Kamari Ese Avena
Sometimes your mind plays a game of cat and mouse, your reality chasing after your dreams to crush it, and at the end of it all you are the one suffering the mind games.
My fists are tightly clenched, every of Nuru's words hitting me squarely in the chest.
'she is here because she wants to be Elle.'
'don't you remember what Elle told us about her?'
'she is a wannabe.'
When Seven Yusei leads me back to the hallway leading to the cafeteria, tears are already halfway down my face.
"Kamari."
It is crazy how I am crying in the arms of the same guy who would not even look at me the first time I arrived. "Kamari," he calls again, his palm rubbing my back soothingly.
"Is that what you think I am too?" I find myself asking him. "An Elle wannabe?"
Seven releases me and I hold his gaze, sniffing. "I told you, you are different, far different than your sister," he answers.
"Half-sister," I correct him. "She was my half-sister."
"Look, Nuru is just being bitter, she is like that with everyone," he placates.
"You are doing the same thing Mika does, giving excuses for your friends," I accuse. "Aren't I your friend too?"
He switches instantly at my words, the soft guy who was consoling me just seconds ago is gone and in his place is Seven, looking at me with a hard frown. "I never once claimed to be your friend, so do not say that, ever again."
"What?" But he is gone like the wind before I can even blink. I am transfixed to that spot, wondering what on earth just happened.
I know it and I can feel that their friend group is not normal, Nuru said there was something off about me, but they are the one with something off about them and right now I am curious to find out.
I meet Jenna on my way back into the cafeteria after picking up my lunch tray. I mean, I am not going to give up my lunch because of a bunch of people who think they are better than me.
"Hey Jenna!" I greet her first, grinning as I approach her table where she is the only one seated.
"Mari!" She beams at me, waving me over enthusiastically.
"Hi," I smile, settling down and placing my tray gently on the table.
"Fancy seeing you here, I never thought I'll come across you in the cafeteria, talk more of having you sit with me," she confesses.
"What? You think I don't need food to survive?"
"You do not pass me as the lunch type of girl."
I laugh at her logic. "So what kind of girl do I pass as?"
"Breakfast and dinner?" She answers more in a question-like manner and then she laughs at her own statement. "Now that I think of it, that sounds weird," she admits.
Jenna Ottila flows with me like we are old friends and I move along because I find her interesting. With her I do not have to pretend, I do not have to watch my every act so as not to look like I am copying Elle. With her I am just me, just like I am with Seven.
Seven. My gaze drifts to their table, and I realise he is with them, quiet and observing like he is known to do.
"If I didn't know any better, I'll say you are envious of their friend group," Jenna mentions, snapping me back from my gaze at their table.
"What?"
She nods at their table. "That friend group, you have a look of longing in your eyes when you look at them."
"Do I now?" I shake my head. "Never."
"But you know them? You know who they are? They are literally the royalty of RAAS if you ask me, especially the Japanese guy."
"Seven Yusei?"
She nods. "Yep. Him. He looks kind of mysterious, does he not? I heard they lost one of their friends months ago, it was all over the news but I can't seem to remember her name."
I don't know if I should conclude that Jenna just proved dumb not to remember that the girl who died is an Avena, making her related to me but I do not say anything even as she tries so hard to rack her brain. "Why can't I remember?" She mumbles. "That aside though, I doubt they actually cared about the girl from what I heard."
My ears perk up with interest. "What do you mean?"
Jenna shrugs. "She was like the outcast I guess, always trying to please them so she'll get invited to their hangouts."
That sounds very much like Elle.
"Also, rumors has it that her death was not a mere suicide case, they think someone made her do it."
My jaw drops. "What?"
Jenna's eyes widens as if she should not have said that, she looks around and then quickly placed her fingers over my lips to shush me. "It was never confirmed though, it's just rumours I heard," she counters.
"We should eat and stop talking about dead people, I already feel weirded out," she adds.
I do as she says, digging back into my plate of cheese macaroni but yet I feel that nagging feeling in my head, now that she mentioned it, the possibility that Elle's death was not just any kind of suicide case is actually a fifty to fifty one, but yet i question of who could have made her take her life, and on what grounds?
[]
Seven Rai Yusei
"You are doing the same thing Mika does, giving excuses for your friends, aren't I your friend too?"
The same words Elle would use on me, the exact same words. She is not Elle, but sometimes I get confused and I react like that.
Elle Avena was never my friend, I never considered her as one even though she was always with me, emphasis on always. It was how I knew I like the back of my hands, moreso that I could sense her even by her footsteps alone.
She was a nuisance if you asked me, always trying to fit in and no one liked her, the whole school hated her if I must confess. She was never on anyone's good radar because she always caused trouble.
Then she died and everyone could breathe until her sister showed up, putting them all on edge, for a reason all five us know.
Elle Avena taking her own life was more than just an eighteen year old girl tired of life. None of us will admit it though, but now her Sister is here and we might be forced to actually do.
As for me, I am haunted by her eyes, the very first thing I noticed the day I saw Kamari.
Her eyes made my heart skip twice.