With a gasp, Gianna bellowed, "What the..." But her outburst was cut short for a while at the illuminated image of a mischievously grinning being. "What the hell did you do?" "Gave you a harmless shower." "You ba—" Sean's arm snaked her neck and from the back, he held her neck tightly and pushed her head toward his chest giving onlookers an impression of a profound hug to a returning lover. "Hey, now, hold that damn tongue of yours back, will you?" His voice was a still whisper around his prey's ears as his grip tightened causing her to wince in excruciating pain. "Unless you want me to do it for you my way." "I wasn't supposed to look for you after our last encounter in the sanctuary, remember? but you made me do it. As if that wasn't enough, you got yourself a guarding dog. I want you to get him out of our business and that stupid stammerer too, else they'll get hurt and I want to see you at my lunch table every day from next week. You should be obediently seated before my arri
"I-I've always felt tha-at girl had bad blo-ood but not to-to this extent." Gianna frown's deepened at a sticker on her notebook cover as if it had offended her more than Kelly's surprising breakout two nights ago. She'd narrated the entire story to Mimie careful enough to not mention the new light her mum viewed her in and of course Sean's threats lest it reached Adam's ears. But then, Kelly's attitude ached Gianna so much that she couldn't help but wonder why she said that. Perhaps she was too fast to conclude; Kelly could possibly have been under the influence of her brother. Blood is thicker than water. "I thought alcohol wasn't sold to minors." Mimie pulled out her glasses and rubbed a smudge away from them with the hem of her blouse. With her eyes squinted she said, "True. That's be-below eighteen or twenty-one in some ci-cities. Even though the t-town's federal drinking age is from twenty as stric-ctly decreed by the mayor si-since two years ago, do you believe Sean to b
"And you forgave her? Just like that?" Adam surprisingly interrogated as they walked through the congested corridor towards the exit. "Why, wasn't I supposed to? May I remind you that she was abused and threatened by her own brother." Adam scowled with a grunt. "I-I suddenly fe-feel bad for misjudging." "Me too." From afar, Gianna spotted a black familiar BMW. "Oh my, I almost forgot about this. Gotta go guys." Thanks to her father, her penalty had been deducted to twelve days, her visit to the city unharmed. Mimie and Adam went on with their journey home. Timider than before, Mimie preferred to wander her gaze around as she waited for Adam to initiate a conversation as it has been. She didn't know why, but whenever she was with him, her heart raced and only a while ago did she realize that she appreciated his company almost as much as Gianna's. Something that never occurred as far as the opposite sex was concerned. Never did she imagine that she will someday get this close to A
The journey to school was the most soothing and exhilarating in a long while; her father sat behind the steering wheel. He introduced an old game of theirs that consisted of guessing either a fruit or an animal with the opponent's given letter within a given time. Preferably within seconds. With Gianna leading, Petra promised to surpass her sister during their next encounter before walking out of the car. Finally alone with her father, Gianna took the little pause between them to ponder on the previous day. She would've loved to play the binding referee as soon as possible had it been Adam was in school. He alerted neither her nor Mimie about his absence. And when they made time to reach him, they kept falling into the answering machine. Mimie who had promised to check up on him in person returned with feedback from his auntie that he had traveled on short notice and will be back the next day. She was officially going to be sixteen on Saturday and she wondered how things will un
"Is there something going on between you and Sean that I should know of?" Elodie triggered. Perplexed and somehow insulted, Gianna snickered. "I don't understand you. What are you precisely saying?" Elodie approached her scapegoat. "What I'm trying to say is, are you seeing my boyfriend? Is there something more between you two behind this facade?" Gianna grunted, "facade? Because you think all this I've been encountering in the hands of 'your boyfriend' is some sick joke? Oh please," Gianna swung her bag over her shoulder. "Save your saliva and time if you do not have a tangible or realistic reason to hold me back next time. Excuse me." Her entire walk away was halted, with a hand on her arm, the very instant she walked an inch past Elodie. "I'm warning you, Gianna," she menacingly held Gianna's gaze. "Stay away from Sean. He loves me so stop wasting your time rubbing yourself on him." Gianna could not believe her ears. She brutally detached her arm from Elodie's grip and faced h
Saturday had finally arrived with the house as quiet as Cold Spring's graveyard. Apart from Mimie and Adam's midnight calls of boisterous wishes, there was nothing. Nothing else felt birthdayish. Disappointed, neither Seth nor Julia called or messaged. Vexed, her parents must have already left home without a word. Slightly surprised, Kelly messaged her, called, and even went the extra mile of changing the book donation group subject to 'It's our registrar's birthday.' That lashed chains of wishes from all seventeen members. Since the restroom talk, there hasn't been any major encounter, but the nanoseconds they casually met in the cafeteria and involuntarily in the corridors proved that she was recovering physically. She hoped mentally too. And she prayed for that day to come when she'll want Kelly to cool the unattainable itches on her back. Her apple wall clock read 8:50 a.m. She sighed and began to prepare for the first step into the most boring birthday of her life hadn't it be
