Chapter 14:

Seiro Ignores Me and I Panic [Mia]

WildKat


“Emilia Karlsson. You’re late.” Coach Norman said this but didn’t give me a tardy. He didn’t even threaten to give me one.

Being the self-righteous, prestigious student I am, I made sure he knew what he was doing. “Am I supposed to be marked tardy, or…?”

“Sweetheart, no one cares. It’s more work for me to mark you tardy, and frankly I don’t feel like doing that work.” Ah, I feel ya. An eons-old case of procrastination. I’m glad we have the same condition.

“Thank you, sir.” I slid into my seat in front of Seiro, my awareness of him heightened after what he said in the storage room. I even wore my hair back in a ponytail that day just to see what would happen- I was late because I spent too much time trying to perfect it and forgot I had school. This brain of mine may be good at academics, but it is not good at keeping track of a simple task.

I turned over my left shoulder to talk to Seiro, but I noticed that as soon as I looked at him he looked down at his desk, and not in an embarrassed way. This seemed more to me like a ‘I don’t want to talk to you’ kind of look. I kept my composure and turned about, but internally I was dumbfounded. Like, how could he be unloading compliments about me like no one’s business just two days ago, but now not even talk to me?

I reset my brain and turned around again, hoping for some successful small talk, at least. Maybe I could get him to talk about something he’s interested in. But.. What is he interested in? I racked my brain for any possible interests of Seiro, finally landing on one I had caught a glimpse of the first time I had met him.

“So do you play piano, or do you just happen to have one?” Just like that, Seiro’s back straightened and he was engaged in conversation. Bingo!

“Oh, uh, I play the instrument, but it’s not my best. I’ve been playing saxophone for years. The piano is really for MIDI inputs in a… sorry, I’m over-sharing.”

“Sibelius? MuseScore? Finale? You can’t just leave me hanging!” His eyes lit up like it was Christmas Day.

“Finale- I saved up money for two years so I could get it. It’s a really good program, and it doesn’t make any popping and screeching noises like MuseScore, nor does it run super slow with lots of instruments like Sibelius. I haven’t made anything worth showing yet, but it’s still fun to write!” He sat there for a second, basking in the knowledge that I understood him, until for some reason he murmured a curse word under his breath and went back to ignoring me.

WHY WON’T YOU LET ME TALK TO YOU?! I once again turned back to the front of the class, dejected. Fine. If you won’t let us have our fun little chats, I won’t let you have the football at practice today. Not that you’ll know it’s me, but maybe you’ll realize God is inflicting karma on you for not talking to me, or something. I knew it was petty, but I was allowed to be petty, right?


“Danny, there’s a situation,” I said into the phone mic rather forcefully. I could hear his startled breathing through the speakers.

“Okay, so, what is it?”

“Seiro’s avoiding me and I don’t know why.” Danny exhaled in relief, probably thinking whatever I had to say was more of an emergency.

“Yeah, sometimes guys just do that. Don’t get caught up on it. He’ll be right back in about a week or so. He probably thinks you don’t like him or that you’re taken. Also, can you give me his number?”

“Sure.” I sent Seiro’s contact info through my text messages to Danny and put the phone back up to my ear. Thanks for the advice-” I was cut off by a knock on the glass of my window.

“What was that?”

“Oh, Kevin’s here. I told him there was a problem and that I needed to talk with him immediately. Same reason as why I called you. I don’t want sample bias.”

“That’s fair, but-” I heard a knock and immediately put the phone down to open my balcony door for Kevin. He walked in and sat down in my desk chair.

“Give me the lowdown. What’s this big thing that you need to talk to me about?” Kevin stretched out his limbs on the chair, reaching so far into the air that he grazed my shoulder and almost fell off of the chair entirely.

“Seiro’s avoiding me and I don’t know why.”

“Seiro’s avoiding you? Well, that’s odd. Normally he’d be pretty conversational, at least towards you. Though, he has told me in the past that you get on his nerves a little bit.” My brain hyper focused on that single line.

“What about me? What gets on his nerves?” I needed something, anything specific that I could change- I didn’t want to piss off Seiro at all.

“Well, just your normal antics, I guess. I mean, I’m basically the only one who can handle you, so it’s no surprise that he finds you a little annoying.”

“But why is he outright ignoring me? Today I tried to talk with him and he went with it for a second and then shut off!” My questions began to come out as whining. I wonder if that’s what Seiro sees me as. Whiny.

“As a guy, that usually means one of two things. One, he’s not in the mood to talk. That could be it. Try again tomorrow, and if he’s fine, then you’re fine. But if he’s not, it’s probably number two.” He grimaced, setting off panic alarms in my head. What happens if he doesn’t respond tomorrow?

“W-What’s number two?”

“He thinks that you’re attracted to him, and he wants you to back off and find someone else that’s better for you.” Oh, no no no no no!

“But he just-!” I cut myself off, almost blabbing about my time in the storage room. Didn’t he just say all those nice things about me? And he did say he wanted to hold hands with me, the girl he likes, right? Am I remembering that right? Holy crap, maybe I’m not! He didn’t say he liked me, did he? The fear began to set in as I wrestled with myself on whether to believe Kevin’s advice or my dubious memory.

Clearly Kevin could see I was struggling with this notion, so he patted me on the head and put his hands on my shoulders. “You’re gonna be fine either way. You’re a good person. I don’t even know if you like Seiro or not, but what I do know is that, no matter what, you’re going to come out intact. Okay?”

“Yeah, alright,” I said, casually wiping a stray tear. “I just… I don't like that people think I’m annoying.”

“Well, I don’t, so you’ve got one person who doesn’t, at least. Seiro probably doesn’t hate you- I mean, he has no reason to. He’ll come around.”

“Thanks, Kevin. I appreciate it.” Slightly comforted but still worried, I decided to end the conversation.

“No problem,” he said, walking back out the way he came. “And if you ever need me for anything, give me a call. I’ve got your back.” With that, he closed the door and began the climb down to his apartment. Huh. If Seiro doesn’t talk to me tomorrow, he wants me to find someone else… But who else is there to like?

Beep.

I heard the sound of hanging up from my phone and realized I had just left Danny on the phone by himself. I brushed it off as meaning he and I both forgot to hang up, and I laid down on my bed, tired from the stress. Within two minutes, another call from Danny came. I reluctantly answered.

“Damn it, Daniel, what do you want?”

“Uh… all the players who have Ian’s number… Do they just have yours? Or is it a different number?” Weird question.

“No, it’s the same number.”

“Then, by chance, did you send a text message to someone telling them that you were dating Mia and to ‘piss off’?” What?! I never said anything like that to anyone!

“No? Of course not! I am Mia, remember?”

“I knew it.” He hung up just as suddenly as he called, but before that I could hear him grumble a few words. “Damn it, it’s girly, isn’t it…?”

It’s girly? What’s that supposed to mean? That day may still be one of the most surreal experiences I’ve had. I was so, so, so confused, and for good reason. I asked two people the same question, to get very different answers, and then I got asked if I told someone I was dating myself, and then I got called girly for not doing that? I could not comprehend the events that had just unfolded in front of me. My only hope was that Seiro wouldn’t ignore me the next day.

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