the art of faking a smile. (under-construction)

12. Advice

CASSIE POV

"Awww I wish I could be there on Akio's first day at work but because I'm nice I won't make him a nervous wreck." I sigh whilst watching Akio sprinting home to get ready for his part-time job.

"You guys are really close aren't you?" Chris asks, surprisingly he's starting to talk a bit more and I feel like a proud mum hearing their baby saying their first words.

"Yeah, we've known each other since our very first year of middle school. I remember we kinda hated each other's guts but we ended up laughing it off about how ridiculous it was." I laugh at the memory and look up at the cloudy sky. I sometimes wish I could go back to those days when I didn't give a single shit about my appearance and weight.

"Nice." Chris nods his head and it's awkward once again. All we can hear are our quiet footsteps, trees rustling and cars rushing by in the background. The sun is very slowly falling asleep and out of sight with every step we take. If you're wondering why it's just Chris and I, well Summer and Carlos take a different bus from us, Hideki and Dylan often study in the library after school and coincidentally, Chris and I take the same bus. It's as if we're destined to be friends.

We arrive at our bus stop and just in time for the bus. I just fit my bag right in front of my legs and make myself comfortable for a long ride. I turn to Chris and see him texting someone. I'm able to see the name of that someone because of our close proximity and it turns out to be fucking Dylan. My jaw drops, how are they so close now when I'm barely making friends with this guy? Hell I don't even have his contact info and I'm his buddy.

"No way."

Chris turns to me with a rather confused look.

"How come Dylan has your contact info and chatting away with you when I don't even have yours! I'm your buddy dude." I slump in my chair and sigh. "I really am no good at this buddy thing. What did Miss. King see in me? Somebody gimme strawberry-flavoured bleach."

Chris rolls his eyes and laughs a bit. I stop my act and turn to Chris with a shocked face. I actually made this emo laugh and now I feel even prouder than before. Chris probably realises too that he just laughed and I can tell his eyes brightened up a little, it is cute I gotta say.

"Don't worry, you know honestly you're pretty cool too. You're not a bad buddy, I assure you." Chris blushes. I feel so fucking blessed hearing these compliments from none other than Chris and before I knew it, he's reaching his hand out for my phone.

He coughs. "U-um hand me your phone." There he is again, that cold face that makes him look like an asshole.

"As if I'm gonna let you steal my phone." I reply sassily, he frowns.

"Fine. I never really wanted your contact info anyway, I just did it out of courtesy." He glares at me before shrugging and going back on his phone once again, as if our conversation never happened. I guess Chris does have his happy and friendly moments, but most of the time he's just a straight up an asshole. He even plugged in both his earphones as a way of saying 'shut up I don't want to talk to you'. It is my fault too though so I can't say anything..

I send a quick text to Akio before listening to my own music and look out the window, letting my imagination run wild and believe it or not, I think about crazy shit. For example, what if there was a zombie apocalypse? What if I was a cool assassin and was unstoppable? What if I had crazy superpowers like telekinesis and literally choke people with force, that'd be cool.

After a 20 minute bus trip, Chris and I both get off, I'm pissed off at the fact Chris snapped me (harshly) from my thoughts but I still thank him because if it weren't for him, I would've gotten way past my stop.