Chapter 224.
<strong>Chapter 224. Valentine’s Day: </strong><b>Evening. (3/3)</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">About five minutes after she got on her bus, another bus came to a stop in front of me. There were multiple busses that passed by here that went to the university. This one was one of them so I got on it.
<span style="font-weight:400">After a thirty-minute bus ride, I arrived at the university.
<span style="font-weight:400">There were still thirty minutes until our appointed meeting. I decided to loiter about to pass the time before I went to the university center.
<span style="font-weight:400">Before I did anything else, I entered a washroom and thoroughly washed off that goth girl’s lipstick from my cheek to leave no trace of it behind. After that, I headed over to the museum area. It should be locked up by now, but there were some seats upstairs on the second floor outside of it I could use.
<span style="font-weight:400">When I passed by the entrance of the museum on the bottom floor I couldn’t help but notice two legs sticking out from around the corner of the couch.
<span style="font-weight:400">Huh? Was it actually open? That shouldn’t be possible… Did someone fall asleep inside and the person responsible for locking up didn''t notice them? Were they locked in until tomorrow morning? It happened to me a few times in the past, I fell asleep and forgot to set my rm sometimes back when I was enrolled here.
<span style="font-weight:400">I decided to check if it was unlocked. The doors were always open during the day, but right now they were closed so it was natural to assume they were locked.
<span style="font-weight:400">I pulled on the door and my eyes opened up a bit when it really opened.
<span style="font-weight:400">What a surprise.
<span style="font-weight:400">How careless.
<span style="font-weight:400">When I stepped inside, my n was to rx on the couch for a bit while I passed the time. It was much morefortable than the hard metal seats on the second floor. If I could use the couch in here, I naturally would.
<span style="font-weight:400">I came to a halt as I approached closer to the far side of the couch. The reason I froze up was because of the song I heard ying.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaaaah.” I let out a short sigh when the song gave away the identity of the person inside here with me. She always listened to it ever since the day we listened to it together.
<span style="font-weight:400">Ang.
<span style="font-weight:400">Why was she here at this hour? Had she been waiting here hoping I’d show up?
<span style="font-weight:400">Did she keeping here even though I hadn’t been here for a week now? I guess it was a bit mean of me not to tell her though. She probably thinks I’m avoiding her, not that I wasn’t.
<span style="font-weight:400">She’s just too eye-catching. The sanctity of this ce would be ruined if she kepting here and people caught on. That was one of the reasons I had to stoping here, so she would stop as well. If more and more people frequented this ce to see her, this holy sanctuary would no longer be a sanctuary I could escape to when I wanted my alone time.
<span style="font-weight:400">I had to get her to stoping here if she was visiting frequently during the week.
<span style="font-weight:400">I stepped around the corner and took a good look at her.
<span style="font-weight:400">Her eyes were shut, she was sleeping peacefully. She was curled up a bit on her side. By her waist on the couch, I noticed a small box. Chocte?
<span style="font-weight:400">Did someone give it to her? Who?
<span style="font-weight:400">I squatted down and carefully retrieved it. When I examined the box, I discovered my name was written on the bottom.
<span style="font-weight:400">For me?
<span style="font-weight:400">This venomous narcissistic celebrity actually thought to give me Valentine’s Day choctes? What the hell? Are they poisoned?
<span style="font-weight:400">I opened the box and scrutinized one closely. There was no way to tell. But… they smelled really good. What the hell? Celebrities have ess to such good chocte?
<span style="font-weight:400">What would it taste like when it’s this fragrant?
<span style="font-weight:400">Honestly, I was hungry after such an exhausting day. All I had to eat today was the chocte from Rosa and Wisteria.
<span style="font-weight:400">Just one… wouldn’t hurt. Probably.
<span style="font-weight:400">I tossed one of the chocte truffles into my mouth and it dissolved like water.
<span style="font-weight:400">Holy hell.
<span style="font-weight:400">What is this?
<span style="font-weight:400">It’s like I can drink it.
<span style="font-weight:400">I tossed another in and it was the same experience.
<span style="font-weight:400">Damn, this is seriously too good. The rich creamy chocte was delectable.
<span style="font-weight:400">Before I realized it, I’d finished them all.
<span style="font-weight:400">Hmmm… do I wake her up to exin things? I don’t have long to stick around though. I feel bad that she’s waited all this time for me here though. If I never knew about it, I wouldn’t have cared much; but now that I knew, I had a guilty conscience.
<span style="font-weight:400">I said I was fine with us meeting here before as well, but so soon after, I stopped showing up here since the transfer student concern I had was resolved.
<span style="font-weight:400">I’d really like for this day to be over already and I’m sure if I wake her up now, my day would just drag on forever.
<span style="font-weight:400">After a bit of internal deliberation, I took the lid of the box and wrote out a note on the inside with the pen I got from the store earlier.
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Sorry for not showing up here thisst week. Some things havee uptely that have kept me busy. I won’t be able toe here during the week for some time. However, I’ll stille here on Saturdays and Sundays in the future. Sorry for not letting you know.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘P.S. I was shocked by how good the choctes were and ate them out before I even realized it. Try this chocte fudge out, it’s really good too.’
<span style="font-weight:400">I retrieved one of the bags of fudge from the bag in my hand and put it down on top of the box.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was supposed to be mine, but since I got something just as good as it, I didn’t feel like I’d lost anything in the exchange. Hell, hers probably cost way more. That chocte melted like magic inside my mouth.
