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I jolted my head back slightly in surprise. I didn’t even think he would notice, but he might have caught on to that, since he had been the one who saw me getting them every week.

‘Yeah, I didn’t think it was worth the trip today, since I won’t be home until later tonight, so I didn’t feel like carrying them around.

It might also be a bit weird bringing flowers into the library,’ I added the last part jokingly.

‘I might get them this Friday though; I love having them in my apartment and so does my roommate Nina. Just not getting them today.’

Colton just nodded.

‘As much as I would love to just sit here and admire the view, I think we have some ASL to practice,’ I said, turning my whole body to face him and crossing my legs.

‘Yes, we do.’ He turned to me doing the same, and thus began our practice session under the tree.

I tapped my phone to check the time and saw that the track team would be finishing up their training in half an hour, plus some additional time or so for them to shower and get ready before we went out for the night.

I still had one question left to finish for my class tomorrow, and I mentally calculated what time I should leave the library so I could be there before they got out of the locker rooms.

Thinking I had enough time to finish up that one final question, and knowing that I wouldn’t have to worry about it during dinner later, I opted to continue with my work.

After twenty minutes of searching for answers, paraphrasing, and adding thoughts of my own, I could finally turn off my laptop with a peaceful mind and call it quits for the night.

I checked the time once again and saw I still had some time left to spare. The walk from the library to the track field was short, so I took my time to gather up my things, rechecking that I hadn’t left anything before leaving the building.

I took the steps down from the library to the pavement and was greeted by the golden hour. A smile made its way to my face as I took in the beautiful skies and the multitude of colours filling it. I took out my phone to capture the moment into a forever memory.

As the sky started to get dark, I fastened my steps toward the direction of the track field.

Our college’s athletic centre took up a huge area of campus ground.

All the fields and stadiums were built close to one another: the track field was located right next to the baseball stadium, and the two shared a huge parking lot which stretched from one end of the track field to the other end of the baseball stadium.

In the middle, there stood a covered walkway that connected to the intersection between the two buildings.

Usually, I waited for Nina at the entrance of the track field. However, she had texted me earlier, saying that she parked on the baseball stadium side of the parking lot. So, I decided to just wait for her at the intersection instead.

I looked around the parking lot to see if I knew any of the cars that were still left. I recognized quite a few of them, including Lucy’s car, which meant the track team was yet to come out of the locker room.

My eyes then traitorously drifted off to where Colton’s car was parked.

Since we were already on campus, our ASL practice session had run a bit later than usual, with Colton not having to drive me home and back here.

When the time was cutting close to him arriving late to practice, we finally headed our separate ways.

I couldn’t stop that disappointed feeling in my chest when we had to say goodbye.

And that’s when I noticed his car was still there, which meant …

‘Clara!’ a familiar voice called out to me.

I turned to where I heard the sound coming from, and was met with Colton walking up to me.

‘Colton, hey,’ I greeted him. ‘Did you guys just finish practice?’

‘Yup,’ he said, popping the ‘p’. ‘Were you waiting for your friends?’

‘Yeah, they should be out by now. And then we’re heading out for dinner.’

‘Cool,’ Colton replied, running his hand through his hair. That’s when I noticed, he looked nervous . ‘I wanted to ask you something. I thought I would text you about it, but since you’re here, are you—’ But before he could finish, I heard footsteps coming towards us.

‘Clara!’ It was Nina, walking hurriedly to me in her excitement.

I could see the exact moment she registered who I was talking to as she started to slow down her steps. Her face was in disbelief as she stared at Colton.

‘Nina,’ I said in a slightly louder voice, bringing her eyes back to me.

She finally snapped out of her daze and turned to me. ‘Clara, hey.’

This was getting awkward real fast.

But I barely had the time to come up with something when I heard someone call out Colton’s name.

It was Miles.

I could hear the sharp intake of breath Nina took as he made his way to us.

With Colton covering us from Miles’s point of view, he hadn’t noticed me and Nina standing next to Colton until he reached us.

‘Oh, I didn’t know you had company,’ he said as a way of greeting.

‘Yeah,’ Colton replied sheepishly. ‘Miles, I’d like you to meet Clara. She’s my partner for ASL class,’ he gestured to me, then gesturing to Miles, and said, ‘this is Miles, my roommate.’

‘And his best friend,’ Miles pointed out, a grin on his face.

‘Right, my best friend when he’s not embarrassing me.’ Colton gently shoved him.

Miles just laughed him off. ‘I’m not embarrassing you,’ he remarked. ‘ Yet .’

‘Nice to meet you, Miles,’ I said, smiling at him. ‘This is Nina, my roommate, and best friend,’ emphasizing ‘my’ as I introduced her, earning a laugh from the two baseball players.

I softly nudged Nina, silently asking her to say something.

‘Yeah, I’m Nina,’ she murmured.

‘Well, it’s nice to meet you both.’ He nodded at us, though I couldn’t help but notice how his eyes were focused on Nina, who was trying her best to avoid his gaze.

Turning to me, he prompted, ‘You’re Colton’s partner for ASL class?’ Though it sounded more like a statement than a question.

‘Yeah?’ I replied hesitantly, unsure of why he was asking for a confirmation.

He quickly darted his eyes to Colton before a smug grin appeared on his face. ‘So, you’re the one he’s been seeing every Wednesday before baseball practice.’

I didn’t even have the time to react to that when I heard Colton call out. ‘Miles.’

‘What?’

‘Shut up.’

But that only made his grin grow bigger, followed by a burst of laughter when he saw the unamused expression on Colton’s face.

