"Yes, who is this?"
Maria had received a call from an unknown number and was very curious on who was had interrupted her beauty sleep. She was stretched out on her queen sized bed in a starfish position, her right hand contained her cellphone which she placed on her left ear.
"Maria? It's Trevor. I thought you saved my number?" 'Trevor?' Maria thought hard about it, trying to recall if she knew anyone named Trevor.
"Oh.."
the word escaped her mouth, as soft as a whisper. The named had finally clicked in her head.
"Trevor? From the blind date?" Maria said with lack of enthusiasm.
"Yes. I know you are not interested in me…."
'Bingo' Maria thought.
"….but I'm really interested in you and I know our last date didn't go well, so I'd like to make it up to you."
A couples of excuses Maria could give began popping up in her head one by one.
"Please don't turn me down. If you're still not interested after this date, then I won't bother you."
'Is he psychic?' Maria thought. The desperation in his voice was quite salient. Now that she thought about it, there really was no good reason to turn him down. He was good looking and was very fashionable. He didn't try to find out what was between her legs after the first date, which she was grateful for. The other men she had met all tried to take her home and they weren't even 30 minutes into the date. This was probably what caused her disinterest in finding a potential life partner Even though her relatives were breathing down on her neck to get a husband.
"Alright, when are you free?"
Maria could imagine Trevor's reaction to her question. His eyes were probably gleaming intensely with a wide grin plastered on his face.
"Saturday. Does Saturday work for you?"
"Yeah, Saturday's fine."
"That's great, I'll see you then."
Maria hung up the phone and threw it on the bed.
Clothed in her pink coloured robe, Maria made her way to the kitchen. After the unwanted phone call, she had tried to go back to sleep, but all efforts seemed unavailing. She was wide awake and Maria was craving coffee. Oliver being the officer on duty today gave her a day off. She had been thinking long and hard on how she would spend it.
"Oh, I need milk in this." Maria said, staring at her black coffee.
She only drank her coffee without milk when she was at work.
"Drinking your coffee dark isn't exactly good for your health you know."
Maria could vividly remember Oliver giving her a lecture on the effects of taking excess amounts of caffeine. It's not like she disregarded her health, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't stop drinking coffee. It was part of her lifestyle now. 'He has no right to lecture me when he smokes' Maria thought. Standing on her tip toe, she reached for the hug of milk which was in the cabinet above her.
"meow."
Momo walked over to Maria, rubbing it's head against her ankle.
"Aw, look who wants milk too." Maria said.
Reaching for momo's food pan, she poured a considerable amount of milk into it and watched momo as she licked on it. Switching her attention to her coffee, which was now a light brown colour, she took a sip, letting it linger around her tongue before swallowing. She could feel the warmth spread around her whole body. Maria felt so relaxed that is was so easy to forget how busy the previous day was. 'yesterday…..' Maria thought. A specific scene popped up in her head. The slight humiliation she suffered from her was still fresh in Maria's memory. It was quite self evident that she was Oliver's girlfriend. Maria has never expected to meet her like that or even meet her at all. 'I hope I didn't cause any trouble for Oliver' Maria thought as she took another sip of her coffee. She had to admit that Oliver's girlfriend was actually very pretty. Maria wasn't the type to get green with envy over a man that didn't belong to her. Although she did feel very sad. Seeing the man you love with his girlfriend was very heart wrenching. 'You can't always get everything you want now, can you' Maria thought.
"Well then, let's get started with breakfast." Maria said as she placed her empty mug into the dishwasher.
"Honey! Hurry up, you're gonna be late for school." Amelia twitched when she heard her mom calling for her. She was still in the shower and had no intention of getting out any time soon. She was in the shower but she couldn't feel the water, dripping down her body. It has been three weeks into the new school session and it had not been what Amelia had expected it to be. Everything day she stepped her foot into the school grounds felt like a living hell to her. The news on the death of her friends had spread through the school like a wild fire. Everyone was quite skeptical on how Amelia happened to be the only survivor. That was when it started. The first day seemed pretty normal. People extended their condolences to her, but didn't really speak that much to her. The second day was when everything went downhill. Amelia began to notice people avoiding her. During lunch time, Amelia took her tray full of food and went to take at seat at a table full of cheerleaders. They all give her a disgusted look and abruptly packed up their things, leaving her alone. If you were to describe the feeling, it felt like her heart was breaking slowly, into thousands of pieces. The feeling of blatant rejection was new to Amelia. Things spiraled out of control after the third day. The whispering whenever she walked by, people averting their eyes whenever she even stole a glance at them, planting small pins on her chair right before she took a seat, randomly getting doused with water whenever she was in the toilet. It made her wonder why exactly she was being treated like this. It didn't take too long for her to get her answer. A week after the start of the session, Amelia had gotten out of bed really late and made her way to her classroom hastily. Entering the classroom late had earned her some stares from everyone. She walked to her seat only to find her desk in a very terrible condition. It had been scratched up, having tons of dirt littered across it. The most outstanding feature of her newly decorated table was a writing. The word 'MURDERER' was boldly written on it. Amelia felt powerless. She could feel everyone's gaze on her. It felt like her body was being pricked with thousands of needles. The only thing she could do was stare at her table wide eyed. She finally understood the strong dislike towards her. Everyone probably thought she was responsible for the deaths of her friends.
