As I entered my last class of the day History, I saw Ashley glaring at me. She leaned over Ryder, her boyfriend or more like bed buddy and whispered something in his ear. She glared at me again and I saw Ryder doing the same. If looks could kill, I would have already met my parents.
I ignored them and walked to my seat. The class started and I paid attention to the teacher, as usual and took down important notes.
Soon enough, the day was over. I heard the plans of the other students. Some were going to holiday abroad. Some in Hawaii, others in India, Bhutan, Africa, Switzerland, London and other countries. In other words, places I had never seen or been to and places that I would probably never see or go to. I envied them for that.
Almost my whole class was going to party today at a frat house. I wasn't invited.
I would be at work as usual and then at my home.
I didn't stay in the campus for long and soon enough I was walking through the familiar streets. It was three in the afternoon and nobody was on the street.
Suddenly a car pulled up in front of me and I recognized Ashley in the passenger seat. She got out of the car and so did the one who was driving. The driver was none other than Ryder. Ashley smirked at me.
"You nerd," Ryder's voice reached my ears and I turned to look at him. "Did you slap my Ashley yesterday?" He towered over me, intimidating me.
"Yes. She deserved it," I answered
"Shut up, you bitch. You hit me and no one manages to do that without suffering consequences. You deserve to die." She shouted in my face.
"Ashley, you brought up my personal life yesterday when we were arguing which was not right of you to do. I'm sorry that I slapped you but I know that you deserved it. Now be a nice girl and get lost," I said in a calm voice. I ignored the string of profanities she threw at me next, and began walking again.
Suddenly I felt someone grab my arm and yank me back. Before I knew who it was, Ashley had already taken a swing at me. I fell down on the ground due to the force. I felt the impact of the slap a few seconds later and then I felt my cheek sting painfully.
I looked up in shock as she had an ugly satisfied expression plastered on her face and Ryder just seemed uninterested.
"Let's go, baby. What needed to be done is done," Ashley said and walked back to his car.
"Don't mess with us," Ryder warned and turned around. As if I was dying to mess with them. The plastic Barbie cow wannabe was the one who started it!
They soon drove away. I was still on the ground. I stood up and dusted my jeans, glaring at the car until it disappeared.
"I hate Ashley," I muttered as I picked up my bag which was lying on the floor and placed it's strap on my shoulder.
***
"Earth to Julie," Olivia said, waving her hand in front of my face.
"Er...what were you saying?" I asked.
"What are you thinking about? I have been calling you for five times now from the counter."
"Um...nothing. What were you saying?" I asked, shaking my head to get rid of the dangerous revenge plans I was thinking to get back at Ashley.
"Take the orders."
"Okay," I said and grabbed the notepad from the counter. I went to the customer who was already staring at me.
"What would you like, sir?" I asked in a polite tone. His eyes trailed from my face to my whole body before settling on my chest.
"Actually, the thing is that I lost my number," he said, looking up, "Can I have yours?" He asked, grinning at me and I internally cringed at the over used pick up.
I pretended to smile flirtatiously at him, looking at him under my eyelashes, "Sure, write it down. It's 911."
He cocked his eyebrows up and blew air through his mouth which sounded like a laugh.
"What do you want to eat?" I asked again. This guy was not helping me reign in my anger which was originally directed at Ashley.
"Something with Vitamin U in it. My doctor says I'm lacking in it," He said and winked at me.
I hated customers who flirted with me. Like damn were you here to eat and drink something or flirt and get my number?
"My psychiatrist says," I looked into his eyes intently, "that I might murder a guy like you someday."
His smile faltered and his whole demeanor changed. He sat up straight in his seat, his cheeks reddening from embarrassment and I repeated my question about what he would like.
"Um...cold coffee with two spoons of sugar, please." He said quietly, avoiding looking at me.
"Okay, sir. I'll bring your order soon," I gave the order and sat on the chair at the counter.
The day passed by quickly and soon I was ready to go home.
"Did something happen to you today?" Olivia asked as we exited the café.
"Um...no." I said, dragging the 'o'.
"So how was your day?"
"It was perfect. Really nice."
"You are usually a good liar but you can't lie to me now," She said.
I sighed. I hated this. Olivia knew me too well.
"I had, sort of, a fight with Ashley. I told you about her. Do you remember?"
"Ah yeah. The ridiculous bitch, right? What kind of a fight? Are you hurt?" She asked, concern in her eyes.
"Yes and no."
"Tell me what happened." She demanded.
"She talked about my family. She said that my parents were dead and I deserved that. So I was very angry. And I didn't want to, but I slapped her. And today after school, when I was on my way to my house, she slapped me back. I guess that made us even but I still think that what she did was wrong. What do you think?" I looked over at her and her expression was that of sorrow.
"She was indeed wrong. I'm so sorry that you had to listen to her crap about your...parents."
"It's okay. I don't really take such things to heart and I don't care what that bitch says."