"I'm so ashamed of myself. I don't like this. She has to know," Seth spilled through gnashing teeth, immensely ravaged. "Of all places, you think here and now's right for you to talk about it or tell her? Come on, you reason way better than that, Seth. Step up your game and do what you have to do. It's now or never." "Do what?" Gianna intervened after a long ride of searching. "You two just dotted out of the gathering without a word. Is everything alright?" Rigid to the marrow, Julia asked, "Have you been there for long?" "No, why?" "Thank goodness," she pulled her bewildered friend closer. "Seth has a special surprise for you. We're lucky it's not ruined. Go on Seth, don't be shy. With that, lovebirds, I'm out." Gianna shyly turned to Seth swinging back and forth on her heels and toes, waiting. Nervously. So far the most nervous moment of her life. Choked on her lover's silence, she went on with, "so...what is this 'special surprise'?" Seth dug his hands in his pocket and suck
Gianna was staring at the home party invitation card Elodie had given her before hopping into Gerald's car for home. With her name precisely inscribed on it, nothing bode well. She'd heard about Elodie Jones' house parties, "Hell's bait", organized almost every month and how top-notch, over man's expectations, they often were. Given the constant absence of her parents, Elodie made good use of the opportunity to throw irresponsible parties, regardless, absent or not she still had a party permit with the sole difference being parent's recommended upper-cruster's kids responsibly discussing over tea, cakes, patties, and hired violinists or pianists performances. Modest parties. What a bag of bore. But what she had never heard about was the distribution of invitation cards. Gianna glowered at the shimmery pink card on her study table. It terribly stunk of pungent intentions. Especially if she had to add the girl's uncertainties about her relationship with Sean. Gianna shuddered at th
It was a tough fight.The basement was unusually overcrowded. No one wanted to miss out on Ring Kong's final fight, especially not with the 'pretty face stranger' involved—as the homeless natives referred to him. The news of Sean confronting Kong had spread like wildfire so much to the entry fee collector's surprise. That night, he'd made more money than he'd ever made in the history of its existence, he was quite a devoted employee: he's been since thirty-five. Now forty-two, single, and searching? Not sure, Strav's excitement was unmatched as he flipped through a stack of bills, outlining the expenditures of his share. He'll finally put his landlord on a door number 38 break, afford a ticket to watch his favorite football team play, get himself a brand-new toaster, and restock his fridge with enough booze to take him through a week or two. Now that sounded like a perfect plan.That very night, Strav had seen faces; ones he'd seen once and never again, ones he'd never seen before, on
"What are you doing here?"Adam seemed amused by the question. "Talking with you, of course." But there was no linger of humor around Gianna.Adam cleared his throat. "Fine, I'll tell you what, but not here. Unfortunately, I'm yet to get familiar with this place. Plus, it's not appropriate for catch up...care to come over?"What has familiarity got to do with anything? She almost asked. "No.""Come on, Gigi. It's been months since we saw each other, don't you think it'll be the perfect time to catch up? There's a whole lot I need to tell you if it's not your case. So?""Adam I can't. I can't do whatever I want when I want. I owe my uncle and his wife some respect."He held both of her shoulders. "Visiting a long-time-no-see friend for some catching up isn't wrong. Maybe you should let me talk to them, I'll make them understand that I'm absolutely harmless.""Oh my God, no, are you crazy?"Adam shrugged, and with a straight face, he replied, "Guess I am, ever since I met you." "Oh, pl
"Follow me." Viktor stamped a bill on the bar counter and walked through a cascade of thick wooden-beaded curtains that led to a dimly lit corridor with his friend on his tail. It had doors on either side. He knocked and opened a door that had a man sitting behind a counter. That, with 3 chairs and a TV made up the tiny stale-smelly room. Viktor spoke with him and deposited some bills on the dirty counter. The man hollered something in Russian but Viktor waved it away as he pulled open the floor.It shocked Sean, but what almost knocked the breath out of his chest was what was below. He would never have thought in a thousand years.They were hit first by contesting blows of luminosity and noise from a crowd of not more than a hundred men surrounding a caged boxing-sized ring. Some faces, he'd seen before; they were permanent residents of his different 'homes'. A heated fight was the source of the hollers and tumult. They were so loud that he wondered why he didn't hear them from abov