"Amelia! Hurry up!"
Amelia jerked back to reality.
"I'm coming mom!" she retorted.
Sighing deeply, she turned the shower off and decided to get dressed. Amelia had always been excited to look for what she was going to wear and took a lot of time preparing for it. But now, there was a lot going on. She grabbed a big T-shirt and a sweatpants and threw it on. Amelia looked at herself in the mirror. She ran her hands over her visible eye bags which had a very dark colour. Her hands found their way down to her collar bone which protruded from her neck. They had become very visible ever since she lost her appetite for food. Amelia swung her bag pack over her shoulder and headed downstairs.
"Sweetheart are you sure you're fine? You can stay home and rest if you're feeling under the weather."
Mrs Winston said, a worried look spreading across her face. Amelia gave her the only smile she could muster.
"I'm fine mom, there's no need to worry about me." Amelia's mom was skeptical about her daughter's reply. She didn't want it to drag on, so she dropped it. While Amelia sat in the front seat of her mom's car, she let herself envision a scene. It was during a football match in the school's stadium. The stadium was packed with people, who were cheering loudly. It was half time and the cheerleaders were called to perform. Amelia could imagine it clearly. The human pyramid created by the cheerleaders with her, at the top of it. Her tennis skirt swayed as she raised her pom pom, shaking it vigorously. She looked happy, in her memory.
"Honey?"
Amelia opened her eyes quickly.
"Were you asleep? You're at school already."
Amelia looked at her surroundings through the glass window. Her heart sunk when she realized they were there already.
"Mom...."
"Yes sweetie what's the matter?"
Amelia bit her lower lip.
"It's nothing."
"Are you sure? If something's bothering you, you can always talk to me." Mrs Winston said as she caressed her cheek. Amelia nodded.
She knew her mom would go into ultra panic mode if she told her everything that has been going on at school.
"I'll see you later." She said as she hopped out of the car.
Amelia stood at the side walk, watching her mom drive away until her car was out of sight. Turning back, she fixed her eyes on the school building which seemed to loom over her. Amelia could remember the joy she felt whenever she stepped into the school. But now, all she could feel was utter dread. Squeezing the handle of her back pay firmly, she walked towards the school building. Amelia was definitely not read for what the day had in store for her.
Oliver had known Kenna to act very stubborn at times, but this was getting out of hand. Kenna had refused to speak to him or even look at him after she happened to bump into him and Maria at the restaurant. Despite his endless attempt to try and explain things to her, Kenna was still mad at him. This was the first time Oliver had seen her get really jealous. Oliver glanced at his wrist watch. It was 1:26 am in the morning. 'She's probably asleep by now' he thought. He really wanted to clear the air once and for all. Parking his car, he got out and made his way to the front door. The house was dead quiet. 'Kenna's probably asleep right now ' he thought. He walked into the living room to find Kenna, fast asleep on the couch. 'So she wasn't kidding when she said she'll sleep on the sofa' Oliver thought as he chuckled softly. Her hair was up in a pony tail which Oliver thought was cute. 'She looks less vicious when she's asleep' he thought as he caressed her cheek. Oliver knew it was a weird thing to do, but he found it nice to stare at Kenna while she slept. She always looked really pretty when she was asleep.
"I should take a bath." Oliver said as he made a beeline for the bathroom.
Filling the bath tub with warm water, he poured a drop of caramel scented liquid soap and watched the foam rise up. He got into the bath tub. Oliver could feel all his tensed up muscles relax.
"Yeah, that's nice." He said.
Oliver couldn't remember the last time her took his time to relax in the bath tub. Between solving homicide cases and pulling all nighters, there was no time for him to actually relax. At least he had a very reliable partner, who eased the work load of his shoulders. 'Maria…..' Oliver thought. He remembered the meeting between Kenna and Maria. He had planned on introducing them to each other one day. He never expected them to meet like this. What he also didn't expect was Kenna's behavior. 'I should apologize to Maria properly tomorrow.' He thought. Oliver closed his eyes and let himself relax.