blessing

(Drake Mendoza)

It was dismissal time and I'm growing impatient since I was waiting for Aphrodite for half an hour now. Why is she taking so long?

A few girls ran and stopped in front of me, "You look like you're waiting for someone? Perhaps spare us some time whilst you're waiting?" I was about to say no when Aphrodite popped out of nowhere and answered for me.

"He's not waiting anymore because I'm already here. Now, please excuse us, ladies. You're making the grown-ass man uncomfortable." The ladies rolled their eyes and whispered something but finally decided to leave me alone. Thank goodness.

I faced Aphrodite and mouthed, "Thank you." She nodded.

"What are you doing here?" Her eyes were glaring - looking at my every move. I scratched the back of my neck and grabbed her arm to pulled her to the parking lot. There were a lot of people staring and murmuring so in order for us to have a private conversation, I had to bring her here.

"It took you so long to get out of your class," I demanded as if I could do something about it.

"..... Well, you didn't tell me you were waiting?" She replied.

"we're going somewhere, dude. Hop in." I said as I opened the car door for her. Her expression told me that she was confused but she still got inside my car. I was about to close the car door when I heard an annoying voice. Wrong timing, brother. Wrong timing.

"Where are you guys going?" Blake yelled whilst running towards us. I rolled my eyes and faced him. "Somewhere where you're not there." I winked at him and he just punched me in my arm.

He faced Aphrodite, "I don't know. He just said to hop in so I did." My brother made his eyes smaller and stared at me. "I'm going with you." I was about to complain when the young lady moved inside so that Blake could sit beside her. I rolled my eyes when my younger brother let out his tongue and laughed like stupid.

"Okay then, let's go," I whispered to myself.

Minutes had passed when we got here at the mall. I called my aunt to ask for a reserved seat for us, she said it was already good so we headed to her restaurant to eat.

"Here's your order, sir, ma'am. Enjoy your meal!" The waitress said.

Blake was sitting next to Aphrodite so I could easily tell my brother to get the heck out of here because I'll talk to the lady. I tilted my head and stared at him and thankfully, he got what I mean so he left saying that he had to go to the comfort room.

"Hey, nerd... I have a gift for you." I took out the necklace from my bag and gave it to her. Her eyes grew big as she saw my gift.

"What is this for?" Confusion was visible on her face. "It's for the other day."

"You don't need to give me gifts for the things that I did for you." She was about to give it back to me when I stopped her. "That's my way of saying I'm grateful for what you did." She finally accepted it.

"Thank you! This is beautiful!" She replied without looking at my eyes. I softly grabbed the necklace and put it on her. It looks great - I thought.

I exhaled slowly, getting my hopes up that she'll agree with what I'm about to say. "I'll be straight to the point. I want to court your best friend."

She turned her head faster than how my brain functioned all the time. "What did you say?" I sighed, "I don't want to repeat it. What you heard was true." We sat here, staring at each other without talking. I was about to say something when my brother cut me off. I didn't even sense that he was here not until he spoke up. "Give your blessing to my brother. He's more worth it than anyone else."

They argued for a while and after some time, Aphrodite finally accepted defeat and gave me her blessing. "Fine. Never hurt my best friend and we're good." I smiled from ear to ear and breathe deeply as I was relieved that I finally got out what I wanted to say.