Two weeks before the resumption of school, Angie felt restless as she lay on her bed. She hadn't come out of her room since she woke up that morning. She felt irritated by every little thing. It was as if the moment she concluded to move on and forget about her feelings for Kelvin, it all became heightened. She couldn't bear the thought of seeing him and Grace together. After seeing her at his house, she has not been able to stop imagining what they might have done together after she left. She got very angry, sad and jealous. "Am I being selfish for not wanting to see him with someone else?" She asked herself. She stood up, came out of the room and went straight to the refrigerator. She took out a can of milk and was heading back to her room.
"Hey! Come back" Jessica called her, more like ordered. "I'm not letting you lock yourself up again" She added walking toward her
"I'm not locking myself up. I'm just processing and thinking about my future" Angie replied, trying to continue her journey to her room.
Jessica caught her by her cloth and dragged her to the sitting room. "Alright sit" She ordered with a Stern voice. Angie complied, folding her arms whilst avoiding her sister's eyes. "Ever since you we came back from kelvin's house, you've been keeping to yourself, avoiding interactions with people. You said you were moving on, is this your idea of moving on?"
Angie brought her gaze to her but with no response. "Come on Z, you shouldn't try to convince yourself that you can move on" Jessica stated, calmly reaching for her hand and holding it.
"I'm confuse Jess. I don't know what to do. I know I like Kyle very much and right now we are dating but I love him, I love Kelvin so much" Angie gave in, breaking down with tears.
Jessica hugged her tightly "i know, I know" She said, patting her back.
"I don't know if that makes me a bad person or selfish or both"
"No it doesn't. It just makes you human"
"What should I do? I can't stand seeing him with someone else" She confessed
"Do what will make you happy" Jessica advised.
***
Kelvin walked around the house silently, deep in thoughts. The more the last term of high school drew close, the more realistic he got and the more it dawned on him that his education after high school was not certain. His mom hadn't gotten the money for one of them, not to talk about the two of them. His elder sister had tried chipping in and assisting as much as she could but it wasn't enough. He had made up his mind earlier that if his brother wasn't furthering with him, he wasn't furthering at all.
He stood on the front yard, staring at everything around him as though it was the first time he was seeing them. After filling his eyes, he went back into the house to try and take a nap before going to the shop to help his mum. He laid down on the couch and just then a tap on the door alerted him as soon as he shut his eyes. "Who's that?" He asked, standing up from the couch.
"It's me, Brian!"
Surprised at this strange and unexpected visit, Kelvin opened the door and was shocked to actually see Brian standing there. He was the last person he had expected to come to his house "Hey what's up?!" Kelvin said still trying to figure out what he might be doing there.
"I'm good. Can I come in?" He asked, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Yeah sure" Kelvin replied, exposing the path to the sitting room for him to enter.Brain sat on the couch looking as if he came to report a crucial matter or to read the will of kelvin's dad for him. "So what brings you here?" Kelvin asked, sitting across from him.
"Well...I figured it was time to make peace. You've been punished enough and I know it was probably not intentional and it has happened already and we can't change it. So friendships shouldn't end because of it. I know I also played a part on what happened. If I had listened to you earlier and talked to her, none of this would have happened. So let's let bygones be bygones" Brian explained.
Kelvin listened to everything he said and was both surprised and happy. "What changed your mind?" He asked.
Brian gave him a puzzled look "Are you serious? Didn't you hear all I just said" He shool his head
"Yeah! Right, I'm sorry, that you just realized this and realized that, my mistake, your fault, bygones and boom" Kelvin said mockingly. They both burst out laughing for a while, feeling comfortable with each other again and the tension dying down.
"I'm sorry for what I said to you in class" Brian apologized.
"It's okay. I probably deserved it" Kelvin smiled "So friends?" He asked, extending his hand for a handshake.
Brian smiled accepting the handshake "Yeah friends"
"Well now that that is out of the way, down to more pressing matter. Help me get Grace back" Brian said, rubbing his palms together.
Kelvin's face went blank immediately. He knew this might get complicated again "You want to get her back?" He asked for clarity.
"Yeah, is there a problem?"
"Nope...not at all. When do we start?" Kelvin replied, forcing a smile.
***
Grace sat at the front seat of the car with her mom behind the wheel. They were on their way to the supermarket to get groceries. Grace was staring out the window, lost in her thoughts. Her mum noticed how quiet she had been throughout the journey, which was unusual for her. She loved her daughter more than anything and wished most times that she would open up to her about the things troubling her, her social life. She wished to be part of her life as much as she could be before she left home for higher institution. "What's wrong darling? you don't seem your usual self" Her mom asked.
Brought back to reality, Grace adjusted on her seat "Nothing I'm fine" She replied with a sigh
"Come on....I'm your mother, I know when something is wrong" She pressed on.
"Really mom, I'm fine" Grace stated.
"Is it about a boy?" Her mom asked, smiling "You can tell me" She urged.
Grace thought hard If it was good idea to open up to her mom. She had never discussed matters of the heart with her before, she hadn't had any reason to. But now she could do with some advice."Maybe" She finally said.
"Ah ha! So it is about a boy. So what happened?" She inquired
"Well, it's complicated. I don't know if I'm developing real feelings for him or if it's just infatuation" Grace explained, feeling a bit embarrassed talking about this with her mom
"Have you opened up to him about how you are feeling?" She asked, trying to sound supportive and not push her deep into her shell.
