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Gianna's eyes were trained on the letters, 'Darian Rivers. An enjoyable date from www.dating.com' printed in a glittery red ink over the hard-paper-card that sat atop the brown wooden table as she discreetly stifled a yawn.

She'd always thought of dating sites as a huge waste of time but today, as she impatiently waited for her 'enjoyable' date to strike an inviting conversation, her point was proved to infinity and back.

Darian was a very silent person.

And Gianna almost hated silent people. They were dangerous, according to her. Silently brewing hazardous concoctions in the vile craters they owned for brains.

Gia had no testimony whether all ACCA students were so boring or if he was the only one standing out from his type, but she decided to jump aboard the 'Train Of Gianna's Thoughts' and classify him as a stereotype. 

To her lazy self, that seemed much better than trying to figure out why he was so silent.

She quietly let out a tired sigh, balancing the fork between her fingers.

Couldn't her good-for-nothing best friend, Danica, find her a talkative date, at least?

I shall never let Danica choose a date for me, she mused, and I shall never ever choose a wannabe bank accountant for myself either because no matter how entertaining they seem, they are all the same in the end.

Deciding not to let this date become more disastrously uncommunicative than it already was, she picked her knight in the shining armor, aka her phone and unlocked it.

Siri, how do I strike a conversation with my super-silent date? she typed in.

"Gia, I cannot find anything for 'How do I strike a conversation with my super-silent date?'" The inbuilt robot's voice boomed through Gianna's phone, disturbing the pin-drop silence surrounding their table.

Gianna's wide eyes shot up to meet her date's innocently curious ones, though, unlike everybody who would fumble for excuses at such an embarrassment, she was celebrating internally.

Finally something to talk about, she thought excitedly.

"Did you talk, Jihanna?" he inquired, genuinely curious.

Hadn't he heard Siri's loud voice? Was he deaf, too, apart from being nearly mute?

Besides, hadn't she reiterated more than a hundred times that her name was Gianna and not Jihanna?

Reciting a somewhat embarrassing moment to a stranger on her first date wasn't Gianna's thing. She'd rather cackle and get a kick out of the fun all by herself. 

Pretty much explains why instead of elaborating her chagrin, she chose to be the more mature one and started talking:

"Yes, I was asking whether or not you like cheese." she stated, lazily picking at the dried cheese bits of the last and already cold slice of pizza.

Darian tilted his head due to lack of conviction. "Yes. Why?"

She faked a grin at him, casting a one-shouldered nonchalant shrug. "Cause I don't like it."

Did he seriously want to know the reason behind every question? Goodness, such a geek.

He shook his head. "I like everything. Mum says we mustn't dislike food, it's bad manners." he preached to Gianna, obliviously throwing her on the verge of suggesting to Darian to let her tutor him regarding how he must behave like a proper man on a date, and not a mama's boy.

But of course, her forbearance defeated her will to spat the same verbally, just the way it had been in the past forty-three minutes that she quite sagely chose to stare at him while he chose to stare at the salt-and-pepper shakers, too shy to even let their gazes meet.

She let her palm run along the length of her face in reverse, starting from her chin, in the form of a subtle facepalm.

"Now that's something my mom never told me." she retorted sarcastically.

He shrugged, quite unable to grasp the mockery behind her statement.

Oh God, this is horrible. He is horrible, Gianna thought to herself.

Another bout of silence lapsed.

But this time, instead of squandering her time trying to talk to Mr. I'm-Always-Silent, Gianna chose to ponder about her second best friend- Rhea's words.

"I'm going to spoil this date of yours." she had told Gianna with a delinquent-like smirk.

Despite being well aware of how challenges were Rhea's weak point, Gianna had the audacity to roll her eyes at her best friend. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, and imma send your favorite person to do it." she had challenged. Gianna pondered over her words. Who is my favorite person again?

The reason behind Gianna's extreme curiosity was the anonymity of the person whom Rhea would send to spoil her date. Who could it be? "I'll be waiting." Gianna had accepted the challenge with open arms. 

