PEARL'S PLACE*

She picked a chicken wing, eating and gliding around the kitchen in jubilation.

*

9AM*

Roonie and Pearl are currently in her car, and he's driving her home as promised, though not as early as he planned.

Immediately Roonie told her the name of the culprit earlier, she was shaken, and she defended Lizzy immediately, but when Roonie showed her a video, she calmed down.

Her hands were shaking, and she had to clasp them together as various thoughts ran through her head and mind.

Lizzy wouldn't do that. Lizzy has no reason to hate her that much, right?

She became friends with the girls right from the first day of their first year, and they've been tight since then.

Even after they found out about Lizzy's sickness, they never treated her like an outcast. Instead, they kept her secret and protected her, but now she's...

Pearl gulped, staring out the window to inhale some air.

No, it's not Lizzy.

Roonie stretched an hand to her, holding her shaky hand with it, and she looked at him.

Their eyes met, and she interlocked their fingers.

Roonie focused back on the road as he drove with an hand.

No doubt, Lizzy is dying today. Unfailingly.

He narrowed his eyes when his mind went to a side of his life that he badly wants to forget.

The side that gets scratched anytime he drives a car.

The accident memory.

He could imagine himself and Silver, his senior sis at the back of their father's car again.

How she offered him her teddies and how he declined and she started crying.

How Master X looked back and their car crashed into another car.

How he lost Silver after the accident, and how his father's hatred for him grew so much.

"Roonie?"

"Roonie!" Pearl's voice brought him back to the present, and he looked around to see he stopped the car in the middle of the road again, causing congestion just like the other time.

He gritted his jaws and drove out of the road fast...

"There's a reason, isn't it?" Pearl said.

He kept quiet.

"You hate cars not because they're boring, but because it brings back a sad memory for you, right? The accident you talked about, did it kill your mother? Your father's left leg, did it break it?" She asked.

"Don't call him my father" he muttered coldly.

"But he's your...

"Pearl!" He snapped, and she tightened her lips as he faced her, his eyes different.

He called her Pearl, not Noah.

"Stop it... Fuçking stop" he muttered, and she gulped as he pulled up in front of her house.

They held eyes for what seems like years, and she almost started crying when she saw his eyes aren't softening.

"Stop hiding behind your shell and come out to me! I'm not a stranger anymore, and don't call me Pearl" she muttered, rushing out of the car and going inside the house.

Roonie came out of the car too, and Mr. Wilson came out of the house.

"Who are you?" He asked.

Roonie only removed the car key and took it to him.

"Morning, Mr. Wilson" he said, dropping the key on his palm.

He was left dumbfounded as Axel showed up with Roonie's bike.

Roonie drove off with him, and Mr. Wilson entered the house.

He was shocked to meet Pearl in tears in the living room.

Sybil and Tate are trying to calm her, but she's not taking it.

"Pearl, what's the problem?" He gently sat beside her.

Pearl just continued crying, so he pulled her head to his shoulder.

"Calm down, I'm sorry" he started stroking her hair.

"It's... it's Lizzy" Pearl hiccupped.

"Same Lizzy? What happened to her?" Sybil asked curiously.

"Talk to us, baby" Tate said.

Pearl wiped her tears, unable to reply.

Morgan and Rebekah came in at the same time, and they took over from Mr. Wilson, sitting on each side of her.

"It's not true, right? It's not Lizzy" she sniffled, and Rebekah pulled her into a hug while Morgan patted her back.