Confusing message

The dreaded question coming from the one person she never wanted to hear from, was asked. For a second, she thought maybe this was a dream as well, but she knew it was reality. For her, there was no getting out of this one.

She couldn't suddenly leap into the future, to run away from the present. Right now, she had to face what was coming.

'This means, he does think me and Simon are together. So he did hear everything, Shirley was right after all.' Mai thought, however, a little spark of hope was seen. 'Wait a minute, why is Chris asking me if the two of us are together?

'Chris isn't the type of person to be nosy, and if he actually didn't care he wouldn't have asked in the first place, which means, he has to be asking for a reason, right? Does this mean, he likes me?' She started to think.

Still, it was too early and too bold to think this way. She had seen others get ahead of themselves confessing and then shot down. In fact this was exactly what had happened to her. So she had to quickly get these thoughts out of her head and try to explain her way out of this one.

"We're not together." Mai said, letting out a big sigh. "I can understand why you misunderstood. A lot of people do, but me and Simon are just childhood friends. Our family are friends you see, so he comes over all the time. He's like a brother to me." She said, giving a warm hearted smile as she talked about him.

In the end, no matter what stupid things he had done, today or in the past, when she thought about him and everything the two of them did together. There was always a warm feeling there.

Seeing the soft smile with a sparkle in her eye, Chris turned his head away for a few seconds for some reason, and then quickly turned it back. He cleared his throat before continuing to speak.

"I see, now I understand your position." Chris said.

She was glad that Chris understood, and thought as long as she told the truth, it would be the best way out of the situation.

'Wait, did he just say my position? What does he mean by that?'

"You see." Chris continued. "Maybe you don't have feelings for him in that way, but I've seen the way he looks at you. I've seen the way he cares about you. In my eyes, it seems like that is beyond a friend."

Mai didn't really understand what Chris was getting at, or maybe she did, but she just didn't want to understand. Stepping closer Chris looked at her again.

"You see Mai, Simon likes you, even if you don't realise it, and maybe he doesn't but he does." With those words, Chris turned around and continued wiping the tables, while Mai was just left there.

'Simon…likes me, but that's impossible.'

The two of them had been together for so long, there were thousands of chances for him to tell her his feelings. On top of that, he never said anything when she had told him that she liked Chris. In fact, Simon even smiled and encouraged her.

Even now, Simon was trying to help her and Chris be together, and even in the future.

Mai was trying to convince herself, convince herself that it wasn't true but there was one thing that did pop in her mind. It was the kiss. She still didn't understand why Simon kissed her that day. It was too far for a joke.

"Mai, I'm sorry but I've finished cleaning the tables." Chris said. "I have to get back. I promised I would help my auntie with something. I would love to stay, maybe next time I can walk you home again." And with that Chris was gone.

Mai had just been standing there the whole time, she still hadn't sweat up half the classroom.

'How long was I just standing like a lamppost in the middle of the class for?' She wondered.

To clean all the tables it would have at least taken ten minutes.

'Chris, Simon, what do I do?' She thought, as she went to sit down in one of the seats, just then Chris was seen entering the classroom again.

"Mai, I didn't mean to upset you or anything. I just wanted to make things clear. I really enjoyed going to the city with you. Let's do something like that again sometime." Chris said, and went off before she could say anything.

'He….enjoyed spending time with me..'

She clenched her fists and stood back up.

'Stop running off before I get to say anything! Why does he get to just say what he wants and runs away! What is wrong with boys? Don't they understand we have feelings. I still haven't gotten over the first part, never mind the second bomb shell he dropped on me.'

Completing her cleaning duties, she finally decided to walk back home, but on her way through the school halls, she noticed that she had gone past Simon's classroom. For some reason she found herself entering it.

'Damn it Simon, you really rubbed me the wrong way today, but you're lucky that your future self was so nice to me.' She thought, shaking her fist at the sky. She turned around and looked at all the lockers at the back of the classroom.

According to future Simon, this was where her clothes would be found. It had only been the first day since their return, so she didn't expect them to be planted in there now, and she had been keeping an eye on it whenever she could, but it was impossible to keep an eye on it 24/7.

As she went to open Simon's locker, she could see her own hand shaking.

'What's wrong with me, why am I worried?' She thought. 'What if the clothes really are in there? Does that mean Simon, was actually the one who stole my clothes? No, that's crazy. They could have been put in when I wasn't looking, if they are in there, then I'll just take them and try to find out who the culprit is later.'

Her hand was now on the small metal handle, and before pulling it open, she gulped.

'Here we go.'

The locker that was meant to end her and Simon's relationship, was about to be opened.