Currently, she wanted nothing more than that anonymous person to barge in and take her off on a pumpkin carriage. Or a horse. Or a Lamborghini. Or a classic Royal Enfield. 

Okay fine, just his legs were enough, so he could walk her home.

That's how stiffly boring this date was.

"Was the spoiler person planning on showing up after the date?" she mumbled to herself, quite annoyed.

It was already 9:00 PM but no signs of someone from her 'favorites' list was to be seen. Rhea hadn't told Gia whether it was a 'he' or a 'she', too.

Just when she was about to give up and request Darian to drive her home- so she could suffer to death because of another painfully silent half an hour with the wordless baby- a mop of black hair appeared behind Darian. 

She sent him?

Gia stared at Lucas' slightly smirking face with her jaw dropping to the ground. Of all people, Lucas Brookes? Really? Wasn't what was happening enough? Rhea had to send her favorite, didn't she?

This girl sure does have a bucketful of spunk, Gianna thought as she narrowed her eyes at Lucas' towering figure behind Darian.

She would spend the rest of her life with Darian if it meant getting rid of Lucas for once and for all.

Gianna was irritated by Lucas' presence. But she was irritated beyond human intelligence at Rhea's audacity to send him, out of all of the 7.6 billion people's population. I hate you, Rhea. I hate you to Krypton and back. I shall never-

"Oh, Giannaaaa!" Lucas leaned behind Darian to place his arms on the table and Gia shut her eyes tightly.

Lucas, Rhea and her brother- Aaron were best friends since childhood. 

What pity Gianna and Lucas never got along likewise, ending up as lifelong arch-nemesis. 

Darian turned around (yeah he realized someone was behind him just now. Crazy, right?) and stared at Lucas. "Who're you?" he quietly asked, eyes widening slightly as he witnessed the sense of familiarity in Lucas' eyes when he looked at Gianna.

Lucas' mischievous gaze flew back to Gia from Darian. "Gia, didn't you tell him about us?" he shook his head, as if not believing himself, the stupid and triumphant smirk intact.

Gia rolled her eyes in exasperation. Rhea was definitely going to pay for her actions. "Why should-"

"Us?" Darian's curious yet wary eyes steadily studied Lucas' face.

Stupid Lucas. Horrible organism. A wild animal, even. Gianna cursed under her breath.

It was because of people like Lucas and Rhea that Gianna never got the change to date anyone properly. They seemed to adore the idea of spoiling dates. Especially Gia's dates.

"Haw, I didn't know you were so discreet about us, Gi-Gi." he stared at Gia, pretending to be shocked. 

He pulled a chair from the next table and seated himself between Gia and Darian without an invitation from either of the occupants of the table.

He threw his right hand at Darian, who was staring at him with wide eyes, for a friendly handshake. "I'm Lucas. You can call me Luke. But don't call me Lucky," Lucas leaned towards Darian's ear and whispered in a tone loud enough to be audible to Gianna, making her want to thrust the fork down Lucas' esophagus. "Because only Gia has the copyright claims for that name." he winked at Darian as he moved back.

Darian stared at Lucas and for the first time since the past one hour and a few minutes in which Gia had known Darian, she saw something past his silence. 

Faint irritation.

"Jihanna." he looked straight at her, catching her off guard with his tone. "Who is this guy?" he asked monotonously.

Without missing a beat, wide-eyed Gianna turned towards Lucas and asked, "Who are you?"

Lucas frowned. "Baby, enough of this pretense, alright." he then turned towards Darian, "Dude I'm telling you, this girl is crazy. She's hopeless and desperate and crazy for love." he bobbed his head profusely and turned towards Gia.

He held Gia's hand with love and as fake sorrow pooled his jet-black eyes, he said. "What a small fight we had last Friday, you felt the need to go find yourself someone else?" his gaze shifted to the card on the table. "And that too from dating.com?" 

Gia sighed in pure annoyance. This was not what she had signed up for when she accepted Rhea's challenge. 

