Laia had pushed the details from how they went home from Amethyst's house and everything that happened to the asshat to the back of her mind.
She'd rather focus on their upcoming third-quarter examinations wherein procrastinating instead of studying might make her lose her mind at the last minute.
"Dear?" The girl's mother reluctantly knocks on her daughter's door. "How about a quick snack?"
"After I finish writing notes--"
Her mother leaned at the bedroom door with a frown on her face. "You said that an hour ago, dear,"
"And I'm still not done so what can I do?" Laia retorted, already exhausted from the usual conversation. "I'll just go and eat when I'm done,"
She hears her mother sigh. "You've been studying for five hours already--"
Laia gave her mother a deadpanned stare. "And it will be six hours if you continue distracting me,"
"But dear--"
The short-haired girl finally had enough and closed her book with more force than she intended. Making her way towards her mother, she gently pushes her outside the room and closes the door quickly, not bothering to listen to her mother.
She quickly plugged in her earphones and decided to change her music choice temporarily from classical music to indie rock to blur out her mother's continuous complaints.
"Ugh," Laia places her pen down and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Great, now I lost all my concentration,"
It doesn't help how her mother was still rambling outside her room. Laia honestly hoped that her mother would just go to that newly-opened spa or somewhere with her friends for a while, just until she's done studying.
Sipping the chamomile tea from her favorite mug that she placed on her desk, the girl stretches her arms and opted to scroll absentmindedly through her social media account that she recently created because Brie wouldn't stop nagging her about her lack of social media exposure.
As of the moment, Laia only had five friends. Her mother, Jake, Brie, Shane, and Vivi. Upon checking how her friend's social media accounts were going, she wasn't even surprised to see how their friends were already around three thousand (or at least four thousand for Brie) and they posted almost every day (except Jake).
She decides to like Brie's most recent post which was a barefaced selfie. It was obvious in the girl's surroundings that she was in a coffee shop and Laia couldn't fight a laugh upon thinking of how awkward it probably was for the other visitors of the coffee shop to see Brie doing her best to take a picture of herself.
Vivi's most recent post was a photo of a puppy. Laia didn't know if it was hers but she had to admit that it was cute.
"Oh," Laia checks how many people liked Vivi's post and was surprised to see it being a thousand. "Apparently a thousand people share the same thought as I do,"
Laia pressed like and scrolled down only to see a photo of Jake taking a mirror selfie. His phone hid half of his face but he still looked good. She presses like again and moves on.
The girl was quick to come up with the conclusion that Shane had the least social media presence among her five friends, seeing that her latest post was around three weeks ago and it was just her alongside family on a resort overlooking the sea.
"Hmm, I wonder where this is,"
She was about to comment and ask where the place was when her phone vibrated.
A notification regarding someone sending her a friend request?
Laia raises her eyebrow. Who might it be?
In all honesty, Laia was sure that nobody would find her social media account if she didn't send them a friend request first, especially with how her profile picture was a picture of the stray cat that she played with often and with how she only has five friends.
Five.
She presses the notification tab and her eyes widened.
Samuel Vincent Laurie? The asshat?
How did he even know her social media account? Did Brie tell him? Maybe Jake?
Or did he search it on his own?
The girl scoffs. Impossible.
Laia didn't immediately accept the asshat's friend request like how the asshat probably assumed she would and instead decided to check the asshat's profile.
Just like Brie, the asshat had a lot of friends. Four thousand six hundred twenty-two to be exact. He had a lot of followers too, which was weird to see. Why would they follow the asshat when he's just a student?
Maybe they knew about his father being the CEO and a Senator and his older brother being an actor?
Laia shook her head. That's probably not the case because if it was then wouldn't everyone in their school go crazy over him already and fangirl more than they already do?
The asshat's most recent post was him in front of his car. The SUV that he brought with him last time if Laia's memory served her well.
Most comments were compliments and Laia even saw some girls asking him if he would allow them to ride his car.
"Gross," Laia's nose wrinkles in displeasure as she scrolled through the comments and saw that some of their classmates commented. "Oh, look at this harpy trying to flirt,"
Anna's comment was a flirtatious combination of a kissy face emoji, an eggplant, and a bed.
Laia didn't have to search what do those emojis meant to get a grasp on what the harpy was trying to convey.
