02
1383 Words
With teary eyes, I covered my face and hugged my own knees. This is so frustrating! It's really frustrating!
“Diving skills, huh?" My cousin Seiji teased me. He quickly shut up as I lifted my gaze just to raise an eyebrow at him. This fool again! So frustrating!
I'm in a condo unit now; this is where Satana and my cousin brought me to avoid the media.
"It's all cleared up, don't worry about it," Satana said, then shoved her phone in her pocket. She plopped down on the single couch, crossed her arms, and grinned at me. "You're trending, girl," she added. I couldn’t help but frown even more.
I'm used to people talking about me, but not like this! This is so different! No matter how hard I try not to think about it, I can’t help it, and the embarrassment keeps hitting me! I’m sure my trolls and bashers are having a field day with me falling.
Told you, something bad was bound to happen. My gut feeling was spot on!
"That's okay, Maury. You still look good," my cousin said again, grinning. I just rolled my eyes at him and flopped back onto the bed. As soon as I smelled the fresh pillows, I quickly pulled one close, hugged it tight, and shut my eyes.
"Hey, don’t lay on that. Straighten up, Maury!"
I didn’t bother with Seiji’s comment and just frowned, buried my face in the pillow and fell asleep without even noticing.
I woke up to a strange smell. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. I was about to yell at Seiji because of the strong smell that I was sure was his doing, but I couldn’t move right away when I saw that he wasn’t sitting at the edge of the bed! The hell?
"Who are you?!" I screamed, wrapping my arms around myself. I saw him get startled by my sudden shout. Oh my gosh, don't tell me he's some media guy or, worse, a paparazzo?!
He stood up quickly and almost tripped over a pair of shoes he had been taking off earlier. His eyebrows furrowed as he turned to look at me!
"Don't come near me!" I warned and stood up on the bed, pointing my finger straight at him. He tilted his head a bit and looked at me with that questioning look!
"I told you, she's awake."
Just then, we both looked over when Seiji, Satana, and another guy—wait, the singer!—walked in.
"You're so loud, your voice is echoing all the way down the hall," Satana said, tossing me an energy drink. Good thing I caught it right away.
"Who's this?" I asked in a sharp tone, my eyes on the guy in the white sweater and black pants, who was now looking at me, grinning and shaking his head sarcastically.
Satana and the singer burst out laughing, while my crazy cousin just walked over to tap the back of my knee. "Him?" he asked, almost out of breath from laughing. I just raised an eyebrow even higher and shot him a glare, still waiting for an answer.
"He's the one who owns the bed you just messed up," he pointed to the bed I had just messed up, then walked over to me. He brought his hand to his cheek and pretended to whisper, "He owns this unit," he said loudly, laughing along with the singer from the event earlier.
I gave him a sarcastic smile and pretended to be shocked. "Really?" I said exaggeratedly, then made a poker face. "It's okay, I can pay. Name the price," I said in a cocky tone as I got out of bed, about to follow Satana to the kitchen when Seiji spoke again!
"He’s the one who saved your life earlier! You two even did CPR together," Seiji said, stopping me in my tracks. Slowly, I felt my shoulders droop, and my feet seemed glued to the cold tiles. I let out a deep breath and, embarrassed, turned to face them.
"Maury, this is Jeco. Jeco, this is Maury," Seiji said in a playful tone before winking at me. "You were unconscious earlier, so he had no choice but to do CPR. Pretty heroic, right?" Seiji added, with a big bright smile.
I just sighed and slowly uncrossed my arms, gripping the energy drink bottle tightly. I looked at both of them, feeling super guilt. "I'm really sorry about what happened, I ended up bothering you guys," I said softly, embarrassed as I sighed. The guy named Jeco put his arm around Seiji’s shoulder, still looking at me.
"No worries, Maury—"
"Maurette," I cut him off, then marched over to the kitchen where Satana was. This witch!
"Why didn’t you tell me sooner?" I muttered as soon as I entered the kitchen, where she was tasting the chicken curry she was cooking. She just gave me an innocent look and spoke up.
"You didn't ask."
I plopped down on the high stool and just watched her mix whatever she was cooking—probably almost done. She grabbed the pot holder and served it in front of me.
Gosh, today’s been full of embarrassing moments. I grabbed Satana’s phone and checked social media. There were tons of tweets about me, and thankfully, none of them were hate tweets. Everyone was just worried about me.
"#GetwellsoonMZ, #LoveYouMaurette, #ProtectMauretteAtAllCost," I read the hashtags. I let out a deep breath of relief before turning off Satana’s phone and putting it back where it was.
I straightened up and the delicious smell of chicken curry filled the air. My stomach couldn’t wait anymore.
"Wowww!" Seiji’s annoying voice echoed through the kitchen.
I just closed my eyes and leaned back on the table, feeling so done. The three of them joined me, waiting for Satana to bring the food to the table. The plates and silverware were already set, so I started feeling a little awkward. I could hear Seiji giggling as he kept glancing back and forth between me and Jeco.
Our family isn’t this noisy. I don’t know what’s up with this guy.
"Sevena’s outside," the singer from the event earlier said after a while. Right, I still don’t know his name. He was typing seriously on his phone.
"Ate’s outside?" Satana asked, sitting next to me. (Ate means older sister.)
"She can't get in, it's too crowded. Got to go," the singer said again, then stood up.
"Gringgo, bro, thanks again!" Seiji said to him. The guy named Gringgo just smiled and walked away. I can’t believe I’m dragging people out because of what just happened. Sevenas is Satana’s older sister.
The three of us just started eating. Only Seiji and Satana’s voices filled the room. Jeco barely spoke. Satana and Seiji just kept chatting until they started talking about me, while I just chewed my food.
"You sure you still want to take the mermaid role?" Satana asked about my upcoming project. I paused for a second and looked up.
"I’m still thinking about it," I said. Yeah, it’s a big project, and I can’t just pass it up. But I’m kinda worried... it might end up my career, or worse, my life.
"Why don’t you enroll in Swiming classes?" Seiji said, still chewing as he scooped more chicken curry. I laughed and looked at Satana.
"Even professional swimming instructors can't help me. Who else could possibly teach me?"
A silence followed after I said that. It really felt like there was no hope for me to ever learn how to swim. For sure, there’s someone more deserving of the project, so I guess I’ll just reject the offer—"
"I can."
I looked up when Jeco suddenly spoke, Seiji whistled playfully, and Satana just hid a smile behind her water.
I squinted and looked back at him. "Really? You?" Yeah, I can't deny he knows how to rescue people and his body’s on point, but I seriously don’t think he’s got what it takes to teach me.
"Don’t wanna?" he said, grinning like a troublemaker.
"s**t, bro. Almost forgot you’re Jeco Jimenez, the Olympic gold medalist!" Seiji said. I had to hide my shock. Wait, what? Olympic?!
Jeco playfully chuckled, “It's nothing.”
- Writer
