Adam left the principal's office as fast as he could, tearing past a small crowd heading to their class and dismissing the profanities and comments of those he bumped. Luck on his side, he spotted Mimie exiting the restroom after contemplating on whether to call out on Gianna from outside of it. "Where's Gianna?" He walked in on a pale and beaten-looking Mimie. "Is she in there?" Mimie sluggishly shook her head. She'd wanted to wait for her friend outside as planned but was scared off by Ephraim who guarded the door with diligence. "She's in th-the art room, w-with Sean." At the mention of the name, Adam made a U-turn and bolted to said place. The sight of the burly dark-haired teen hadn't any effect on his momentum yet, ignoring him wasn't an option. "Where to?" Ephraim interrogated, his big hand in a back-off stance. "Piss off!" Adam swatted his hand away with a force that alerted Ephraim to take his opponent seriously. "You better back off if you don't want to end up with a
"You ugly notice-seeking bitch!" Elodie seethed coming to a stop in front of Gianna who wasn't so surprised. The visit was long overdue. What girl in her right love senses will not go bonkers seeing another girl forcing her lips on her boyfriend? "What have I fuckin' done to you, huh? Why won't you leave my boyfriend alone, whore!" That unfortunate moment, she was struggling to get her phone back when it turned into a small battle. She'd fought with all her might. Only God knew that. Nothing like her fault that, according to the video, it looked like she was playing tickling and hair-tracing games on his chest before being pushed onto the bed and kissed senselessly. And that was where the damn video ended. Whatever happened to the parts where she fought her lungs out to get him off her? To pleading for the mercy of her innocence? To being the victim? Adam wanted to interfere before being held back. "Don't! I'll take care of this." Gianna stepped forth, daring Elodie to do same lik
"I got my fingers on Zombie Down III, if you're still interested. Sorry, my room's a mess," Adam picked up some littering pants, boxers, and shirts and shoved them into the laundry basket next to the bathroom door. "Been challenged with having to figure out what to put on lately. Please sit. Can I offer you something?""No, I'm fi-fine.""Gianna said you won't be hanging out with us tonight, why not?""I'm not fe-feeling too well.""What's wrong?" He sat on the chair in front of his laptop, so concerned that Mimie would've thought it genuine."Like you care.""Huh? What do you mean by 'like I care'? If I didn't I wouldn't bother asking. You are the one slipping off of me every time I want to care."Mimie looked away to better blink off her tears. He was victimizing himself again as usual. To cut the reason for her visit relatively short, Mimie nailed her gaze on the thick grey rug where her dressed up feet laid. "Can we-we conclude on our st-status now?"Adam pondered after wiping awa
Venisa must have understood Gianna's profile as she was urged to explain further."He was caught on private property," Gianna's eyes widened in realization. "He didn't do it. I-I mean, Jerome isn't that kind of person. Someone must have blackmailed him in to it or something but he is not a vandal, please, believe me.""Okay, okay," she didn't mention that she'd come to a similar theory. Gianna knew Jerome. The stare, appreciate one or two things, and stare on, kind of know, if at all sharing a similar elective lesson could expand the awareness radar. Not the type to keep records of; an ordinary high school kid he was. However, he never occurred to her to be that kind of person talkless of doing that sort of thing, especially with his friendly baby face and decent physique put into consideration. Nothing too special.Now that she thought back to it, there was a striking resemblance to Venisa. With the big russet brown eyes and Roman nose aside, Venisa wore not only similar contours but
"I swear, I'll pay you tomorrow." A blindfolded lad pleaded, his lanky hands firmly held back by a boy slightly younger than he was but athletic."If you'd converted the number of times you've fake-promised me to my fuckin' money, we won't have come to this. Take off the blindfold." "Please," he begged once the hindrance was out of his way. With hope, his eyes would join his desperate voice to get him off the hook. "I know I've said this a hundred times before—""A hundred?" The lad lowered his head. "Look man, I swear on my mother this time, I'll pay you back tomorrow. Tomorrow. First thing in the morning. Fredo has to wire me some cash tonight for the last two supplies. So please, just bear with me, man.""By Fredo, you mean Pitbull?"The boy sensed a tinge of consideration in his assaulter's profile and almost patted himself on the shoulder for the promising opening. "Yes, yes, that's him. The guy who owns the re—" An almost invisible blow shut him up."You fool! I don't give a f
Despite the pains inflicted by the total of twenty-two stitches upon waking—the longer slash that ran from her upper arm down to her elbow and the other from her clavicle towards her breast—Gianna managed to sit up even before digesting her surrounding. At first, she'd thought to be in her room until the sight of a mundane compilation of furniture. And her room wasn't spotless white. Gianna winced in pain as she erroneously used her aching arm to propel her body up. That's when the weight that had sunk part of her bed lifted, only then did she notice the red-haired woman. "Oh no, Anna, please stay put," she gently pinned Gianna back as if a move will kill her. "No, I want to sit up. I feel a bit nauseated." Her mother snatched a puke bucket from a corner and handed it to her daughter. "Here." "Thanks." Assessing the lady, she could tell she'd spent the entire night by her side. She still had the previous day's clothes on and an almost intact makeup had it not been for the black m
The sun stretched its conducive diverging beams over the small town that faithful and joyful Saturday afternoon. Spiced with contagious smiles, undecipherable chatters, melodious laughter, and spirited screams, the boisterous Main Street Avenue seemed to be an entirely different planet. For the most part, it was. Regardless, Somewhere—or rather Someone was umbrellaed from the drops of such remarkable atmosphere. The prestigious Springs Dinner enclosed a bitter and eager employee who'd done more of glimpsing his wristwatch than attending to customers. "You good, man?" Drey, a coworker, worried. "Yeah." "Sure? Your mind's been drifted for quite some time now." "I'm cool. Just need a drag real quick. You take care of table three for me, yeah?" "Sure." "Honey garlic glazed salmon, baked gnocchi chicken skillet, table 3 all ready." The assistant cook hollered from the BOH. "Got it!" Drey confirmed. Sean was halfway headed to the restaurant's dumpster alley when a last peek at S
Julia's mouth was no different from a fly's trap the moment Gianna had finished narrating her story. A story that reminded her of assistance guaranteed to Venisa concerning Jerome's case. "I don't know but...this Kelly of a girl is super unclean to me. No one can tell me otherwise. You have to be very careful when she's around." Gianna twisted her lips. It was useless convincing Julia about anything once her mind was fixed on one thing. Plus, defending Kelly wasn't imperative at the moment. "Why didn't Seth come?" She ultimately tambourined the question that itched her tongue for several minutes.Julia suddenly turned fidgety. "I did not ask and he didn't say the reason. You two have been talking right? He may have told you something that could give you a hint." She shrugged."No," Gianna flipped her brain to grill the other side. "No, at least not that I can remember. We lastly chatted yesterday morning. He was ever so excited to see me and I, him.""Oh, love at its finest. Well,
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