no.

I was really starting to worry and made my way through the crowd to find Nate when some girl I don't know approached me.

"Yuki, meet me in the usual place after 20 minutes." and with that, the unknown girl left without even letting me say anything back. She thought I'm Yuki? Well, that is a possibility, given that we were wearing the same clothes and a mask to cover up our faces.

Now I had to find both of them in this huge crowd of people, great. Thankfully I spotted Nate and ran up to him. I removed my mask and called out to him. "Nate, listen, we really need to find Yuki, something is definitely wrong." 

Without saying another word we hurriedly ran to the washroom to see if she's still inside. "Yuki?" I called out, in hopes that she'd respond.

We heard a low sniffle coming from the bathroom stall. Nate and I looked at each other and immediately knew it was her. We tried calling her to come out, but she didn't budge. After about 5 minutes of pleading, she finally gave in. She came out of there, tears in her now red eyes. It was so sad to see the usual cheerful, happy Yuki in such a sad state. Nate gave her a tight hug. We let her wash her face and waited.

"Yuki, who did this to you? Tell us what's up." I finally spoke.

"There's... there's something I haven't told you Tiff, and Nate, even you don't know this. But part of me doesn't want to let it out in fear of judgement and losing you." she said looking at the floor.

"There's nothing you can't tell us, Yuki, we aren't here to judge you." Nate replied.

Few tears escaped her eyes. "Would you still like me even though... even though I like girls?"

I was taken aback, not because of the part about her liking girls but because it caught me by surprise. She just came out to us. Tears rolled down her puffed up cheeks. I looked at Nate and he was just as surprised as I was. We gave each other a weak smile. "There's nothing that would make us hate you, not even that." I reassured her and we gave her a hug. She broke down in our arms.

After a moment we pulled away and I remembered the way she acted today and that unknown girl.

"Is this whats been troubling you for all those weeks? And today especially? Nate spoke for me.

She shook her head. "There's this girl I have a crush on, I met her one day at dance practice and we clicked, at least that's what I thought. We kept hanging out and talking a lot, she made me feel wanted, she complimented me and made me feel like she liked me back and flirted with me, but the other day I saw her kissing someone else and since then I started avoiding her and felt hurt by that, until tonight when I saw her I just needed to talk to her but, she kept lying and denying everything and I..." she was cut off by tears falling again. She'd been so hurt and we didn't even know. I felt so bad for her and I wished I could do something about it, and then it struck me. That girl I met told me, I mean me as Yuki, to meet her in 20 minutes.

"Yuki, you deserve so much more than this and there's still a way to make it right," I said. " She'll be at the usual place in 20, is what she told me but I think since we've been here it's already been 20 minutes so go meet her and talk it out properly.

She looked at me confused and thanked and hugged us before rushing out of the washroom to wherever they were supposed to meet. Nate and I hoped everything would go smooth and she'd return to being the cheerful Yuki. We walked out and I saw Jake talking to Mika, which for some reason, made me more upset than I already was.

I wondered, why?