We were not driving home. The deformed Harley Quinn girl in the front seat was taking routes that were unfamiliar to me. “Hector?” I called out to him in a breathless whisper. My energy levels were deteriorating faster than a damaged phone battery. It was late in the afternoon and the sun was saying its last goodbyes before heading off to sleep. “Where are we going?” I asked him after I got a hum as a response. “My place.” He told me. His voice was much deeper and louder now that my head was resting on his shoulder. “Why your place?” Ken asked. Ken was not happy that Hector had his arms around me. He tried to protest before we got into the car when Hector wanted to place me by his door then Hector eventually allowed me to sit in the middle between him and Ken to maintain peace. Ken was just being a little too extra. Unnecessarily. “You need to get that thing out of your systems.” Hector said. I wasn’t understanding him so I picked my head up to look at him but it started throbbing
There was pin-drop silence. No one did anything but stare at my necklace. For a minute, I thought the necklace was a dead giveaway that I was Mabel’s relative-well that was if the resemblance failed to alert them. “It looks ok, nothing interesting.” Lucia said with an eye roll. “Let me guess, you bought it at an old, boring antique store for a dollar or something?” This one held a lot of Hector’s snobby attitude that I have been made to deal with for weeks. If this was not a family dinner table filled with people Hector cherish a lot, I would’ve said a good comeback. “Um… yeah.” I replied and the tension in the room slowly died down. I could visibly see Hector exhale. The buzzing was back and I slowly put away the necklace and dug into my food. “So Hermione.” Emilio started and I already dreaded what he was going to say next. “How did you and Bernardo meet?” “Bernardo?” I turned to Hector with a look of shock and he had his face squeezed facing the ceiling. Dying internally. This
Ken and I were driven home around 10am. We got home about 30 minutes later and I was glad aunt Courtney was not home. Annalise said uncle Michael took her grocery shopping so she was going to be out for a while. I went upstairs and dumped myself on the bed. It’s been a long morning and I needed my little nap because this hot weather was adding to me being drained. I did sleep, but I did not think I was going to end up sleeping for the whole day. When I woke up it was around 3pm. I could hear voices coming from down stairs so I rushed down to see Ken arguing with his mother. Apparently his car was found in the middle of nowhere by someone the family knew since aunt Courtney tracked the car before hearing from Ken. Luckily it was taken care of and the person was good enough to put in a word to the insurance company to sort things out. About Ken’s face, he blamed it on soccer and having a fallout with someone in the team but the situation was sorted. I doubt she was going to believe t
“Tell me about your eating habits.” Mrs. Pierce had her closed note book in her hand. One leg was over the other and it managed to stretch her black pencil skirt. “I have little to say about my eating habits.” I told her. “Well then, tell me about that ‘little’.” “I eat a lot. That’s it.” I shrugged. “When did you eating a lot start?” Nice. That was very sneaky. She was always finding ways to make me mention my mother but I was always finding ways to dodge that side of the topic. “When I moved in with my aunt.” I said. “She has a lot of food in her house so I made myself comfortable.” “Did you always used to eat this much?”“Yes.” No. But she doesn’t know that. Who am I kidding? This woman has a degree in psychology, judging from the framed certificates on the wall above the little drawer not far from the exit. She waited for a while. We were doing this awkward staring competition. I get a dose of it every day and It’s like she never gives up in demanding answers with her eyes.
That night I couldn’t sleep. I had to speak to Derrick. One way or the other. I used my smartphone to scroll through Facebook. I found him, and sent him a message.Derrick: Hermione?Me: Can we chat more easily?Derrick: Ok, hw bout u call meHe said then sent me his numbers. Since I was still finding it difficult to save numbers. We were going to use WhatsApp instead to chat. A minute or so later I received a message from him and we began chatting. I told him about my findings and that Ken’s father might be the guy we are looking for.Derrick: Dd u tel Ken bout any of this?Me: Hell no! How am I supposed to go to him and just be like, ‘Ken, your father tried to kill us multiple times’! That’s insane. We need to do something before he does something else to harm us.Derrick: U r right. We will figure things out properly tmrw. Bt I suggest confronting the dude.Me: No, not yet. Let us see if he is our main guy first before jumping to conclusions.Derrick: Ok, no problemDerrick was sti
It was Monday. Another day of counseling, another day of endless work, another day to incur a headache. I was not thrilled about anything, but what I was thrilled about was meeting up with Derrick so we could sort out this uncle Michael thing. When I walked into school there were students flooded around a tree and it had roses and other kinds of flowers. Mr. Henry’s picture hung on the tree as students gave him their respect. I felt a zap on my chest. I hadn’t come with anything to offer him and I felt like I was a selfish heartless student who did not care. I stood in front of his portrait and just stared. Even my brain was blank. I did not know what to say to him. A tear rolled down my face, yet I did not know if it was for me or for him. Someone pushed pass me and left a yellow bouquet on the floor under the portrait were the dozen other Flowers and letters were placed. She moved aside and walked away. There were words printed on the bouquet. Rest in peace. I pray he does. I
“Yes. I understand.” Aunt Courtney said in a low tone. She listened for a while and I patiently practiced what Hector taught me just a few days ago. I was in my bedroom when I heard her answer her phone call.“The contractors said they will not speak to anyone unless it is you. You have to be present for this otherwise they will cut the deal off.” The person on the other end of the call told her.“How long is it?” Aunt Courtney asked.“About two weeks.” The lady on the call said.“Ok, fine. I will be there.” Aunt Courtney huffed irritated.She ended the call and I heard her walk out of her room. I walked out of my room as well and went downstairs to join everyone for dinner.We all sat at the dinner table and quietly ate. The clicking of the cutlery on crockery echoed around the room. The light sounds bothered me a bit, but I tried my best to minimize the it in my mind for my own good.“I will be flying to Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon.” Aunt Courtney revealed at the dinner table. For
The following day, I did not see Bree or her clique for rehearsals. I heard that they did not come to school because of the video circulating, and that the police had visited their homes this morning. Pity. Anyways, I managed to toss the tracker, that Derrick had given me, on the backseat floor of uncle Michael’s car. He left for ‘work’ an hour after Ken and I left the house. Derrick was the one keeping track on him. I was going to find out details from him around lunch break. Mrs. Pierce was back to jotting things down in her notebook and I was feeling off about it. Of course I couldn’t say anything concerning it so I just stared and answered questions like a robot. “Hermione.” She had said when we were finished with our session this morning. “I would like you to have this. It will help you express yourself a lot more without holding back. It will be yours to keep and don’t worry, I will not bother you for it.” She handed me something that looked like a journal. The cover was brig