To Endure A Little More

THREE

Aeza had no clue why she had grown this vulnerable but the tears started to leave her the more she tried to hold them back. Was it because of what he called Harvey or spoke about her? They both knew Luan's words in no way suited her, neither was Luan someone who could speak in such a way, unless his rage had reached its limit. And that truly was the case. Luan was indeed angry with her, and that too over many things that had happened between them before, which is why a situation so small happened to trigger him. But this isn't how he himself had planned to react either.

His words actually derived from his anger over a different reason he had; which Aeza was unaware of yet. And his apoplectic temper had caught the best of him because of the bad day he had woken up to. Just before he had entered this room, he had broken up with his now ex-girlfriend because of her cheating on him behind his back despite them being in a decent relationship for about a year, which was why he was in more pain and his anger convinced him to believe that perhaps all girls were the same. What truly upset him as a result was how love had shown to never favor him, as it seemed. It did not when he was with Aeza and neither did it now when he tried to move on. And him lashing out at the latter seemed to come from his upset feelings for her from the past. It was far more complicated than it seemed.

"Him being my friend doesn't change how I see him, neither can it make me overlook his flaws. This was just a person-to-person statement. It has nothing to do with our friendship." Luan claimed with a face lacking any expression. He turned his body to exit the room afterwards, slamming the door behind him.

As he walked out, part of him was hit with a short moment of regret from realizing that he might have overreacted, but a man's ego often tends to stand stronger than his empathy. Luan rolled his eyes, shaking his head to have his silly regret leave his mind. With that, he headed off to his usual spot to let a puff out.

Aeza laid on her bed as she was left in the silence of the room by herself, quiet. Unsure of how to feel about everything that had been happening to her, she felt odd and like a total mess. It truly felt like a bad day that she woke up and she wished she could press undo.

Her eyes stared at Luan's new bed as she turned her body to lie on her side, missing the absence of her friend Roselynn. The latter was someone Aeza could always talk to when she felt caught up in situations she didn't know what to feel about.

But not wanting to get upset over Roselynn's leaving, Aeza's eyes looked around the room in search to find anything that could help distract herself from her mind. And at that moment she caught a glimpse of a stuffed toy in a bag. She reached out to take it in her hand. It was a stuffed elephant. Quite cute.

She was taken aback at discovering the toy. He doesn't own this, does he? Aeza hesitated at her own thoughts. She eventually started playing with it, unable to stop herself from finding the toy extremely adorable, like asking it questions about what it was doing in Luan's bag.

A gasp was heard from the owner of the blueish-grey, cotton-stuffed toy the moment he noticed the toy in her hand, as he entered. Feeling his endearing emotions for the toy and reflexes kick, he ran towards her in attempt to snatch the fake animal out of her hand.

"Manners, Aeza." Luan glared at her, clearing his throat with a slight tint on his cheeks, holding the doll in his arms protectively. Aeza tried giving Luan and his plushie a moment of silence as she processed.

"No way that is yours." Aeza chuckled in disbelief. By the expression of her face, it was obvious that a scornful laugh was sitting at the tip of his tongue waiting to mock him for owning a doll despite being too old for them.

"Is there something wrong about it if it is?" Luan placed the doll on his bed casually as he took a seat on his bed with no expression on his face, unbothered.

"You would not expect it from a jerk either, Luan." Aeza muttered with a sigh, turning around.

He looked away without serving her a reply. Eventually, he positions himself in a lying form. Aeza too laid on her bed, letting her body relax and sighing out, before both of them turned to look at each other.

"Do you have a name for it?" Aeza asked, cracking a laugh and breaking the silence that was starting to build in the room for a starting moment.

"Not specifically. Maybe I do have one in mind." Aeza looked at Luan with curiosity as he mentioned this, waiting for him to reveal the name. "Blanky?"

"Taken. That's what I named my blanket, nope." Aeza huffed, looking as unbothered as him. Both of them were so unserious, from a third point of view, this could appear hilarious.

"I mean he keeps giving me that blank look and feels as soft as a blanket, so yeah... Blanky." Luan says, folding his lips in a casual and unconcerned way.

"Hm. Makes so much sense, Luan Aldrin." Aeza laughed lowly without intending to. "Seems like you picked up his expression too."

Only a sigh was heard from the boy's side in a response before silence took over the room for another solid minute.

"You could do better if you tried to appear a little softer to people around you." Aeza mentioned, her voice was low and in the tone that indicates it is just an opinion.

"How long have you known me, Aeza?" He sat up, his question was serious, but he let out a quick laugh to escape through his lips to break the tension from building up in the room and hid his sigh as he looked at her while she faced the ceiling, not wanting to make eye contact as she answered him.

"Nineteen months." Aeza said through a clenched jaw. Nineteen years, to be exact. Only if he could remember...

His heart clenched as he chose not to react to her answer, but him choosing not to question her only had her feel relieved that he did not catch onto anything and doubt her lie. He headed off to his table hurriedly, stuffing his bag with the needed supplies before walking out of the room. "I need to go to class so I will see you later."

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