<span style="font-weight:400">I ced the lid down, bottom side up, facing her direction so she’d notice my message to her when she woke up.
<span style="font-weight:400">When I was about to walk away, I noticed her phone ying music on the couch.
<span style="font-weight:400">Would she be satisfied waiting here this entire time for so long if she didn’t even get to see me at all?
<span style="font-weight:400">I carefully picked it up. Though it was locked, I could still ess the camera to take a photo without the need to unlock it. I tapped the camera icon at the bottom of the screen then muted the shutter sound. The music she was listening to wasn’t interrupted either so she didn’t wake up.
<span style="font-weight:400">I held the camera up and angled it down so the two of us were in frame. I held up my index finger and middle finger behind her head in a V shape. I couldn’t do a peace sign with a straight face, but holding up bunny ears behind someone was within the realm of things I could put up with.
<span style="font-weight:400">I looked at the picture that came out, face palmed, and grimaced over the gloomy look on my face. As usual, I wasn’t smiling. I never smiled in pictures.
<span style="font-weight:400">Well, it came out good enough for someone like me I guess. Yeah, I did my best.
<span style="font-weight:400">I put her phone back down and picked up the lid one more time and wrote onest message down.
<span style="font-weight:400">‘P.P.S. Check the most recent photo on your phone.’
<span style="font-weight:400">I put the lid back where it was and exited the museum.
<span style="font-weight:400">No, the picture bugged me too much, so right before I stepped outside the museum I did a 180 and doubled back and left one final, final message in fine print at the very bottom of the lid.
<span style="font-weight:400">‘P.P.P.S. Ugh... I did my best, okay? I hate pictures with a passion. I regret my life decisions, <b>please delete it.</b><span style="font-weight:400">’
<span style="font-weight:400">It was toote for me to delete it since I locked the phone already.
<span style="font-weight:400">Irritated by my impulsive decision to take a picture of myself with her phone, I left for good this time.
<span style="font-weight:400">I arrived at the university center. By now, fifty minutes had passed since we split up at the mall.
<span style="font-weight:400">I took a seat out in the open and watched a video on my phone to pass some time.
<span style="font-weight:400">Twenty minutester I looked up and saw a certain goth girl enter the building on the level above me near the stairs along the wall. Her head darted about from left to right as she walked down the stairs to the underground level I was on.
<span style="font-weight:400">Her eyes eventually stopped on me after she surveyed the area. She hopped down the stairs with a spring in her step in a strangely good mood. It seemed she was a bitte because she’d taken the time to clean up her appearance and fix her eyeliner.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sorry, I’m a bitte.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No problem. Do you have the money?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, yeah. I’ve got it. Of course that would be the first thing you ask about.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What else would I ask you about? The weather?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaah. Here.”
<span style="font-weight:400">She reached into her tube top and pulled out two twenties and a five.
<span style="font-weight:400">I received the payment and stuffed it inside my pocket while I fished out some change.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You can keep the change.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No, we agreed upon $78.40. That was in the contract, I will not ept anything more than what was agreed upon.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why are you suddenly acting like you’re not a cheapskate?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’m simply keeping up my end of the bargain.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I already conned you out of $78.40 after all.
<span style="font-weight:400">She stuck out her hand and I dropped $1.60 on top of her palm while I simultaneously handed over the box with the muscle massager gun.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Finally! I finally have it!” She was so happy she jumped while holding it up above her head.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haha, you look like some sort of hero wielding a holy sword they pulled out of the ground.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, now that I’ve acquired this holy sword I can y the devil.”
<span style="font-weight:400">She held it out toward me holding both sides of the box mimicking the way one would hold a sword.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? You want to return it?”
<span style="font-weight:400">I raised my hand in a motion to take it back.
<span style="font-weight:400">She jumped away in fright and eximed, “Return it? No way, no way! Not after everything I went through to get this. Today has been one hell of an adventure. I can’t wait to get home, jump in my bed, and go to sleep. I’ll give this to the guy I like tomorrow after the school dance. He’ll probably be pretty tired by then and this would be perfect to give him.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, that’s great to hear. Good luck with that.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thanks. Oh, right, how am I supposed to contact you if I need your help? You haven’t given me your number or anything.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hmm… I could give you a temporary disposable phone number. But it would be annoying if I lose it and have to keep updating you on the new one. I suppose email will have to do. Here, this one’s one of my spam emails.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I typed it out on my phone and showed her. She took a picture of it and also added it to her contact list.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Conversing through email… it feels so outdated. Are you an old man?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I am.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I should get going. I’ve got to catch a bus, it should get here soon.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Okay. See you whenever then. I’ll be walking since my ce is only twenty minutes away.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Good luck tomorrow.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thanks… for everything.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No need to thank me, you sold your soul to the devil. It’s simply an exchange.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Devil Imposter, I saved your name as that.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haha…”
<span style="font-weight:400">The two of us exited the university center and split up for thest time today. She walked home in the direction of her ce while I ran off to catch the bus I saw in the distance at the stop.
<span style="font-weight:400">I breathed out a sigh of relief as I just barely made it in time.
<span style="font-weight:400">When the bus drove off I passed by the goth girl onest time. She noticed me on the bus as it passed by her and she waved goodbye.