Five years later.
"Fuck out of my room."
"It tastes good, you should try it."
"You know I hate pineapple toppings on pizzas."
Mabel dumps the box of pizza on my bed. "Have you ever wondered why pizzas come in rectangular boxes, shaped in a circle, and eaten in triangles?"
"I guess we'll never know."
With a sigh, Mabel folds her arms across her chests. "Could you at least act like you're happy to be home for thanksgiving?"
I point towards the door. "Leave. I have work to do and I won't get it done if you're going to stand there all day and talk about pizzas."
"Work?" She scoffs. "The only work you do is sit behind your laptop and stalk your boyfriend on Instagram."
"He's not my boyfriend! MOM," I call out. "Mabel's bullying me!"
"Real mature."
Zack, Simone's brother, walks into the room and hugs her from behind. "Hey babe."
Even now that Mabel's much old
I've always suffered from this horrible disadvantageous condition— it's called waking late on days I'm supposed to have early flight schedules. I'm starting to think it's an actual thing, so I'm not surprised it's less than an hour for my flight and I'm still on bed, feeling something fat and fluffy on my face. "Whiskers?" Its Mabel's voice that wakes me up. Not the fluffy stuff on my face. Whatever it is. Gradually, I open my eyes, and I'm face to face with a white feline. It brings out its tongue to lick my nose before purring with pleasure. Last time I checked, we didn't have a cat. "Whiskers! There you are." I hear footsteps approach my bed as Mabel carries the feline off my face. "Sorry. I thought I left her downstairs." I ask the obvious question. "When did we get a cat?" "Last night. I found her outside beside our waste bin. She seemed so lost. Is it okay if I keep her?" I ease out of my bed. "Just make s
Maybe if we tell people the brain is an app, they'll start using it.I'd like to see myself as brainy, but there are times when I put the spoon into the dustbin and place the actual trash in the sink. That wouldn't be much of a surprise if you've known me for a long period of time. The thing is, no matter how much I'm being crowned the Queen of awkwardness, I still managed to also get crowned Prom Queen during the last prom instead of Alexa Stratham.Who is Alexa Stratham?That's not the point.I have bigger problems.Senior year went by fast this year, and as I had previously planned, I didn't make the most of it. Another year of high school wasted. College could make up for it but that's still months away from now. I topped my last exams, so candidate scholarships barreled out from different angles I never expected.I chose PreLaw, definitely not because my Pops asked me to, but I've also chosen Theater. The University of Albuquerque
"Ladies and gentlemen, flight 666 to Hawaii, Honolulu is now ready for boarding. Please proceed to Gate D for departure. Thank you." The PA system signals that our flight is ready for boarding."That's us!" A very ecstatic Simone chirps as we start to queue along with the rest of the school. I hear a commotion happening behind the queue and turn around to look at what's going on.Not a commotion. It's just Cory giving some group of guys bro hugs and conversing in loud voices. I don't recognize them from school. I don't even recognize them anywhere."Who are they?" I nudge Simone slightly with my elbow."Those are the Kingston boys.""The who?"She brings out a lip balm from her purse and applies it on her chapped lips, smacking them sleekly. "They're our neighboring school. We've played a couple of games together before. They beat us."Simone is the captain of the Basketball team. Her brother was until he graduated h
I wake the next morning to the sun shining through the drape covered windows, warming my pillows and blanket comfortably.The pretty perfect way to wake on a morning isn't it? Too bad that's not how my morning began."I swear to all things sweet and holy, if I find out it was stolen there would be bloodshed," I fume with indescribable rage."Relax. I'm sure it'll be around here somewhere."The room is a mess. All three of our single beds are turned upside down and our boxes are spread out open on the floor in search of my silver neck chain.I was just about putting it on to go for a morning walk when I discovered it was no longer in my bag. I haven't seen it since I arrived in Hawaii but that doesn't mean I forgot it back at home. I always carry it in my bag so I'm still trying to figure out why I can't find it anymore."It's just a neck chain, I can get you a new one," I shoot Lacey a hard glare from her statement and walk
One word: Silence.The music stops, gasps are heard, followed by the sound of someone's fart.I'm not that much of a fighter, neither do I have anger management issues. In fact, I can count the number of times I've gotten mad throughout my human existence but this tops it all. It also tops the time I went for a house party Junior year and got dared to go home during a game of Truth or Dare. Teenagers are evil.Noah doesn't make any move and stays still after the first punch lands on his jaw as if trying to process in his brain what just happened. Before he can fully react, I pounce on him."You bloody thief!" I screech, continuously driving my fists into his face. He uses his arms to dodge my blows as I aim for his chest area instead. I'm about to aim for his face again when I feel large arms wrap themselves around my waist and yank me off him."Let me at him!" I struggle against Cory's tight grip."What's your problem?!" C
I sink down the water like a rock.As I sink, I look up the water above me. Distorted lights dance at the top of the water and it feels warm against my skin. It would have been peaceful, except for the fact that I swallowed in gallons of pool water already into my mouth and nose and is struggling for my life.How deep is this damn pool?My lungs begin to ache for air as I use my hands to flap and yank myself upwards. I cough out water from my mouth like a fountain and take in a breath of fresh air, reminiscing how I could have could've died seconds ago I didn't know how to swim.With a hand, I wipe off the water running down my face to glare at an unconcerned looking Noah."You pushed me!" I yell."Tell me something I don't know." I'm still trying to gasp for air, not believing he's cool with almost killing a person. "It's smaller than I thought."I frown deeply. "What?""I can see through your shi
I force another spoonful of food into my mouth and smile awkwardly at Simone."So? How is it?" She asks."It's great, never tasted anything like it." I'm not a very good liar but I'm sure that comes out as believable because she beams. I glance at the rest of the guys on the table and we all share awkward looks.You might be wondering what's going on. Well for starters, I think any meal Simone cooks should come out of the pot with a label that says: Eat me if you want to die.The Salmon resting on my plate stares at me and I stare back. So earlier today, we came up with the idea of learning new traditional Hawaiian foods. We see the hotel chefs doing their thing every time in the kitchen and we got inspired. I mean, if they can, why can't we?I found out the answer to that question today. They have a Culinary art diploma while we have a High school diploma.We went for the Lomi Salmon because it looked the easiest to make.
"You shouldn't have texted in the first place," I say and exit the lounge with Lacey behind, saying something about what outfit she'll rock to tonight's club party but I block her out when the evening wind hits my face. I take a few steps into the parking lot and look down at the water, which looks almost orange in the glow of the sun. I spot a few surfers out in the waves who looked like they weren't about leaving anytime soon.It's going to be Friday night within a couple of hours, which means everyone is ditching their works already to get ready for clubbing tonight.I'm not going.As much as I love just the sound of the word 'party' itself, I'm going to have to bunk in on this one. Mom and Mabel have already scheduled out tonight to Skype with me. I didn't talk to them yet since I arrived in Hawaii, only random texts from Mabel telling me about Mom's attempt at a dating site and her stupid Kermit the Frog memes.The sun disappears behind t