Chapter 33 - XXXII (1/2)

The results for the rankings were up after a couple of days.

Laia could barely breathe at both the anticipation and the anxiety she was feeling. She could barely focus on her studies, much less on her everyday monotonous life.

She couldn't help but overthink. She knew her grades were great-- amazing, even, but there was just this lingering feeling in her head that she didn't do enough and she would never be enough to retain her original first spot again.

What if she couldn't be her batch's valedictorian? What if the privileged asshat who could have gone to any other university except hers get what she wanted and aimed for?

”... Laia? Laia!” Brie was shaking her friend enough for Laia to get a little bit dizzy. ”Earth to Laia! Did you not sleep again yesterday? Honestly, I already warned you about all this studying would definitely make you crazy one day...”

”I am not crazy,” Laia narrows her eyes but sighs again. ”yet.”

Brie places a hand on the short-haired girl's shoulder with sympathy in her eyes. ”Laia, you do realize you have really high grades for this quarter, right?”

”Yeah, but so does the asshat--”

”Ugh, here we go again with that competition that you guys have,” Brie sips from her coffee. ”What is with you geniuses always fighting in the ranking, honestly,”

Laia stopped herself from bluntly replying to her friend that she couldn't possibly understand what Laia feels because she doesn't care much about her grades in the first place.

Unlike Laia, Brie had always been easygoing when it came to her grades. She gets a low score, it's fine. She gets a high score, it's alright. She barely passes her exams or flunked them?

Definitely the perfect time to treat herself to a manicure at the nearby spa or watch a movie at the cinema.

If Laia would end up flunking a test in the future (she hopes not) she would obviously spend the rest of the month studying and making notes to ensure getting a perfect score in the next examinations that will probably occur three months later.

”Anyway,” The long-haired girl shows Laia something on her phone. Another bakery, Laia notes. ”Can you come with me later? I really want to get their cream puffs again.”

”Why don't you ask Jake?” Laia asks, curious.

Brie lets out a disappointed sigh. ”Well,” She glances around and pulls her chair closer to Laia's to whisper to her friend. ”Even if we're talking again he doesn't want us to be seen interacting for a while,”

”Why?” Laia was genuinely puzzled. ”What's with the secrecy?”

Her friend shrugs. ”I don't know,” Letting out another sigh, she absentmindedly sips from her coffee which Laia presumes was still hot and whimpers. ”Shit, it's hot!”

”Here,” The short-haired girl hands her friend her water bottle. ”Just make sure to refill it from the fountain later.”

Brie quickly nods and drinks from her friend's water bottle. After deeming that the pain due to her absentmindedness had gone away, she returns her friend's water bottle with a smile. ”Thanks, Laia.”

Laia waves her further apologies away. ”It's fine,” The girl decides to cease their meaningless trip to the library which only resulted in them doing nothing but Laia wallowing in her self-pity and Brie drinking her coffee. ”Let's go to that bakery of yours?”

Clapping her hands like a seal, Brie's agonized state vanishes. ”Yay!”

The bakery wasn't as far as Laia thought it would be. Regardless, Brie still brought her car along which only made the trip to their destination quicker.

”Don't worry, we'll be back before our afternoon classes and when Ma'am Anne announces the rankings!” Brie promises Laia as she pulls her inside the bakery which had a cutesy theme.

The cutesy theme turned out to be the establishment's chairs looking like clouds and tables resembling flowers. The walls were painted with pastel colors and the tiles were whiter than Laia's teeth.

Maybe. Laia doesn't really check her teeth much when she brushes them.

Laia awkwardly makes her way to a table that was far away from other tables that were occupied by mostly couples or groups of friends. She'd rather not choose a table near them, thank you very much.

The only good thing about the bakery (in Laia's most unbiased opinion) was the fact that they had the show ”Friends” on the television placed just in front of the table Laia choose. Looks like Laia will be able to watch an episode while Brie is on the long line to order.

Unfortunately, just like every day that Laia thinks would be a great day, the asshat just had to appear again as if out of thin air or like an annoying shrub that you hate to see appear in your garden.

”I didn't know you had the time to indulge with the rankings being announced later this afternoon, Lopez,” The asshat just had to start with mentioning the word that Laia dreaded as of the moment. ”Are you trying to distract yourself from breaking down?”

Laia rolls her eyes, more infuriated with the fact that the asshat's huge head was blocking her from seeing what currently was happening in the episode that she was watching. ”Yeah, yeah, I'm distracting myself from breaking down like a heartbroken maiden, now can you please move away? I'm watching here.”

Asshat looked like a deer stuck in the headlights. ”Watching what?”

The short-haired girl points at the television behind the asshat. ”Look behind you, genius.”

He does. However, not in the way that Laia thought he would.

The asshat grins in a playful manner. ”I didn't know you watched this sitcom?”

”There's a lot of things you don't and would not know about me apparently,” Laia says, her attention focused on what she was watching. ”and that's the cue that you have to leave me in peace and let me completely focus on what I am watching--”

”What if I tell you that I'm watching this sitcom too?”