Chapter 12: I don't like Her
WHILE DRYING HER hair, she got a message from Clarita. 'He's home, it was a false alarm.' After reading it she checked what time was it. Six in the evening, she swiped her phone and texted Lora. 'Good Job,' just that. It was laced with sarcasm and partly genuine. She was thankful that she did what she was asked to but she couldn't let the part that Lora betrayed her by informing Fred too. She was already in her apartment, their driver send her home at three in the afternoon. As her eyes fell on her painting materials, she seemed hypnotized by them. She put her blower down and got her paintbrush and started mixing paints. While dipping her paintbrush into a bloody red shade of color, she was staring at the white Oslo paper on her painting stand. She was already imagining the image, she carelessly stroked the red paint on it. There has no definite direction it was messy in the center. After drying it she got her black ink, using that ink for her pen she did a heart outline. Then she started making lines in the heart. The next moment it was a bloody red heart that is broken like a mirror. But she didn't stop there, she made thick curve lines horizontally in the center, which became torn eventually. Then she started making blood drops from it. While the wild stroke of red, which overlap the heart shape became the smudge background. She turned to her phone when she heard it tweeted, she was expecting a reply from Lora but she instead received a message from an unknown number. 'You gave your number to Lola Clarita while I am your classmate.' She realized who was it instantly. 'And?' she replied. 'You should have given me your number first.' A small smile formed on her lips. He seemed childish that made Fera smile. 'Did you ask it?' 'I was thinking you might feel uncomfortable about it!' he instantly replied which made Fera smile more. She copied her previous reply and pasted it on the message bubble then resend it. 'I didn't,' his reply was together with an annoying emoticon. She already bites her lips to suppress her laughter. 'There you go,' she typed. And he only replied with an angry emoticon, which made Fera giggle. But she accidentally elbowed a container of paint. "Shit!" she harshly uttered and took everything away from the paint. "Bloody great," she weakly murmured while looking at the red paint on the floor. She moved her carpet away from it. "What a great life." She tossed her phone in her bed and started cleaning it. But smudges stayed, she couldn't remove them anymore. After a few attempts of scrubbing them off, she decided to give up. 'I will buy an acid for this, my floor is ridiculously ugly.' She finished her painting and faced her school works. While bitting her pen, and formulating the answer. Her hand find paper, a clean paper, and started scribing letters. 'Blood runs down your vein, Faith scribes on your palm, Even your body is full of numbness Life goes on when it seems lifeless.' The poem was fuel to her. Every poem she wrote was a hidden story she kept. To avoid it from building up, she let it out through the ink of her pen. Then Nick’s face suddenly appeared in her head. She flipped the page and unconsciously moved her pen. 'You are as fine as the sun, As strong as its heat, As bright as its light. And you made my day, quite gay, as to how sun used to be.' She reread it and her eyebrow turn into colliding which made it one line. From emo to hopeless romantic real quick. "Something must have knocked my head. When on earth did I start writing this kind of genre?" She unbelievably reread it once again. It was weird but I was making her smile. 'I never thought I will be writing something like this,' she mentally confesses. She stood up and climbed into her bed. Going to sleep was not as bad as how it used to be. That was the truth that she couldn't lie. And the weekend ended that way. SHE WAS TYING her hair into a tight bond and making sure it was smooth and flawless. Exactly after fixing her hair up, someone knocked. She opened it Nick’s face showed up. "Yes?" she asked. "I only want to say sorry for what happened yesterday, you were supposed to have fun not to witness that one." "You can text it, you know?" She let him in and she started filling her bag with her notes. "I can't sense your sarcasm through text." He took a juice from her Fridge and drank it. "Feel at home," she spoke fiercely as she witnessed his feel-at-home attitude. "See?" he asked. "We're running late," they both got out and started walking. "So what does jail looks like?" he smiled in embarrassment and shook his head. "Not cool, I would cry if I spend a night in there. Let's not bring it up, hahaha!" and he laughed. To his surprise, Fera laughed along. "Good thing your grandmother saved your ass from it." And his laughter fell into deep thoughts. "Her lawyer promised to free me soon as they can but they hadn't done something and the police let me go. Lola even jumped in surprise to see me, and lolo asked me if I escaped from jail. "According to them it was a false alarm, the case turned out for Constancio." She smiled and nodded. "Good to hear that." The weak voice hadn't failed to make it grateful as it should be. "But I think something is up, why would arrest Constancio instead of me when he had more legible proof than I. And more influential than my family." And she felt a sudden strike of the