Beginning of New Friendship

Vorian was feeling drowsy but still he kept on watching the Galactic Wars movie with Alexis and Natalia. He didn't want disconnect his projection because Alexis was leaning to his side, curled up and enjoying the movie. So, he thought that he would love to stay with her for some more time.

The three of them had watched the movie uninterrupted for about half an hour. But then they were interrupted again by another call. This time Alexis got a call in her 'Earth phone'.

"Who is it this time?" Natalia tried to take a peek of Alexis's cell phone. She was curious because the only people who would call her were present in the room.

Alexis scrunched her brows when she looked at her cell phone's screen. It was an unsaved number. "I don't know."

Alexis touched the screen to receive the phone and put it on speaker "Hello!"

A familiar voice answered from the other side, "Hey Alexis, this is Jimmy."

Vorian's drowsiness vanished all of a sudden when he heard the name 'Jimmy'. He actively started to eavesdrop to the conversation going on.

Alexis started to get anxious when she knew that Jimmy was the one calling her. She already knew why he was calling her and with Vorian sitting right beside her, she knew this was going to be one hell of an awkward conversation.

"Oh! Hey Jimmy, I didn't know that you had my number." Alexis giggled so that she wouldn't sound rude.

Jimmy chuckled and replied, "I forgot to ask your number last time so I got it from Liam. I hope you don't mind."

With the mention of Liam's name in the conversation, Natalia was also drawn to the conversation between Alexis and Jimmy. Natalia puckered her lips and thought to herself, "Liam knows Jimmy that well? Why didn't I know that?"

"No not at all." Alexis replied to Jimmy while also stealing a quick glance of Vorian.

"You don't have to go to your part-time job today, right?" Jimmy was slowly directing the conversation to that one direction which made Alexis feel nauseous.

Alexis pursed her lips and answered, "No, I don't."

"That's great then. I was wondering if you were free tonight." Jimmy shot her with another question.

By now Vorian also knew where he was leading this conversation to. His brows were twitching with every question that Jimmy was asking to Alexis.

Natalia was also quick enough to analyze the situation and she mouthed at Alexis, "Is he asking you out on a date?"

Alexis wanted to confirm why Jimmy really wanted to meet her. She thought that maybe she completely misread his question. And maybe he just wanted to know about what happened in the hearing since his ex-girlfriend was one of the concerned parties.

So, Alexis took a deep breath in and then directly asked, "I'm sorry if I sound rude, but are you asking me out on a date?"

After humming for a few seconds in hesitation, Jimmy picked up his courage and replied, "I guess I am."

Natalia's jaw was wide open when she heard this, she was not shocked but she was excited. "A competition to Vorian!" Natalia almost shouted it out loud. She suppressed her urge to pick on Vorian immediately.

Alexis's cheeks and ears were red like tomato. She felt sorry for Vorian because he had to hear someone else asking his girlfriend out on a date. "And I had to put my phone on speaker." Alexis scolded herself in her mind.

"Er…" Alexis did not find the right words to reject Jimmy's proposal for a date. Then she blurted out at once, "I am sorry Jimmy, I have a boyfriend."

There was a silence in the room. The only thing that could be heard in the room was Vorian breathing heavily.

After a while Jimmy spoke from the other side, "Oh! I didn't know that."

Jimmy felt like he lost his only chance to go out with an innocent girl. He continued in an accusing tone, "Since you were always hanging out with Natalia in the Academy, I assumed that you were single. I'm sorry."

Vorian had enough. He could not suppress his jealousy any longer.

He leaned closer to the phone that Alexis was holding and talked back as calmly as he could, "Well her boyfriend doesn't go to SpaceTravel Academy because he is a graduate, who is currently working in the IGT Fed. So, obviously you didn't see me with my girlfriend in the Academy."

Everyone was surprised when they heard this remark from Vorian. Even Vorian himself was surprised that he just snapped over such a petty issue.

Jimmy was even more surprised to hear a male voice over the phone, "Er… was that your boyfriend?"

Alexis didn't know whether she was embarrassed or proud of Vorian's action. Actually she felt a mixture of both the emotion.

She felt embarrassed because Jimmy might now think that her boyfriend is over-jealous and over-protective of her. And she felt proud because Vorian had never hesitated to call her his girlfriend, even in front of others.

Alexis let out an embarrassed laugh and confirmed what Jimmy had asked. "Yeah, I'm with him right now."

"Oh! Well see you around, I guess." Jimmy disconnected the call after feeling defeated.

After the call was disconnected, Alexis glanced at Vorian. He was drooping his neck and was kind of embarrassed at himself.

When Vorian saw Alexis staring at him from the corner of his eye, he murmured, "I'm sorry!" and pursed his lips.

Before Alexis could say anything, Natalia gave a satire to Vorian. "Well someone's got a competition." Natalia mumbled as she stuffed a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

"Now that I think about him, he is not that bad. He is a captain of our ship, he is good-looking, and he also tried his best to save Alexis from those bullies. It is thanks to him that the police found the video evidence in the first place." Natalia deliberately praised Jimmy to rile Vorian up.

But Alexis immediately exclaimed, "Shut up Natalia."

Alexis then turned towards Vorian and tried to ease him, "You don't have to be sorry babe. Maybe I would have done the same if someone else proposed you in front of me."

Finally a smile appeared on Vorian's face. "You better do that. I want to see you getting jealous when someone proposes to me, which happens very often by the way."

"What?" Alexis threw a cushion to Vorian but it just passed right through him.

Vorian burst into laughter and so did Natalia. "I hate both of you." Alexis pretended to be angry and folded her arms.

In between all this, they didn't notice that a young man with blonde hair had entered the room.

"Natalia…" He said in a melodious voice.

He got everyone's attention with his voice. Natalia quickly put aside the bowl of popcorn and stood up while patting food stuck on her cloth.

"Liam!" Natalia exclaimed as if she was shocked to see him. But in fact she had forgotten that she had already invited Liam to her home. She too, just like Alexis, was consumed by the movie to remember about Liam.

Liam had the pass code to Natalia's house so he didn't feel the need to ring the doorbell. But seeing the room full of surprised expressions, he thought that he should have ringed the bell.

"We were watching a movie. You can talk to them. I'll be back in a jiffy." Natalia was embarrassed at herself. She had traces of food all over her mouth and hand. So she ran to the bathroom to tidy herself.

Liam smiled at Alexis and greeted her, "Hey Alexis." Alexis smiled back at him and replied, "Hi Liam."

Then he shifted his gaze towards the man sitting on an invisible chair, "And I guess you must be Vorian." He went towards Vorian and offered his hand, "Natalia told me about you."

Vorian got up from his chair and gave Liam a warm smile. "And you must be Liam, if I'm not wrong." Then he passed his hand through Liam's palm and smirked.

Natalia had told Liam about the Project request and how it worked but he had instinctively offered his hand to Vorian. Seeing Vorian's hand pass through his, he quickly pulled his hand back and smiled, "Right! You are not really here."

Alexis had got up from the couch and was tidying it up for Liam.

Liam sat beside Vorian and started to ask him questions. He was intrigued by the functions of the Soulmate app. "So tell me, how this projection really works? Are you able to see only one of us at a time or you can see everything here?"

And without much effort the boys were already getting along with each other. They introduced themselves to each other, talked about what they were currently involved in, their future aspirations, their planets, and more.

Natalia and Alexis were on the side, listening to the boys' conversations. "Who knew they would get along so well?" Natalia whispered to Alexis and Alexis nodded with a grin.