9 Past Memories (1)

"Lila! I know you're in there because I saw you walking back to your apartment just now, hurry up and open the door!" Jessica shouted from the outside of my door.

Sighing, I got up, unlocked the door and opened it slightly. Standing outside with a toothy grin was Jessica, and right beside her was Azure.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, not willing to invite them in at the moment.

"We agreed to go shopping together today for dresses and accessories for Jared's birthday party on Saturday, remember? There's a new mall that just opened a few blocks from here, we could head there and check it out. Hey wait a minute... is there someone else in your house?" Azure frowned and before I could react, she pushed open my door fully and walked in.

Zach was in full view, and Azure gasped. Jessica followed her and screamed, as though she had seen a ghost.

Thankfully, Zach had used magic to conceal his markings before we headed out to buy food, but having a boy in my house was still a shock to my friends.

I cringed and stood beside Zach who was still sitting down on a chair. His eyes studied Azure and Jessica for a moment, before he closed them and leaned back, as if to take a nap.

"Lila, how could you?! We thought you had a boyfriend, is Jared not good enough for you anymore? What are you doing with this guy here?!" Azure and Jessica screeched at me simultaneously.

Jared was my current boyfriend, and we had been dating for two years already. He has straight blonde hair that is always spiked up with hair gel and blue eyes.

I still remembered that the first time we met was during high school in Junior year. At that time, he was quite popular with the girls at school. We became acquaintances and eventually friends.

I started to have feelings for him in Senior year, and confessed to him during prom. He felt the same way about me, and we have been dating ever since.

Unfortunately, although we looked like a cute couple with no problems on the surface to my friends, many things had happened after we started dating, and I could feel my love for Jared diminishing slowy.

He was inconsiderate towards my feelings and did whatever he wanted without asking me, and got angry at me whenever I try to talk to him about it.

A few months ago, I caught him cheating on me, but I could not say anything because he would get mad and hit me.

I had thought of breaking up with him, but could not bring myself to it as deep down I still liked him a little.

With all the recent drama going on with me becoming a faerie, I had forgotten that Jared's birthday was just around the corner.

Azure and Jessica are really great friends, and I love them, but sometimes they overreact over some things they see or hear.

Rolling my eyes, I decided to fabricate a story and explained that Zach was merely an old friend from when we were kids. We had not been keeping in touch, and we bumped into each other this morning.

Thinking to catch up, I invited him over to my apartment and had totally forgotten that I had a shopping date togther with Jessica and Azure.

After hearing me out, they both calmed down a little, but still looked at me with doubts in their eyes.

It was only after ten minutes of intense persuasion, did they finally gave in and fully believed me.

I was about to leave with Jessica and Azure when Zach spoke up and asked if he could tag along. My friends did not mind, so the four of us left my apartment and walked to the newly opened 'Starlight Mall' since it was a stone's throw away from my apartment.

The mall was quite big for a small city like the one I was living in, and it had many clothing retail stores.

Azure, the one who had the most fashion sense out of the three of us, dragged all of us including Zach, into a well known branded store that mainly sold dresses.

We spent the entire afternoon there, and soon the sky started to turn dark. Jessica suggested that we eat dinner together.

I refused her kindly and told them I wanted to send Zach off, which of course, was not entirely a lie.

The sun set behind us as Zach and I made our way back to my apartment. I was carrying barely anything as I had only bought one dress and a few accessories to go with it.

"Hey, you can go back to the Fey Kingdom now. Thanks for today." I turned and thanked Zach when we reached the apartment door.

Zach stared down at me without moving or speaking a word, and the atmosphere became awkward as the two of us stood there as though we were having a staring contest in the middle of the corridor.

Unable to take the awkwardness after a while, I huffed and unlocked my door, ignoring Zach. If he was not going to leave or say anything, then so be it.

Suddenly, he grabbed my wrist.

"What's bothering you? You've been acting weird since those friends of yours came over." He asked gruffly.

I was stunned, not expecting his reaction. I opened my mouth to say something but closed it the next second, not wanting to continue further.

"It's that boyfriend of yours, isn't it? Come on Lila, you need to talk to me." Zach pressed on and his grip on my wrist tightened. It was a little painful, but I could hear the concern in Zach's voice.

Being questioned by Zach, I bit my lower lip and lowered my head.

After another long stretch of silence, I looked back up at him and breathed out a sigh.

"Come in." I said in a hoarse voice.