THE OTHER SIDE. aa

zwölf.

     SATURDAY CAME QUICKLY than you expected. when you woke up that morning and checked your phone for the time, all your notifications were from pieck telling the group to be ready for their movie night later.

     of course, pieck has also sent threatening messages to those who wouldn't come (especially you) to which you only laughed at and ignored.

     there were still a few hours before heading off to pieck's but you had the whole day all to yourself. well, most of it. to waste your time before you go to work and pieck's after, you decided to do the research paper your professor gave to your class about the biological diversity of ocean life.

     grabbing your laptop from your bedroom, you went to the living room and placed it on the wooden coffee table. you opened up the microsoft word program, ready to type out your title, before staring at the screen with a pointed look for a minute or so with your brain coming up empty to think of a creative title. you tapped your fingers against the wooden table you were in, trying to whack your brains together to think of a good title that would wow the readers. when no ideas came to your mind, you sighed and rubbed your tired eyes together in frustration.

     you checked the clock on the wall, squinting your e/c hues to read the time. it was ten o'clock in the morning and the sun was already out, its rays beaming through the living room window. you bit back a yawn and stood up, walking towards your small bookshelf in your room to look for a certain book you own.

     once you caught sight of it, you grabbed it and went back to the living room. you laid it down on the wooden table, smiling at the sudden memory that plagued your brain. seeing the hardcover suddenly made you remember the blond mermaid you've been meeting with and his kind gesture of bringing you a sea anemone to admire couldn't be forgotten.

     the memory brought you that familiar bubbly feeling in your stomach, warm and inviting, with a smile on your face as a sign of how happy and thankful you are for his small gift.

     you opened up a random page and began perusing the boom.

     sadly, your mind wandered off after a minute and you weren't exactly sure what you were even reading. all the words you were looking at jumbled together like a puzzle that needed to be solved in order to get to the next sentence. thoughts about armin began flooding your mind and thinking of visiting him, later on, brought that electrifying excitement swimming in your veins, ready to tell him another story you knew he'd be fascinated about or something amazing about his and your world where both of you would talk about for hours and days to come.

     it was then you realized that you weren't going to visit the blond later tonight.

     you pursed your lips together as your face fell and looked away from the book, turning to your laptop instead. it was already a month of meeting armin and within that short amount of time, you grew close to the mermaid without even realizing it. you were so used to waking up every day, getting ready with meeting him later that night to even notice how close and attached you both are to one another that a day missed together had a huge effect on your life.

     for you, it was crazy.

     armin was another best friend you didn't know you needed. in just a few weeks of meeting, you both grew comfortable and close with one another almost immediately when your friendship with reiner bloomed for a few months before you could be comfortable around him. perhaps it was something about his aura; his innocence that kept radiating off with every curious question or the childish excitement he shows in every little thing he likes in your world.

     the thought of not visiting armin, later on, filled your heart with dread and a hint of loneliness, already missing the mermaid. you glanced at the phone laying next to your laptop, biting your bottom lip as you started to think of random and believable reasons to excuse yourself from your friends' plans just to hang out with armin.