After that not so fun talk with Mike, she wants to go out of her own room to go bother Carys. Before proceeding with the things that are needing her attention and actions. She needs to have some pep talk with Carys. Due to the reason of feeling stressed with the conversation Mike and her had. That wasn’t fun for her. It made her blood boiled. Fine!!! She had fun while talking to Mike. She enjoyed it. She enjoyed it a little bit. Just a little bit. No more, no less! She went to Carys’ room. Knock on the door to let her know that she is outside her room. She doesn’t want to budge into her room without knocking first. Because that is just basic common knowledge. You need to respect people’s privacy. To respect their alone time. And to make a requisition to let yourself be in their private space.
“You can come in, girl.” Carys’ voice can be heard inside. She turned the door handle and slowly pushed the door forward.
“Can we talk? I just need to vent something out of my chest.” She sighed problematically. She doesn’t even know why she thinks she is having a problem? She doesn’t want to accept the fact that Mike is bothering her head lately. She wants to stop herself from thinking about him. But she can’t. His name, his face, his scent. It keeps surprising her at the most random time of the day. She doesn’t like feeling that way towards him. Mike is her friend. And he will always be her friend. The status between their connection will never change. It will stay the way it was supposed to be in the first place.
Carys looked at her. Worry is visible on her face. She is waiting for her to start sharing her thoughts.
“Is this about Mike again, Fari? I thought you’ll forget about that foreign feeling you have?”
“I failed, Carys. I am thinking about her a lot these days and it is becoming a habit. I don’t want this, Carys. This is such an unhealthy.”
“Why “unhealthy?” You know Fari, don’t be too hard on yourself. The more you entertain that thoughts about him, the more it will make you feel stress. Just focus on the important things, Fari. You can do that.” Carys closed her laptop and proceeds to put her attention towards her stressed friend. She is not only stressed but she is in denial too. That is what Carys thinks about her right now. She keeps saying that she doesn’t like Mike but also pays a lot of attention to what he’s been up to. She keeps running away from her newly ignited feelings she has for him, ignoring his subtle moves towards her. Acting like his existence isn’t so special but when he’s gone, she keeps talking about him. Why can’t she accept the fact already that she is starting to like Mike? Instead of running away from her own feelings. Carys knows that her friend needs to face the situation and she doesn’t have any way out not until she gathers some courage to address her feelings.
“I don’t like him. I don’t like Mike. And I will never like Mike. Not on my watch” She tries to not overreact from saying her words. Why are they insisting that she likes him? Carys and Ray, keeps on saying comments that reminded her that there is something going on between the two of them.
“Hay nako! You’re so stubborn, Fari. Why don’t you give Mike a chance? So, you can discern whether you guys are a match or you two are better off as friends.”
Fari was silent after hearing Carys. Her friend’s words made her think whether it will be a good idea of pursuing the connection further with Mike or will she keep on ignoring the signs that he is showing her. She shrugged off her thoughts. She doesn’t need to over think about it. She still has enough time for that. But for now, she’s excited to go to the beach to have some fun.
[The day has finally come for them to enjoy their get- away]
Carys is wearing her peach flowy summer beach dress with a matching woven peach crochet beach bag. Ray is wearing a deep V-neck printed shirt paired with a tailored chino and for his footwear he has that dark pair of black canvas shoes. Warren has that casual button-down short sleeve Hawaiian shirt suit with a pair of flip flops. And for Faria. She chose to wear a loose baby blue long sleeveless sundress and inside her dress she wears a lilac high-waist bikini swimsuit. It’s something that is convenient since sundresses are easy to take off. She wants wholly jump on water for a swim so she thinks her outfit can really help her out. A sienna sunglass can be seen on the top of her head. All four of them are waiting for the arrival of the car that they rent out.
“What time will it take for the vehicle to get here?” Warren asked. None of them answered him since the three of them are on busy checking their phones, especially Ray who deeply pays his attention as he typed something on his phone.
“Hello? Does anybody hear me?” Warren asked again for the second time.
Carys put her phone inside her bag and looked at Warren. “It will arrive in a minute, Warren. You can take a breath now.”
Warren rolled his eyes and reach for his mini portable pocket fan and set it in front of his face. The weather is too hot. The warmth of the sun’s ray can be felt under their skin. Making it a perfect time for them to go to the beach.
“He will be here in a minute.” Ray finally stopped checking his phone and looked at Faria beside him.
“He? The driver? That’s great so we can arrive at the spot early.” Faria answered. Thinking that Ray is referring to the driver of their rent a car. Ray didn’t respond to Faria but his face shines brightly. He looked impish. His facial expression looked like he will be causing some trouble in a playful way. Faria felt something suspicious is going on so she looked at her friend and saw his frolicsome smile. What is he up to this time? Is he planning on pranking them? Well, she hopes that it’ll be not a bad one. Because this is not the right time to play some pranks that can possibly ruin her good mood.
“You’re not causing any trouble, are you?” Fari raised her one of her eyebrows while questioning her friend.