‘Okay, okay. Point taken.’ He conceded once he calmed down, putting his hands up in mock surrender. Turning his attention back to me and Nina, he added, ‘So I’m guessing I’ll be seeing you two on Saturday?’

‘Saturday?’ I raised my eyebrows in question.

Instead of answering me, Miles whispered to Colton, ‘You didn’t invite them?’

‘I was about to,’ Colton whispered back to him, exasperated. Facing me once again, he said, ‘The baseball team is throwing a party this Saturday at the team’s house. You’re both invited if you want to come, and you can bring your friends too.’

A party hosted by the baseball team.

‘Oh, umm,’ I stammered, not knowing how to respond to the invitation. ‘Thanks for the invite. We’ll think about—’

‘We’ll be there.’ Nina cut me off.

‘Great,’ he said with a grin on his face. ‘Do you guys know where the house is?’

‘Yup, I got it covered,’ Nina confirmed to him.

He gave her a nod. ‘I’ll see you two on Saturday then.’ And directing his gaze at me, he added, ‘Partner.’

‘See you on Saturday,’ I replied. ‘Partner.’

Turning to Miles, he asked, ‘You ready to go?’

Miles nodded and waved us goodbye with a ‘See you on Saturday!’ before running to Colton’s car.

Colton just shook his head at his roommate’s antics, turning around to give us one more smile before he went his way.

I had already been dreading the moment that was to come, once I saw the guys go into Colton’s car and leave the parking lot. Once we couldn’t see his car in our line of vision any more, Nina finally let out a loud screech.

‘How? What? When?’ Nina struggled to grapple with her thoughts and what to ask first.

‘Later,’ I told her instead, seeing more members of the track team slowly come out.

‘Why were you talking to Colton? How does Colton know who you are? How long has this been happening?’

‘Later,’ I repeated. ‘Once we’re home.’

‘You promise?’ she said, holding out her pinkie.

I smiled and sealed my pinkie with hers. ‘I promise.’

Dinner with the track team was always a fun time and tonight was no different, except I wasn’t the only non-athlete at the table. They had also invited Aiden to join, and it was nice to get to know him a bit better.

We finally arrived back at the apartment at a quarter to ten, but I knew the night was far from over.

Just as Nina was about to say something, I interrupted her. ‘Let me shower first, please. I’ve been out for almost the whole day.’

‘Fine,’ she huffed. ‘But I’m kicking down your door if you’re not out here in thirty minutes.’

I started laughing at her, but the look on her face assured me she wasn’t kidding. ‘Thirty minutes,’ I nodded.

After I finished my shower, I went out to the living room to see Nina already sitting on the couch with a mug in her hand.

‘Chocolate milk?’ She picked up the other mug that was on the coffee table.

‘Thank you,’ I said, taking it from her.

We sat down in silence as we each took sips of the milk before she finally put down her drink and crossed her legs, facing me.

‘Spill.’

I let out a sigh and put down my drink.

Where do I even start?

‘As you already know, I’m taking the ASL class this semester, and turns out Colton was too.

We ended up sitting next to each other on the first day and partnered up.

Mr Albert, our ASL class instructor, recommended everyone to practice ASL with their partners, so we decided to meet up every Wednesday to practice,’ I said, letting her take in this piece of information.

‘Since when have you started practicing?’ she asked.

‘Second week of classes?’ I said sheepishly, preparing myself for her reaction.

Nina’s eyes widened, ‘You’re telling me you have been talking to your crush, Colton Reed for weeks now?’ I could tell she was struggling to keep her voice at a normal volume.

‘Yeah,’ I confirmed.

And here came her big reaction.

Putting her hands on both my shoulders, she started shaking me. She let out a squeal before pulling me into a hug and started rocking us.

‘I take it you’re not mad?’ I asked, slightly confused by her reaction.

‘Mad?’ she said, taking me out of the hug and back to putting her hands on my shoulders. ‘Why would I be mad?’

‘I don’t know.’ I shrugged. ‘Maybe for not telling you earlier. I feel like if this were happening to you, you would have told me right away.’

‘Because that’s who I am. God knows I can’t keep anything like that to myself. Of course, I’m not mad. You don’t owe me anything,’ she said and then let out a wince. ‘But I am sorry for forcing this out of you. I should’ve just let it slide until you were ready to tell me.’

I knew Nina meant no harm. I would have told her a lot sooner about it, if it weren’t for my fear of being struck down by the curse with this arrangement with Colton.

While I would have loved to take my time and figure out how to tell Nina without getting her hopes up, I was glad it was finally out in the open.

‘It’s okay. To be honest, I’m glad you know now.’ I smiled instead.

She gave me a smile in return. ‘So, where have you two been practicing?’

‘At the bubble tea shop a few streets from here.’

Nina nodded before a look of suspicion covered her face. ‘Wait. Didn’t you start getting flowers since the second week of classes as well? Does that have anything to do with Colton?’ She raised her brow at me.

Damn her deductive skills. I blamed it on all the true crime podcasts she was always listening to.

‘There was a grocery store that also sold flowers near the bubble tea shop. So, I usually just buy them after we practice. Then, he drives me home.’

‘He drives you home?’ Nina screeched out.

‘Yes, he does. But it’s not a big deal. He was just being a good friend.’ I shrugged it off.

Nina just gave me a teasing smile and said, ‘Whatever you say, Clara.’ Picking up her mug, she took another sip of the chocolate milk.

‘I’m serious, we’re just friends,’ I told her.

‘Mmhmm,’ she hummed knowingly, taking another sip. ‘I’m just saying, you still have the rest of the semester to go. Anything could happen.’

I just took a sip of my own chocolate milk from my mug.

She was right, anything could happen. I just had to make sure whatever it was, didn’t give room for the curse to linger around.