My Universe

29: “Wanna skip afternoon classes together?”

“That was good. Shall we go here again next time?”

The brunette buried her hands in her pants pockets as she turned away from the women that she was with to let out a silent burp. There was an advantage in accepting invitations from people to have lunch together since she was able to have a delicious meal until she gets full without paying a cent by just using a bit of convincing techniques, which includes using her charming smile to hypnotize people to make them do things for her.

After class, three female friends walked up to Aster and she did not have any hesitation to get up from her seat and follow them out of the campus to eat in a barbeque restaurant near the university. Everyone liked Aster, either in a romantic or platonic way or sometimes both. Because of her good reputation that attracted everyone to have the desire to be close with her, Aster got to have a smooth life as the only obstacles in her life that she had to worry about were financial issues and upcoming bad luck in the future.

“Sure, why not?” Aster flashed her usual almost perfect smile as she answered like she meant it.

As they walked toward the direction of their university, a loud screeching sound made all of the people who were walking by the sidewalk turn to where the sound came from. It turned out a motorcyclist almost got into an accident for abruptly pulling on the front brake lever and taking a turn because of a crow that immediately flew away after almost causing suffering to a person by randomly landing on the middle of the road. Because of what happened, the vehicles had to pull and step on their brakes as well while the other concerned people got out of their vehicles to help the motorcyclist that fell on the ground.

“That must have hurt,” one of the women that Aster was with said as the four of them watched how the motorcyclist gestured to everyone that he was fine while slowly getting up.

“The crow was such a mood,” the brunette mumbled as she let out a silent chuckle while watching them.

“What was that, Avery?” her lunchmate asked when she noticed Aster seemed to be in her own world for a second.

“Oh, nothing. I was just saying how pitiful that guy is,” the brunette answered with a reassuring smile on her face.

“Oh, all right.”

 Some of the riders were genuinely worried about the motorcyclist while the others were annoyed for causing a traffic on the road especially at lunchtime on a busy weekday. It was a common thing to witness as that was how the world works even in different universes. No matter where Aster ends up in, there was not much of a difference, which explains why she was thrilled with the thought of encountering a new situation that she had never seen before.

Fortunately, the traffic did not last for a long time since the motorcyclist was quick-witted to know how much trouble he was causing as he quickly got back on his motorcycle and drove away. Everyone immediately went back to their businesses as soon as the motorcyclist disappeared from their sights. The sympathy that they had vanished like a person’s left sock when they need it at that moment as everyone continued to focus on the places that they had to go with the people that they had to talk to.

The barbeque restaurant that they dined in only took a turn for them to see their tall university from a distance already as they continued to walk toward the direction where the pedestrian lane was for them to cross the street and head back to the campus already. From a distance, the four of them noticed the group of dance majors laughing while heading back to the campus. When Aster diverted her attention away from the dancers, her eyes happened to land on a familiar face.

“Summer?” The brunette slightly furrowed her eyebrows in question when she noticed how the raven seemed to have frozen on her spot with her facial expression being pure surprise.

Winter was not moving from her spot as she could no longer hear anything around her, not even the calls of her roommate. The movements from the people around her seemed to slow down as everyone turned blurry though the only person that stayed clear was the woman with blue hair, which was the person that Winter had been gazing at with mixed emotions. She was utterly surprised to see her in person after more than a week that seemed like a decade; she was happy that she was there, looking happy and health; she was heartbroken to see the person that caused her sadness for more than a week again when she had not even started her moving on process.

Winter was unsure what to really feel while staring at Claire’s alternate self.

The aching on her chest began once again as she could feel tears forming around her tears. Winter had the urge to ignore everything and just run to give a tight hug on the love of her life that she missed so much though for some reason, it felt like her feet got glued on the ground as she could not move her feet to do something. It was as if Winter got a temporary curse to have the inability to move at least a limb as she had to slowly crumble in pain while seeing how Claire was smiling like everything was fine—like she did not just hurt someone severely for the past weeks.

The raven could feel her hand shaking as she did her best to control her tears from falling down in public and watched how the blue-haired woman wore a bright grin on her face while hanging her arm around behind her female friend’s shoulders. Compared to the heartbreaking dreams that Winter had about Claire for the past nights, what she was witnessing at the moment was the worst since she was completely conscious and watching it in real life.

