DianaIt was time for the last class of the day and I was worried when Martin didn't come to join us at our spot at the cafeteria. I don't think he even came into the room at all. Jane had talked about it because she found it strange, and she asked me if all was well. I told her we were alright and that nothing serious happened. Deep down, I knew he was avoiding me but I didn't know why because I was not the one that jumped into the strong arms of Adam, neither did I break his heart and stepped on the pieces.Just like with Vance, it dawned on me that I was dealing with another consequence of Flavia's breakup while she went around living her life like she didn't have a care in the world. Vance, as if to show me he meant business, kept appearing everywhere, bestowing me with different disgruntled looks to cue me in on what I'll be going through if I didn't do as he ordered.Wanting to resolve whatever issue Martin had with me, I waited in front of the class, bouncing on my feet as I wo
DianaI couldn't find Jane after school so I hitched a ride with Martin because I wanted him to drop me off at our town's only car repair shop. My heart felt relieved that I had my friend back even though our separation was only for some hours. Luckily, the awkward situation with our history teacher was easily resolved by us rushing into the class to the snickering of the other students. On our way home, Martin kept talking about this regional math competition his team were planning to enter. He was so excited that I kept begging him to keep his eyes on the road, even though our little town was accident-free because the roads were not busy. My brain knew this fact, but the trauma I was suffering from refused to completely settle whenever I was in a car. It took me two years, after the accident, to enter a car and not flinch or panic, another year to get my car, and one more to be comfortable with the speedometer passing the seventy mark. Yeah, I had a car of my own. It just happened
DianaIf I told you I understand what happened with Adam, I would be lying. As I sat in front of the vanity in my room, staring at my face, I knew I had messed up. Shame filled every cell in my body, causing me to groan as I replayed what happened. Walter was on my bed, his big brown eyes on me probably wondering what I had done now. I heard my aunt car's come into the yard and I checked the butterfly clock on the wall above my bed. It was past nine. I didn't make dinner because we had leftovers from the other night and aunt didn't like wasting food. The sound of the front door getting shut got me moving to go say hello. I came to a halt at top of the stairs when I saw my aunt with her eyes closed and a dreamy smile on her face. She had her lower lip trapped between her teeth. “Aunt Lucia–” she jumped as if caught red-handed stealing, “are you okay?” I walked down the stairs.She bobbed her head repeatedly, giving me a shaky smile. I noticed she avoided my eyes for some seconds befo
DianaMy school life hasn't been the same these past two days. Vance was serious about making my life a living hell. There was nothing he hadn't already done and I was just on day two. He was making it clear by every means possible that he meant business. It's either I got Flavia back to him or I got ready to live in hell. I had to force Jane, who also looked like she was going through her hell, to not do anything. I made her promise not to say anything to Martin because I knew he would try his best to defend me. I didn't want him getting into a fight now that he was busy trying to get ready for his maths competition. Besides, I was worried about Jane. The dark circles under her eyes and her face looking pale and deathly had me wondering what was wrong, but she refused to confide in Martin and me. That was why I didn't give her details of what that bully was making me go through.Vance and his brainless soliders cornered me on my way to my English class, caging me in as Vance said all
DianaThe next morning, as I waited for Martin to come to pick me up, I heard a car drive into our yard. Thinking it was Martin, I opened the door and came out carrying my bowl of cereal with Walter on my tail. I stopped short when I saw my car with Adam in the driver's seat. My heart froze when he opened the door and stepped out in full slow-mo. His dirty blond hair was the first thing I saw before I allowed my eyes to travel down his athletic body. He had another one of his famous wisdom black shirts on with words on it about living life fast before death knocked. It was partly tucked into black ripped jeans. He wore a navy blue corduroy shirt over the t-shirt. His grey eyes were on my face for a moment before they fell on Walter. His lips curved into a smile unlike any I had ever seen as he whistled at my dog. The betraying animal left me and ran to him, wagging his tail excitedly. «Go, Walter! Teach Diana how it's done.» Matthew whooped in my head.After playing with Walter for
JaneMy head felt heavy and I groaned, placing a hand lightly on my head. Diana was calling my name repeatedly, her concern for me bleeding into her voice. I tried to open my eyes immediately, but the lights were too bright, so I was forced to pry them open slowly. When I did, the view remained the same. The ever-familiar pitch-black hair and ocean blue eyes, double chin and goatee had my eyes narrowing. He was looking back at me and I saw concern and surprise in his features. I didn't get to look at him more because Penelope and Diana filled my vision. I sat up slowly with their help.“Are you okay?” They chorused. I took a quick look around and found the rest of the students murmuring as they watched me. I didn't see any flashlights that would indicate people were recording, but I did see plenty of bored stares and sharp glares. They probably didn't because the principal would have punished whoever did with a week in detention. The man named Flynn was by my side, one of his hands
