Olivia and Olive step out of 'piquant and peppery', leaving all four of us, alone and face to face after years.
"You scoundrel," Maria yells at Alas the moment we are left alone. Leaping out of her chair, she grabs him by his throat.
"Calm down man, what did I do?" Alas yelps, grabbing her hands.
Placing more force on her hands, she tightens her hold on him more. "Calm down?! You tell me to calm down, after you not only returned after so many years and not even think to inform us. You bastard didn't even tell us you got a girlfriend."
Something in me crashed, like a small glass being broken.
Like the thorns on roses.
Pretty insignificant.
But it still. . .stung, quite a bit.
"I-I don't—ugh" Alas choked as Maria starts pulling him out of his chair.
"You are so dead today," she murmured.
"Lisa," Alas looked at me, making his superior puppy-eyed face, pretty deftly, knowing very well how I can't ever refuse him when he has that countenance on him.
"Okay guys, stop," I said, with a sigh.
"What's this, Lisa?" Maria said, scrunching her brows. "This isn't fair. How can he just leave us out like this?"
"When one doesn't even care about promises he once made to people," I looked at them, my eyes staggering on him, a little. "How can you expect them to recall other trivial stuff?" Saying this, I leaned towards them, pulling Maria from him.
Turning to see beside her, I glanced at the brown-haired fool, who doesn't even know what a big fool he is. "Get up."
"Thank you," he smiled.
"And no, you are wrong." Alas said as we settle down again. "She," pointing at the door, "isn't my girlfriend." As our eyes intersected, he added, "yet."
'That means he is still not going out with her, but he will. Right? That's what he meant?' I thought to myself.
"Luc, you say something," Maria nudged him.
"What do I say?" He looks up. Up until now, I didn't quite realise when, but he was doing something on his phone.
"Hey, what are you doing on your phone now?" I asked him.
He turned and looked at me. "What do people do with their phones?"
Hearing him, I kept staring at him, before turning my head away. 'Why is he being rude?'
"Okay so," Maria said, looking at Alas. "She is not your girlfriend?"
"Nope," Alas replied. "Not yet."
"Hey, what do you mean not yet?" Maria yelled.
Hearing Maria scream, Lucas looked at him and finally asked, "You like her or not?"
"I—" Looking down, Alas shifted his straw, and submerges its tip deeper into the drink., "I don't know."
"How many days are you staying?" I asked.
"Days? You don't want me here for years?" He seemed a little startled.
I stared at him, with a bored look. "It's your wish, right? You come and go as you wish. Why would you have to heed to someone else's wishes."
"What if I do care about someone's wishes?" His reply came alost instantly. He added, "I mean, we all gotta care about people close to us, right? Or else how are we going to maintain relationships?"
"You seem interested in upholding relationships all of a sudden?" I asked back.
"I always was, just that people were too busy to notice it."
***
The wind was comfortingly cold, just the right amount.
"Hi." A voice interrupts my peace.
I looked beside me, and saw Alas leaning against the veranda railings, in a soft blue-toned t-shirt and a dark grey hoodie, perfectly fitted with his broad shoulders.
"Hey," I replied, rubbing my hands, and holding them on top of the balustrade, hoping to warm them up from the friction.
"Here," he said, though I didn't quite understand what he meant at first.
"Huh?" But before I could ask, he shifted his body to my side a bit and snuggled out of his hoodie.
Stepping behind me, he closed the distance between us a bit more and took my hand, before snugging it into the hoodie. "Dude, you don't have to–" I said, trying to open it up.
He held my other hand and looked at me. "I am sorry, Lisa."
"For what?" I asked.
He was still standing behind me, and he was close.
We were a few inches apart at this moment, and I could smell the familiar musky, muscular fragrance near me.
His breath felt warm. Like they were almost kissing my skin, on the small spot of my skin which wasn't covered with my hair. In this cold weather, they were weirdly sensationalizing me, making it hard to focus.
"Did you take a shower before coming here?" I ask, absentmindedly sniffing his fragrance, while trying my very best not to move.
"Mhm," he hummed. That's when, I stopped feeling his presence so close, behind me.
Turning around, I saw him looking at me, tucking his hands in his pockets. "Why did you ask, though?" He asks, looking at me, with playfulness hidden in his eyes.
"I–I just wanted to see if you've forgotten old habits or not," I say, turning around, and looking outside. I try my best not to look nervous and show him as if this was really what I asked him for.
"It's not always easy to detach yourself from the past. A lot of important memories, days and people are involved in those old days." He says, standing beside me. "It takes all that a man ever is, to forget them all."
As I listen to him, an unknown source of hope spreads somewhere in me, enfolding around an indefinite hole of indeterminate emptiness.
"If you ever have a girlfriend, which I believe you don't at the moment," I say, not looking at him. "Dare you not leave her, ever."
I hear him chuckling, softly. "I didn't say anything funny," I say, narrowing my eyes.
"No it's not that," he says, trying to resist laughing. "It's adorable."
"What?" I ask, scowling almost.
"You are thinking about my girlfriend. It's adorable." Alas, smiles.
"Oh, is it?" I say, turning my head "Huh, nice. I say serious stuff and you find that adorable."
"Yes ma'am," he says. "It's adorable because it's coming from YOU,"he emphasized "That too, directed to my future girlfriend." For some unknown reason, he emphasized 'you' too.