Before a tear could even slide down her cheek, someone suddenly blocked her sight of her ex-girlfriend’s parallel self as she felt the person gently wipe the fallen tear with her sleeve in a quick way that Alice did not get the chance to see her crying state.

When Winter raised her head to see who the person was that stopped her from intently staring at the blue-haired woman that likely had no any type relationship with her in that universe.

“Summer, will you come with me to get my phone in the dorm?” It was Aster who was wearing a soft smile that radiated like the huge star above the sky.

“Hey, Avery,” Alice greeted though she was confused at the situation as she turned to look at her roommate but she was facing the opposite direction.

“You don’t mind if I borrow your roommate right now, right?” The brunette’s eyes squinted because of the wide grin that she flashed on her face with hope to have the art student not ask any questions and just say yes.

“Uh. Sure, I guess?” The art student slightly furrowed her eyebrows while feeling flustered as she was about to hold her roommate’s arm to make her face her though she was too late.

“Thanks!” With that, the brunette did not waste any more second as she held the hand of the raven and pulled her toward the dormitory that was the opposite direction from where Claire’s parallel self and her friends were coming from.

Almost out of desperation, Winter turned to look back with hope to get another glance at the face of the love of her life though the blue-haired woman and her friends were nowhere to be seen. Because of that, she started to panic as Aster stopped on her tracks to check up on her. Seeing how the raven was desperately looking around like a person who has gone mad, the brunette pursed her lips in as she gave her hand that was frantically scratching on her pants a squeeze and walked closer to her to place her arm around her shoulders. Winter turned to look up at her with her tears uncontrollably sliding down her cheeks from her eyes already without caring about Aster seeing her miserable state.

The brunette flashed a small smile of reassurance to her as she gently rubbed her shoulder while rubbing her thumb on the top of the latter’s hand, waiting for her to calm down. The raven started to realize that she was being pathetic as she shut her eyes tightly and took a deep breath while unconsciously leaning on the embrace of the taller woman. The fact that the woman that she just saw was not the same Claire, whom she loved, was the thing that Winter forced to keep in her mind while calming herself down. After all, it would do her no good if she would make a scene in public.

With patience, Aster continued to comfort the latter without uttering a word as she waited for her to calm down. Whenever a fresh tear would drop from her eyes, the brunette would quickly wipe it off for her. Fortunately, the brunette was two inches taller than the raven that she was able to act like her protector as she used her body to cover the shorter woman from the people that were passing by. With her head hung low, Winter was lucky that only Aster could see her vulnerable state.

Aster already noticed from afar that Winter was staring at the blue-haired woman as she assumed that Winter might have had a special, deep connection with the dance major’s alternate self in her universe. When they were at the beach together, the brunette remembered the same sorrowful facial expression on the raven as she saw her have that again though this time, it was worse. As much as she wanted to confirm her assumption, the brunette decided to not say or question anything.

“Let’s go,” Winter spoke with her voice cracking in the end when she had finally calmed down.

The brunette nodded and flashed a smile on her face before the both of them continued to walk toward the dorm with Aster not taking her arm off Winter’s shoulders as if she was afraid that she would be broken easily if someone bumps on her.

Aster rummaged through the pocket of her hoodie as she pulled out a strawberry flavored lollipop and handed it to Winter when she noticed her completely spacing out that she might actually be unable to walk by her own if the brunette was not holding her and guiding her toward the dorm. She felt relieved when the raven raised her head to glance at her and at the lollipop that she was offering before accepting it and opening the wrapper without uttering a word. For some reason, Aster was glad that she forgot to bring her phone in the morning as she was able to use it as an excuse to take Winter and comfort her herself.

None of them were uttering a single word as they arrived in the dorm room of Aster. It was Winter’s first time to be there though she was not mentally stable at that moment to roam around. Her phone was just resting on the study table of Aster as she easily found it and took it with her. She then turned around to see the raven, who was still not looking good while sitting on the chair that she offered for her to sit. Though Aster found Winter cute for no reason when she saw how she had a lollipop in her mouth while spacing out.

Obviously, Winter was not in the right mind to go to campus and Aster just thought of a way to divert her attention away from her ex-girlfriend’s alternate self that she saw earlier.

“Wanna skip afternoon classes together?”