Lunch
2282 Words
“Kevin, will you eat with us?” Irene asks.
“It would be great, I guess,” I successfully answer without stammering and treating it like it's a minor thing.
“Great! Let's go have lunch together after this game.”
“Okay,” I nod.
“Thank you,” Eli says.
“You're always welcome!” acknowledges Reine.
The game went on until the last quarter. The score is 3:3—a tie! Our team is keeping up! This game is good and exciting! I don't know who will win. But I want our team to win of course because my friend Rick is playing. I know how he loves this sport and winning.
“Go, Rick!!” I cheer out of nowhere when he goes handling the ball to the goal.
“Come on!!” shouts Reine.
Eli is holding Irene's arm as they are excited watching how this will turn out. I see where she's going with this. She's a professional of flirting—this I know and believe. They just met yesterday and it's so natural for her to be this close so suddenly. Extroverts and their above normal skills of socialization.
The struggling of Rick trying to get the ball through a crowd of defenders is imminently hard. He has a lot to keep in mind. I thought he was gonna go for the goal but he passes it to his teammate. Then goal! Woah! That was a great pass! They gather around Rick and the guy who scored the goal and celebrated it.
“Yes!” cheers Irene.
“Nice!” compliments Eli.
They're celebrating with the other people around us as if they're the ones who are playing the game. It is very noisy with the screaming and cheering. I just stand here, not seeing the point of why I should scream as they do. I'm happy with the goal of course because our team is gonna win this since there are only three minutes on the clock. Eli's team might need a miracle to score. What's bothering me is that she's celebrating her team's loss.
“It's funny to think that you're celebrating while your team's losing, Liz,” chuckles Reine.
“Yeah, I'm such a horrible person,” she jokes and they laugh. But actually, that's quite true in some cases.
Three minutes have passed and our team's victory is concluded. The whole field is being filled with cheers from the spectators. Indeed, it was a good game. The two teams begin shaking hands with each other before leaving the field.
“Let's go and congratulate them,” says Reine.
“Okay,” nods Irene.
“Let's go,” says Eli.
I just follow behind them because I want to congratulate my friend too. But I'm not sure if I'll have the chance since a lot of people are gathering around him and his teammates. My congratulation is meaningless to him compared to the mass of congratulations he gets from others. Even Eli, Irene, her friends, and his girlfriend are congratulating him. I'll never get this kind of popularity and praise. I'm just a guy who stands behind other people and as a prop in the corner that's not the focus of the set. No one will even recognize me here even when I disappear.
“Kev!” he calls me and I'm startled. “Did you see that?” His dirty and sweaty face while smiling is bright, happy of this win in the game he's passionate about.
Even when surrounded with overflowing praise from others, he's seeking my acknowledgment. Is it that important for him? This guy...
I can't help but smile and reach out my fist over Eli's shoulder because she's in between us. “You're sick, man!” I yell so he could hear.
“Ow!” Eli cries in pain. “My ear!”
“Thanks!” he says, bumping his fist against mine.
I step back and allow him to politely answer all of the congratulations of his fans. What a popular guy. He just has to breathe to be noticed.
“See ya, dude,” he farewells to me.
“Yeah, see you too,” I answer, giving him a low five.
We disperse and I wonder where he and his teammates will go. Probably gonna change clothes or have a meeting for tomorrow's game. Meanwhile, here I am, walking behind the girls as I follow them to the exit of the campus. Their conversation went to the point where Eli starts to talk about me when we were kids but with a little tweak. She's embedding lies in the truths!
“When I jumped into their backyard, he was naked!” she laughs. In front of Irene!
“Hey!” I yell behind her. “Why are you-”
“I hope you have a good ‘arsenal’, Kev,” smugs Reine.
“What?” I ask. What does she mean?
“Does he, Liz?” Oh... I get it.
Like her, she smugs and says, “It's an acorn.”
The four of them giggle and I'm embarrassed. “There are thousands of things to talk about!” I couldn't help but yell. “Please talk about something else!”
“Aw... he looks so cute when embarrassed,” says Reine.
“I'm not!” I deny, looking to the side.
They continue giggling while looking at me over their shoulders. Then I had a glimpse of Irene's smile. Somehow, all that embarrassment is worth it.
“I know, right?” continues Eli. “You might not know him very well but he's very caring and kind.”
What is this? She's advertising me? Oh, that's it! Nice marketing move! I have to hand it to you, you f*ckin' tomboy. Go on and make me sound likable in front of Irene hehe.
“When we were kids, there was one time that my parents had an appointment, they had to leave me to his parents, he was the one who watched over me like his real sister. I was sick that day and he watched over me.” Well, this is true that this happened other than last night. I almost forgot about this. “You can depend on him. You might think that he doesn't care about people around him because he's a loner but there's more to him than meets the eye.”
“Really?” mutters Irene, glancing over her shoulder at me.
My chest starts to pound like a jackhammer. What does that glance mean?!! Sh*t, my face is feeling hot! Do I look red right now? I can't tell! I must hide my face! I look to the side, breathing slowly to hide what I feel. D*mn, Eli is good! She's not joking about this, alright! At this rate, the possibility of me getting closer to Irene is not zero anymore.
