Fleur-de-Lis

FDL 5

Lima

"You should be careful with men!" The fortune teller said as she extended her palm, gesturing that she needs the money.

"That was a waste of time and money!" Aisha said soon after the fortune teller was no longer in our line of sight.

"Yeah, no fair! Why'd you get a good fortune while mine is a warning?" I said pouting. The fortune teller said that Aisha will marry a doctor in the future.

Aisha and I are currently in a town square. She made me go here so we can buy food and stuff necessary for our school's educational outing.

"I'm so excited for the outing! I can just imagine the beautiful scenery on top of the Chocolate Hills. But it's so sad that it's not made of real chocolate," she said. I just playfully rolled my eyes.

Then in just a millisecond, she gazed at me seriously. "But Fleur, I have something to tell you. Keep this a secret, okay?" I agreed and listened to her intently.

"I like Dash," she embarrassedly said while she covered her red face. I just nodded. No surprise there; it was kinda obvious.

"Yeah, I know. It was obvious, to be honest with you. And... everyone likes Axel," I said in a-matter-of-fact tone.

"A-Axel?" Aisha said confusedly. "Oh, do you mean Dash?" I nodded as an answer. Then I remembered, I'm the only one who calls him Axel. He introduced himself as Axel Finley when we first met so I got used to calling him that. While in this class, he specifically mentioned that he was much more comfortable with Dash than Axel, so our classmates call him Dash instead.

"I like Dash, although not as a friend," she said with her face flushed. I looked at her bored.

"Help me with him please?" she said with her infamous puppy eyes.

"But why me?" I asked. I know it's not just because I'm her best friend, there's something more than that.

"B-because Dash seems to like you not just as a friend. It's the like-like!"

"No, he doesn't. I am sure of that."

"You just don't see it because you're too loyal to Colt!" She bursted. I was taken aback. Was it that obvious?

"...and Colt likes you too. Everyone knows that," I was more shocked. My cheeks turned pink.

"N-no, he doesn't," I repeated, looking away. But then something or... someone caught my attention.

In a dark alleyway, I saw a hooded man wearing a black face mask leaning on the wall while looking at our direction. It was just like the last one, though this one gave me more of the creeps. His stares felt like it's paralyzing my whole body. I stared at him back to see if I could recognize him, but to no avail.

He then stood up and started inching towards us. As much as I wanted to run away, my legs weren't allowing me to. Right as he was about to get a hold of me, I regained the control of my legs again.

I hurriedly looked away from his direction and pulled Aisha's hand, dragging her away with me.

"H-hey, where are we going? My cotton candy!" Aisha complained. My feet went on and on, hoping that he lost track of us. When I thought that he was gone, we stopped running and ended up in front of a vintage-like store. It had a bunch of interesting items that piqued our curiousity.

"I'm sorry about the cotton candy. I'll pay it back soon," I said in between breaths.

"You better!"

"Since we're here already, do you want to check out the items in here?

"Sure! But you're paying! It's to make up for the cotton candy," Aisha declared with a sly smile. I couldn't do anything but agree.