It was the week before the competition. Everyone in the school was busy for the preparation. The only good thing about having this was we didn't have any classes and homework was postponed until the week after. But sadly we still had to report to school.
The teachers gave us plenty of options to choose on what we can do if we aren't part of the participants. My friends and I decided to make our time worth while by making posters and signs in a spare classroom.
The group was complete except that Ivy was missing because she joined the Table Tennis club representing the school. Jordan tried for the women's basketball team, but sadly didn't make it to the final team.
"What should I write here?" Farrah pondered, looking at the blank green paper the same color of our color.
"Oh, write 'Go, Stoners!' there." Jordan cackled with laughter.
I rolled my eyes, snickering. Jordan always brings up the opportunity to call the students of Stonewall High as stoners. I mean, it's kind of funny.
Farrah threw a marker at Jordan's direction. "Shut up! I'm being serious."
"Well, so I am!" Jordan went on.
I let the both of them continue their bickering while I go back to what I was doing. I was making a sign for Ivy to support her during competition. So far it was coming along fine. I am no artist at any ways, but I tried my best to make it special.
When I was in the middle of coloring in the letters, my vision suddenly darkened. Soft hands were covering my eyes. I tried to remove their hands to see the culprit.
"Ivy, remove your hands." I pleaded to the person who I thought was Ivy.
Loud giggles can be heard coming from Farrah and Jordan.
It took some effort because she had a tight grip. I blink my eyes repeatedly, adjusting to to the lights. I turned to my side, ready to lash out on Ivy, but was my throat went dry when I saw who the real culprit was.
"Do I look like Ivy to you?" Dev looked at me smuggly, his tone teasing.
I pursed my lips, narrowing my eyes at him. "What are you doing here?"
Dev sat himself on the floor across from me. "I skipped training."
My eyes widened. "You're kidding, right?"
He laughed at my reaction. "Of course not! Coach will bury me alive if I miss out on training without a proper excuse."
"Sounds dreadful." I commented on. "At least I don't have to worry about that."
I looked down on my unfinished work deciding on what to add next to make it more interesting. There was still empty spaces on the sides I could fill up with designs to make the paper not look so blank.
I opened my phone and went to good old Pinterest for ideas. If I were to only use one social media for the rest of my life it would be Pinterest. It just gives you the weird motivation to turn your life around in the middle of the night but never do anything about it anyway.
"Anything I could help with?" I heared Dev ask.
"If you have the talent for drawing, why not?"
"Bri, I can barely draw a stick man to save my life, and you expect me to have a talent in drawing?"
I was able to find some doodles related to sports and showed that to him. "This can't be too hard to draw, not even for you."
His face scrunched. "But it's got so many details to follow."
"Hey, you asked to help me," I said, pointing a finger at him. "So start working on it." I handed him an extra pencil.
I laughed when he pouted his lips but took the pencil from me anyways and started drawing.
"You're so bossy." He started complaining. "You've changed."
I rolled my eyes at his ridiculousness, holding back a smile. We worked on drawing the doodles side by side. I reminded him that it should be related to Table Tennis since that's what Ivy was playing.
"How come Ivy gets a poster and I don't?" Dev opened his mouth again.
"You'd want that?" I raised an eyebrow.
He nodded. "I mean, it's gonna be made by you, so I would like that. Aren't you gonna watch me play?" He sounded hopeful.
"I'm not so sure." I swear I saw his face falter a little bit in a quick passing second. "I'm sure there would be tons of people wanting to watch the basketball game and the sports center would be flooded."
"Yeah, but I still want you come and holding a sign just for me while I look for you in the crowd." Dev said nonchalantly as he colored in the trophy.
The butterflies in my tummy were going feral and untamable as my heart pounded faster. Why am I feeling like this? I pushed down the urge to throw markers at my friends who were faking their obnoxious coughing.
"Or you could also dress up as the mascot at the game?" He said teasingly.
I transferred my gaze back to him, my mouth dropped into a small frown while I stared at him blankly. "I don't like you very much right now." I said, turning my back on him.
I would much prefer it if no one would ever bring that ever again. Like I beg of you to erase that memory from your mind. Sometimes the embarrassing thoughts still haunt me at night and I cringe to myself every time.
"Aww, Bri, don't do that." I heard Dev mused behind me as I colored in my during. "That was the night we met. Our own little meet cute."
Both my brows raised. "What do you know about meet cutes?"
"I actually don't know." He admitted, chuckling to himself. "I just heard it somewhere that it's about meeting someone."
I hummed as a response. He's got the general idea of what it means correct. But I wouldn't consider our meeting a meet cute when I didn't even looked cute at that time with me looking like an absolute mess.
Dev continued to help me with the sign. I would have finished longer without him. And he was such a liar. He was capable of drawing something decent that doesn't look like a random scribble.
Glancing proudly at my almost finished drawing of a table tennis table, it just needs to be colored in and I'm good to go. Without looking, I reached for a random colored marker.
I was able to get a hold of a marker, but another hand stopped mine. My head jerked up with my eyes met with Dev's, staring straight at me before our gazes peered down where his hand was on top of mine.
I thought he would immediately remove his hand away from mine, but he instead rubbed his thumb on the back of my hand. It felt . . . really nice. I almost don't want him to remove his hold.
"Dev, we've been looking for you everywhere." Suddenly the moment was ruined and we pulled our hands back. I turned my head to look away while tucking my hair back behind my ear with the hand Dev touched. "Training is about to resume, come on."
"Yeah, alright. I'll be right behind you." He replied, his voice sounding a little high pitched. Dev waited until his teammates were gone to speak again. "I need to go."
I nodded my head, completely understanding his reason why he needs to leave. A tiny part of me doesn't want him to go, though. I waved him goodbye as I watched him get up on his feet.
"I'll see you later, okay? And don't forget to make me a poster." Dev smiled before leaving me there breathless.
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Author's Note:
Hi, hello! I swear I have plans on finishing this book, but I've been really busy with school. I was supposed to finish this chapter a week ago after my exams, but I needed a break and rest first. My mental health has also been shitty that's why this took longer than expected. But here it is either way. Hope you liked the new update!