We went on to leave the campus and across the street. They take us deeper into the alley and found this well-maintained restaurant. The food here must be more expensive. As we enter, the air is cool because of the AC. The place is spacious. Now I know where most of the popular and rich kids of the school eat. I recognize some of them eating with their friends here as well as popular couples of the school. I feel out of place because I'm the only poor weeb here.
When I look at the menu at the counter, my pockets feel sore. They're two times more expensive than what I eat at a normal karinderya!
“Don't worry,” whispers Eli. “I'll pay for you.”
“No, you don't have to,” I politely refuse. “I'll spend my money this time.”
“Okay,” she says and I feel relieved. I don't want to look like I'm taking advantage of her generosity.
After ordering our food, we sit at a table for six with one empty seat, waiting for our orders to be cooked. I feel like I'm being restrained because Irene is sitting right next to me at my left! If I move a single inch, I'm worried that it might bother her. I don't want that so I just sit here without doing anything. And at her left is Eli, they enjoy talking to each other about girl stuff. Mary and Reine are there on the opposite side of the table facing us.
“Our order is taking long,” Mary notices.
“Yeah,” nods Reine. “maybe we should check.”
“Okay.”
“You guys stay here,” Reine tells us. “we'll ask them.”
We nod and wait here as she said. Right now, Irene is spraying her perfume on her neck. Woah.... that smells so.... good.
“What perfume are you wearing, Irene?” Eli asks.
“Oh, uh... this one,” says Irene, showing the bottle to her.
“Let me smell it.”
“Okay.”
Irene was about to hand the golden bottle of perfume to her but this sneaky lesbian/tomboy goes to her neck and there she smells the perfume. Over Irene's nape, she smirks at me. I shake my head while narrowing my eyes to tell her to stop taking advantage of Irene. I literally forgot that she's a p*rvert.
“That smells so good, Irene!” she pretentiously praises while withdrawing back to sit properly.
“Thank you. You're wearing perfume too, right?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Can I see?”
“Of course!”
From her bag, she pulls out her perfume in a bottle colored in pink. Its design is sakura—cherry blossoms that are somehow the image of Japan during spring as they bloom so much in that season.
Irene tries it on her wrist and rubs it. She smells it and exclaims, “Wow, that smells so good!”
“I know, right? It gets smelling better when it prolongs on the skin. Try smelling here.” She raises her chin, gesturing that Irene should smell her neck too. Of course, since she is innocent about the true intentions of this rotten child, she smells it. Eli smugs at me again. I just narrow my eyes at her.
“You're right!” innocently agrees Irene. If only she knows... “Is it available here in the Philippines?” she asks.
“I don't know. I haven't looked but I'll let you know if it is, Irene nee-san.”
“That's great! And by the way, what does ‘nee-san’ mean?”
I slip into their conversation because I feel I had to. “Oh, it means big-sister,” I explain. “much like ‘ate’ in our customs but it goes after their names.”
“Oh, is that right?” she confirms to Eli.
“Yeah,” nods Eli with a wide smile while resting her head on her palm with her elbow on the table. “and since Kevin is older than me, I should call him, Kevin nii-san or simply... Onii-chan,” she says in a cute anime voice!!! OH, SH*T!!! Every weeb's weakness!! Oh, my God!
I clear my throat as my way to stop gasping rhen look away to completely hide my face.
“That was so cute!” Irene compliments. “You're voice is like anime I sometimes see on Acebook.”
“Thank you, I can be your little sister if you want to, Irene nee-chan,” she says in a cute anime voice again!! WOW!! I gotta ask her to say some more anime lines if I get the chance.
“Okay!” Irene agrees. “I will be glad to be your big sister!”
Oh, no... she has fallen to her trap!! I should've stopped her! Well, it's too late now! Eli has clamped her fangs on her. Maybe I still have time. I must save Irene from her! Their conversation went on further and I try to get involved politely until Mary and Reine returned with mild frowns.
“So, what happened?” Irene asks.
“They haven't noticed that they dropped the list of our orders on the floor,” Mary answers. “That's why they haven't prepared our order yet.”
“Unbelievable, right?!” Reine rages. “I'm so hungry right now!”
“Well, we have no choice but to wait. They said that they will cook it as fast as they can.”
“Okay,” says Irene. She's calm as ever.
A few minutes later, our orders are delivered and we've been given a discount because of it. I thank the wind or whatever made the list end up on the floor. It cut my expense even just for a slight. While eating, I slowly begin to get used to the pace of the way they're talking. They're unlike others who talk at a fast pace. They sometimes leave an air so that others may say something—much like my friends. I even started a topic flawlessly for the first time. I'm aware that they like pop culture, especially K-drama and K-pop so I talked about Black Pink—I kinda like this girl group, about their new song. Also... Jennie is d*mn hot!
“I didn't know you listen to them too, Kev,” Reine comments.
“Well, I don't show it much or others would think weirdly of me.”
“No, show it!” she forcefully insists but I know she means it as sarcasm. “Don't even spare a thought about them!”
- Writer
