1 week. That was the amount of the time that had passed.
It was now Wednesday, and I sat in Art class with Soriel.
"That's really good," I said, complimenting her art work.
"Thank you! Yours is great too!" Soriel replied.
We both had to draw an image that was put on the smart board.
Soriel's drawing was more refined than her other previous drawings, while mine stayed at pretty much the same skill level.
"Sure, but yours is definitely better?
"Really? I don't think so…" Soriel responded.
"There's no need to be humble about it, it's the truth," I said with a chuckle.
I picked my pencil and began to lightly shade in my drawing.
"You know, I started playing a new game over the weekend," I mentioned.
"Oh you did? How is it?" Soriel asked.
I made an embarrassed smile.
"Good, but I'm not very good at it. It's a lot harder than I expected. It's taking me hours just to get past one of the first fights,"
"It's that hard?!" Soriel blurted out in surprise.
Usually, I would never had started one of these difficult types of games.
I just saw no point in torturing myself to learn how to win.
But now that I did, I couldn't stop.
"Yup. I'm currently stuck fighting a stick man with daddy issues. 3 hours in and no progress whatsoever. I hate this game," I declared with an exhausted expression.
"If it's so hard, why don't you just give up?" Soriel asked.
I shook my head sorrowfully.
"Can't," I said.
"Why?" She asked.
"Because I'm me."
Soriel looked at me for a few moments and said nothing.
I knew she understood what I meant by those words.
And I was glad knowing that I didn't have to explain anything further.
It was the mutual understanding we had built.
So, we continued on with our conversation, moving onto another topic.
As we did, Soriel's eyes glimmered and shined.
Just as a star like her should.
**
"Hey Nishimoya," I greeted as I sat down in my seat.
"Hi Elliot," Nishimoya greeted back, already sitting down.
I was in our second period Social studies class and as you could've already guessed, I had the class with Nishimoya.
"Good morning everyone. Let's get started," Ms. Marvel said, signaling the beginning of class.
Class continued as usual. Just learning about social studies like the name suggested.
Social studies was definitely not my type of class so I wasn't very enthusiastic throughout the class.
Although, to be fair, no class was my type of class.
Still, I stayed engaged with lessons and participated as much as I could.
However, I did get slightly distracted every once in a while.
At one of those times, I caught my myself zoning out while looking towards Nishimoya.
'Oh woah. Gotta lock in.'
Blinking twice, I regained focus.
And that's how I noticed something about Nishimoya.
'She's really focused...'
Every time I got distracted, I noticed from my peripheral vision that Nishimoya had her eyes glued to the lesson.
Nishimoya was someone who acted goofy sometimes and was probably less knowledgeable than most about internet culture.
She also hated studying more than anything else.
And even though she had mostly grown out of the habit of over studying.
She still stayed focused in class to make her parents proud.
That was just another thing she did, that made her all the more impressive to me.
**
"Give it back Elliot," Tristan said, his eyebrow twitching.
I waved my pointer finger from side to side.
"Nuh uh," I said as I held his book in my other hand.
Tristan glared at me with a scowl.
Then, he suddenly reached out for his book in an attempt to grab it from me.
Fortunately, I was prepared and subsequently handed it to Nishimoya.
"Wha— huh?" Nishimoya blurted out in surprise as she grasped the book.
Tristan quickly turned his head to Nishimoya.
"Nishimoya. Give it,"
Nishimoya quickly nodded and gave Tristan the book.
"What the hell Nishimoya?!
"If you thought I was willing to die for you, then you were very mistaken," Nishimoya replied.
I sighed in defeat and let my shoulders slump down.
At that time, we were in the cafeteria, and it was our lunch period.
And Soriel, who was sitting with us, giggled at our interaction.
"I think that's the most emotional I've seen you Tristan," she said with a smile.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Tristan retorted indifferently as he went back to reading like usual.
I smiled.
"You should've seen him when I took away his phone back in seventh grade. He practically fought me for it,"
Tristan shrugged.
"Back then, I just got my phone so I was really into it," he said.
"Oh so I guess the reason you leave me on read half the time is because you're no longer really into it?" I asked sarcastically.
Tristan nodded.
"Exactly."
I sighed again in exasperation.
The four of us began to converse as usual from there. Well, actually more like the three of us since Tristan went back to reading.
We had a pretty good time and the day felt much more lively than before.
In fact, our conversations have been more pleasant since last week.
It was a really great thing to see.
Because these guys were my friends.
My friends whom I valued greatly.
**
'This is nice…'
As my eyes were shut, I let my other senses take over.
I felt the back of my head rest on my hands, which were resting on my backpack.
I felt my back resting on the lukewarm floor along with the rest of my lower body.
I tasted the fruitfulness of the gum that I chewed.
I saw the darkness, obviously, since my eyes were closed.
And I smelt nothing.
Most importantly though, I heard the beautiful playing of Soriel on the piano.
That's right, I was in the music room with Soriel once again.
Instead of sitting with her on the stool, I decided to lay on the floor.
I guess for some reason, I was in the mood to relax.
For a moment, I opened my eyes and took a look at Soriel as she played.
She had a bright smile on her face and her amethyst eyes were glowing.
The song she was playing felt as if it was glowing as well, just like on the first day that she met.
'She looks much happier now…'
Ever since I told her to trust me with her issues, she seemed to have recovered.
And that was awesome.
"Elliot?" Soriel called out.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"My dad said that he would come to listen to me play yesterday. But he never did," Soriel said disheartenedly.
"Really? Well, at least you can play for me right here and now," I responded in an attempt of reassurance.
Soriel smiled even brighter and nodded.
She seemed like she was about to play again but she stopped.
"Elliot?" Soriel called out again.
"Yeah?" I replied again.
"Can you promise me you'll always listen to my songs?" Soriel requested.
Hearing her request, my face became slightly more serious.
I wanted to say yes, I really did, but I couldn't.
"I don't make promises," I answered.
"Really? How come?" Soriel asked curiously.
I adjusted my position to become more comfortable.
"Simple. I don't make promises since there's no way for me to completely assure I can keep them. The world is unpredictable, I can't control what happens," I explained.
Promises were like contracts to the soul, binding a person to another.
For me, such a bind would be a curse.
If someone who was unreliable, idiotic, and incompetent as me made a promise, there'd be no way to assure I could keep it.
It was my own weakness. My own fault.
Soriel nodded in understanding of my words and began to play again. However, for just a moment, there was a slight hesitation.
She wasn't disappointed by words. In fact, she seemed to have accepted them. But I still felt as if I was being unfair.
Despite that, I was a bit glad.
Glad that someone accepted me for being such an unfair person.
I knew who Soriel was.
A person the complete opposite to me.
Someone admirable, talented and kind.
A person with phenomenal piano playing and the beauty to match.
And looking at her in that moment, a thought came to mind.
'She's beautiful.'
There, I felt an incomprehensible emotion seep into my heart.