LuciaMy eyes went to the clock and I released a relieved sigh when I saw it was lunchtime. Because I had to take care of my demanding daughter, I was unable to eat or rest well for two days. To top it all off, I had to listen to my ex-husband tell me I was doing a poor job of raising his daughter like she wasn't my daughter too. The audacity of the fool to tell me such things while he was away playing sugar daddy to the young woman he left us for, got me mad. I had to behave myself in front of the kids, especially Flavia, but now that I was at work, I didn't have to hide how I truly felt. My friend and coworker, Helen, who unlike me was happily married to the love of her life, placed her hands on my shoulders. “When are you going to tell me what is bothering you? You've been pushing yourself hard all morning. Aren't you tired?” I released another sigh, glancing up before I spoke, “You won't believe what Richard told me.” She knew who Richard was so I didn't have to explain.“You
DianaI knew something was wrong with Jane, her behaviour after gym class confirmed what I already knew. Martin hadn't been around because he and some members of his club had gone for the first phase of their competition. If not, he would have been there to witness what happened to Jane. I dropped a message for him on WhatsApp, telling him a bit about what happened. Immediately after the class finished, she rushed out of the hall like she was being chased. I was not the only one who noticed her weird behaviour as the rest got busy talking about her. Penelope responded like the good friend she was by glaring at the offending gossips. “I need to check what is wrong with her.” She said as she began to walk towards the direction Jane went. I wrapped a hand around her arm, pulling her along with me. She looked down at my hand around her arm because that was the first time I have touched her. “I don't think now is the time to chase after her. Jane closes up when you demand answers she isn
DianaI felt like my head was about to be ripped open as I opened my eyes. Slowly, the sound of activity filled my ears and I looked around me. I was in the emergency room of the hospital my aunt worked. The smell of bleach, blood and God knows what assaulted my senses, fighting for dominance. The overpowering smell caused nausea to crawl up my chest. A sharp pain travelled from the base of my spine and spread to the other parts of my body. I sucked in a breath to keep myself from crying out and pressed a hand to my left side. It was like I had a ton of bricks on my body, grinding and crushing the life out of me. A dark-clothed figure surprisingly rushed at me before I could see who it was and wrapped part of my upper body and head into a tight hug. Not knowing who it was, I stiffened and tried to free myself as I couldn't breathe well–not that I had a problem with the sandalwood scent I was currently inhaling. It was far better than the air I had been breathing some seconds back.“I
FlaviaThe displeasure I felt at having to deal with Vance earlier today refused to go away. I couldn't imagine what made me date the fool for so long. Having to put up with his higher-than-thou attitude just because of what I wanted to get from him had been nothing but torture. For months he had tried to get me to be his girlfriend, asking me out publicly while trying to be manly about it. I didn't care a fig about him but I didn't need to care for him to get things from him.I wouldn't have had to date the fool if mother had just given me things whenever I asked for them. Always, she would tell me she was saving for this and that and couldn't give me money every time I asked for it. To punish her while still getting what I wanted, I decided to teach her a lesson by accepting Vance as my boyfriend. I was so gleeful when I announced to her and my cousin that I was now dating the school's biggest contributor's son. Mother had opened and closed her mouth repeatedly like a fish before sh
DianaVance advanced and tried to land a punch on Adam's face but Adam moved out of the way quickly. Seething, he tried again but Adam was just so fast that his blows didn't graze him not to talk of touching him. For every failure, I watched Vance get angrier, his wide nose flaring as he grunted. Adam, on the other hand, looked like he was enjoying himself, his face had this unholy glint that made me think he was enjoying this. Vance almost got lucky when his punch looked like it would connect with Adam's tummy, but he twisted out of the way and kicked Vance brutally, causing him to fall unceremoniously to the ground. Vance jumped up and charged in but he still couldn't land a blow. Adam caught him by the arm and began punching him solidly in his face.I spared a glance towards Vance's friends, afraid they would try to interfere, but I saw them rooted to their spots, flinching as they watched their friend struggle to beat someone who was not up to his size. Vance went down on a knee,
