Enamoured

Did It Matter?

What was I going to wear? Millions of possibilities ran through my head. It had already been an hour since I had been standing in front of my wardrobe, in just a bathrobe thinking about what to wear. Why did it even matter?

"Because maybe Ryan's gonna see you," said the voice at the back of my head. I grumbled internally. Oh dear..I was going to see him. Suddenly, my cheeks felt hot and I knew that I was blushing.

"Are you done choosing?" Clara was looking at me observantly.

"Yes, just a sec." I grumbled and finally opted for a white dress with blue trainers. I couldn't overdo it either, I was going to class, not a date.

Uh huh, then why was I having butterflies? I could feel a small smile tugging the corners of my mouth.

I got into my long-sleeved ribbed white dress and straightened my hair. Then I applied my usual minimal makeup, with nude pink lips.

"You look different today," said Clara behind me. She was sitting on the bed texting her boyfriend while waiting for me. Well, she was known for knowing my every move. I could see her looking at me with an inquisitive brow in the mirror in front of me.

"How so?" I turned around to look back at her, trying to keep a straight face.

"Just so so," she smirked, still texting.

"Well I'm ready. Shall we?" Good job Dior!

"Yes let's go," she grabbed her bag and we both left the dorm on our way to class.

There was nothing unusual about the class. And I felt a sort of anticipation, that maybe I would see Ryan after class. That thought made me blush. The only thing that caught me off-guard before class was that Kristina asked me if she could speak to me after class.

Kristina was, according to me, the prettiest girl on campus. Being a rich kid, she always had trendy branded outfits and shows that girls would drool over wishing to own them someday; not that I cared but some people on campus found these things huge. What did she want from me though?

I swam through these thoughts as my focus shifted to the history of language in class and very soon, I was lost in concentration.

"How do you do that?" Clara asked me after the class while we were packing up our stuffs. She was yawning, as she usually did after every class.

"Do what?" I casually asked putting my writing bad and pencil case in my bag.

"Concentrate! For three hours nonstop!" Her baffled expression got me giggling. I had to stop her from falling asleep after only an hour of lecture. Generally, it would be me just pulling her hair discreetly for she would always lean on the table like a leaf falling gracefully during autumn.

"That's because I love what I'm studying."

"I love it too but I still feel sleepy. I don't really understand how that works," was her honest reply.

We got out of the class and started walking down the halls. I was just about to reply to Clara when suddenly Kristina approached me. Then I remembered that she said she wanted to have a word with me.

"Hey. You said you needed to speak to me?" I asked her.

Clara was a bit surprised to see Kristina talking to me because the latter had a reputation of not mingling with girls from average backgrounds like me. I could tell she didn't like Kristina speaking to me judging by the look on her face.

"Yes. And I hope that I do make myself very clear," Kristina said. Her voice was stern and so was the look in her eyes. Wait, did I do something wrong to her?

"About?" I asked, taken aback.

"About Ryan." My eyes opened wide. Oh my gosh.

Many students gathered around after hearing her loud voice. The whole campus knew that Kristina had eyes only for Ryan Cooper but he never cared. I started feeling a bit weary as I didn't like much attention on me. She couldn't possibly have seen me with him, right? Even if she did, then so what? If they were together, he wouldn't be the way he had been with me...right?

"What about him?" I managed to control the tension in my voice and kept a straight face.

"I need you to lay off," she shouted. And that was it, more students started to gather around. I could already see them encircling us with some of them filming on their phones.

"What? Kristina, I don't kno..."

"Don't think I don't know what your little game is about Dior," she cut me off straight. "You can have any guy on campus but not Ryan. He's my boyfriend." That shook me up. Were they really together? If they were, why was he like that towards me? If this were a lie, she wouldn't say it out loud like this in front of everyone, would she?

I could feel my eyes starting to get watery. I closed them and took a deep breath before looking at her again.

"Look Kristina, I don't know what this is about, but I'd like to stay out of this," I walked past her.

Clara followed me and the other students were making way for me to go, not to forget that they were recording the whole thing! That irritated me more. On top of that, I could hear their whispers behind me.

"Don't even think of even speaking to him again, if you don't want me to make your life hell on this campus," she had connections, and she knew it. That stopped me in my tracks. Yes, Ryan never cared about her but she was the only girl he spoke to. Did that mean that they were really together? I turned around and looked at her.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna be the third wheel," I smiled brimly and headed out with Clara.

I could feel a slight hurt inside and I didn't know why. I started walking really fast when Clara grabbed my arm.

"Hey, breathe. I'm not gonna ask you anything. But just don't let her get to you," she looked at me with concern in her eyes. This was what I valued in our friendship, silence was comfortable. We were just there for each other and we didn't need a specific reason for that.

"They're together Clara, end of story," I smiled weakly at her.

She tried to give me a faint smile. It was reassuring because she was here.

"Let's go for lunch," she said.

"Clara, I'm really not in the mood to be at the canteen right now."

"Dont worry, we're going to have pizza and coke off-campus."

"Okay." We trailed off.

Should I even care about this? Could I even call it something special, or even something at all, during the two encounters that I had had with Ryan?

I didn't expect that to happen.