Chapter Nine

 

The rest of the week was pretty much epic chaos.

Not only were we really feeling the pressure of the fundraiser which was only a little over a week away, we were also scheduled for presentation in Dr. Han’s class.

We spent two evenings rehearsing with the performing group which we found through one of Seth’s friends whose Dad worked as a lawyer for the current chairman of the Indian community in Ballard. The community council has a group of volunteers who perform in their many different cultural activities and they happily agreed to participate in our presentation.

We went through their many, already-performed pieces relating to their vast array of folklore and we picked out bits and parts and merged them into one, custom play which featured large chunks of acting parts, narration, music and video presentation which Seth and I stayed up until two in the morning for at the community council’s office with one of the volunteers who’s also their resident AVP expert.

On the day of the presentation, we came into the lecture hall an hour early to set up the set and props and test the lights, music, audio and video projection controls located in this tiny cubicle at the back of the hall simply referred to as the ‘tech room’.

Half an hour before the class started, the performing group, made up of six actors and one production assistant, arrived and changed into their costumes and did their makeup, finishing up just in time as people started to file into the hall.

When Dr. Han finally arrived and took a seat by the front corner of the dimmed room, I signaled to Seth who was at the tech room to turn the lights off completely and start the intro music. After an hour of stage play, we transitioned to the video presentation of the other popular folklore stories from their movie adaptations.

As the video played on, I went to check on Pardeep, the production assistant, who was briefing the cast about the routes we planned for distributing the Indian-inspired snacks we prepared for the class after the video presentation. It’s a cocktail party-inspired setting where food will be moved to the front of the hall for everyone to enjoy while the casts moved around, still in their costumes, talking to people from the class about their culture and all things related that the students might be interested in. I was cautious about this part of the presentation but Seth insisted it would give the students the chance to get up and around the room (which he said will definitely wake them up), ask questions, speak with the performers, eat and converse casually about the topic, and relax after a long presentation. Surprisingly, Dr. Han had no protest, not even a raise of her eyebrow when we presented this to her.

“Hey,” I greeted softly when I peeked my head into the tech room.

Seth slid off the giant earphones he had on and beamed at me. “Hey, how’s it going down there?”

I closed the door behind me and went to peek through the heavily tinted glass. “They’re ready to serve the food as soon as the video’s done. I have to admit, I have never met anyone so anal about details as Pardeep. More anal than me anyway. She has everything followed to the dot.”

“Do you think Dr. Han’s impressed?” Seth asked. “I can’t see her from here but I’m eager to know if we’ve reformed her old-school mentality about how to run this class.”

“I think we have a pretty good chance,” I told him with a big, victorious smile that I’m pretty sure looks as smug as hell on my face right now. “She didn’t say anything but I think she wasn’t convinced at first that we could pull it off.”

“People should never underestimate us. We make a notoriously amazing team,” Seth added, raising a hand for a high five which I easily slapped with my own. It felt good, it really did. The adrenaline of an obviously successful project was hard to stomp down on but other than that, there was something else that has my blood rushing to my head.

Seth wrapped his hand around mine after the high five and leaned his head down to stare into my eyes. His own green ones glimmered beautifully in the dimly lit, tightly cramped room. “You see, if we work on it, we can do great things together. That counts for something.”

I swallowed hard, unable to pull myself away. “I know.”

“Is that enough to start with?” he asked, his voice gentle and husky.

I closed my eyes to regain my level-headedness but when I opened them, Seth’s face so close to mine blocked out everything around me that might be calling to my reason.

“I…” my voice trailed off but I tried again. “I don’t know what you want from me, Seth.”

He smiled and clasped his other hand over mine as well. “A chance.”

I swallowed hard again and what I suspect are tears began stinging my eyes but I quickly looked away to secretly blink them back. “I don’t want to waste your time. Or my time.”

“Please, Ali.”

He cupped the side of my face and once again, I found myself staring into those familiar pair of green eyes that can make my toes curl.

I didn’t understand. I don’t know why Seth’s bothering with me. I don’t know if it’s a game. I don’t know if it’s a joke. I don’t know if I’ve completely lost my mind.

