Like Porcelain: An Eternal Flame Short

Series: Eternal Flame
Astra International School
September 2012

Subject: Recess
Class: II-1

“Sanchez. Sanchez.”

“What do you want, Aquino?” the girl snaps. Arizona Sanchez looked up at Lukas Aquino with a frosty glare, the male merely staring back as he fiddled with his ruby-red necktie. The pencil held between her fingers trembled.

“You’re going to want to wash your face and brush your hair if you want to glare properly and look nice while doing it,” he retorted smoothly. She narrowed her eyes at him and the male exhaled loudly, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the classroom. Arizona squeaked.

“W-What are you–”

“I’m taking you to the washroom, Zone.” He replied. Arizona kept protesting yet stopped upon catching the gaze of Teresa Valdez from II-3. The taller girl’s eyes narrowed. Arizona looked away and the twosome stopped as the Vice President approached them, arms folded over her chest.

“Aquino. What are you doing?”

Lukas’ response was easy, “Just bringing Arizona to the washroom. She needs to fix herself.” The girl was about to snap an irritated reply when she felt Teresa’s eyes on her, feeling the concern begin to radiate off her friend.

“Are you okay, Sanchez?”

Arizona could have chosen to beg Teresa to make Lukas let her go.

But for some reason, the shortest of the three nodded. “I’m okay,” she heard herself tell Teresa. “Lukas is right. I have to fix myself.” She looked away after saying that and could tell that Lukas was looking at Teresa with a confident, knowing smirk. Teresa sighed.

“Alright. Don’t be late, it’s ten minutes to bell.”

“Yes, ma’am.” And he dragged Arizona away, the latter not catching sight of Beatriz Marasigan poking her head out and asking Teresa what was wrong.

They stopped in front of the lockers. Lukas let go of Arizona’s hand and looked at her properly for the first time since their earlier interaction.

“Arizona. What’s going on with you?”

“I don’t get you.”

“Don’t make me spell it out,” Lukas countered. He folded his arms over his chest as well, the same way Teresa’s were. “You and your friends. You’re not going with Elisa and the rest anymore. You’re glaring daggers at the new girl and I caught her smiling your way.”

“I know, I was being a piece of shit–” Arizona said tiredly, but Lukas interrupted her.

“No. Let me continue. She was smiling your way. But it wasn’t a nice smile. It was the kind of smile sadists would usually wear. The kind of smile you give me when I fuck up during Algebra class.” The girl rolled her eyes, but felt a shiver go down her spine at his words. “I’m not stupid. There’s animosity between you guys.”

“How observant.”

“Arizona.”

Her temper flipped. “What do you want me to tell you, Aquino?” she snapped. Lukas lifted a brow. “Do you want me to tell you my problems so that you can help me through them, gain my trust and suddenly turn your back on me like you did last year?” Arizona’s words were sharp. Lukas’ cool façade cracked a little. “You haven’t apologized, Lukas. You haven’t. So what makes you think I’ll confide to you this time around?”

The male sighed and tucked his hands into his pockets.

“You didn’t ask Teresa to tell me to let go of you. If you really didn’t need my help, you would have been back in the classroom and Teresa would be grilling me about staying away from you,” he answered dryly. Arizona fell silent. “That’s how I know. I know you, Zone. You don’t hold grudges forever.”

“I resent–”

“Bullshit,” he cut in. “You remember but forgive. You always have.”

Arizona scowled yet didn’t say anything more.

“Now wash your face.” He leaned against a locker, his form relaxing slightly, “And I’ll wait here. Then we can go back to the classroom and pretend that nothing really happened.”

“Elisa will see that we came in together–”

“What, are you ashamed of me?”

Arizona gave him a hard look. “Don’t get confident just because I’m letting you talk to me again, Aquino. Trust isn’t something that can easily be restored within a span of five minutes.”

And she stalked off to the washroom, leaving Lukas alone with a sigh leaving his lips.

* * * * *

Sitting across Arizona, who was eating her salad and sandwich, made Lukas remember their happier times during the beginning of Freshman year.

It made him almost nostalgic.

To make the long story short: he liked her, he was afraid of her finding out, he pushed her away, she got angry. Arizona remained bitter and cold towards him until that very day. He couldn’t blame her.

Lukas played a front that he didn’t need her – that he didn’t need anyone, mostly. He built up the persona so fast that the rest of the level caught on and called him an Ice Prince – the Ice Prince of the Freshmen batch.

Those who had heard of his and Arizona’s encounters remarked that perhaps Arizona would be the one who could melt his apparently frozen heart. But she shut down the rumors, snarking that there was no chance Lukas Aquino’s heart would ever melt.

“I’m not telling you.”

“I’m not expecting you to.” Not yet, he thought. “I just thought you needed company, instead of sulking at your usual table and stabbing your spaghetti.”

“I do not stab my spaghetti–”

“You want to stab her, don’t you?” he countered. Arizona rolled her eyes. Lukas took that as a yes. “The new student."

“Your words, not mine.” The male smirked and watched as she finished eating, the girl wiping her mouth with the tissue.

“Zone.” Arizona looked at him, “Not to force…but you should tell me what’s wrong before it starts to eat you up.”

“How are you so sure that I’ll tell you what’s bothering me, Aquino?”

“I know you.” He repeated his words from earlier, “You can’t keep it in for so long. Stuff like that tends to drown you.” The other sighed, running her fingers through her hair and looking even more troubled.

“…not yet.”

“What?”

“Not yet,” she repeated. “I have to work this out and see if it’s an actual bother or if it’s something that’ll pass easily. I don’t want to overreact over nothing.”

Lukas noticed that her tone took a sort of defeated tinge.

“You can tell me–”

“I’ll tell you when I have to,” she repeated firmly. She rose from her seat, clutching the used plate and utensils. “Thank you for accompanying me. I’ll see you in the classroom.”

With that, she turned to leave him for the second time.

Lukas let her. Heaving a sigh, he turned his attention from her back to the surrounding tables – particuarly to the table of Elisa’s group. Elisa had her back turned, not noticing that Arizona was leaving the cafeteria.

The smaller girl next to her, however, did. Lukas noticed the girl’s eyes seem to follow Arizona’s form until the latter was out.

Ame Villa caught Lukas’ gaze.

She smiled innocently, waved her fingers at him, and turned away.

Lukas could have sworn that he had seen a girl with messy blonde hair and a crown on her head right where Ame was sitting, her doll-like hand holding Elisa tightly around the neck.