"So, you're, um, with him?" Darian asked Gia in an uncertain voice.

She turned towards Darian with a blank look. Sure, she'd wanted this date to end, but not this way. Never this way, actually. "See it's not what you-"

"Yes, isn't it clear? I mean, just look at her face. She's so happy to see me." Lucas exclaimed excitedly, earning a deep frown from Gianna. 

Lucas obviously didn't have to cross so many boundaries.

"Oh," Darian's voice bordered sadness as he spoke. "It's okay, take care, you two." he spoke as he stood up and placed two twenty dollar notes on the table.

He left the table without even asking why Gia would do a thing as such or if what Lucas had to say was true. 

"You didn't have to do that!" Gianna angrily yelled at Lucas while, in response, he cast her a careless look. "Bastard..."

Although Gia didn't want to, she felt awful. Maybe guilty, too. After all, her reputation would be that of a 'user' in Darian's head henceforth. He felt she'd used him to get over Lucas.

An absolutely surreal occurrence.

Gia could be mean, she knew, but not cruel. Even if wanted, she could never hurt anyone. Let alone, this way.

Lucas thwacked her on the upside. "My little Gia, stop pretending you weren't bored to death by him." 

She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "You never fail to remind me why I hate you so much, do you?"

Lucas grinned smugly at Gia's words. "Never."

She sighed for the millionth time tonight.

But how lucky must she consider herself when all of her guilty conscience vaporized and a ray of happiness seeped through her as Darian's figure returned to their table. 

His gaze was directed towards the same salt and pepper shakers as he spoke, "Can I get a goodbye hug?" he mumbled in his quiet voice.

"Darian!" she jumped out of her seat, almost tripping over Lucas' outstretched leg in the process and fell right into Darian's awkward embrace.

She hugged Darian, trying to indicate how sorry she felt regarding the route this date had taken towards the end though she highly doubted he would comprehend the deeper meaning. 

He was that naive and innocent.

She pulled back, a happy smile on her face. She really was glad he had returned, even if it was for a hug. 

"Friends?" she expectantly brought her hand in front of him.

His eyes widened by her approach. "Y-yeah, sure." he held her hand, a puzzled expression on his face.

Gia's eyebrows furrowed in slight concern. "All okay?"

He nodded and a smile was added to the aforementioned expression. "It's just that this...date has turned out to be so...atypical."

True that.

Gia was amidst laughing humorously when Lucas' scowling face appeared between her's and Darian's. "Your friendship is so exciting because I was present in the middle."

Darian cast him a flat look. "Right, how can I forget, the 'boyfriend'." 

"Right." Lucas grinned goofily. For an-all-time rowdy eighteen-year-old, Lucas was behaving like a troublesome toddler tonight.

Gia couldn't control the urge to roll her eyes at Lucas' childishness in exasperation. "Can we leave?" she questioned no one in particular.

"Yes." both the boys answered at the same time.

"I'm not going you with Lucas!" Gianna yelled in fury. She didn't want to stay around the animal for more than a second more.

Darian smiled at Gia. "Jihanna, calm down." he cooed, "We can hang out together for a while longer, as friends, of course, and if you don't mind, that is."

"Oooooohhhh," Lucas rubbed his palms against each other in childish excitement. "A lovey-dovey couple like us and a third wheel! Sounds uhmaysing!" he jerked Gia towards him and her arms flew to his shoulders, seeking instant support.

Darian, the innocent soul, didn't seem to catch the indirectly taunting nature of Lucas' comment. 

Instead, he outstretched his warm hand for Gia after she murmured a "Yeah, sure," in agreement and hesitantly, her fingers curled around Darian's. 

But even then, Lucas made sure not to let his promise to Rhea about keeping Gia safe break, and therefore, firmly held onto her left hand. 

Gia- for the first time, ever- didn't seem to mind Lucas' entry in her personal space and the three different people walked out of 'Hunch In For A Bunch', only one thought consuming Gia's mind:

This really was such an atypical date.

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