The word ‘no’ was somewhere in the back of my throat but I never got to it when Seth slowly put both of his hands on my shoulder and gently pulled me close, my cheek pressing against his warm, firm chest.

I nodded, at loss for anything else to say.

“Thank you,” he whispered as the video finished and the lights came on.

***

“Spill.”

I looked up at the familiar voice and found Ria and Liam, each grabbing a chair around the desk I was occupying that peaceful Friday afternoon in the university library.

I grinned at them. “Hey, you two. What brings you here? I thought you had class.”

“Teacher just gave us a chapter to read and write an analysis on and Liam’s prof went home sick,” Ria answered, flipping her long, silky, super-straight hair. I always envied her hair. She just naturally had hair that didn’t have a single stray strand while I had a thick dark mane that waved so stubbornly at the ends and well, wherever else it pleases.

“So, don’t change the subject. Spill.”

I raised my brows and looked at Liam for help. Ria is a Biology student so she doesn’t get to hang out with me and Liam as much. She spends a lot of time in the lab for research outside of her classes.

I wasn’t sure if I was missing something obvious here.

Liam rolled his eyes and slipped out his cellphone and started fiddling with it as if he was bored. “She was very clear, Ali. Spill.”

I turned to Ria, still blank on what she was talking about. “I’m lost.”

Ria stared at me with a knowing look on her face and finally sighed. “What’s the dirt on you and campus hottie Seth Wallace?”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. Of course, it’s about Seth. Why didn’t I see it coming?

“What about me and Seth?” I asked, not quite certain what she wanted to know exactly.

“Well, Liam here tells me you don’t seem to hate him as much as you used to,” Ria started with a raised brow.

“I never hated Seth,” I argued. “He just… exasperates me—sometimes.”

Liam smirked. “Well, from the looks of it, you two seem to be getting along much better now—him showing up randomly to help you with the tickets or bring donuts and coffee at the fundraiser meetings he doesn’t really need to attend but you’re attending or him sitting with us every now and then at the cafeteria during lunch—things that, well, Seth normally did before anyway except that now you don’t bite his head off.”

I glared at Liam. “You make me sound like an animal.”

Ria rolled her eyes. “We all know that poor Seth always took a verbal beating from you happily, God knows why. But the surprising thing is that now, you, my darling friend, seem to be finally being civil to the poor guy. What’s with the change of heart?”

I slumped back against my seat and buried my face in my hands. “Oh God, you guys. You know me, you know my temper, you know what drives me crazy. Seth drives me crazy because he’s so annoying but so nice at the same time and I feel like a loony trying to decide how to act around him, whether I should tell him off or be nice as well. I didn’t mean to be nasty to him or anything like that but he just knows how to push the wrong buttons sometimes.”

Liam raised a brow at me. “Seriously, Ali, you don’t get it?”

“Get what?”

Ria and Liam exchanged disbelieving glances.

“Get what?”

Ria leaned forward and suddenly gave me little light slaps on the cheek and I blinked and moved away from her.

“Whoa, what are you doing?”

“Trying to wake you up,” Ria answered after she finally backed off. “Because it seems like it’s never occurred to you that maybe Seth was just trying to get your attention all this time and not being purposefully annoying. “

“Uhm, why would he want to do that?”

“Maybe because the guy likes you?” Liam supplied. “You’re so cute, Ali. You’re amazingly genius but you can’t even get one of the ten thousand hints a guy throws at you.”

I signed, feeling resigned. “Fine. I may have noticed one or two hints. I’m not completely clueless.”

Ria’s face immediately brightened up. “Great! And what are you gonna do about it then?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t.”

Since that moment at the tech room with Seth, things have been spiraling out of control in this slow, blissfully gradual yet  somehow natural manner, the way a flower would suddenly bloom on a spring morning—the process precise yet happening so fast that if you decide to blink you might miss it.

The future feels uncertain and I hated uncertainty but there was something about this quiet, natural revelation of things between him and me that kept me from taking off like a mad woman.

I still don’t really what Seth wants.

And I don’t know what it is that I want myself either.