Chapter 20: Surprise, Surprise!“Surprise, surprise!”A hard shove and my back hit one of the lockers making a jolt of pain shoot down my spine. Then all of a sudden, I was being held up by a boy almost a foot taller than me, with huge bulging muscles. He pressed his entire weight on me so I couldn’t even move my legs.“Look who we have here boys, our very own Miss OG!” I didn't know who held me because he wore a ski mask over his head and so did the rest of his team of four, but I did not like the tone he was using. They all wore the Imphal High Basketball team jerseys, but I knew it was a diversion and that they didn’t belong to the team. I knew every player because they were all Nick’s friends and I sat with then during lunch quite often."Who the hell are you? Get off me!" I yelled and went to shove them with my hand.Wrong move. Because, soon enough, both my hands we

Chapter 22: Speak of the Devil“Akira? Akira, honey.”“Ugh! Five more minutes, mom!”“Honey, we need to discuss something important.”It took me a while to realize that my mom was really here and I wasn't imaging it. And it wasn’t seven in the morning and that I was in my bed, sleeping at twelve in the afternoon.“I’m up.” I sat up leaning against my headboard, rubbing the sleep from my eyes with both palms, my hair probably… scratch that, I knew my hair looked exactly like Medusa’s.“Good. How are you feeling now?” Mom asked, running her hands through my hair to untangle them as best as she could. Mom’s taken today off and stayed at home so she could take care of me.“Much better,” I said. I yawned and stretched my limbs. Nick had come in late at night and stayed for dinner. I wonder what Ethan would do if he knew.

Chapter 24: Thanksgiving DisasterDespite my moaning and groaning, mom drove me to school the next morning. I knew it had more to do with judging people’s reactions than not wanting me to stress out. And though I didn’t admit it out loud, I was glad for it as well. Having her beside me gave me the strength I needed to face everyone.It was only when no one pounced on our car or do something drastic that mom finally left. I thought the scene would change once I stepped out of the car, but still nothing. The only thing I got was polite smiles and a few good mornings from my classmates.Suspicion rising, I began my hunt for Ethan. Found him in his classroom.“Hey!” He greeted, looking up from a pile of project work.“Hi.” I shut the door behind me and pulled on the latch. I’d arrived early so there were still twenty minutes left for the first morning bell to ring. Ethan pulled me down on his l

Chapter 26: The Final LessonThe day after the event, Nick came to me to inform me that in two days he’d be leaving for Alberta, Canada, where he would finish high school and he had also been accepted into the University of Alberta for a bachelor’s in Ancient History.It was his way of telling me that he was sorry and he knew that no matter what happens, we can never go back to being friends or anything remotely close to how we used to be, because even if I forgave him for what he put me through, I had not nor would I ever be able to forget.He did visit me before he left with his mom, Silva having transferred to a hospital in Alberta, where she could spend more time with her son. He had dinner with my family and then parted from me on a remotely comfortable note. I knew that he still had feelings for me, if the way he kept looking at me with regret in his eyes were any indication, but I think he knew that there couldn&rsquo

Chapter 28: Make-up S*x“…many jobs that he held during the middle ages were page, soldier, messenger, valet, foreman, administrator... these helped him meet new people and explore different ideas that helped him write the Tales...”“Oh, god!” I muttered under my breath, bored out of my mind, and fighting a losing battle with sleep with every single second that passed. First day of class in University and I was about to drop dead.Why you asked? Because right now I was hundreds of miles away from my boyfriend, in The University of New Brunswick, studying Creative Writing, while Ethan was still teaching chemistry at Clearwater High, Clearwater, Idaho.I asked him on my graduation day, with my entire life on the line, if he could at least move to a school nearby but he’d crushed my hopes and stomped on my heart. He’d simply said that he couldn’t. Shows how much he really loved m