Disclaimer: Do you need to be reminded that the characters are not mine? ^_^
Crystal - Chapter 2 – Bitter Ice Cream
"So there, the equivalent of sin150 is therefore cos60 which is equivalent to ½ which happens to be our final answer. While getting the equivalent of a function, its sign is a question at hand. How to answer that question will be your homework plus 30 additional questions. Those will be due tomorrow," the professor rants while most students groaned at the load of homework.
Serena struggled to keep her eyes open.
"I'll just have to ask Haruka to explain that to me at elementary level…" Serena quickly copied the homework.
"Okay, class, dismiss."
That was the best statement of the day, Serena almost jumped out of seat. Math is such a lousy subject when scheduled on the last period in the afternoon.
"Hey Serena!" a man on blue shirt and black pants ran to Serena.
Hi André! What's up?" André is Serena's close friend and partner in laboratory. He's half-British and has been staying in Japan since high school. Serena, and most girls, find him cute with his indigo eyes and dark brown hair that loosely fall just above his eyes.
"Well," he unconsciously flashed his one million dollar smile. Serena adored that smile and his perfect teeth. "I was just thinking if we could have some ice cream. I wanted to talk about our experiment and it just drives me crazy!"
Serena wasn't sure if she would be of great help but with the giant sweet word, "ice cream", she knows she can't resist. She was about to answer "sure" when she saw a familiar figure walking towards them.
"Oh no…" Serena quickly turned her back but it was already too late.
"Hey Usako!"
Serena forced a smile and turned, "Hi Darien," she greeted a little lousy. "Umm… by the way Darien he is André, my friend and lab partner," André smiled and politely offered a handshake. "André, he is Darien, my friend and former classmate," Darien politely shook hands but gave the other man a hard look.
"So…" Serena turned to Darien, "What brings you here?"
"I'm here to fetch you. We could have dinner," Darien turned to the lady and smiled sweetly. But Serena walked close to André.
"André and I would be talking about lab today. I'm afraid I can't."
"No, no it's okay," André assured Darien, "the experiment won't be in two weeks. And besides, I could use some library research so it would be okay." Serena gave André a look—she could step on his foot if only she could.
"But I already told him that I have schoolwork so we can't eat out tonight," Serena was trying not to sound desperate to get away.
"I could just bring you home," Darien said and with the looks of it, it shows that there's no getting away. André started to walk away from them, waving goodbye.
The next thing Serena knew, she is already inside Darien's midnight blue Porsche.
That guy with the weird accent keeps on looking at Serena… is he her boyfriend or he's just a major psychopath? Darien couldn't quite concentrate on his driving. He's too preoccupied with the guy and he couldn't pin down the words to start a conversation. Hell, I never thought that it's hard to start a conversation—and with Serena! She's the type who babbles anything any moment but here she is, just staring out the damn window.
Suddenly, and idea popped in Darien's head—and he grinned.
"So," Darien cleared his throat, still having the grin and an evil tint in his eyes, "Where's Serena?" He saw the girl—no, the lady—look at him in confusion and surprise.
"Excuse me?"
Now that question really confused Darien himself, Did I have the correct question or I really got the wrong girl? What he was expecting was for Serena to turn and have a load of laughter or a grin with a word 'jerk' or maybe a hard slap on his head. But no, he got a very polite 'Excuse me?'
He decided to keep it going, cold and casual.
He giggled.
"What's funny?"
"I never thought that a beautiful lady like you can pin down the wild Serena. I certainly want to know how you did it, oh no wait; I'm sure you had a load of sweets in a prison as bait and closed her in as soon as she stepped inside."
A hand hit his head without warning, "Hey! What's that for?" Darien held his head to ease the pain.
"For being a jerk," Serena laughed.
Darien couldn't help but laugh just the same, "I thought I already lost my Serena."
That was exactly what Serena was planning to do—get lost, away from here, from Darien. But here she is, still with him—in his car—laughing. What she is afraid of is she, falling for him again.
Damn it, that laugh again. That irresistible chuckle never ceases to amuse me and pull me to that pit again. It was like quicksand, but swear, I will not fall again.