"Yeah you shouldn't," She said. I suddenly felt lucky that I got such an amazing friend like Olivia. She was my best friend and I considered her my sister.
Silence settled between us as I contemplated things.
"I need your help," I finally said. I was kind of debating on this the entire afternoon and I finally decided that I should do it.
"For what?" Olivia asked, her eyebrows knitted together.
"I want Ashley to suffer."
"What's the plan?" Olivia smirked. "I knew you wouldn't let this go that easily.
"Of course I wouldn't. She shouldn't have messed with me."
♡five years later♡I bent down to examine it through the glass. It was beautiful but so were all the others. I nudged Olivia next to me."What do you think about this one?" I asked, hoping she could help me out with choosing something.She examined it closely. "Like I said about everything you showed me, it's really pretty.""That isn't helping me to choose only one!""Julie, how am I supposed to know which one is perfect? Everyone has different tastes and what I like isn't necessarily something that Ethan might like. You know him the best so you choose one."I sighed. "Fine, fine." I looked at her hand to stare at her wedding ring glinting on her finger under the fluorescent lights."Hurry, we've been here for an hour now. I'm going to go sit down somewhere.""God, I'm sorry. Yeah, sit somewhere. I'll make it quic
"I assume she must've retaliated?"He grimaced. "Yeah, she dumped an entire pack of flour over me and it was okay because it was powder until she started chasing me around with the hose turning me into a man dough."I chuckled. "Don't hate her too much. She's still my sister." It felt weird to think of her as my sister. "Oh and is it still true that you used to envy her because she did whatever she wanted and didn't give a shit?"He grumbled under his breath. "Don't you ever tell her that.""So thatistrue.""I'm serious. You're not allowed to tell her. She'd bring it up every time we bicker.""Okay, I won't." I said, thoroughly amused."Good. So now that we've got all problems out of the way, I think you should tell me about yourself, Julie Jenson.""Well that's a hard thing to do. What do you want to know?""Just tell me everything about your life from as long as you can remember. I want to get to k
It had now being a week since I visited my aunt. I was settling comfortably into my college schedule like before and there was no difference even in my routine with the exception that I no longer woke up at five in the morning to get ready and go for a jog. I now woke up at eight for classes at nine like a sane normal college student and Olivia was proud of that. She was just happy that I'd no longer knock on her door at the crack of dawn demanding for her company while I jogged. I had to admit it felt pretty good to get three hours of extra sleep everyday.It had been a week but Ethan still did not come to meet me. I wondered if I should just lose hope and move on but it was too soon to take that decision but it would certainly be considered late if he showed up now. But I missed him. I missed him too much to the point where every brown haired guy made me think it was him, only to be disappointed.Olivia and I had been getting along pretty well. Amelia had called the
"He had already called and demanded the ransom money from your parents when his criminal friend told him about a child trafficking group who was willing to give him twice the amount he had asked for. He didn't want to risk getting traced if he asked again for a raise in the money from your parents so he managed to get two dead girl bodies who had recently died in a house fire and were burnt to the point where they couldn't be recognized and just exchanged your baby clothes with them. He staged a fake accident and the couple was informed. They thought that both of you had died and didn't want a DNA test to verify it. They couldn't bear it." I could see her hands shaking as she spoke but she clasped them tightly together."Was there no mention of all this anywhere in the news?" I was exasperated."He had kidnapped you two before others could be informed that your mother had given birth to triplets. After the couple found the two babies dead, they didn't want anybody to k
I had borrowed Olivia's car for the day. Today was important. It was something I had promised myself to check after I left the mansion.It had taken nearly three hours to arrive. It was a nice sunny Sunday afternoon with birds chirping in the afternoon sun and a pleasant atmosphere. The breeze and the faint smell of the salty sea in the air brought back fun childhood memories spent with my parents and my uncle and aunt.Today was Sunday which reminded me that Ethan was supposed to move out on this day. He hadn't tracked me down and came to talk like he said he was going to on the phone and I wondered if he was just giving me time and space or that he genuinely didn't want anything to do with me anymore. I tried remaining optimistic. There was no way he wouldn't come. On top of that he knew about me from the very beginning and still fell for me so I found no reason as to why he wouldn't find me.We called Heather the next day after returning because we were curio
"Who?" Even I thought Heather's attempts at playing dumb were pathetic."Are you done pretending you don't know anything when I know you've been helping the girl?"Heather sighed, annoyed. "Not yet, no," She grumbled."I just want to see her. Now where did you hide her?""She's not here."There was a pause and I imagined her raising an eyebrow. It annoyed me that I didn't even get a glimpse of her face. Sure, I'd seen her in pictures but I was sure it didn't do her full justice. So I had to imagine myself raising an eyebrow."She ran away." Juliet realized. She was pretty quick at catching on things."She did, just now. Let's leave her alone. Now that you're here, just blend into your role. And how the hell did you know I helped her?""Just when are you going to stop thinking that I have no brain? It's you who's sounding stupid right now by asking that question."I wondered where Ethan was. I already missed him.