School’s out, and I’m dragging my feet sluggishly on the main street.

This place is usually flooded with people who're heading home from work, and the other schools in the area. But since we were let out early due to our teachers going on an early vacation, the usual need to weave my way around people without nudging them is pushed onto tomorrow.

Keeping in mind that not many people notice my presence around them, it's easier said than done. It’s not like I’m literally invisible, much to my dismay, but more like I don’t stand out in a crowd. 

Putting it simply, people tend to overlook me, since nothing is interesting about me that would garner the attention, at least, not to the level of the others.

It happens so often that I tend to apologize immediately as soon as I make contact with someone, even if it’s just their shoulder.

Zander and Kathrynn sure have it easy for them, since their houses are on the opposite side as to where I have to go through to get home.

I know I shouldn’t be complaining about that now since the path is clear. I should probably be spending my thoughts on something else more important, such as appreciating the weather or breathing in the cool, autumn air. Heck, even gazing up at the sky and marveling at flocks of birds migrating north for the winter.

So many options, so many things to do yet—

“Oh, so this is where the cafe is!”

—I’m stuck with her.

“Thanks for bringing me here!” I only just moved in yesterday so I haven’t had the chance to look around yet. So when the others insisted on me to come to join you guys for lunch, I didn’t know what to do.”

“Yeah well, that’s only just the beginning. If you keep getting held up with them, you’ll get used to it, whether you want to or not. I’ll be going on ahead now.”

There are many other places I’d love to be at right now. For example, in my bed watching anime, in my kitchen making food, or in my bathroom, taking a nice, warm shower.

It has only been 15 minutes since the school bell chimed. I thought I was free from her for today, but since I have to go past this street every day before and after school, I was the only one who could show her the way.

Zander had to stay behind and have a meeting with the other council members and the class representatives to talk through all their plans for the festival. And Kathrynn, she went straight home as usual.

“You know, you should probably learn to smile more.”

“Wha—”

I thought… I finally got away from her when I entered the grocery store.

“So, what are you buying?”

She’s persistent, I’ll give her that. But her obliviousness to all the times I’ve explicitly shown that I am not interested in getting mildly annoying.

“Things. Preferably edible things.” I replied.

“Is it for Alexis? I heard that she isn’t feeling well. If you’d like, I can help you think of something quick and easy to whip up for her.” She says as she picks up a couple of vegetables from the rack. “Chicken soup!”

“Chicken soup?”

“It’s the best food for a person who’s sick. Easy to eat and easy to make!”

I do recall Alexis making something like that for me whenever I got sick.

“Is there, Uhm, an easier thing to make…?”

She looks at me with a raised eyebrow as I turn my face away from her.

Did she notice?

“Something easier…? Ah! Could it be that you don’t know how to co—”

“Alright! Chicken soup it is!” I cut her off and grabbed the cabbage in her hands before making a beeline to the meat section.

It’s not my fault that I don’t have the necessary skills to make a decent meal… Alexis banned me from cooking our meals after I nearly burned the entire apartment building to the ground.

That’s also probably the reason why I haven’t learned any new recipes since then other than my specialty, bacon fried rice.

…

Can I even call it a specialty if it’s the only dish I can make?

I look over both my shoulders to scan around for her, luckily, she’s nowhere to be seen. She must have finally gotten the hint and went off on her way. About time too, any more of that, and it would have drained all the energy I had left.

That girl. She can appear and disappear from my sight like it's nothing. Additionally, I can’t sense her presence. It’s like she vanished from the area.

Such an extraordinary person, and a person I want to stay as far as possible from, but I’m certain that Alexis would instantly connect with her since their personalities are basically the same, and love to dig their noses into everyone’s business.

Speaking of Alexis, I hope she isn’t picky when it comes to what she eats. This’ll be the first time I’ll be cooking for her since she placed that ban on me.

With my bag on my back and the ingredients in a plastic bag in my left hand, I head down the street towards the opening just before the fields.

Even though this is the only street connecting my small village and this bigger village, there aren’t many others who use this path aside from students from my school and other neighboring schools.

I’m sure more people are walking along here during the warmer seasons. To enjoy the scenery, as well as to visit the lake.

Speaking of which, today is the first time I’ve walked this path alone. I’m always with Alexis when walking here.

Taking in the cool, autumn air, I reminisce about events that have long since passed, memories with Alexis and her parents as I pass by the fork in the path splitting off to the lake.

Which reminds me, before they relocated to the city, we used to visit the lake every weekend. At first, I was reluctant to join them, but since they’re my second set of parents, I didn’t have much of a choice.

