208 Finish Line (1/2)

Time slipped by in a hurry and following a period of me trying out different lingerie, clothing, and accessories, it all ended. It was quite embarrassing to try out these new clothing items, but I guess since Elise is relatively a stranger to me, it's better than having to wear all of this in front of the girls. With the money that I had converted from SP, I spent without any worries. However, I did try and contain how much I spent as I did not want Elise to be surprised by how much money an ordinary high school girl like me would have. Even with me trying to limit my spendings, I still spent a pretty large amount of money for today: near 10000 Vil.

The bags started piling up, and things became very heavy as I tried to carry them by myself. Elise had purchased not nearly as much as I did, and she offered to help me carry some of the items I had purchased. I declined her offer as I did not want to cause any unnecessary burden to befall her and she accepted my excuse with a chuckle. However, she did leave me to my devices, allowing me to carry the merchandise that I had purchased. Occasionally, she would look over and ask me with a concerned look on her face.

When we exited the mall, the sun was setting, and in this twilight hour of the day, the city was still busy, bustling with activity. The ambiance noise was populated by the sound of footsteps, sounds of chatter among the crowd, and sounds of the traffic as the automobiles drove by, stopping at the lights and going when they turn green. The bright city lights illuminated this scene. The streetlights hanging over the roads shined on the marked roads, the streetlights on the wide city sidewalk showed to the pedestrian where they are going along with the lights spilling out from the windows of storefronts, and the lights from the buildings lighted up the skyline. It was quite a beautiful sight to behold.

”Let me walk you home,” Elise said to me. ”You're carrying an awful lot of stuff for a lone girl to bring home on your own. There's a possibility that you might be targetted by criminals to be robbed.”

”It's fine,” I said to her. ”I don't live in Nocsinis, so it'll be a long way home for me. I was thinking of getting a taxi home.”

”It's still not as safe as having someone with you,” she insisted. ”What district do you live in?”

”Lumina,” I answered Elise, touched by her concerned countenance.

”Really?” Her face lit up. ”I live in that district to so it'll be on my way home as well. It shouldn't be that much of a detour.”

”I guess you're right,” I nodded and smiled. ”Then let's go together.”

After calling a taxi with the app on our phone, we waited on the side of the street near the curb, waiting for our car to show up. I checked my phone to monitor the status of the car, and on the map displayed, it was easy to tell that the taxi car was quickly approaching our location. Like the app had predicted, the taxi car arrived in 45 seconds. The driver, a man in his late forties, saw the many bags in our hands, immediately opened the trunk and got out from the car to help us put the bags away in the back.

I'm not the one that usually the type of people that judge others based off of appearance, but for some reason, the way this man looked at me made me quite uneasy. It felt almost as if...he was checking me out. His eyes lingered a bit too long on my legs and my waist... It was a rather uncomfortable feeling, and when I boarded the car, I avoided sitting in the center of the back seats and sat behind the driver so that he would not be able to cast his gaze in my direction.

The taxi car started driving, moving at a slow speed due to traffic, but once it entered the highways and started in the direction of Lumina, the speed of the vehicle increased. The skyscrapers viewed from this elevated highway was a rather spectacular sight, especially in the night. When the car started going across the Helliger, it was even more so with the wide river reflecting the skyline on either bank of it.

As I enjoyed the view, I was quite cautious that the driver wasn't enjoying another type of view, and that is my body. Occasionally, I would glance over at the rearview mirror to see if the driver was, in fact, looking at the road and not at us in the back seats. On the occasions I did check, he was paying attention to the road. And in the end, it would appear that my worries were a bit unjustified as we arrived at our destination without any issues.

The driver helped us retrieve our belongings from the car trunk, and after we made sure we have everything, the car drove off, leaving Elise and me standing before the building that I resided in near the river banks of the Helliger River. Cold wind blew in from the mouth of the river near the harbor, moving our hair as it blew by us. It was a chilling feeling, but the view definitely made up for it.

On the occasions that I would come home at nighttime, I would always take a second to admire this beautiful view of the highrise building that I resided in with its decorative exterior lights with the Helliger River and the reflection of Nocsinis skyline in the background. Even I marveled at this view, so let alone Elise.

”Wow,” she whispered. ”Your house is in a really good location. What a view!”

”Thanks,” I chuckled in response.

”It must be so nice to be able to have such a great view from your window,” she commented. ”It must be nice to enjoy the cool nighttime wind by the river during the summer.”

What she said sort of reflected what I would occasionally do during the summertime. Even though it was rather hot, the riverbanks are always rather cool due to the wind that blew in from the mouth of the river. Therefore, I would sometimes just come down to the ground floor, walk over to the guard rails by the river and simply lean on it while listening to music in my earbuds. Just imagine it. After a long, miserable day in hot weather that makes you lazy, just coming down to a beautiful riverbank and enjoying some cool breezes...that's like heaven.

”I think I can make my way up to my own floor just fine,” I turned and said to Elise.

”Okay,” Elise nodded. ”Hey, lets exchange phone numbers.”

”Sure,” I said, reaching into my purse and grabbing my phone.

”There,” she said after entering in my number into her contacts list. ”This way, we can talk to each other whenever we want.”