They sure laughed at that for a moment but the rest is silence. Darien ached to hold Serena's hand, even for just a while—even a second. But her hands were securely clutched on her bag. He watched her intently from several stolen glances at her. He smiled as he noticed changes in her physique—she gained height, lost weight and her hair a longer silvery blonde in the glow of Japan's neon night lights. He thought, so many had changed and realized how much he missed his best friend.
Darien was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize that they were almost at Serena's house. When they stopped, Darien immediately got out of the car and ran to open the door for Serena in a very gentlemanly way.
"Thank you," Serena smiled.
He walked with her to the door, "I had a wonderful time with you, even though we didn't have a chance to have dinner."
"That's okay, there would always be next time," Damn it! Why did you say that?
"I'll look up to that," Darien successfully managed to hold Serena's hand and said, "Good Evening. See you tomorrow." And he left with a smile on his face.
Serena cringed at the word 'tomorrow' which means she will see him again tomorrow. Why can't he just stop seeing me? Man, his school is miles away from mine! Serena was about to climb the stairs to her bedroom when she stopped dead in her tracks, "Darien?! A gentleman? What was that?"
She saw him the next day, and the day after that, and still the day after that. She never asked him why, or maybe she just forgot to do so. Serena agreed on having dinner one time and the rest became fun.
"You what?!"
"I walked out on our Physics professor. He's so boring and besides, I don't learn anything from him. He was just an echo of our 10th grade teacher," Darien picked up a grape from the basket. They are sitting on top of his car, literally having picnic there.
Serena chuckled, "You're such a jerk. I wish I could do the same with our Math professor."
"You know what? We're such a couple of jerks."
"Shut up! You're the only jerk around here." Serena threw a grape at Darien.
Darien's eyes narrowed, "Are you challenging me into a grape fest?" he picked up a grape from the basket and before Serena could answer, he instantly sent the grape flying towards Serena, leaving a purple stain on her dress.
"Why, you—" Serena chuckled and threw two grapes onto Darien's shirt.
They had fun for what seemed like forever. They were both mindless of the hour.
To hell with pain. Serena thought.
*~*
The next afternoon, Darien went to fetch Serena again.
"Let's visit Haruka." Darien said as he started the engine.
"That's a good idea. I haven't seen her in weeks," Serena replied. She felt guilty for not seeing her for weeks. But what really made her guilty is that she failed to see her only to spend time with a 'jerk'.
They parked under a cherry tree and together they went to look for Haruka.
"Hey, isn't that Richelle?" Darien pointed to a girl walking along the covered path walk. Serena recognized her. She was their batch mate. She's one, or probably, the most beautiful and wanted lady in their batch. She remembered Haruka saying that she looks like an angel on the senior prom. Well, there's no doubt to that. Even on regular school days, she still looks like an angel—brown hair, fair and almost perfect skin, tantalizing eyes, graceful moves… she's almost perfect, Serena envied her a bit.
Serena stood there, mesmerizing her past memories of Richelle. She looks at her now and the lady looks even better. She almost failed to notice that Darien has already gone to greet Richelle and now, they are talking on a bench under one of the cherry trees.
One look at him and she knew, Darien is happy. How could she fail to forget that Richelle is the former object of affection of Darien? Well, she doesn't really want to insist the 'former' part. From the looks of it, the jerk is very much into her still.
Serena now moved to the two, "Hi Richelle! How are you doing?" Serena banished all the negative thoughts in her mind and smiled cheerfully.
Richelle, always of good disposition, smiled back, "I'm fine, how about you?" Serena could see Darien's sparkling eyes. She tried very hard to ignore it.
There was the usual greetings, blah, blah, blah… things that passed Serena's ears.
"Darien, come on, Haruka's last class should have ended by now," Serena pulled at Darien's shirt.
"Umm… can you just go ahead? Richelle asked my help on her assignment. I'll just go next time," Damn, he gave Serena his smile. Serena felt a twinge of jealousy in her heart. She just smiled back and waved just as if nothing is going on within her. That sparkling eyes couldn't escape her and it just makes things worse.
Damn you, damn me…
To hell with fun…
Author's babble: Like it or hate it? Review. Corrections and suggestions are greatly appreciated. I like it when I get reviews, i get inspired to continue. I need reviews to get the chapters going. More reviews, the sooner I get to work on them. Thanks for the previous reviews. So there, ja!