Contrary to Laia expecting the asshat to respond to the harpy's comment with a flirty tone as well he only settled to liking the comment and doing nothing else.
The girl restrained a laugh. That must have hurt the harpy's ego badly.
She was about to continue scrolling down the asshat's profile when someone messaged her.
[Samuel Vincent Laurie: Are you enjoying stalking my profile?]
Her eyes widened as she looked around as if expecting the asshat to come out of her bathroom and smirk like how he always did.
Because at this point Laia just knows that everything is possible as long as you're rich. She won't even be surprised if she finds out that the asshat secretly has a teleport pad on his condo if he decides to tell her.
[Samuel Vincent Laurie: I am not inside of your house, unfortunately]
And she would probably also believe him if he tells her that he's a mind reader.
[Laia Racquelle Lopez: oh fuck off]
Laia clicks her tongue, immediately regretting the message that she just sent but couldn't figure out how to unsent it so all the girl did was sigh in disappointment.
Great. She just had to give the asshat more opportunities to poke fun at her and probably tease her for being rude which was unlike her usual attitude.
[Samuel Vincent Laurie: Have I told you that I like you better if you curse?]
The girl's right eyebrow rose.
[Laia Racquelle Lopez: have i told you that i don't care what u think]
[Samuel Vincent Laurie: Hmm you didn't]
[Laia Racquelle Lopez: well now you know]
The asshat didn't reply after that. Shrugging her shoulders, Laia returned to her studying regardless of the annoying thought that lingered in her mind that maybe she should lessen being mean and dismissive towards the asshat.
Or maybe not since it's not like he lessened being mean to her either except when he's sometimes rather tolerable.
Emphasis on sometimes.
The girl stretches her arms and legs after studying for what felt like an entire day. Glancing at the clock on her room's wall, she wasn't surprised to see that it was already five in the afternoon.
Apparently, even with just an hour before dinner, she has a gut feeling that her mother was probably not home yet and was possibly still enjoying her usual day-off with some of her coworkers.
Or spending all her money on the spa.
Not that Laia minds. Her mother actually deserves more after having to work overtime for extra cash for the past few days.
Letting out a grunt, the girl drags herself to the kitchen to prepare a simple dinner. She opted to fry two chicken thighs and prepared orange juice. Instead of also cooking rice, she decided to just take their leftover rice from earlier and heat it in the microwave.
After placing all the food she made on the table, the girl says a short prayer and starts eating.
Well, the girl was about to start eating when a loud honk of a car interrupted her peaceful dinner.
"Who the hell," The girl grumbles as she reluctantly makes her way to the window only to see a very familiar annoying face outside the gate who saw her immediately and even had the audacity to wave. "Ugh, why is he here,"
Opening the door with more force than intended, Laia had to look back to see if she damaged the door somehow. Fortunately, she didn't.
"Why are you here?" The girl asks the asshat after opening the gate for him.
The asshat closes the gate before Laia could and flashes a smirk at her. "Am I not allowed to visit? Your mother did say I was free to visit anytime,"
Laia rolled her eyes. "It's six in the evening," She points at the night sky. "And my mom's not even here,"
"Where is she?" The asshat unties his shoes and leaves them at the doorstep. "A night out, perhaps?"
"Uh-huh," Laia was quick to make her way back to the dining table to continue eating. "Why are you here, honestly?"
The asshat sits down on the chair beside Laia's, resting his head on his right hand as he looked at Laia intently. "Should I have a reason to visit you?"
Laia gave him a deadpanned stare which she thought was honestly the look she always tends to give him. "Uh, yeah? You do realize it's weird to have someone suddenly appear on your doorstep without warning?"
He shrugs. "Won't you invite me to eat?"
"Help yourself," Laia pushes the plate that was supposed to be her mother's towards the asshat. "Just don't complain if this peasant food isn't to your liking,"
The asshat laughs. "I'm holding on to what you said about your cooking skills."
Laia couldn't fight back a smile at how the asshat remembered a small and irrelevant detail that most would have probably already forgotten about.
"What's with the smile?" The asshat asks after drinking his orange juice.
The girl quickly hides her smile with a spoonful of rice. "Nothing, just eat,"
Completely distracted by the amount of food she had to chew, Laia wasn't able to see how Samuel's eyes remained on her the entire time she thought they weren't.