Chapter 33: XXXII

The results for the rankings were up after a couple of days.

Laia could barely breathe at both the anticipation and the anxiety she was feeling. She could barely focus on her studies, much less on her everyday monotonous life.

She couldn't help but overthink. She knew her grades were great-- amazing, even, but there was just this lingering feeling in her head that she didn't do enough and she would never be enough to retain her original first spot again. 

What if she couldn't be her batch's valedictorian? What if the privileged asshat who could have gone to any other university except hers get what she wanted and aimed for?

"... Laia? Laia!" Brie was shaking her friend enough for Laia to get a little bit dizzy. "Earth to Laia! Did you not sleep again yesterday? Honestly, I already warned you about all this studying would definitely make you crazy one day..."

"I am not crazy," Laia narrows her eyes but sighs again. "yet."

Brie places a hand on the short-haired girl's shoulder with sympathy in her eyes. "Laia, you do realize you have really high grades for this quarter, right?"

"Yeah, but so does the asshat--"

"Ugh, here we go again with that competition that you guys have," Brie sips from her coffee. "What is with you geniuses always fighting in the ranking, honestly,"

Laia stopped herself from bluntly replying to her friend that she couldn't possibly understand what Laia feels because she doesn't care much about her grades in the first place.

Unlike Laia, Brie had always been easygoing when it came to her grades. She gets a low score, it's fine. She gets a high score, it's alright. She barely passes her exams or flunked them? 

Definitely the perfect time to treat herself to a manicure at the nearby spa or watch a movie at the cinema.

If Laia would end up flunking a test in the future (she hopes not) she would obviously spend the rest of the month studying and making notes to ensure getting a perfect score in the next examinations that will probably occur three months later.

"Anyway," The long-haired girl shows Laia something on her phone. Another bakery, Laia notes. "Can you come with me later? I really want to get their cream puffs again."

"Why don't you ask Jake?" Laia asks, curious.

Brie lets out a disappointed sigh. "Well," She glances around and pulls her chair closer to Laia's to whisper to her friend. "Even if we're talking again he doesn't want us to be seen interacting for a while,"

"Why?" Laia was genuinely puzzled. "What's with the secrecy?"

Her friend shrugs. "I don't know," Letting out another sigh, she absentmindedly sips from her coffee which Laia presumes was still hot and whimpers. "Shit, it's hot!"

"Here," The short-haired girl hands her friend her water bottle. "Just make sure to refill it from the fountain later."

Brie quickly nods and drinks from her friend's water bottle. After deeming that the pain due to her absentmindedness had gone away, she returns her friend's water bottle with a smile. "Thanks, Laia."

Laia waves her further apologies away. "It's fine," The girl decides to cease their meaningless trip to the library which only resulted in them doing nothing but Laia wallowing in her self-pity and Brie drinking her coffee. "Let's go to that bakery of yours?"

Clapping her hands like a seal, Brie's agonized state vanishes. "Yay!"

The bakery wasn't as far as Laia thought it would be. Regardless, Brie still brought her car along which only made the trip to their destination quicker.

"Don't worry, we'll be back before our afternoon classes and when Ma'am Anne announces the rankings!" Brie promises Laia as she pulls her inside the bakery which had a cutesy theme.

The cutesy theme turned out to be the establishment's chairs looking like clouds and tables resembling flowers. The walls were painted with pastel colors and the tiles were whiter than Laia's teeth.

Maybe. Laia doesn't really check her teeth much when she brushes them.

Laia awkwardly makes her way to a table that was far away from other tables that were occupied by mostly couples or groups of friends. She'd rather not choose a table near them, thank you very much.

The only good thing about the bakery (in Laia's most unbiased opinion) was the fact that they had the show "Friends" on the television placed just in front of the table Laia choose. Looks like Laia will be able to watch an episode while Brie is on the long line to order.

Unfortunately, just like every day that Laia thinks would be a great day, the asshat just had to appear again as if out of thin air or like an annoying shrub that you hate to see appear in your garden.

"I didn't know you had the time to indulge with the rankings being announced later this afternoon, Lopez," The asshat just had to start with mentioning the word that Laia dreaded as of the moment. "Are you trying to distract yourself from breaking down?"

Laia rolls her eyes, more infuriated with the fact that the asshat's huge head was blocking her from seeing what currently was happening in the episode that she was watching. "Yeah, yeah, I'm distracting myself from breaking down like a heartbroken maiden, now can you please move away? I'm watching here."

Asshat looked like a deer stuck in the headlights. "Watching what?"

