Her arrival at the auditorium was greeted with pin-drop silence. No one really said anything just awkwardly stared away when they got into eye contact. It kinda hurt, cause Zo did invite her to come.
Amidst the arousing murmurs, Niomi and Fat Zo walked in with a bunch of stuff in their hands.
Niomi: Can you at least call me when you decide to show up? Like for God’s sake, we need to talk and I haven’t seen you for ages.
Fat Zo: Honey I think you are late. Robin and his pals just left.
Niomi: Zo, just get out of here. You don’t know shit if you think she came to decoration for any guy.
Fat Zo: Yea, like I haven’t spent years in the same class and never noticed her staring at him.
Niomi: That is called the death glare. Can you just leave us alone?
Fat Zo: Cool. But I need to talk to her too about the party.
As Fat Zo leaves Raena can’t help but search for a familiar face amongst the crowd of hard-working seniors. She wondered why anyone would waste their time in this event. Not like decorating is everyone’s favorite thing in the world.
Niomi: What are you wearing tomorrow?
Raena: I was hoping you have something on your mind.
Niomi: I knew it. You will need to come to my house this evening. My mom made something for you, let’s get that fitted.
Niomi: Also why are you throwing the party?
Raena: I am definitely not.
Niomi: Well Fat Zoe said you offered your place for the after-party.
Raena: Yes I offered my place for the party, doesn’t mean I am throwing one. Can you tell him not to tell that to people?
Niomi: You could say that yourself. I will when I meet him. Listen, you don’t want people to know it is your place right?
Raena: Umhmm. I don’t really care. It is the end of uni, so it doesn’t matter.
Niomi: Well you need to take me to your place cause I need to have a look at it.
Niomi: To plan the party, you idiot.
Niomi: After lunch and once we are done shopping for the party, we can go for fitting at my place.
Raena: What am I suppose to do till then?
Raena: You know I didn’t come here to decorate.
“Well, do whatever.” And Niomi was gone.
There is always a swiftness to her exits.
She wasn’t sure where to go or where to be. This a familiar place, but it wasn’ t too comfortable to be able to roam around all the time. There were too many people she knew and too many people who wanted to talk to her. When she moved to Burbanks after studying college abroad, she was welcomed by familiar faces all over the university campus. It was normal for most of the students from Lamua to come to Burbanks for its huge university campus. Robin also ended up coming to university. Enduring those piercing stares at the back of her head for the first few months was tough. Robin’s presence added a layer of uncomfortable in her daily life.
It was some sort of an anger management issue that she was building up back then. But like any sensible person, she had to let go of anger. She is not ready to invest time and energy on things that she could not see the end to. She liked the way the university walls became comfortable for her.
It was easier to walk around without the questionable glares. With the summer heat at its peak, the dusty cold winds are welcoming the autumn inside the long corridors of her department. On the second floor, there was a long corridor that connects the management building to the CA building. It was a bridge with huge windows. Not too high, but long enough. This corridor was pretty when empty she thought as she stood there in a long while. Only on the last day, everyone is so busy that the corridor is unused. She was searching for a quieter place and silence led her there. Before she knew it, she was saying goodbye to those walls and windows as if they were important enough to say goodbye. She didn’t like people a lot.
But people were always around her. She heard footsteps coming from behind her and stop.
She turns to see Robin in front of her.
“Will I see you in the farewell?”
“Well most of us were wondering if you would come or not.”
“It shouldn’t matter so much.”
“Look at you, turning this conversation too awkward to continue.”
“You don’t say what is on your mind, so I get curious why it is great for me to show up.”
“Can it not be a genuine question?”
“Yes, but I wished it had some motive.”
“You dislike people with motives who come to you.”
“You are not a stranger. You can have motives.”
“If I can't ask you questions without motives, should I stopped asking?”
“You can stop doing whatever you want, I am not asking for anything in return from you. Just curious about your thoughts. If you don’t like talking about it, I can stop asking.”
“Don’t stop asking, it doesn’t help our situation.”
Talking to Robin always ended up like this. It was always a bit aggressive. Always a bit harsh, tip-toeing around mood swings. Whose fault is it really? Where does this argument go? Where did it really start? It was almost impossible by now to revert back to their conversations and actions that occurred in their years of the family friend relationship.
“Maybe we should not talk about the past.”
“It will help for now, but not for long.”
“I wanted to talk to you. So, maybe we should talk in farewell.”
“Is there anything important that you had to say.”
“No, nothing of that sort, I just wanted to talk to you. Enjoy a conversation and your company without getting into an awkward argument.”
“Will you cool down for the farewell and just enjoy?”
“Don’t ask me to do things, like you know what is going on.”
“I have known you long enough, sometimes I can tell.”
“Sadly you can’t tell on everything.”
“Well, every psychic has his weakness.”
“oh, oh, oh.” She finally laughs and let's go.
“I am leaving. See you then.”
“I will patiently wait to chill with you.”
When they were in the ninth grade, some senior confessed to Robin. It hurt but they weren’t talking at that point. Robin rejected her nevertheless, but that made matter bad for Raena. The senior, Tori, began targetting Raena, thinking she was after Robin. It pissed her off quite a lot. It was hard enough that Robin didn't talk to her on top of that most of their conversations were micro-aggressive. Both of their anger of the past did only hard for them emotionally. While she decided to suffer somewhere far away from Lumua, Robin pretended to be alright back home and led a casual high-school life.
She wondered where and how things went from bad to worst, as she walked away from the corridor and downstairs to the parking lot.
