186 Christmas Eve - Memories

[Loyd's Perspective]

Standing on the eastern corner of the Nocsinis Station Square, I waited along with Noah and Zaksus for the arrival of the girls that will be attending this mixer that Noah had set up a few days earlier. According to him, these girls are from Lumina Girls' High School, the high school that's considered the counterpart of our Nocsinis Imperial High. Everything between their school and our school are just extremely similar. We have a similar academic scores, similar scale of school, and we're both affiliate schools of top universities in Vilheim with theirs being the Lumina Girls' University and ours being the Nocsinis Imperial University.

The time that we had arranged to meet up at was 5:00 P.M. and the current time is 4:58 P.M. As courtesy, we had arrived about twenty minutes earlier than the agreed upon time and had just been standing here and waiting by the eastern entrance to the Station Square underneath a light pole. However, as each second ticked by and they're still yet to show up, an atmosphere of discontent and worry began to brew between us.

"Are we gonna get ghosted?" Zaksus asked with a slight tremble of worry in his voice.

"Just wait," Noah responded in a somewhat irritated and annoyed voice as he was squatted down against the light pole. To me, it felt like Noah is also worry but had converted the worry into irritation.

"It's not time yet," I chuckled and said to them, hoping that this will be able to curb their worries. "Let's just wait for them to show up."

"No shit," Noah responded as he rose to his full height. "We're already here. It's not like we're gonna go home now. If they don't show up, I guess we'll need to go somewhere and release this frustration."

"What could we do, huh?" Zaksus asked.

"Well, we could—"

"Is that them?" I elbowed Noah gently on the side of his stomach, interrupting him as we watched as three girls approach us.

"Hey, Noah," a blonde girl with short hair down to her upper back greeted him with a smile and a wave.

"Hello Mary," a smile appeared on Noah's face. "You girls ready?"

"Yup," Mary said after taking a quick glance back at her two companions. "I think we can save the self-introductions for later and start off by getting some food?"

"That's a great idea," Noah nodded his head in agreement. "Let's do that."

The six of us then mobilized in a group as we were led by Noah to a restaurant that he had picked out earlier. To be honest, I was quite surprised by the level of the girls that Noah had invited to the mixer with all three of them being beautiful in their own unique way. My eyes wandered slightly over my shoulders where I could see the three girls chatting amongst themselves in my peripheral vision. The one on the left was a girl with long, beautiful hair the same color as Irina and the one on the right had her brown hair in a ponytail.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Zaksus whispered to the Noah and I.

"I don't know," Noah responded in a hushed voice without adjusting his gaze in any direction. "Stop whispering. It might leave a bad impression."

It wasn't long before we arrived at the restaurant Noah had picked out and was being led to our seats at a booth by the window. The seating arrangements for our mixer was quite simple: the boys sat on one side and the girls sat on the other facing us. I was the one following behind the waitress first so I filled in the seating and was seated up against the window where one could see through the glass and at the festive city outside where the sky had now darkened due to the winter season.

After ordering some food and having drinks delivered to us, it would appear that the mixer officially began.

"So let's start with self-introductions," Noah, who was sitting between Zaksus and I in the very center on our side, started the process. "I'm Noah, second year student at Nocsinis Imperial High. My hobbies are spending time with friends and video games."

Then, he nudged Zaksus in his elbow, notifying him that it was now his turn to continue.

"I'm Zaksus," he said in a somewhat nervous voice. "First year student at Nocsinis Imperial High. My hobbies are...I guess I'm primarily focused on basketball at the moment."

"You won the National High School League Tournament," the girl with brown hair smiled and commented. "I watched the finals game. You're pretty good."

"T-thank you," Zaksus smiled happily and nodded.

"Really?" Mary then asked. "You got pictures?"

"On my phone, yeah," the girl responded. "I'll show them to you later."

"So I guess it's my turn now," I started speaking after seeing that the conversation had started to digress. "My name is Loyd, second year student at Nocsinis Imperial High. My hobbies are helping people out and just having a good time in general."

"Now I guess it's our turn," Mary smiled as she met the eye of her two companions. "I'm Mary, second year student at Lumina Girls' High. In fact, we all are. My interests are in fashion and I also like having a good time."

"I'm Irma," the girl with brown hair sitting to the left of Mary started her introduction. "My hobbies are swimming and I'm on the swim team."

"I'm Elise," the girl who I would consider the prettiest of the three was the last to begin her introduction. "I would say my hobbies are pretty generic. I enjoy baking brownies and just cooking in general."

"Hey um," Mary immediately interrupted after Elise had finished. "Please excuse us for a second."

"Of course," Noah smiled and replied as the three of us watched the three girls move towards the restrooms at the back of the restaurant.

"Oh my god," Zaksus sighed.

"You're doing fine," Noah said without turning his eye to look at him. "So, who're your targets? I want Elise."

"She is pretty," I nodded.

"Don't try and steal her from me," Noah snarled at me as if a beast protecting its prey from other predators.

"Don't worry," I laughed. "I won't interfere."

