Mesmerized | ✓

9

For the rest of the week Carl was allowed to go to his classes but Yuli accompanied him to each one of them. He never said much, just sat beside Carl and sometimes tried to start a conversation with Candace. However, the girl never seemed too keen on talking to him as she would just usually dismiss him.

Carl tried to watch those exchanges calmly but more often than not he would feel pangs of unwanted jealousy. He would notice Yuli glance at him from the corner of his eye every once in a while, clearly having a lot of fun seeing him suffer. And during those rare instances when Yuli wasn't looking at either of them but instead having his attention on whatever the professor was saying, Candace would look at Carl knowingly with a roll of her eyes, indicating that she wasn't impressed By Yuli's attempts at courtship.

Seeing that made Carl feel a bit better, that despite all the chaos and uncertainty he was experiencing Candace was still the same person. The same girl that wouldn't let some stranger drag her to the dark side. Carl felt conflicted, not knowing whether he was happy because Candace was relatively safe or because for the time being he could still have Yuli all to himself.

"You want to go out somewhere tomorrow or Sunday?" Candace asked quietly pulling Carl a little to the side while Yuli made his way out of the lecture hall.

Carl stayed silent, not knowing what to say. Candace looked at him hopefully with a soft smile playing on her lips. But Carl knew that it wouldn't be that easy for the two of them to go anywhere without Yuli going with them. But before he could think of anything to say to that Yuli was right back at their side, clearly having heard everything. "We would love to go." He said with a smile. "Where were you thinking?"

"I'm working." Carl said quickly only then realizing that it was, in fact, true. He hadn't thought about his job since he met Yuli. And if he wanted to continue being able to afford supporting both himself and Yuli he needed to pick up some easy weekend shifts.

"You can take the weekend off, silly." Yuli said with a shake of his head.

"Sure I can." Carl immediately replied knowing full well that he had to comply if Yuli said so.

Candace didn't look pleased but she smiled, though it was far from an honest smile. "Okay, then. Great. There's a carnival in town this weekend? I thought it would be fun to go together."

"Great." Yuli said looking very pleased with himself. "It's a date then."

*****

Candace looked at the sad girl in the mirror reading herself for the non date with both Carl and Yuli. Their newest friend was seriously getting on her nerves and she didn't care how close he was with Carl, that guy was creepy and weird. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to turn him down when he asked to go along with them.

According to Carl he was new in town and he didn't have any friends yet so it was their moral duty to be his friend, at least until he found a more suitable crowd for himself.

The girl chose her clothes for the occasion carefully, knowing that Yuli was going to probably hit on her like he usually did. So she picked up a simple black hoodie that was a few sizes too big for her and a regular pair of jeans so that she didn't come off as willing to give in to him.

She left her house with a promise to her mother that she wouldn't be home scandalously late and walked the few blocks there were between her street and the carnival area checking her phone for any incoming text messages from Carl. But there wasn't any which was sadly becoming the norm these days. Just a week ago they had been texting each other freely throughout the day but now it felt like Carl was slowly pulling away from their friendship and she had no idea why.