DianaAfter the crazy day I had in school, all I wanted to do was to go home and rest. I was not surprised that Vance was punished lightly, even after we reported everything that happened during lunch was his fault. The principal dared to tell us that Martin provoked Vance and that Jane was out of line for wanting to save her friend. Our argument that Martin had to be treated at the nurse's office because of the injury he sustained fell on deaf ears. After punishing Vance with detention for a week, he took Mr Scott into his office, probably to brief him on whom the chairman of the school's committee was. Jane was so angry at Martin that she kept rubbing it in his face that Flavia didn't tell him thank you even after he jumped into the fray on her behalf. I tried to get her to calm down, but she was beyond listening to reason, she just kept talking. Poor Martin looked so glum with his swollen left eye as he sat listening to her without defending himself. Immediately the closing bell r
DianaThe next three days flew by so fast that I was left wondering if the person controlling time had it in for me. Jane had returned to school to the delight of Penelope, who had missed her and had been worried she was missing. Jane didn't want Martin to know about her pregnancy, so we had to cook up a story about her being depressed because she was unable to perform like she used, to which was partially true. Martin had been so concerned that I felt bad for lying to him, but we could not tell him the truth, especially now that the father of the baby was close by. I still hadn't gotten Flavia to take Vance back. Not that I was even trying after what I discovered some nights back. It was clear from all indications that she no longer had any interest in him or the comforts his father's wealth could provide. If I needed any proof that she was serious about Adam, that would be it. As each day zoomed by, I grew more anxious as my mind began to create dreams where Vance got to torture me
DianaJane took some steps back as she watched the victorious smile on my cousin's face, her already pale face losing all the colour it had succeeded in getting some minutes before. Quickly, I rushed to my cousin and held her by the arm, dragging her out of my room while telling Jane not to follow us before slamming my door shut.Jane was too unstable right now, and I didn't want Flavia sinking her teeth and releasing poison into her already troubled soul.“You were eavesdropping.” I attacked as soon as I took her far away from my room, folding my arms under my small breast. Flavia smirked before using a hand to throw back a stray strand of her platinum blonde hair.“Like your life was of any interest to me until now.” She replied with a smug smile. I closed the distance between us, intending to prove to her that I was not afraid of her. “You didn't hear anything.” My gaze was unflinching as I tried to force my will on her. She clucked her tongue while wiggling her forefinger.“Dear
DianaLater that night as I laid down on my bed trying to finish up my literature assignment which I was having trouble finishing because I couldn't concentrate, I got a text message from Jane. I quickly sat up, dislodging Walter who was lying on the bed with me. Jane: Hey, you up? I read the cryptic message like three times before I typed out my response.Me: Yes, I am. Where are you? 😟I waited for a minute, till a minute turned to five, then five turned to ten, and ten turned to twenty. When it seemed like I would not be getting a response any time soon, I decided to go take a shower and wash my hair, maybe then I would be able to remove the unrelenting thoughts about Adam and my best friend long enough to focus on my assignment.After twenty minutes of self-pampering, I came out of my bathroom with my eyes closed while I towel-dried my hair. A scream left my mouth when I saw Jane sitting on my bed beside Walter. My eyes went wide as I took in her appearance, wondering what the
DianaVance luckily didn't cause a scene, but he got Adam's name out of me. I released the name not because I was scared but because I knew he would get it from someone else; Adam's identity was no secret. Vance had to be the only one who didn't know anything about Adam, which was an indication that he was so removed from whatever went on around him that doesn't affect him.Immediately I told him what he wanted to know, he freed me, but not without telling me I had three days left to do what he told me to. I opened my mouth to argue that it was eight days not three, but I kept quiet when I realized it would only make him stay longer than he already had, and I didn't want that.After handling Vance, I met with Penelope and Martin in the hall as they chatted about Martin's outing yesterday for their club. Penelope's hair was packed in her usual loose pigtails. She twirled a tail absentmindedly around her forefinger as she gawked at my oblivious friend. It was ironic how Martin couldn't
DianaSo, last night would go down in history as one of the worst nights ever. In my heart was a mixture of emotions that had me feeling lethargic, without any strength to face the day. If I could be feeling this way, I wonder how my aunt felt after all that happened. I imagined she must be blaming herself for what happened the same way I was blaming myself for starting the whole freak show by inviting Mr Yukino over for dinner. If I hadn't tried to sort out someone's feelings of loneliness, this wouldn't have happened to us. The irony wasn't lost on me that I had been trying to help someone who felt alone and unappreciated when I also felt the same way....most times. The reason why we were slightly different was that I had my aunt, my dog, my friends and my brother. He had no one except his family who had relocated back to Japan, leaving him all alone here. I didn't need to solve anyone's problems when I still had mine to face. The thought of how I'd handle Vance and his soldiers t