"What about you, Zaksus?" Noah turned to look at Zaksus. "Irma seems to be quite into you."

"I guess..." Zaksus muttered.

"Hush," Noah whispered to us. "They're back."

"That was fast," Zaksus commented.

The three girls filed into their seats in the same, original order that they had sat beforehand with amused smiles on their faces. My guess is that they didn't actually use the restroom but instead used that time to discuss their thoughts on us, probably something similar to what we did.

The mixer then went on, but it probably did not go the way Noah had planned. For some reason, maybe something had occurred during their "bathroom" break, but Irma was now focused solely on Zaksus and Mary was making attempts at me. This should've left Elise open for Noah as Zaksus and I magically ended up serving as his wing man, but Elise didn't appear to be interested in any one of us as she simply just remained quiet and answered to Noah's advances politely. Whatever the case could be, the seating arrangements changed, making everything a one-on-one for each pair of us.

"So," Mary asked, "what do you usually do for fun?"

"Watch movies, I guess," I responded, "and just hanging out with friends."

"Are they your friends?"

"Part of them," I answered.

At that moment, a group of rowdy middle school kids walked by outside, and in the group, there were a scrawny kid that appeared to be quite frightened. His body posture was a submissive one, and he seemed to tremble in each of his steps as he walked by.

"They seem to be having fun," Mary commented when she saw that I was looking out the window at them. "I guess kids will always be kids."

"Kids will be kids, huh?" I chuckled at this comment from her end. "What a idiotic belief."

"Huh?"

Mary appeared to be caught off guard by my offensive response and it would appear the others must've heard it as well since they paused in their conversation and looked over at me. However, instead of meeting their eye, I simply smiled as I looked out the window.

As someone who has been the victims of such behaviors, I can say for a certain that is not an excuse for anything. Kids being kids, boys being boys, that's all bullshit. It's nonsense. It's just excuses people make up to comfort themselves for choosing to not do anything. And just because of that, these people aren't any better than those who take pleasure in harming others.

That's why I dislike people. They're so hypocritical. It's annoying to always have this stupid smile on my face, trying to hide behind it so that I wouldn't be subjected to that treatment again. What I had experienced in elementary school had changed who I am, altering my personality. Being tormented everyday, sometimes even to the point of being tied up and pushed into a pool, would change a person. It changed me.

"I don't find that statement funny," I explained to her. "I was also bullied in elementary school."

"Oh," Mary frowned, probably feeling apologetic or guilty. "I didn't know."

"It's fine," I laughed, easing the tense atmosphere at our table.

"But hopefully you're not affected too much by it," Elise said.

"I think it didn't," Mary commented. "Look at you now!"

Stop assuming things about me. What the hell do you even know about me?

"It doesn't affect me anymore," I chuckled. "It's just that I still don't like seeing it happen."

Oh my god, this is so disgusting.

"Yeah," Mary responded. "How did you overcome it?"

"Well," I answered while keeping that disgusting smile on my face. "Someone stood up for me and taught me the way to live on."

"Who was it?" Elise asked.

"He's..."

The smile disappeared on my face and was replaced with a frown.

Who was it?

I searched through my memories of those dark days, hoping to find the beacon of light in my formerly gloomy life.

Who was it that helped me?

"If you can't remember you don't have to force yourself to," Mary said but I paid her words no attention.

I looked out the window, thinking hard about the identity of the person who had rescued me. I could still remember the day when he had stepped up and cleared my name after being framed to have stolen money. However, when I tried to focus on his face, all that I saw was a black fog that obscured his appearance.

At that moment, a figure outside the window caught my eye. It was a teenage boy with dark hair and with a black muffler scarf around his neck dressed in a black winter coat. For some reason, this boy appeared extremely familiar, nostalgic even, and because of that, it made my gaze linger on him briefly before he disappeared from sight as he continued walking down the street.

"Loyd?" I heard Noah whisper to me, but I ignored that as well as I was extremely close to recalling his appearance.

Who are you?

I reached out a hand towards that figure in my memories, hoping to make contact with him and unveil that fog. I slowly approached him, and soon, that fog did dissipate, revealing the countenance of the boy.

"Alevian?"

I whispered the name to myself, sweating somewhat from focusing to such great of a degree. I was a bit frightened by what had happened, causing me to tremble somewhat. However, I knew that I must get up immediately.

"Get up!" I barked to Noah and Zaksus as I bolted straight up onto my legs. "GET UP NOW!"

"W-what's going on?" Zaksus asked as he got up and stepped to the side with Noah.

"It's Alevian!" I said to him in a raised voice. "Don't you remember?"

Immediately, I forced my way out of the booth and started for the exit.

"Noah!" I called to the boy. "Pay for us!"

Then, I ran out of the restaurant and started sprinting down the street to chase after him. I knew that was him, the teenage boy who had just passed by, and I know that I had forgotten him. How did it happen? I'm not sure. At the moment, I didn't care about it as well as Zaksus's inability to recall him even though he had followed me out of the restaurant.

It wasn't long before I caught up to him and saw him in the crowd and called his name.

"Alevian!"