Chapter 5

"Your semester exams is coming up soon. You all should prepare ahead " Mr Dane Marcelo said before dismissing the class.

I was on my way home at the end of classes when Kate walked up to me

"Aren't you excited this weekend? It's our first hang out together as friends" Kate said while hugging me

She seems so excited over this weekend shopping and hang out

"Don't worry, it's gonna be so fun... I'll see you tomorrow, I better go start packing now" Kate said and left

At times, I envy Kate and her giddiness... how would it be like to actually be free and this Happy, well I guess happiness was never made for me.

She ties an apron around her waist

"Oh you're here early" Ryan said seeing Natalia

"I'm working extra shifts today, I need a raise in my salary" Natalia said serving drinks in bar trays

"Ok" He nodded and entered his office

**At about 2am**

Natalia closes the bar and Remy drops her at home

She freshen herself up and goes to bed knowing she has a whole day of shopping tomorrow

Her eyes came across the little framed picture of her and her parents when she was little

She holds the frame and looks at it, she looks at her parent's faces and blows a kiss to them

"Every passing day, I'm starting to forget how you both looked like, atleast I still have this picture even if it's not so clear anymore" She says

She keeps the frame back on her bedside table while turning off the lamp

*****

Natalia woke up and started doing a little cleaning around the house

She gets a call from Kate

"Hey babe" Kate said

"Hello"

"I'm so excited for our shopping today, I'll be there in a few hours" Kate said and cut the call

"She called me just to say that, typical kate" Natalia chuckles while she continues with her chores

*An hour later, Natalia doorbeg rang*

"Oh it must be Kate" She goes to the door and opens it

"Aunt!" She smiles as she saw her aunt

She hugs her

"What are you doing here aunt? You didn't tell me you were coming" She said after breaking the hug

"Will you just invite your old aunt in first?" Her aunt asked

"Oh sure" She opens the door wide and rolls her wheelchair in, she pays the cab that dropped her and carried her bags to the house

"I was just missing my little girl, so I decided to come stay with you for a while "

"You would have just called me, you didn't have to stress yourself aunt"

"It's okay, I just needed to leave the house for a few days since I got bored with staying indoors but since I'm not welcomed, I can as well find my way home" Gladys said

"No no, you're very welcomed aunt, I was just worried"

**** Doorbell rings***

Natalia opens the door and Kate enters

"You drove here yourself?" Nat asked staring at her car she parked at the front

"Yes, I got my parents to agree to allow me drive myself, I'm not a baby anymore and I don't need a driver" Kate says

"Nat, who's she?" Her aunt asked

"Aunt meet kate my friend, Kate meet my aunt" Natalia introduces them

"Oh hello young lady" Aunt Gladys said

"Hello miss, it's an honour to meet Natalia's aunt who she loves so much, she says alot about you" Kate Said sitting down next to the old lady

"No I don't, you liar" Nat glares at Kate

"Ok how about we all go shopping?" Kate asked

"No no Aunt can't move around alot, she has to rest at home"

"Oh come on Natalia, let this old lady have fun, it's being long I've seen a mall" Gladys insisted

"Please Natalia, she wants to tag along" Kate begged

Natalia rolls her eyes and sigh

"Fine. Aunt can go"

"Yes!" Kate says excitedly and hugged the woman

****

"Could you please just smile a little, you'll scare everyone away with that frowning face of yours" Mateo said as he was driving the car

"Shut up and just drive mateo" Dane said glaring at him

Mateo drives into the car park of the huge City mall.

They both get down

"Don't take too long, just pick a few things and come back" Dane said

"You know you're coming with me right?" Mateo said

"I never agreed to that" Dane said crossing his arms on his chest

"Stop acting like a big baby and let's go" Mateo said

Dane sighs and follows him into the mall.

Kate drives the car into City mall and parks her car next to the parking space where Mateo parked his car

Natalia gets down and carefully brings her aunt down and make her sit on the wheelchair

Kate rolls the wheelchair as they all walked inside.

"There was no need to come here you know?" Natalia asked

"What do you mean? This mall is the biggest in the city and it has all the various shopping departments" Kate said

Natalia takes the wheelchair from her

"This is my first time in a century that I've being here, it feels nice to see how big it has become" Gladys said

"I know right? I'm going to shop around, you two can both shop for items and we'll meet at the cafe okay?" Kate said and leaves

Natalia sees a jewellery store and decides to get something for Kate's birthday in there

"Aunt please just stay here, don't go anywhere, I'll be out in a minute" Natalia said

"Go and shop, have some fun Nat... I'm not a baby, I'm just disabled" Gladys said

Natalia pecks her aunt's cheeks and walk inside the jewellery store.

Dane stares at the old lady in front of the store and passes her

He thought of doing some accessories shopping since Mateo was busy in the babycare store

Natalia picks a beautiful Silver bracelet with initials on them and she takes it to the cashier

"How much is this?" She asks

"It'll just be $50 ma'am " The cashier responded

She felt sad that she couldn't afford the expensive bracelet as Kate would appreciate it a lot, if she bought the chain, they would be no money left for her aunt's medication. She goes back and drops the chain

She starts finding another item that she can afford

Dane who just witnessed what just happened, walks up to the cashier

"Here take the $45 for the chain and tell her that the bracelet is on the discount today and that its on sale for $5" Dane said giving her his credit card

He doesn't know why he's paying for it, he just felt that it was the right thing to do for his student.

The cashier returns his credit card after deducting the money and Dane leaves

Natalia returns to the cashier with another item which she was sure that it's cheap

"How much is this?"

"That one is $30 ma'am" The cashier responded

"Fuck!" She whispered

"Ma'am that bracelet you picked is actually on discount for $5 rather than the usual cost of $50" the cashier said

"Huh? How did that happen now? I thought you just said..."

"Yes I made a mistake ma'am, I forgot about the 95% discount we're doing today" The cashier added

Natalia smiles and goes to pick up the bracelet and pays for it. She was glad she had gotten to buy the bracelet not knowing who actually paid for it.