Unmask

The next day quickly came, and Ali walked through the school door with a huge smile plastered on her face. Of course, who wouldn’t be smiling from ear to ear when their long-term crush had just followed them personally on their social media. Additionally, Ali even had the chance to talk to Carcel outside the topic of their project. It was as if she and Carcel had gotten closer, even though yesterday was the first time they had truly engaged in a proper conversation.

Despite the look her friends are giving her, she decided to ignore them and rushed to her class, briefly exchanging goodbyes.

…

Ali sat in her seat, still smiling, after settling down, her eyes caught something by the door; it was Carcel. As they made eye contact, Ali momentarily dropped her smile, but quickly smiled again, and Carcel did the same.

“Hey” he says, patting her head again.

“Good morning” she replies.

“I heard that were going to be given the whole class for the project this week.”

“Really? Would we only be given this week of class?”

“I think so, but I think that’s plenty enough.”

“Well, wouldn’t we need to research, do the slides, and practice for the presentation?”

“Didn’t you say that you’re already quite knowledgeable about the topic?” he replied almost in an annoying voice.

Ali fell quiet, Carcel had a point, she did, after all picked out the topic because it best suited her.

“Can’t you just do the whole research?”

“What?” she replied, flabbergasted.

“Like you said, you know more about ACL. Look I’ll just do the presentation or something.”

“B-but”

Carcel held her hand, and changed his tone from an annoyed one to a sweet voice, “Please? I have somewhere to be, and as much as I want to help, I just won’t have enough time.”

“Uhm, okay” Ali agreed hesitantly.

“Thank you” Carcel smiled towards her, but his smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

After the whole ordeal, Ali quietly sat in class, laptop in front of her, doing research. Meanwhile, Carcel was happily exchanging conversation with the person in front of them. Ali didn’t bother looking up, she was honestly quite hurt, she didn’t expect Carcel to be so… so harsh?

She couldn’t help but just lie to herself, forcing herself to believe Carcel’s clear lies.

…

Busy for the day? Sure, she can understand. But busy for the whole week? That’s ridiculous.

Because Ali and Carcel follows one another on their social media platform, Ali was made aware of what Carcel had been up to this week. He was partying the whole week, attending friends, friends of friends, and acquittances parties. She tried contacting him, but his only response was ‘I trust you’.

She feels stupid, she feels used. But ultimately, that’s still Carcel we’re talking about. The man she had liked for 3 years. She knew that this wasn’t Carcel, she knew how Carcel cared so much for his academics, how Carcel was this caring and kind boy. She knew that the Carcel she met 5 years ago was still within this boy, but circumstances have changed him, and she was determined to bring out that side of him again.

…

Hello! This chapter was kind of inspired by the songs I’m listening to right at the moment when I was writing this; Seventeen as Taylor Swift’s songs.

It got me weak in the knees.

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