Creating Haven

Ch 10: Friendship

I waved at her a final goodbye and started walking away when I saw her closing the door.

"Sia!"

I turned around to see Zayden coming from the other way with a bag in his hand.

He stopped in front of me. He didn't seem awkward right now...like the way he behaved in the tennis court. He seemed much more composed now.

"Hey. Ssup?", he asked with a smile.

I looked at his face, not being able to reply with my thoughts wirling around in my head. He is so weird. Hasn't anyone noticed it before? Why does no one talks about that?

"Sia?"

I came back to reality as he jerked me and checked my forehead for a fever.

"I'm fine.", I said taking his hand off my face.

"So, what were you doing?", he asked while looking at Eliana's house and then back at me.

"Just visiting her. She's not well."

"I see", he said with a nod and rocked back and fro in his position on his toes and heels.

"What are you doing here?", I asked finally, breaking the awkward silence.

"Just buying a few things."

I nodded and then we just looked around ourselves. This was getting sooo awkward.

"I...should...go now."

He looked up at my face with a raised eyebrow, "Let me walk you home.", he said as he started walking before me.

"So, did you talk to Ky?", he said as we walked side by side on the footpath.

"Yup. And it didn't go well."

"What happened? He did something?"

"No! I mean...we still aren't on the same page, so..."

He nodded and we walked in silence.

I couldn't help but think about the question Eli asked me earlier. Are we friends? Can I consider this as friendship? The awkwardness level is not going down but the hatred has surely decreased. Maybe it was due to the fact that we never talked. Now that we've talked so much, I've realised that he's not a bad person. And it makes my intuition stringer that he wasn't the one to spread the rumour. Either way, I never hated him because of that.

But what about him? Why did HE hated me? Is that misconception gone from his mind or is he overthinking just like me?

I looked at his face to see any sign but there were none. He just had a carefree face as we walked through the roads, the wind blowing his hair backwards and the sun making his hairs shine differently than usual.

"What are you thinking Sia?"

I jerked at his sudden voice and looked to my front immediately. Fuck. Did he see me noticing him? That would be so embarassing.

"Um...nothing..."

He sighed before looking down and his face expression changed. He now seemed confused and sad and curious.

"Sia...?"

"hmm?"

"Did you feel hurt by whatever I've ever said to you?"

I looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. Where was this coming from?

"Why are you asking?"

He shrugged and looked away frim my face. We were now standing on the side of the road.