Sugar and Spice [BeyBlade Fan Fiction]

#22

Nikita's POV

I sipped my Boba as we walked through the town. It indeed was my first time in the town, exploring it on foot. A somewhat awkward and heavy silence was spread between us. I watched the sun rise, bright reddish orange, over the horizon across the river. 

I felt incredibly alone as I viewed it rising alone. It would set alone too. My heart thumped in my chest loudly. My head was spinning incredibly fast with millions of thoughts. 

"Let's sit," I offered. I walked downhill on the edge of the river and sat down, dipping my bare feet inside. "It's really calm and quiet compared to the bustle in the hotel."

"It is," Enrique nodded. He was being distant ever since he came to pick me up. He was behaving like I was a porcelain doll, fragile and ready to break. It was driving me up the edge. 

"What is wrong with you?" I asked irately. He wasn't replying to me properly. Only in monosyllables. He just continued to mess his perfect blond hair and sigh. One would think he was the one going through a heartbreak.

"Nothing, I said so." He said dropping our breakfast bags beside me and plopping down too.

"It seems like such a nice place to be in solitude, right?" I asked ignoring his obviously disinterested tone. 

"It is actually." I turned back abruptly. It wasn't Enrique's voice for sure. He had turned back too. 

"Miguel!" I breathed in relief. The Blader raised his arms in surrender as I let my shoulders relax. "What are you doing here?"

"Training," he said. "Like usual, I swear!" He added when Enrique continued staring at him. He had taken last year's loss to heart. 

"Oh..." I smiled brightly at him as he initiated the gesture first.

"Hope I didn't spoil your date--" 

"If you're so worried why don't you leave?" Enrique muttered, not trying to be discreet. 

"We aren't dating," I defended myself automatically, on impulse. "So feel free to join us!"

I didn't know which part of my statement persuaded him but he smiled, then asked again. "Are you sur--?"

"As much as I'll ever be." I patted the space beside me as he cautiously sat down, away from Enrique. The animosity between them was too funny. 

"Why are you guys being such humdrums?" I asked continuing with my delicious Boba. 

"So," Miguel ignored my question like he hadn't heard it. "Why didn't you ever say something? I know a few people who would be happy to know you're single." 

He wasn't looking at me. He was looking at Enrique. I was immediately reminded of Matilda. But Enrique ignored him. He averted his gaze from Enrique and turned to me.

"How are you out of the hotel today? Usually I see you with your captain Hiwatari on your back."

"Oh... He must be with Julia." I replied in a controlled tone. His brown blond hair whipped in the wind as he tried to comprehend my statement. 

"Julia? As in Raul Fernandez's sister?"

"Yeah, the one." I nodded, not meeting his eyes. He didn't sound like he was trying to dig dirt. Just conversational. 

"They have a thing going on?" He sounded shocked as he played with a blade of glass. 

"Kind of..." I finished the Boba and played with the straw. Then I asked, "Why are you not at the hotel much? We hardly see you."