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
The only thing Gianna picked up in Mimie's rants was her partnership with Robin Stewart. She felt sorry for her as Robin was an empty skull but more for herself. Nothing to do with Adam. She'd been detached from her and Adam's gibberish for quite a bulk of a while as they walked out of campus. Her mind was so preoccupied that she almost lost her footing.Noticed but not commented upon, she felt her friend's sympathetic looks on her. Whatever it was that they wished to ask was held back and replaced with occasional mind-changing topics. Yet to no avail."It's the perfect time to consider my invitation," Elodie swatted Mimie from Gianna's side to take her place with a hand on the beaten's shoulder. "You should come, it's going to change your mind a whole lot, even if it's just for a night. It'll be a night to remember."She understood that her skeptical retort to Elodie's invitation was not appreciated but not to the extent of such a bashful attitude. It was unlike her. Even though she
It was close to eleven yet Gianna's eyes and mind functioned like the day had just begun; fresh and kicking nonstop. She had lost count of the number of times she'd changed positions in bed and the remembrance of the types of positions she'd taken apart from that which she currently was in—her pillow tightly buried in her chest as her back rested on the headboard.She still did not want to reckon.When she finally picked up the phone that had been changing positions with her in her process of intense thinking, her thumbs roamed to Mimie's name in an attempt to call but her time consciousness made her go for the messaging icon instead.Gianna hesitated as the lightened screen dulled to the extent of a total blackout. Gratitude to the calm lightning from the archaic designed bedside lamp.As her chest deflated, her chin rested on the top sector of the pillow, saved from her tight squeeze, deep in thought.She couldn't tell Mimie. However, she had to talk to someone.Her message to Julia
"No, I'm not," Gianna pinned.Sean's eyes deviated from her to Mimie with a mischievous smile. "Just follow me, Donut van.""Your ears must be clogged, I just said no!"In an instant, his hands clasped her wrist, forcing her out of the seat with her half-eaten sandwich flying on the floor. "Hey! You're hurting me."He paid her no mind as he kept pulling her away. "Sean. Ouch, Sean." She struggled to pry his fingers off to no avail.Mimie who had been petrified by fear the entire time finally depetrified and to her friend's aid she ran. Much to Gianna's surprise, Mimie held the hand that linked him to her friend."Le-let her go!""Le-let her go," he mimicked. "Get the fuck off my business or I get you the fuck off."Mimie's heroism fell, not enough to let her friend be carried away by the psychopathic bully though. She hurriedly scanned the environment. To her luck, she sighted two individuals on the tennis court sauntering towards them. From the way they talked and laughed, from afar,