“Don’t worry. This is not too serious, Fari. Let me be troublesome even just for a little bit. Because what I planned is beneficial for you.” Ray’s bright smiled can be seen. Angel wings can be the only thing that is missing on him because he looked positive. Really positive that Fari thought she is looking directly at the sunlight. On the contrary, her comment is only for sarcastic purposes only.
“Just make sure I will like it.”
“Oh, you’ll not only like this but you will for sure love my surprise.”
She didn’t pay him more attention. She busied herself watching some cute cat videos on the internet while waiting for the car’s arrival. She is deeply emersed watching the reels that she failed to notice Mike walking towards them with a radiant looked on his face. She smiled when she saw a video of a chimpanzee swinging on the branch of a tree when she felt a head leaned on her shoulder. She didn’t bother to see who it is. It’s either Carys, Ray, or Warren that is leaning on her shoulder.
“I wonder what made my baby laugh so cutely.”
The voice. The sound of someone’s voice clearly belongs to him, Mike. She paused the video that she’s watching to have some glance to the person beside her. Mike is still leaning on her shoulders. His hair is neatly comb and polished it with a hair wax. She gently pushed his head away from her shoulders. It’s an easy one for her because Mike immediately obliged to follow her lead. After pushing his head away, she decided to face him. They looked at each other’s eyes without any words that come out of their mouths. Not long after their eye-contact Mike ruffled her hair to messed it a little bit, that made Faria frowned. Mike is loving what he is currently seeing that his smile brightened even more.
“Why are you doing this to me?” Faria’s forehead furrowed.
“What? I am not doing anything wrong, Fari.” Mike let out a chuckle.
“Can you please stop it?”
“Stop what?”
“This. Can you be serious even just for a little bit, Mike. I can’t deal with your playfulness right now. It’s making me mad.”
“Fari.” Mike touched her hands gently. Faria looked at Mike’s hands that’s been touching hers. She abruptly removed his hands on hers because she’s feeling something. An electrifying feeling and it is something new to her system. She’s not feeling something like this before.
“Alright. I’m sorry, Fari. I won’t do it again.”
“Mike.” She sighed and looked at the ground.
“Tell me. You can tell me anything.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what? I don’t get it.”
She moved her head up to looked at Mike’s eyes. And she can see herself when she looked at his pupil’s. Their gaze lasted for a few seconds before Fari shifted it towards their friends who are looking pretty busy, lost on their own little bubble.
“Nothing. Can you lessen your playfulness for a little bit today, please?” Fari pleaded.
Mike looked at Fari seriously and he smiled afterwards. Whenever Fari speaks the word “please” he can’t help but be surprise about it. Something inside of him jumps with joy. Having to hear her speaking it makes him immediately obey her command.
“Sure. I will do it for you, Faria.”
They gazes met and it lasted for a while without them saying a word. It’s always been like this with Mike. They can look at each other for minutes and no one is breaking their eye contact. And Mike is the only one who loves to do it to her. I mean is there something special in her that makes him looked at her like that? Whenever she does something Mike will always checks on what she’s doing. If she’s doing just fine. He will always ask her questions about it. When she’s alone on her sit, he will leave his chair and sits beside her to stare at her. And when she’s focus on studying her notes, Mike is there watching her silently. And he is not making any noise nor he tries to distract her from what she’s doing. He will just patiently wait for her to finish her task and her signal before striking a conversation with her. When she’ll go to the library to read books, Mike will tag along with her. She will be sitting on her favorite spot while Mike is in front of her watching her read her book. He will not be reading anything since he doesn’t like to read and Fari can feel that it’s making him bored but he always wouldn’t leave her alone. He will rest his head on the table, eyes are still watching her. And when she’ll put the book down to give him a glare he would just smile at her happily. This is something that Fari likes whenever Mike smiles. Because the smiles he flashed on her are always genuine. It always comes naturally without Mike trying to put too much effort nor trying to control his smiles at her. No one ever smile at her likes that. Whenever he is busy playing mobile games on his phone, he will always stop playing it when he knows she’s near him. If she can gather the courage to tell Mike that she likes him and tell her feelings right in his face will Mike accept it? She’s afraid of the outcome. Because the consequences of that kind of risk is uncertain. And if the only way of keeping Mike on her side for the long run is only treating him as her closest friend. Then she’s more than willing on doing that. She doesn’t want to lose Mike because of the impulses she’s currently feeling right now. She doesn’t want to risk their friendship just for the sake of her own selfishness. She smiled at the realization she processed while thinking her own thoughts. Why it become like this? She’s been running away from having to feel any romantic feelings for someone and here she is liking her own friend. The winds have now changed. And she can’t help but think if this are for the better or for the worst.
“Love birds, let’s go. Our ride is now here.” They hear Ray speak. And they cut their gazes towards each other and grabbed their things. She was taken aback when Mike grabbed her stuffs and hold all of it using his left hand.
“Go inside the car first, Fari. I’ll hold this all for you.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Sweet. I like this video, Carys. The cakes look so sweet, right?”
“You’re right, Warren. They looked lovely.”