Sing!

Rising Emotions

The driver had seemed to manage to finally keep himself full with energy. Lacey approached him and offered to buy him an energy drink, but he politely declined, telling her that he just had two bottles of them, and that he can manage being energetic for the rest of the day. The two of them then came towards the rest, Lacey advising Mark that he can sit with them at the back, since the driver was feeling a lot better already. A little pre-occupied Geneva suddenly came up with an idea and observed that Lacey and Courtney had noticed the change in her mood, knowing they'll ride on it.
'So, Lacey, I've noticed that you're suddenly uncomfortable with your feet,' Geneva began, even though Lacey looked nothing close to tired.
'Oh yeah,' She agreed, showing her 'acting skills' to Lyka and Mark.
'Would it be alright Lyka if you stay on the fourth seat instead? I'd like to rest my feet on our seat,' Lacey asked, batting her eyelashes.
'Well--'
'Of course you're okay with that, aren't you, Lyka?' Courtney insisted, pushing her lightly into the van so she could occupy the most back seat.
'I suppose,'
'And where am I suppose to sit?' Mark asked innocently.
'Hello, there's still a space beside Lyka,' Lacey replied cynically then winked at Geneva and Courtney while Mark went into the van and occupied the space next to Lyka.
'Hey,'
'Hey.' Lyka echoed when Mark greeted him. It felt awkward when it shouldn't be, since they got to spend a little time alone at the boat. She stood a little as she reached for her cardigan on Lacey's seat and excused himself from Mark, saying he wanted to take a nap with her face covered with it to avoid any distractions.
'That's just how I sleep in roadtrips,' Lyka explained. When Mark said okay with a lovely smile on his face, she immediately draped the cardigan on her head, taking a slow deep breath so Mark wouldn't notice what his smile had done to her heart.
She took her phone and earphones out of her bag and checked on Mr. Soultoucher's profile. No new entry, so she just scrolled through the list of the songs he recorded. She clicked on Easy by Lionel Richie, and once again got captured by Mr. Soultoucher's beautiful voice.

'How could that even be possible?!' Lyka blurted out several minutes later. Suddenly she could hear some chuckles around her, so she unveiled the cardigan from her head, and blushed upon seeing her friends and Mark looking at her. Realizing that she spoke in her sleep, her face turned more red than her ordinary blushes.
'I'm sorry, I was in confusion in my dream,' Lyka said remembering she was made to choose whom she liked better-- whether it was Mr. Soultoucher or Mark-- then looked away from them and focused at the views out of her window.
'To be honest,' Mark chuckled. 'It happens to me sometimes, too. Talking in my sleep.' He confessed.
'Are you trying to console me? Well, it was just too embarassing I couldn't even face any one of you.' Lacey said, still looking out of the window until she realized they've reached the place where Chocolate Hills can be seen, which is in Carmen. When they had finally arrived at the parking lot, they left the van and the driver altogether.

'I wonder how many steps there are in that stairway.' Courtney wondered aloud.
'214, if I still remember it right,' Lacey said. 'And we need to get to the top of it to get a better view of the Chocolate hills. There's a viewing deck up there,' she continued.
'No way.' Lacey and Courtney said in unison.
'Well, we can do it, girls. You two can catwalk in high heels, so it shouldn't be that hard for you,' Geneva said.
Lacey sighed and led the group onto the stairs.

'And 214! Yes, we did it!' Lacey exclaimed cheerfully. She then took out her iPhone once again from her bag and started taking selfies with the Chocolate hills being her background. 'They are color brown!'
'Like I said guys, they're brown when it's hot or warm,' Lyka said.
Geneva looked for the best view using her camera phone. She spotted Lyka and Mark together who looked at all the hills around them. She called their attention and asked them to face her so she could take a photo of them. Geneva gave them a thumbs up when it was done. Then she approached Lacey and Courtney who now took selfies together, smizing away with every click of the camera.
Mark also took out his camera phone, looked for best views like Geneva did. He asked Lyka to pose in some of his photos, clicking away and making her his subject.
'Is this okay?' Lyka asked casually while she just stood in place.
'Yeah, that's a good pose. You pose good.' Mark said as he kept clicking.
'You think so? I just stand so I don't think I'm a good poser,' She said a little awkwardly.
'Doesn't matter,'
'So now you're saying I don't pose good,'
'Well, subtly.' Mark smiled. Lyka rolled her eyes but she still smiled.
'Okay. Why don't we try the taking photos over there?' Mark asked, coming toward Lyka while he looked at a less crowded part of the viewing deck.
'You think that's a nice view?' She asked as she turned her head toward the direction where Mark was looking.
'Yeah.'
'Alright, let's go then.'

Lyka offered to take a photo of him with the hills being his background. She insisted since he had no photos yet with the view. Mark agreed. After some shots, he invited her to have selfies with him. She hesitated at first, saying her hair was already a mess because of the strong wind, but Mark insisted. All she did was to run her fingers through her hair and left Mark breathless.
'You know, I like you.' Mark confessed shyly.
'You do?' Lyka turned her head toward Mark and smiled.
'Yeah.' He said as he looked at the ground.
'Well, thank you. I do like you too.' She blushed and looked away.
There was a moment of silence after but Mark was quick to break the rising awkwardness.
'Okay, selfie?' He said.
'Yeah.' Lyka replied as she leaned a little closer toward him before he clicked the capture button.