My Servant Is An Elf Knight From Another World

Chapter 1012: Four’s a Party

It was going to be half-past two and still the corners on either end of the road echoed no rumbling engine hinting toward Hayley’s arrival.

Thirty minutes ago she called ahead of time stating that she’ll be at the front of my house twenty minutes ago, and unless I’ve gotten my relativity of time with reality’s a little mixed up, safe to say that the woman was running a little late on the clock.

No problem, usually, waiting was easy.

Waiting in a suit-and-tie under the glare of a sunny afternoon sky on the other hand... not so easy. But beneath the poorly shaded canopy of my porch, I persevered.

Yeah, I could’ve hunkered down in the living room, but putting on these shoes took an exorbitant amount of effort and time that I didn’t wanna repeat, so persevered I did. Bravely, too.

Phone in my hand and its dim glow in my tired eyes, I weighed the notion of calling her again against the fact that it’s only really been two minutes since my last attempt got sent to voicemail—then my phone buzzed with a vigorous suddenness.

Alas, it wasn’t Hayley ringing me back with ’my bad’s and ’on the way’s. Rather, it was her more mischievous and, as of late, enigmatic blonde counterpart that blipped herself into my notifications.

<<Pigtails Vampire :3 >> Amanda sent, followed by a photo attachment of Adalia, feet and dress dangling over her living room sofa.

Half her face was obscured by the rounded bottom of a coffee mug, leaving just a pair of blank, white eyes to try and have an unsettling staring match with. The bangs that usually went over brows were gone, parted away to further accentuate the new hairdo she was sporting. The aforementioned pigtails; her usual messy locks of silver bundled, curled and finished at the end with white ribbons.

<<Very cute.>> I texted back, not knowing what else to say. This can’t be the reason she’s having Adalia go over there, right? I fail to see how hairstyling had to do with anything.

<<And it looks like vampires can appear in photos after all. More you know>> Amanda remarked, accompanied by another photo of Adalia, thirst quenched, and frozen in time with her tongue out, attempting to lick away the white foam that had formed over her lips.

What’s a level above being ’very cute’? Whatever it was, that’s Adalia.

<<Oh Adalia mentioned youre headed to a party today>> Amanda dinged again. What came after was the longest momentary staredown I ever had with three tiny pixelated dots. <<Cool>>

I hastily typed out a reply. <<Tell me what the hell you’ve been doing over there and I might consider taking you with me.>>

<<No>> her triple dots came back with.

<<Can’t go anyway... much too busy doing whatever the hell Im doing over here so oh well :P>>

<<And Hayleys told me all about it already. Aint my thing. But you have fun with her alright?>>

Then my phone buzzed again. And again, and again, and even more times.

<<But not too much fun>>

<<Ok???>>

<<You hear me?>>

<<Heyy>>

<<forreal here>>

<<Lik e Im actually serious>>

<<I swear if you somehow make her fall in love with you too Ill freakin...>>

<<Ill do something idk>>

<<Relax.>> I sent, attempting to wrangle and subdue the vibrating beast in my grasp. <<I’m there because Dad invited me to go. I don’t go to fancy parties to score. Or do you think I just go around picking up women like they’re wild Pokemon?>>

<<Other way round handsome>> she retorted. <<Youre the easy catch around here>>

A faint rumbling trickled my ears. I looked it up and I heard something else, something louder—the hum of an engine, wheels on asphalt—then pulling up on my driveway was a bright, white SUV I’d occasionally see parked around the block of the cafe.

"Hey, she’s here!" I announced, rapping the front door once on my way down the porch. "Let’s go!"

My phone buzzed one more time as I strode along. I gave it a look and could only shake my head in response.

<<Stay out of the tall grass okay? <3 >>

The driver-side window whirred down the moment I neared and Hayley surfaced into view, wearing a fancy outfit of her own and flashing a smile as sweet as the cherry red gleaming across her lips.

"Sorry! I know I’m late," she said, inclining her head a little. "Had to detour to the cafe along the way. Needed to drop something off, and—Oh my god, Ash! Is that really you?! You look amazing!"

Drawing up behind me, Ash returned the compliment with the humblest smile and bow. "Thank you for the kind words, Lady Hayley, I—"

"What? ’Lady’? Hayley’s just fine, Ash," she said with a chuckle. "Elf-Knight you may appear to be, but we’re all friends here, ’kay? Unless... we aren’t? Are we? What do you think?"

"I believe we are indeed," Ash bowed her head again. "Hayley."

A flutter of purple rippled closely behind Ash. Another shade of purple ever so slightly distinct that did not belong to the sway of her dress. Hayley, having noticed, peeked her head around, gaze going askew and brows shooting immediately up.

