Troubled

SIXTY SIX

KYLE GARCIA

"Your mom asked us to plan your birthday weekend!" Dawson sing songed to me the second I plopped down next to him.

"This is going to be your biggest party yet. Nothing can top this one, I will be making sure of it." He bragged on.

"Are you okay?" Ray asked me with his see through eyes.

"I feel like we ask you this question too much these days. What is really going on with you?"

Sighing before resting my forehead on the cafeteria table. I heard once that if you can not decipher your thoughts, gather them at the centre and sort through them one after the other. I don't know if they meant we should pool the thoughts together by placing our foreheads on a flat surface, but I was hoping my thoughts would rush to the middle of my forehead.

"Ay, you even listening to anything we saying?" Dawson made an annoyed sound through his teeth.

I hated the sound.

Cora was actively avoiding me. Anywhere I go to find her, she is magically not there. Xander said she forgot to charge her phone. I knew it in my guts that she was avoiding any contact with me, not Xander because I saw them talk when a teacher was in class, I would have gone in regardless of the teacher, but I was starting to turn a new leaf. A new, clean slate.

A gutteral groan came out of my mouth. I almost forgot what one sided like looked like. I actually had no clue as all the girls I liked in the past either liked me first or liked me back. None of them went of their way to avoid me so harshly.

Xander was not at his spot at their table, neither was she, so I suspected they were in the music room together. So I went there and just Xander was there practicing his music.

"She talked about seeing the school nurse about.."

He looked uncomfortable,

"Period cramps."

That gave hope, an explanation. She was juggling her female hormones, pain, discomfort, she wasn't avoiding me, she was seeking comfort. She was in pain, everything was not about me. This was my rant till I got to the nurse's office and didn't find her. Or the nurse.

So yeah, that was why I went back to the cafeteria and placed my head on the table, trying to sift through my thoughts.

"Is something going on at home?" Dawson asked, for once he was serious.

"Because dad said something about a bunch of people actively protesting to sue your dad."

I turned to look at him so sharply I could swear my neck cracked. He looked startled.

"Your dad said what?"

He scratched the back of his head as he looked at Ray for help, but Ray was just as lost as I was. Mom said it was bad, she didn't talk about suing, or being sued.

"I thought you would tell us at your own due time. But I overheard my dad talking on the phone with your dad, I caught a few words, so I asked him about it."

My brows pinched together as I thought about it. Dad had never gotten any court case before, and he has run the pharmaceutical company longer than he had me. He was the biggest, the best, I can't imagine how this would shake him.

"Sorry, I didn't know you didn't want to share." Now Dawson looked sorry. He never looked sorry.

"The thing is, I didn't know.. I mean I knew but I didn't know it was that bad. Mom gave me the watered down version I guess."

They gave me twin sympathetic looks. I hated the look, so I make an excuse to leave them.

"I have to call mom, check on her."

I don't wait for their response before walking out there as fast as I could. I knew I couldn't get away so lucky. The universe wasn't that kind.

"K? Is that you?"

I almost forgot the owner of the voice, almost.

"Oh mi gosh, it is you."

She came out of the class room where she was.

Standing in front of me was Terra, with her arms crossed on her chest, her familiar face stood in front of me.

"I can't believe how long it's been, imma right?"

I breath out through my nose in a lousy attempt to stop myself from talking to her.

"Oh K, you can't possibly still be mad at me, it's been what? Twelve months? right?"

The girl was a trophy. She loved being one. She hung on to the arm of every male winning and waved like she did all the hard work. She was my trophy at the time of my celebrity status. She hung on to me every time, pinned herself to me, and she became the queen B. And when everything came crashing down, she was unto the next big shot, Carl from the swim team. I wasn't exactly feeling loss from her disappearance in my life, you should know better, It felt like everything that came with the fame, fake. And when she left, I could not care less about her.

But she cared, she deluded herself into thinking I was hurt by her disappearance, so she sent cheeky notes through people to see how I was faring. Insert a very fat eye roll.

"I know you missed me."

For months the notes stopped and those were my happiest times, but for her to talk to me? Out in the open, and in person? Something was up.

"I missed you too sugar, what do you say we talk after school? By the cafe down the street?"

I frown for a second before it hit me. She saw me talking with my coach. She thinks I am planning to make a come back, so she wants to 'have' me first.

She gave me a wink that made me gag before strutting away.

Not like I didn't have enough problems,bthe universe added Terra for me to handle as well.

My phone vibrated in my pockets, when I check the caller ID, my heart is my throat. It's Cora.