Then it just happened. Our routine visits to the lake every weekend felt more normal with each passing week and so it became part of my everyday life. Even though it’s my life and only I can decide on how to live it, outings with Alexis and her parents have somehow been integrated into what I consider as normal.

Which is why whenever her parents moved to the city earlier this year, there have been a couple of hours during the weekends that I feel like I need to get up and move around even though there’s no one telling me to do so, other than my own body.

I like to think that the weird feeling of needing to do something is my body telling me to stick to the routine it has grown accustomed to after all these years. It’s funny thinking about it now, especially because Alexis and I haven’t been there as much since they left.

Since we don’t actually have a reason to visit anymore, we just never bothered. Not like it conflicts with our schedule or anything like that. It’s more like we never have thought about going back there again.

“Should I ask her to the lake again? It might be a good chance to think about what happened this past year since her parents moved to the city.”

I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to ask. As a matter of fact, I think she has been waiting for me to ask her out to the lake again.

As if I would know anyways. I can never understand the thought process of that girl. Her unpredictability still baffles me to this day. How can someone make so little sense, that it makes sense?

I guess that’s something only Alexis can answer. I don’t feel like using my brain thinking about rhetorical questions that aren’t supposed to be rhetorical in the first place.

What I need now, is some food and some rest, before walking back to the cafe, hopefully with Alexis.

Just as I make it out of the fields and into my village, my phone notifies me with a message.

< “Welcome to the group chat,            !” >

It was Kathrynn adding that girl to our group chat. 

Ugh, I knew this was going to happen eventually. They move quickly especially when it comes to a girl of her caliber. 

It also seems like I can’t read her name on my phone either.

So that means, I can’t hear her name, nor can I read it.

< “Sorry for not being able to attend school today! Oh, what’s this? We have a new person in the group?!” > Alexis apologizes and is thrown off by the sudden inclusion of another person.

< “You seem to be feeling well, Lexxy. I’m on my way home, do you want to come over to my room, or do you want me to come to yours?” >

Ah. I just—

< “Hey genius, you sent that to the entire group by the way. I didn’t know you two were hanging out in each other's rooms!” >

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

< “You two have some explaining to do!!!” > Kathrynn responds with a couple more angry emojis than usual.

Weird, that never happened to me before. I’ve always been mindful of where I send messages. Something like that should have been sent privately. Well, I guess there’s no point hiding it anymore. It was bound to come up eventually. I’m surprised we managed to hide it for this long with just how much the other two are all over us.

Guess the cat’s out of the bag now. At least that’s one less thing to worry about. 

Learning from my mistake, I open up mine and Alexis’ private messages to repeat the same message even though she had already read it in our group chat.

< “That was quite the blunder, Mikey.” > She rubs it in even though I would love to forget about that as soon as possible. < “I already read your message. I’ll see you at your apartment in a bit, is that okay? I still have to tidy up here.” >

< “Yeah, that’s fine with me. I still have to cook something anyway. See you later.” > 

Despite living kind of together for over a decade, I still haven’t gotten used to her energetic nature. Well, I have somewhat, but it’s more like I’ve grown accustomed to ignoring it for all these years. 

Passing by the convenience store right by our apartment, I quickly buy half a dozen strawberry cupcakes. I couldn’t buy any earlier this morning since I had to rush to school because I nearly overslept.

This doesn’t happen normally since I have an alarm clock… until Alexis got jealous of it.

She picked it up and threw it across the room without any warning one day because she didn’t like it waking me up every morning apparently.

I think her exact words were, “I wanted to wake him up today!” 

I’ve had that clock for nearly a decade now and I’ve taken care of it ever since. But now, it has a couple of springs sticking out of it and the hands are broken too. Not to mention that it has a couple of screws loose in it too.

While walking up the stairs to the seventh floor, a weird feeling overwhelms me. It feels… new? Pushing through it, the feeling lingers around in the air while I drag my feet towards my door.

I don’t know what’s stranger, a feeling I’m experiencing for the first time, or coming home before the sun reaches the foot of the door? Whichever one it is, my arms are getting tired.

Since the door is locked, it’s safe to say that Alexis isn’t here yet. So I don’t need to look out for every corner where she could probably be hiding. Putting the bags of food and ingredients down on the counter, I walk past the kitchen and jump on my bed.

“Ahhhhhhh…” I heave a heavy sigh of relief as the silence and safety of my room somehow seems clearer than before. “If I were a tiny bit stronger and said no to Kathrynn and Zander’s invite to the cafe, I could be staying here all day. But I guess “I’ll treat you.” is a phrase that holds too much power.”.

As I stare at my ceiling, which I have already counted all the little dots on, I begin to doze off and enter dreamland before loud thumping jolts me awake and it's coming from... the balcony?