Rival?

A couple of days have passed since the outing ended, since the day when Yohan held my hand to make me feel reassured. I can still feel his big and warm hand in mine, memories from that day floods in my mind. Inside the train where I fell asleep on Yohan's shoulder and unconsciously hugged him, at the stew house where he wore the waiter's uniform as he serves our orders and at the haunted house where for the first time we held hands. Absorbed in my own little fantasies, I forgot that we were in the middle of a discussion and the instructor, who tried so many times to grab my attention but it was all in vain, shouts at me with his bloodshot eyes and veins popping out from his temples,

"Ms. Turner! Ms. Turner!!!"

"Y-yes Sir?"

my attention diverts on the intimidating professor, I stood up from my desk out of surprise. He advances with heavy feet with menacing eyes glued onto mine. My classmates chuckling and gawking at me, I feel demoralized with the whole class ganging me up.

"Will you be so kind to explain to the whole class what Psychoanalytic Theory is?"

"Err... A theory that focuses on the umm... Mental and emotional processes th-that shape the human personality, sir."

"Good, please refrain to misbehave Ms. Turner."

the instructor says as he felt contented with my answer, I sigh with relief as a problem got lifted from my shoulder and sit as soon as the instructor left my comfort zone. The class perks up as he continues with the lecture, I already learned my lesson and as a result, I started to pay attention so I won't get scolded in front of the class once again.

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Another hour had passed and finally Sociology ended, I went through thick and thin and barely survived. I plop myself at the feet of the tree where I often eat lunch; today Amber joins me, making the place a little bit livelier with her cheerful and carefree attitude. I warm my hands up with the can of coffee and sip from time to time so my body temperature stays high up, winter is near, so Christmas and new year.

"Hey Ash, the holidays are approaching. Any plans?"

"Nope, maybe I'll spend it like last year. Work, home, work, home, home, and work."

"Dude, you kidding?"

"Absolutely not, I'm totally serious."

Amber sighs at my reply before speaking out her mind again

"You don't have any more classes to attend to after three o'clock right?"

"Ummm. Yeah, I don't, why?"

"Let's go to the mall later, there's a CD I want to buy. Let's meet there. See ya!"

"Eh? Amber wai-. Ugh, too late. I guess I need to go."

Amber dashes off before I could even oppose, leaving a trail of dust and the sound of her footsteps diminishing as she disappears on my range of sight. I groom myself up and head to my next class as I hear the bell rings, the chatters of the students reverberate through the walls of the hallway; others passing by to reach to their respective classrooms. And the last class for the day went in a blink of an eye; I directly went to the mall and enter the store that Amber messaged me to wait for her at. There are shelves filled with different band albums and the background music is a song from a very well known band of the Progressive Death Metal genre, this store it's a holy land for those people who listens to the Rock and Metal genre, I concluded as I roamed around. I slip my hand at my pocket as I hear my cellphone's chime and read Charles' message,

"Watcha doing? :D dayum I can't feel my feet anymore !! D;"

"Waiting for a friend of mine, then chop it off haha >:D"

"I choose not to be amputated :P"

we started another senseless conversation and we go on until Amber finally arrives.

"Sorry, did you wait long Ash?"

"Not really, just half an hour."

She bought an album of a band that I never heard of since she is a fan of Melodic Metal and I'm just an average Pop-Punk fan. Amber treats me on an ice-cream afterward as an apology of her tardiness and we hang out for a short while by window shopping. Before we go back home Amber went to the restroom as I wait for her at the corner of the entrance and observe at the people passing by to kill time, coming in and out of stores and others idly standing beside the store's door. I wore a frown on my face when I saw a familiar face along with the crowd, now that I think about it, Yohan was absent the whole day so I presume he skipped and hanged up here. I walk towards him trying not to get swept by the crowd, but instead to scare him I was the one who got surprised, a cute girl who looks like a high schooler that suddenly clings onto him like glue. They look so lovey-dovey as they walk away, I wanted to talk to Yohan, even for a little bit. Talk about why he did not go to school today. Talk about the lessons that he missed and the assignments that are needed to be passed tomorrow. Talk about that girl who clings at his arm. The relationship between the two. There's so many things running through my mind all of a sudden, too many that I feel my head is overheating for processing the newly acquired information. My gaze still at the direction where I last saw Yohan, my heart feels heavy, as heavy as the one back when I confessed at him in the school and got rejected.

"Ashley?"

Amber pops out beside me, staring where I am staring at. I sigh and pat her shoulder before going out.

"Well Amber, shall we? I'm tired."

After a few hours of travel, I arrived home safe and sound. But the event in the mall still in my mind. Yohan, who is she?