She left us alone in the ball just like that?! Despite the familiar faces around us, I
could still sense the hostility within this caged-like building. Bright lit candles by the
side of the hall, seeing deep velvet under the shade of faint copper fixtures. Soft
revolving neon lights hit the dancing crowd in the middle, reflecting moving shadows
that coordinated along, which created an alive and welcoming ambience.
"Hey Efferet!" Someone tapped him from behind.
"Oh, Branden! What's up?" Efferet was surprised by his Rugby teammate and
exchanged their usual one-hand-crossed hug.
"Nothing much though. Wanna grab some drinks? The rest are over there." Excited
by the captain's presence.
"Let's go, Liz!" Efferet grabbed my arm harshly, pulling me along to join his
teammates. I’d almost whined in pain, struggling to get out.
Knowing the fact that I did not like any of his bunch of irksome fellows, especially
when these ignorant people started prying into our affairs and made sarcastic
remarks, he would still pull me along without any persuasion of his or permission of
mine.
The irony was that they were mean towards me but they were irrefutable at times,
which made me detest them even more.
“Stop it! It hurts!” I yelled and threw his arm off mine.
We held to a stop.
“What?” He spoke in his calm tone.
“Don’t you bloody know how pain this is?! With your huge strength forcing down
onto mine?! I’m not a toy of yours! Stop doing this to me!” I cried, feeling indignant.
The flashing thoughts and past scenes of him treating me as his best friend when he
knew that I wanted him more than this were bugging my mind. My heart started
aching again.
“What have I done?!” He questioned, raising his voice a little.
“Must I state every single thing to you? Can’t you be more sensitive to my feelings?!”
I complained.
“You know how I felt, right? Why didn’t you consider me whenever you decide
anything? So, this shows how much I mean to you.” I lowered my voice, my hands
covering my face.
“What do you mean? I’ve always treated you as my best friend. You’re important to
me! Sorry if I’ve never taken your feelings into consideration, I promise this will
never happen again alright?” He asked sadly.
I could sense the hurt in him, of the words that I’ve let loose from my mouth. Did I
say something wrong or should I not suppose to say such knife-piercing remarks at
all?
I felt guilty the moment my conscience reminded me but sharp pain came
hammering on me at the same time.
“Alright, I know we’re still friends.” I lowered my head, trying to look away from his
face to avoid the constant pain.
“Liz, please don’t be like that. You know I can’t commit right now. I have my dreams
to fulfill. You know that I’ve always wanted to be the best Rugby player in the world.
You’ll be behind me right? I need you, Liz, you’re my greatest motivation!” He
explained, holding my arms with no force this time round.
What could I say? He wanted it this way. Even though it hurts me as if tons and tons
of weights are falling onto me, I could not deny the fact that I wanted him good.
“Yes, you’ll always have my support.” I said softly, still brooding about the matter.
Before Efferet could speak, our genius group of people appeared from nowhere.
“Ah, there you are Efferent and Eliza! We’ve been looking for both of you all around.”
Keane called out.
“Do you guys wanna join us?” Alison asked.
I felt relieved when I saw them, thinking that I could avoid Efferet for the time being,
at least to distract myself from the pain.
“YES! I will follow you guys. We can leave Efferet to his teammates.” I said quickly in
a sarcastic tone, dragging them away from Efferet.
He frowned.
“Alright, I will join you guys later.” Efferet shouted and walked away.
“What happened between both of you?” Mick questioned curiously.
“Nothing,” I lied.
“You’re sure about this? You can talk to us if you need. We’ll be here.” Alison
consoled.
“It’s ok, nothing serious anyway and I don’t feel comfortable bringing up that topic
again. Sorry.” I apologized.
All of them caught what I meant. They knew about this too but they have never
brought it up before with my presence because they knew as if the pain would struck
them hard in the chest.
“Let’s party then! Woo!” Keane encouraged, trying his best to distract me by his
randomness.
We walked towards these two tanned and tall guys, one in a dark grey suit and the
other in a faint pink top with dark blue stripes.
“Hey, buddies! Let me introduce to you. Ace, this is Eliza,” he pointed out to the dark
grey suit guy.
“And this is Jim.” Both of them offered their hands at the same time.
I took Ace’s hand first as he was nearer to me. He had extremely sharp and perfect
features. One of the most beautiful guys I have ever met. His thick dark brows were
angled directly above his almond-shaped chestnut brown eyes. His short hair was
spiked in a neat shape.
“Hi, I’m Ace Tillon, my honour in meeting you.” He kissed my hand and dropped it
gently. His hand was way too warm for an usual human body’s temperature. He
looked deep into my eyes and winked at them.
“Hi, I’m Eliza Kurt,” I smiled in return.
Jim was less formal. We have only exchanged a handshake. He was slightly shorter
than Ace with his black chin-length hair tucked behind his ears. He had rounder and
bigger eyes. His lip was twitched to one side.
“Hi, I’m Jim Myer.” He spoke.
“Nice meeting you,” I replied.
(To be continued)
*Written by Samantha Ng*