The short-haired girl points at the television behind the asshat. "Look behind you, genius."

He does. However, not in the way that Laia thought he would.

The asshat grins in a playful manner. "I didn't know you watched this sitcom?"

"There's a lot of things you don't and would not know about me apparently," Laia says, her attention focused on what she was watching. "and that's the cue that you have to leave me in peace and let me completely focus on what I am watching--"

"What if I tell you that I'm watching this sitcom too?"

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Laia turns to him with a sarcastic smile. "Then I'd tell you that I don't give a single fuck and I am still waiting for you to leave me in peace."

He laughs in the usual manner that he did, catching the eye of those seated near them. Laia even noticed that some girls started whispering and squealing after looking at the asshat. 

Gross. If they only knew how bad the asshat's attitude was.

"Chill, Lopez," The asshat sits down next to Laia and leans back to the fluffy exterior of the chair. "The peace you're looking for is a handsome guy sitting next to you--"

Laia interjects with a scoff directed at the boy beside her. "First of all, gross. Second of all, the peace I want is for once in my life my seemingly perfect day wouldn't be ruined by your annoying presence--"

"Laia, I ordered you some cream puffs-- Hey, Sammy!"

Great. Now Brie just had to show up before Laia was able to frankly tell the asshat what she was dreading to tell him since he ruined her life the moment he entered their school.

"Was I interrupting something?" Brie asks with a concerned expression on her face.

"Nah, Lopez was just ranting my ear off as usual."

The audacity! 

Laia glares at him. "More like you ruined my alone time by appearing like an unwanted shrub that I would definitely uproot the moment I see you in my garden--"

Brie facepalms and looks at the asshat with a sheepish smile. "She goes around with her idiomatic expressions every time she gets a bit.. well--"

"Emotional?" The asshat finishes for her. 

Brie nods. 

Laia turns to her friend with a betrayed expression which makes Brie laugh and the asshat snorts. 

Really? Right in front of the cream puffs and the sitcom that was titled, "Friends"?

"Anyway," Brie rubs her palms together in anticipation of eating her cream puffs but stops when she realized that the asshat didn't have anything. "Sammy, you're not getting anything?"

The asshat's mouth turned into an 'o'. "Oh, yeah," He stands up. "I'm probably just gonna get a mocha latte."

"You do realize this isn't a coffee shop, right?" Laia couldn't help but ask sarcastically.

Asshat deliberately ignores Laia's sarcastic remark and turns to Brie. "I'll see you later?"

"You're not gonna seat with us?" Brie motions at the empty seats on her side and Laia's. "There's plenty of room--"

"Definitely no room for an annoying asshole--"

Brie covers Laia's mouth with her hand and smiles at the asshat. "I will make sure that Laia won't be too sarcastic--"

The asshat laughs but shakes his head. "Nah. I'll probably just get a latte on the go at Brewing and go straight back to the school."

"Okay," Brie pouts and Laia was genuinely weirded out that her friend really did want the asshat to sit with them until they finish their cream puffs. Like, how can anyone tolerate the asshat's presence?

Maybe those who like him for his looks, Laia thinks to herself but was still admittedly perplexed on how anyone can just like someone for what they look like instead of focusing on what their attitude is. 

"I mean, it's not like we don't grow old and lose our beauty in the process," Laia whispers to herself but did not go unnoticed by Brie who raises an eyebrow at her friend.

"What are you whispering about?" She asks while munching on her cream puff. "Are you thinking about the rankings again?"

More like the asshole who's keen on stealing her place on the rankings, but of course, Brie doesn't have to know about that or Laia will have to listen to her baseless theories about the asshat secretly having feelings for Laia.

Disgusting.

"I'm just thinking about why people settle for those who are blessed with good looks than those with a good temperament," Laia decided to be honest. It's not Brie would judge. "It just seems to be completely useless because we all grow old anyway and lose our looks in the process,"

Brie momentarily stops biting into her cream puff and nods in agreement. "I agree. But I guess it's because most of us are superficial in a way? Like, we all like looking at beautiful things and I guess that applies to the people we tend to like too, as well."

Laia rests her cheek on her hand, thinking about what her friend said. 

"Don't you like handsome men too?" Brie asks. "I mean, you do like your fictional men handsome and princely in a way, right?"

"Yeah, but," Laia sighs in defeat. "Oh well, no point in denying it. I really am superficial too despite how much I deny it."

Brie hands her one of her cream puffs. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll end up dating someone handsome and with a good temperament!"

Laia could only hope and pray for the same.

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