Superior

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Aisa

"And that, students, concludes our class. I hope you all have understood thoroughly." Said Professor Sienna, shoving her makeup supplies into her bag and swinging it over her shoulder. "I will be leaving you early today, as I have some work to finish, but I do hope you choose to make the most out of your time." She hurried out of the room, and as soon as the door closed behind her, everyone started getting up and forming their little groups, chit-chatting about useless gossip like always. I turned around and found Fatima walking over to me, her new red heels clicking on the floor. Somehow, she seemed to have a new pair of shoes to wear every single day.

"So, what do you say? Should we grab an early lunch?" She asked, checking her Receiver. "We've got an extra 15 minutes."

"Sure," I replied, grabbing my bag and following her to the door. Maybe if we ate fast, I could finally talk to Raiker properly. As soon as I thought I was getting closer to figuring him out, he turned all confusing again. I wasn't going to let him slip away from me this time. Especially not after he knew so much about me.

I was so caught up in thinking about Raiker that I barely noticed that he himself was standing right in front of me; not until I banged right into him, sending my bag flying.

"Cra-" I cut myself off, biting my tongue and reaching down to get my bag. I straightened up and muttered a quick apology, my cheeks turning pink.

"Sorry about that. It's not the first time it's happened, is it?"

"Nope. But it's always a pleasure to bump into you, Aisa," he said, wearing his signature half-smile. He was too used to my clumsiness by now.

"Wow, Raiker," commented Fatima, sighing. She was clearly not falling for his smooth-talking.

"Anyway, Fatima and I were about to grab an early lunch. Would you like to join us?" I asked.

"Of course," he answered. "But I thought Fatima had a meeting with her etiquette professor during lunch today. The one she was telling me about yesterday, remember?" He looked at Fatima, who seemed like she just snapped out of a daze. My eyebrows crinkled as I interjected, "When did she tell you-"

"Oh right! That meeting. It completely slipped my mind. I don't want to be late," she said quickly. "Aisa, Raiker will accompany for you today, if that's alright? I really should get going now." And with that, she zoomed out of the hallway. I rounded on Raiker, finishing my question.

"When did she tell you about a meeting? You two barely know each other."

Raiker let out a soft, almost dismissive, chuckle. "Aisa, Aisa, always so curious. Fatima and I had a little task to do yesterday, and she mentioned it then."

What task? Why would she mention it? But Raiker's expression was so confident and reassuring it was hard to doubt him; even after all the lying he had done to me earlier. "Alright, then, should we get going?"

"As you wish, Aisa."

***

Lunch passed quickly and more smoothly than usual; without Zander and Fatima at our table, things seemed to flow a lot better between me and Raiker. Before I knew it, we were handing our trays to the workers and walking up the huge staircase; which my legs were finally getting accustomed to. I glanced over at him, running his slender hand over the railing as he trudged up alongside me, a few wispy curls of hair falling onto his forehead. My heart twisted unexpectedly, and suddenly my brain was buzzing with questions about him, as if looking at him triggered some sort of strange force which started pushing the questions from the back of my mind to the front where they struggled to get out, fizzing and bubbling like soda compressed in too small of a bottle. I tore my eyes away from him, but the questions continued to swirl in my brain, to the point where I could no longer ignore them. I'd been wanting to ask him them for so long, but I'd never thought it was the right time. But he already seemed to know so much about me; and I knew so little about him.