She hoped wrong. Very wrong."Rianna, I got you a seat right next to me, come," Elsa invited."It's Gianna," Gianna gently corrected."It's going to take at least two weeks for her to get your name right. Took her a month to get Tay from Fay right." Tay took the seat behind Gianna's destined chair while Teesha occupied that behind Elsa."Roughly three weeks from Treeshay to Teesha. Can you believe she called me 'Cheat' in French?"Elsa rolled her eyes, "Oh come on now girls, y'all make it seem like I'm a ditz or something."Gianna stifled a giggle."Heard Mr. Stevenson is taking AP Biology this year," Teesha announced."Oh gawd, why me?" Elsa flattened her jaw to the desk with a grimace. "Not Mr. Hot with the bad teaching skills. He gonn' make me hate reproduction, I can feel it deep in my bones. Someone call the academic cops on him.""Is he that bad?" Gianna set her notebook on the desk."Nah, she's simply more attentive to his features than his teachings. And the 'hate' part of the
It's been a little over sixteen weeks since Sean made the chilly streets and dark alleys of Moscow his home, his bed. His duffle bag, which diligently served as a pillow with what he wore excluded, had nothing more than four pairs of jeans, two tees and a hoodie against the night's blistering cold, his passport, a wallet with a few notes to sustain the little his stomach demanded for another four weeks or so, a cap to shield his face from lingering eyes and UV light, and a pocket knife for precautions. Safe to say the latter never saw the darkness of his duffle bag from the day he purchased it from a local store not too far from the alley he slept in that night. Another one of such assets was a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. The nicotine has helped him a ton lately more than ever before especially with his appetite.Before leaving for the airport in the company of his brothers, he'd left some money he'd worked from Spring's dinner and gathered from debtors to his supportive father
To new beginnings!To a new whiff of fresh air, a new environment, a new and undoubtedly successful academic year, new school, new projects, new friends? If at all, that brings into the picture new characters to study not forgetting new lecturers to adapt to. The best for the last, new self.Physically not. More of psychological maturity, mistrustfulness, cautiousness, and ardentness in all her endeavors.Gianna got her driving license not too long before the end of summer break and ever since then she has been the 'errand girl' of the family: Sometimes she transported fabrics from suppliers' venue—when they seemed too carried away to supply on time—to her aunt's fashion boutique. Once she'd opted to drive her uncle to a business gathering five minutes away from home when his driver was on sick leave and his assistant was rendering his services to his beloved wife coming in from a fashion week in Paris. He'd denied it at first. Uncle Marley was skeptic on legs when it concerned her uni
She wasn't a relationship ruiner. Definitely not. To her greatest surprise, she'd stifled back most of her tears and turned to word filter paper. The forty or so minutes spent with Luna were, suffocating, murderous, for the most part because even though she resented the Seth talk—that surprisingly didn't sting as much as when it was all fresh from the oven—she found in Luna a great friendship. Rather unfortunate. Luna insisted they exchanged digits which Gianna did out of pure kindness, not fathoming staying in contact.They had a lot in common; shared almost similar hobbies except yoga and shopping. The latter done when necessary. Movie genres—she never appeared to be a horror, thriller, mystery (HTM) fangirl. Gianna would've bet a pound of flesh on romance and fiction, strictly. Similar food, and even shared DIYs with the most interesting being home remedies for getting rid of menstrual acne in two days. Luna developed an engrossment in the book donation club and planned on doing so
It's been days since Gianna battled with calling Sean. Such a crazy sensation, but she was determined to take that bold step there and then, in South Beach, Miami.Yes, her parents had made them believe they'd be spending the entire summer with Uncle Marley and his family until they headed to JFK International Airport and boarded a direct flight to Miami. Not to be misunderstood, she was delighted because why not? It was Miami for the sake of Christ, yet disappointed and peeved as she had drafted a hundred and ten ways to boomerang Ace's demonic pranks and found out the initial purpose of the journey respectively. That explained why she was alone with a massive straw beach hat on despite her umbrella's generous spread of shade, laying on her stomach browsing, envying, and babysitting the sister who promised to stay by her 'darling sister's' side because she knew no one else and was too lazy to make friends. Words from the mouth of a Magpie who was currently marathon swimming with a sw
"Everything checked?""Yup, everything checked," Gianna confirmed after she'd swung the last luggage into the trunk and dusted off her hands. "Great, then we're good to go. Almost." Both Louisa and Gianna settled in, waiting for Mason, Petra, and Noah. Not too long into the wait, the family of five were ready for the city. Ready for the cool vacation air.Songs and games commemorated the journey as it was of the family's habits every time Mason was involved. But at some point, one of them got distracted with a text message.'I miss you already. I don't know how to survive knowing that I won't be seeing you in such a long time.'Gianna rolled her eyes at the level of drama.'I was able to dig into Sean's past as requested and was successful.' Now that skyrocketed Gianna's interest. 'According to medical records, Sean was diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease at age 11 and underwent a kidney transplant a year later. That's about how much I got.''Oh well, thanks.''Three times nothin