“Mom, I’m at the shop now. Did you want me to buy just scented candles?” Lexy asked her mom over the phone. Alona was surprised to see the caller id showed it was her daughter’s name and phone number as to how she had saved her contact info in her phonebook. She was sure Lexy had told her that the young lady had lost her phone due to what happened last night on her way to Marlyn’s place. “Honey, didn’t you say you need to buy a new phone because someone smashed your phone to the ground?” Alona asked back instead of answering Lexy’s question. “Ahhh, yeah, I did say that,” Lexy chuckled, then she continued. “I met Marlyn today, and when he heard about what happened to his neighborhood last night, he called my number to make sure I was safe, and the person who found my phone answered his call. They met, and Marlyn got my phone to give me back. So, I have it with me now. And not broken like it wasn’t smashed anywhere on the ground,” Lexy cheerfully told her mom in full detail. Alona j

“I’m so sorry for telling you all about just now,” Lexy hurriedly apologized. “It’s just that I did not want to entertain the emotions and thoughts I had for this man. I was just after losing my virginity to someone that would satisfy me. Someone who knew what to do to make me feel good and never regret doing it for the first time. I was never ready to fall blindly. I was even determined never to cross paths with him ever again.” Lexy spoke with so much sincerity. “I thought, if I myself did not talk or think about it, it would pass away like nothing or no big deal. But when I saw him again…” Lexy shook her head. “Especially when I saw how he also longed to see me, his kisses showed hunger. I thought I was alone, torturously suffering. I could not hold myself back. I closed my eyes and dived into his bottomless pit of promising embrace and everything he had to offer.” Marlyn huffed pretentiously. He was blatantly showing his dissatisfaction that his friend, his best friend, was hid

Marlyn’s words kept buzzing in Lexy’s ears the whole night and even as she attended her classes the next day, she was not able to focus on her lessons. Lexy was too excited for the morning schedules to end so lunch would arrive and she gets to meet her best friend and ask him more about what he said over the phone to Lexy last night. But something came up before she reached the cafeteria where Lexy was supposed to meet Marlyn. “Who’s that?” someone asked its companion as they walked by the hallway of the building, heading to the school restaurant. Lexy was checking her next schedules for the day, specifically the ones after lunch so she could estimate the time she was going to spend with Marlyn without being late even for a few seconds on her next class or whatever was on her itinerary. It happened yesterday when she and Marlyn neglected to notice that they had been staying too long on their lunch break as they chatted like they were still on school break. Their conversation became

“What would you like to have?” Ethan gently held Lexy by her left wrist and guided her to the food counter. “Anything…” Lexy answered. She tried to make her voice sound casual, although her heart was wildly pounding. She really hoped they were somewhere else where she would feel comfortable. And that meant to say, somewhere with a lesser crowd if not none. The school restaurant was just too full of people, making Lexy feel like she was constantly being watched. Well, she was right to feel that way because there were indeed sets of eyes keenly watching the two of them—a feeling Lexy had never had before. Or, if there may have been, Lexy had never noticed them. Ethan must have felt the way his baby girl was somehow uncomfortable. So he asked cautiously.“Would you like to eat somewhere else?” Lexy gathered her wits and replied in a sassy tone, covering her nervousness. “Well, my best friend said I should demand the best lunch in town from you. So…” Lexy said, feigning confidence.E

“I heard you need me to witness for my son,” Ashdod asked with a wide grin. His face looked so comical that Lexy’s feeling of awkwardness faded away. Lexy swallowed her spit, cleared her throat, and wiped the sides of her lips before she properly and politely turned her gaze to the older man who was now seated across from her as it was empty when Ashdod came back after he excused himself from the table earlier. “I am sorry to bother you, sir,” Lexy answered mannerly. “I didn’t expect he would bring me to meet his dad on our first lunch date,” she added, with her head slightly shrinking in self-consciousness. “Oh, please, don’t be,” Ashdod gleefully replied. His smile was genuinely expressed as his eyes seemed to dance along with his