Passion - Käärijä

Chapter 6

As we got closer and closer towards Serena I felt myself wanting to collapse right here onto the floor.

But before I could turn around and start running the other way, Serena was already right in front of us.

"Hey, are they open yet?" I softly said as I tried to break the ice.

But I didn't get a response out of her. She just sheepishly looked at Jere and I in disbelief.

"Serena?" I said and stared at her, waiting for at least a little sound to escape from her mouth.

But yet again, nothing.

So I began waving my arm in front of her and this actually seemed to make her snap out of it.

"I-I'm sorry" Serena softly said as she cleared her throat.

"W-what uhm, did you ask?" She stuttered and somehow her eyes managed to get even wider as she looked at Jere and I.

Her eyes moving from side to side, not knowing where to look first.

"If they're open yet" I softly smiled as I actually started to feel more and more awkward. I felt so bad for Jere, he had to be so confused.

"Oh uhm, yeah... no they are" Serena answered and actually looked away from us for the first time. But that didn't last long.

"Nice to see you again" Jere suddenly said and Serena's head immediately turned towards him.

It took a little while before we actually got a response back from Serena, since she just couldn't stop staring.

Jere just stood there with a soft smile, but then he turned to me and gave me a confused look. I just shrug my shoulders.

"Y-you... uh too" She softly spoke while continuing to stare at Jere.

"Shall we go in then?" I asked trying to break this awkward moment.

"Sure" Serena answered in a small voice and we all slowly made our way towards the front doors.

Serena was walking in front of us but I could feel she was completely focused on us somehow.

"Is she okay?" Jere whispered in my ear.

"Yeah, she just needs to process this" I whispered back as I softly squeezed Jere's hand. Making it clear as to what I was talking about.

I saw Jere softly nodding and before I knew it we were walking through the venue doors.

All of the work lights were on now and it looked a lot different from last night. I felt Jere slowly starting to let go off my hand and it actually made me feel really disappointed.

There was an employee there to great us.

"Hey, how can I help you guys?" He kindly smiled.

"We're here to collect our stuff from the locker" I answered since I knew that I we wouldn't get a word out of Serena right now.

"Ah yes! Follow me" He said and we followed him towards the bar.

He walked behind the counter and got down onto the ground. It took a couple seconds before he stood up again but now with our stuff in his hands.

My familiar jacket and all of my other belongings softly got put down onto the counter. I felt a sense of relief going through my body.

Serena slowly grabbed her jacket and put it on and so did I.

I quickly grabbed my keys since I was way too afraid of losing them again in some other way.

"Nice jacket" I suddenly heard a soft voice say and I looked over to my right. Jere stood there, just smiling towards me.