lump in her throat. "Is that matter?" she couldn't make it visible to him. He was observant and after one mistake he'd got an idea that it must be her. "Of course, something major happened that made the police officers decide that way. Someone may be helped me." She could feel her neck start burning and sweat started building up. "And?" "Why would he or she help me?" "Why not?" "No, that's not what I meant. He might have something to Constancio, maybe he is one of his enemies." She gave him a slow nod as if she agreed with it. "Thanks to him or her you hadn’t spent your night in jail." She remarked but Nick seemed to have something in his head. "He has eyes everywhere if that is true, when I got arrested only a few knew about it. My grandparents forbid it to happen but he still got the information, and he promptly took action. For an outsider, they would take a few days to learn about my trouble." Once he finished explaining those they reached the school gate. "I don't get it." She didn't get why would Nick react that way, and how did he know someone helps him which was Fera. "Forget about it," he dismissed the topic but it keeps running in his mind and Fera knew that. "Chill, there's nothing big about it," Fera told him but he only looked at her. "He greatly made things work and it seemed flawless, he got the information that quickly and did the best timing. This is a big deal, who is this powerful man behind this?" His critical thinking led him to overthink simple things. "Calm your thoughts," before they entered their room. "Nick! Are you alright? Oh, look at your face I was so worried." A girl jump onto Nick and gave him a tight hug then kept checking his wounds and bruises. Fera walked straight to her chair as if she hadn't seen it. Some of her classmates were eyeing her but she only got her cellphone and started surfing the internet. The girl was new to her sight but she keep on looking at her phone to wait for the teacher to come. "I'm fine Mika," she heard him answer. "What happened? Why do you have all of this?" She started harshly scrolling but restrain herself to make it too obvious. Almost everyone was watching the three of us. "Nothing much," Fera thankfully sigh when she heard their teacher arrived. She slipped her phone into her pocket and face the board. "Nick, let's sit over there." "I prefer here," and he pulled a chair next to Fera. The girl disappointedly walked to the nearest chair. The discussion started and Nick hit her arm using his elbow. "Did you notice something unusual on that ride last Saturday? That ride to my grandparent's house." He whispered while they both face the front. "No, I didn’t," she mumbled low as she could. "Just drop it for a moment, give it a rest." She annoyingly said too. "Alright-alright, calm down." He immediately noticed her annoyance. During the whole discussion, Fera was in her usual quiet mood, just like the normal days. "I don't like her," a bitchy voice did its way to her ears.Chapter 13: Cheese Burger Fera on the other hand tightened her grip on her pen. 'This idiot had a bad tongue,' she remarked silently. In her side vision, she saw that Nick turned his head toward that girl. At the end of their first subject the girl waited for Nick at the doorway, Fera pretended as if she saw nothing, it was not a big deal, and she care none.But the conversation between them was much clearer than her footsteps. The girl asked Nick to go with her to buy something in the canteen. Together with some of her classmates, they head to the next subject. In the room, she found Tunner in there.As Tunner saw her a wide smile escapes from his lips. He tapped the desk of a chair next to him, it was the first time that someone offered a seat to her. She awkwardly walked towards him and sat down."How was your weekend?" he asked with a full smile."It was fine," socializing wasn't her thing the reason why she found it awkward upon talking to someone she wasn't comfo
Chapter 14: NicknameFera realized what she said and Nick turned to her. "Sorry?" he asked. Then is followed by an awkward silence. "Did you just say, Nicky? I am not a gay." He saved her from feeling embarrassed. "I thought you are, Nicky." She loosened up eventually and felt comfortable with his response. "Disgusting," he blurted which made Fera laugh. While he hold his smile back looking at Fera who was laughing. She rarely laughed and he treasured every laugh she did with him."It's great, Nicky," she giggled."Don't call me that," he even pretended not to like it."No one tells me what to do,""That's unfair."They reached the apartment before dark and Fera peacefully cooked her dinner. This time she browsed how to cook step by step with video. She couldn't risk her apartment anymore. She tried to fried the chicken coated with flour. When someone knocked on her door, her face turned into annoyance. She had been struggling to do it right, she was afraid of thos