"Nope. I don't know if it's a good idea. I don't want to scare him away"
"Do you think it's better to feel this way every day because you are afraid? He might reciprocate the feelings too, you never can tell and you won't ever know if you don't open up" Her mom pointed out.
Grace found a lot of sense in the advice her mom just gave and thought it might be the right thing to do. 'But what about Brian? I still want him. This was all because of him. Oh my gosh, this is even more complicated than I thought. What I'm going to do?' She thought.
"Thanks mum for the advice" She said, forcing a smile at her.
"Glad I could help" She smiled, feeling fulfilled with herself.
***
Angie entered Jessica's room and went straight for her bed, climbing on. Jessica who was keeping her clothes in her closet, glanced at her sister whose mood seemed to be a little brighter than before "How are you doing?"
"Great! I'm going to take your advice" She said with a smile
Jessica turned to face her "Which is what exactly?" She asked, not sure which one she was talking about.
"I'm going to tell Kelvin how I feel about him and hopefully he still feels the same way" Angie announced.
"Okay, and what are you going to do about Kyle who is currently your boyfriend?" She questioned, resuming her folding.
"Well, I don't know yet but I do know I'm not ready to lose Kelvin to anybody else and I want to spend the last term of high school with him" Angie explained.
"Good to know that you know what you want but make sure you don't string Kyle along while you surf the last term of high school, otherwise someone will get more hurt than they are supposed to" Jessica advised
"Gee....thanks for the dark insight" She said, still smiling.
"So when are you going to to tell him?"
"Next week"
"What happened to this week?" She asked
"I'm going to use it to sort my feelings" Angie replied
"Okay" Jessica shrugged.
***
"And this one is for you" Bhalla said, handing over the parcel to Jacob. He opened up the parcel and peeped at the cash inside. His eyes widened and he whistled, mesmerized by the amount of cash it contained and all for him.
"You mean I get this much just by hitting the streets?! Man count me in on any route and supply" He said, happily.
Bhalla smiled "Well since you are eager to work, Luke take him along
You guys should hit the east side at wendywood" He instructed.
"Okay cool" Luke said, reluctantly.
Bhalla climbed the first two step on the stairs leading to the rooms area and then turned and addressed the rest of the crew "The rest of you know what to do. Ladies you know what to do too. Well off you go, except for you Veronica" He instructed.
Veronica confused, glanced at Victor with a quizzical look, but he avoided her eyes and went off with the rest of the boys. "Come on" Bhalla called, signalling with his head too for Veronica to follow him. Veronica looked around, everyone was gone. She hesitated a while and then reluctantly followed him upstairs.
***
Kyle got home feeling exhausted. He picked up his phone and dialled Angie's number, placing the phone on the bed and proceeded to taking off his shoes, waiting for her to pick up the phone. "Hello" Angie called.
He swiftly reached for the phone. "Hey! How are you doing?" He asked
"I'm good. Are you back?" She asked
"Yes, just got home now, sorry it took this long, the visit was supposed to be just the weekend but my sis had to kidnap me for a whole week. I was released today" He said, jokingly.
Angie laughed "Well good thing then"
"Yeah. So are you going to be free tomorrow? I was hoping to spend the day with you"
Angie hesitated for a while before replying "Hmm....yeah I am"
"Okay then. So your place or my place or should we go out?" He asked, falling flat on his bed
"My place is good" She replied
"Alright then. I miss you though" He smiled sheepishly
"I miss you too" Angie replied
"I'll call you later then, I should look for something to eat, I'm starving" He stated, yawning
"Alright"
"I love you" Said Kyle, smiling
"Yeah" Angie replied before swiftly ending the call.
Kyle stared at his phone with furrowed brows "That's strange....she normally says it back. What the hell is yeah?!" He thought. He stood up shrugged it off and went to the kitchen.
***
Bhalla entered the room, leaving the door opened for Veronica to come in. She stood outside the door, scared and trying to figure out what he wanted. He turned on the music on his stereo and increased the volume to the max. It was hard to hear any other sound through the music blaring from the speakers. "Come on in!" He shouted.
Veronica moving at the pace of a tortoise walked into the room. Bhalla took her hand and helped her sit on the bed. "You are very beautiful, you know that?!" He started with a cunning smile, feeling her face with the back of his palm.
Veronica turned away from him. It now became clear to her what he wanted. She stood up abruptly with a worried look. "I want to leave please" she said.
"The party isn't started yet" Bhalla said, giving an evil grin.
She tried walking out the door but he stopped her from exiting, grabbing her hand. He locked the door and pushed her on the bed "Please don't do this" She pleaded, now visibly scared.
"Come on, you know you want it as much as I do" He said, pinning her hands down.
She struggled and one of her hand broke free from his grip, she immediately slapped him, pushed him off of her body and made for the door. Annoyed at her resistance, he ran after her and caught her by the door,. He dragged her to the bed and gave her a slap that sent her crashing down on it. She couldn't find her voice for a minute and then she started screaming and shouting for help when she finally did. "No one is going to hear you here" He shouted at her.
He pinned her down on the bed with his left hand and ripped the buttons off her dress with his right, exposing her bra and bare body. She struggled and struggled as he forced himself on her. Knowing it was pointless now, she stopped struggling as tears kept rolling down her cheeks and soon all that could come out of her was muffled sound from her cries as a result of him covering her mouth with his hand.