"Oh, and you’re... you’re... yeah, I’ve seen you around before. Your name’s—"

"Sarah," I answered for the giant blanket of purple harboring a peering pair of golden eyes over Ash’s shoulder. "She’s, um... she’s a close friend of Ash."

"Sarah. Right, Sarah," Hayley snorted in bemusement. "Sarah the Sera cosplayer, of course. So, are you... you’re gonna be coming along with us, Sarah?"

"Yeah," chimed me once again. "She heard about the party, wanted to come along. Last minute addition."

"Oh, but it’s not that kind of party, you know?" Hayley said, choosing to continue directing her queries squarely at her. "Not exactly like the one we had here. Are you sure you wanna come?"

"She knows there’s gonna be good food," said not-Sera again. "That’s good enough for her."

"Okay, but... dressed like that?"

Quietly, I heard Sera take slight offense to that.

"It’s... traditional where she’s from. Plus they kinda match anyway, so... "

Fortunately, that was the end of the very first Hayley and Sera one-on-one if you dare even call it that. Time was ticking and it seemed it had dawned on her right at the perfect time and just nodded once in blind general acceptance.

"Alright, hop in everyone! Seat wherever, get comfy. The place isn’t too far away so we’ll be there quick enough."

Somehow, due to the whimsy of luck, fate, or just plain muscle memory from riding shotgun in Dad’s truck too many times now, I ended up buckling my seatbelt next to Hayley while Sera and Ash sat bunkered together at the back.

Probably should’ve strapped myself somewhere not within conversation range, but too late to fling myself out the car now. Away we went.

It was a little after Hayley sent us cruising down roads packed side by side with the afternoon traffic that the inevitable happened, when the not-so-subtle leer somewhere in the corner of my vision finally got much too intrusive to ignore any longer.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Nothing," Hayley replied, the leering stopping, attention shifting rightfully back onto the road for the moment. "Nice suit, though. Very snazzy."

"Thanks. You look good too."

"Seriously. Real handsome. And then seeing you and Ash side-by-side together like that..." a whistle escaped her puckered lips. "...I mean it certainly looked like something, alright. Something, indeed."

No comment. Not sure if there was even anything right to say to that.

"How was work while you were still there by the way?" Hayley went on without skipping a beat. "Please don’t tell me it was as empty as when I dropped by just now. I’ll cry."

I shrugged. "I mean... can’t always be having good days forever, right?"

She let out a weak pitiful sob.

"So, about this party..." I began.

"Yes, about this party," she perked up at once, leering again, except even more somehow. "Anything you wanna know? Anything you wanna say? Or like—is there anything that should be said? What is it?"

"I... just wanted to know what it’s supposed to be for."

"Ohhh," Hayley kept the oh-ing going, stretching the single syllable to a seemingly indefinite end, or at least still she ran out of breath. "So the party’s all you wanted to know about the party. I see. Great."

Ash looked slightly on edge with the tone Hayley was using when I caught a glance of her between our exchanges. Can’t say I blame her.

"It sounds to me like you wanted me to say something else about it instead," I remarked.

"Me? No! No! Of course not!" She lied and bluffed, shaking her head vigorously in the motions of deceit. "I just can’t help but notice that this is another golden event you’re partaking in... and again, for some strange baffling reason, it isn’t Amanda you’ve taken to be with you."

Ash, I noticed again, seemed to have sunk a little further into her seat. Or maybe it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.

I sighed. "Hayley, didn’t we already go over this before?"

"I’m just saying! I’m just saying!" She exclaimed. "I’m keeping my promise. Not prying or snooping, or whatever. I’m just making a little observation that I can’t help but to... observe. That’s all. You were saying?"

"The party we’re headed to. What’s the occasion exactly?"

She scoffed. "You got invited for something and you don’t even know what that something is about?"

"My dad’s the one with the actual invite, I’m just tagging along," I clarified. "And then I went and invited Ash and Sarah along for the experience because I’m just nice and considerate like that, okay? That clear?"

I tacked on that last bit for both her sake and mine because Hayley was still looking at me as if my nose was going to stretch out and grow at any moment and scrape away at her nice windshield.

"Plus Amanda would rather stay home and work on whatever the hell she’s been working on than go out with me. But you’re her friend, right? Best friend? You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?"

I tried to look at her again but all of a sudden she didn’t seem as keen to meet my gaze no more. That traffic light she’s staring at me must be pretty interesting. Must be the red. Matches her dress.

"All this time trying to get me to admit to secrets and suspicions," I continued on. "You wouldn’t be hiding anything yourself, right? No secrets I oughta know that you’re withholding?"

"Nope," Hayley said, straight-faced and abrupt. And lucky for her, she wasn’t wearing any pants. They’d be blazing right then. "What were you asking about the party again?"

A little taste of her own medicine... and what bitter medicine it was, she has come to find.