Chapter 15: Rain Drops WHILE WALKING INTO the gate someone was eyeing her like a hawk, her hair was dark as night and plain shiny hair. Fera noticed her stares, yet she acted unbothered. She was heading straight and the girl who was eyeing her stepped in her way. She tried to walk passed her yet she stopped her. Her frowned face turned into confusion. She flashed an innocent face before looking at the girl in front of her."Yes?" she asked. She took a step back to make her feel superior. "You are Fera, right?" She asked with full blunt, thinking Fera was an easy prey. 'What is her problem?' she mentally asked. It was the girl who hugged Nick yesterday. She dressed just fine for Fera's judgment. She wore a gold necklace, branded bag, and shoes. Flashy, all she could comment."Yes, I am." She politely answered in her most submissive tone. She was trying to avoid trouble at all costs. She couldn't risk her identity for a small petty fight."Could you stay away from Nick? I
Chapter 16: Fever"Oh! I do, fantastic. And look! It's nine pm here when you're supposed to be home at six." He flashed a fake smile that made him more sarcastic. "Get in," Fera was far from afraid, she only raised her eyebrow and got in while not letting Nick's hand go."Children, let me remind you that it is not safe to play at night, especially you Fairly." He glared at her through his rare view mirror. He started the engine and drove off. While Nick felt her annoyance, he regularly glance at her and the man who was driving. Different theories flashed in his head like he might be her brother or relative."You're not my father, Fred." She lost her mood when he called her Fairly, Nick wasn't dumb not to realize it was her name. Nick bit his tongue to lessen the awkward feeling."Cause he's dead and I am left to a hard-headed daughter, I was fucking tired from work an-""Enough!" she cut him off. They both knew that it wasn't safe for them to talk about it in front of Nick
Chapter 17: Taking Care Of HerFROM HIS DEEP THOUGHTS he noticed the paintings around. Her walls were almost covered with paintings. It was dark and sorrowful art. One was a hand holding a piece of broken mirror, and there was an image inside the mirror, an eye, with smudge eye shadow and it was teary-eyed. The other was a girl with curly hair with a smile on her lips yet her eyes were full of sadness. And he also noticed that the hair on that painting was sentenced, where the sentences were negative comments and criticism that the girls commonly receive. Such as she was ugly, fat and any other negative words that ruined every girl's self-confidence. He turned to her and touched her hand. While his eyes wander around her face, from her naturally thick eyebrows down to her pointed nose and her full lips. She was peacefully sleeping, while Nick felt his heart rate increase. A guy, when they want someone, they'd never deny it. And Nick knew what those heartbeats meant.A weak sm
Chapter 18: Somewhat a Deep Talk"Where are you?" Nick heard him ask. I couldn't answer right away since he was hesitant. "Let me guess, you're sick," he continued. Nick turned to Fera, he thought of waking her up to answer the call but he knew she needed to rest."State your temperature, I'll send Lora to take care of you." His bored voice spoke from the other line again, he did hear some noise of papers too."Thirty-nine," Nick answered and the other line went silent, it was awful silent."Where's Fera?" The only thing he spoke."She's-'"Give that phone to Fera," his monotone voice seemed deadly that didn't even let Nick finish what he was saying."She's sleeping," he only answered and instead of giving the phone to Fera, he went out of the room and lean on her door."Nick Kingston Hernandez," Fred stated his name which made Nick's face into a grim expression. "Seventeen years old, detective wannabe, only son of Mr. and Mrs. Hernandez who both died in a car accide
Chapter 19: My Nanny"FERA HONEY, WAKE UP," a soft voice entered her ears which made her open her eyes. She almost cried and jump to her when she saw who was it."Nana Felly," she whispered and the lady hugged her. After a tight hug, she stared at her white hair and white wrinkled face. Her caring stares made her feel comfortable. "Are you really here?""Of course," and she gave her another embrace, while Fera felt was just completely home. Fred may be evil sometimes but never did he fail to surprise Fera. She cooked for Fera and took care of her. She did all her laundry and never fail to check her once in a while. Before the day ends they had dinner together."When will you come home?" Her nanny asked. But Fera lost her words, she was never disrespectful to her nanny. She drank her water and cleared her throat."Nothing sooner," her cold answer was not new to her. She lives with her all her life."Why? Don't you miss hope?" Her caring voice and motherly tone was her wea
Chapter 20: The BullyFERA FOUND herself alone in the morning with breakfast on her dining table and preparing herself for school. She also found a sticky note posted on her fridge. 'Good morning, honey. Have a great day ahead.' A small smile drew on her lips and she kept that note in her black notebook. She left the house earlier than she usually does. She avoid walking to school so she called a tricycle for a ride.She wasn't smiling but her mood was quite good as she started her life. She had changed her things, instead of using her old stuff with famous brands, she used her new clothes with the underrated brand and even fakes. She had been more careful this time, she remembered Nick staring at her branded school shoes once. It might be too late but she could still deny it. The school was still quiet and peaceful when she got there. She only saw four to six teachers and students so she walked to the school library and planned to spend her time reading while waiting for