Moira

27.

000d, 00h, 00m, 00s

"You'll never guess who I ran into a few days ago," My mother grinned proudly, nudging my shoulder as we walked through the streets of Arcan City, each a coffee in hand.

"Hm?" Taking a sip, I lowered the cup from my lips; brows raised as I waited for her to reveal it.

My eyes flickered through the streets, lingering on a digital poster reading, "The System is always here for you. Trust it. Trust us." My brows knitted together slightly, huffing in confusion as we passed it.

Had that always been there?

Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts, eyes on her again as she spoke.

"Esmond!" She beamed brightly, the smile on her face letting me know the encounter was pleasant. For her, at least.

"Oh." I tried to sound as excited by the news as she wanted me to be, quickly following up with "I know, silly. He told me," to make it seem more believable.

"Oh, he was so lovely," She went on, a pleased sigh escaping her lips. "He paid for my order at Wallflour's— Such a gentleman; my son in law."

I had a hard time not scrunching my nose up at the words, her wide eyes observing me in excitement as she blabbered on. Quickly taking a sip of my coffee to cover up my clear disdain of the name, she blabbered on. "He invited us over tomorrow—"

My eyes shot wide open, the warm liquid making me break out into a coughing fit as it went down the wrong way. Clearing my throat a final time, my eyes previously diverted, fell back on her.

My mother's brows were knitted together tightly as she observed me, confusion lingering in her features.

"Invited you?" I repeated, trying my best to seem calm.

He couldn't have invited them over to his house outside of the city, could he? I'm sure he didn't hate me that much.

"Well— you know me," My mother shrugged, the smile back on her lips. "I suggested it, and he seemed quite alright with the idea, and—"

"Where?"

"What?"

"Invited you to where?"

I knew I should've been more discreet about the question, though my mother was naive enough to give her an explanation that hardly made sense in the first place afterwards.

"Well— to his apartment, of course!" She explained, the words sounding much easier than reality was. "Are you feeling alright, dear?"

I waved her off absentmindedly.

What apartment?

"Did he not tell you?" She followed up, a hand on my shoulder as she led me to sit on one of the benches scattered around the plaza we had been approaching.

Sitting down, my eyes wandered around the plaza, spotting another digital poster plastered onto the wall of one of the surrounding buildings. It read, "The System will handle it. Relax, and let go." I wanted to ask my mother if they had always been there, but instead, I mumbled;

"Of course he did," as I faked a smile and diverted my attention off of the poster once more. "I must've forgotten; I'm sorry."

The vague explanation seemed to be enough to have her forget all about it. "Go on," I urged.

"Well— I didn't know he had a sister! And one around Aude's age, as well— He should've brought her to our last dinner already!" She continued, the excited gleam back in her eyes as she spoke.

Thinking back to the encounter with his sister a few days back, I was glad he didn't do so. Though, once again, my mother surprised me.

"At least we'll get to meet her tomorrow. I invited Eniola and Aiden, as well— they said the timing was perfect; that they wanted to tell us something, anyway."

How was it that everyone knew about this but me?

My irritation towards Esmond grew more and more during the course of this conversation as I wondered what apartment he thought of bringing them to, why he would bring his sister, that very clearly did not like me, and — worst of all — why he didn't tell me about any of it.

I huffed in irritation, though quickly plastered a smile across my face again.

"Yes— his sister is absolutely lovely," I mumbled absentmindedly, nodding as the words left my mouth.

"If she's half as incredible as he is, I have no doubt about it."

I wasn't so sure about that.

She embraced me, then. A tight, long mom-hug before she brought a bit of distance between us again, her hands remaining on each of my shoulders. "Amidelle," She said, sincerity playing in her voice. "I'm so proud of you. And I'm so happy for you, I truly am," She gave me a small smile; at the time, I didn't notice the hint of sadness in it. "I know your father would be, too."

I nodded, humming in agreement before swallowing thickly.

Neither of them would be if they knew what I was really doing; If they knew who Esmond really was, and what he really stood for.

I felt dizzy all of a sudden. The sun too bright, the air too warm, and the coffee in my hand just making it all that much worse. I took a deep breath as I closed my eyes, honestly and genuinely wondering why it had to be him.

Esmond and I had nothing in common; nothing at all.

It's been months now, and I still kept better company with his best friend rather than Esmond himself.

For all I knew, I would've been better off with Arley, anyway.

He believed in soulmates, at least. And he was kind and funny and polite.

Things would be easier if it were him I was bound to for life. Hell, if it was anyone but that brunette boy with his insufferable attitude and cruel smile that I had just started to get used to.

That evening, I made my way over to his place, breaking my head not only about him but the many other things I've started to notice.

- 

When I say I'm disappointed in yall for not picking this up by yourselves..... I don't know what to say LOL

The thing that was different in the last chapter was the fact that there was no countdown at the beginning of the chapter PLS I rlly thought everyone would jump on that but nobody did ljbkhvfgcxd

You can figure out what it means yourself jbhvgh or at least try to hehe

See you tomorrow. <3