Chapter 125: Chapter 125 Friends? GWENETH
"You would be coming to Courtney’s sleep over right?" I internally sigh at Curry’s question. This is the second time today. It must be past a hundred times now.
She and Courtney herself have been up in my ass about it since the start of the new week. And now it is Friday. The day of the sleepover.
I am about to give the same answer that I have been giving. "No. Like I said before, midterms. Plus, my parents would not allow it, especially my mother." I excused.
"But your mom seemed like the cool parent type when I saw her the other day." She pushes.
"Wait, you met Gweneth’s mom? When?" Maverick sharply looks up from his phone to ask.
She responds. "When I dropped her close to her house yesterday."
"How was she like?"
"Totally cool. She even invited me for dinner. But I could not go because of the cheerleading tryouts. She doesn’t seem like those tiger moms. I feel like you are just making excuses not to go." I roll my eyes at her statement.
"If only I can explain her to you. But the only thing I can say is, no. I have my hands full. School, drama club, swimming, martial arts, studying for the midterms. . .and detention. Which would be over today. Finally." I let out an exhausted sigh at the end of the long sentence. I really am going through a lot.
"But you are aware that the midterms have been pushed back because of the charity Gala right?"
"Oh. There is also that." Sighs, so many things.
"It usually comes after the midterms. Why is it different this year?" Maverick says looking confused and disturbed.
"We would not be able to properly enjoy the party knowing the midterms noose is hanging on our necks." He is kinda right. But me? I am always prepared for an exam any time and day because I always study.
"Gwen." Curry whines.
"What? Why do you guys want me to come so badly?" It is exasperating.
"Because it would be fun!. . . And also. . . ." Her voice drops. "I don’t get along well with the rest of them aside from Courtney. They leave me out of conversations. She ignores me too when she is with them. Especially now that she is—" She suddenly pauses.
"What?" I ask, silently observing her awkward and relieved expression like she wanted to say something she wasn’t supposed to and quickly stopped herself in time.
"Nothing." She smiles awkwardly. "I always feel sidelined whenever I am in their company.
It always sucks." The pity silence lasted for a few seconds before I spoke,
"Then don’t go." I reason. Maverick also agrees with me on that.
"But I want to. I do not miss any chances of seeing her. Just please come too so I will not be lonely. Huh? Please?" She is rubbing her palms together with a cute kitten look. Maverick then asks if he could come in my place.
Curry scrunches her nose at the idea. "No. Absolutely not. It is a girl’s thing. You would look out of place." She tells him. "But I am good at girls things." He mutters. She eyes him before she looks hopefully at me again. "Pretty please?"
Okay, now she has even changed her voice to sound like a cartoon character. "Ugh, okay fine. I will think about it." I caved in before I even realized. She claps and squeals happily. "Yay!"
"I only said that I would think about it. I did not agree yet." I caution before she starts to go way over her head.
My composure shatters the second I lay my eyes met him on the short winding stairwell that leads out of the library. My body stiffens recalling the way he had looked at me that night, eyes filled with bad lust brings me the slithering feeling once again.
I have not seen him around for days now. I prayed and hoped it would remain that way. But here he is. And thanks to what he did that night, I have been sleeping with my eyes closed after barricading my windows. I thought about telling someone. Dad, my friends. But I still haven’t so far. "Asshole." I mutter under my breath. "Did you say something?"
Fear catches me when I see him now standing in front of me in the span of a second. He was quite a number of steps ahead of me a while ago. He reaches his hand to touch me and I slapped it away.
"What is your problem? What do you want now?" I snarl at him. His hand reaches out to touch my lips again, but I avoid them, stepping back to put distance between us, my back meeting the railings. He didn’t seem to like that. An angry look flickered in his eyes, but it was gone the next second like it was never there.
"I’m a little hurt. Is that how you should talk to me when I have been pardoning you ever since. Or do you want to go back to how it was before?" He says in a low, dangerous tone. His eyes are currently fixed on me with an intensity that is making my blood go cold. Just then my phone rings.
I glance at the screen and see that it is Rex. A smile immediately comes on my face. Calix grabbed it all of a sudden. "Give it back!" I shout. He took a glance at the screen before he silently obliges.
I can see his jaw clenching. He leaves and starts going down. I hold my phone, clutching it to my chest and start running up the stairs. But then I stop when I hear his voice asking, "Do you really like him?
Answer me!" He snaps when I don’t respond. I turn to look at him scared and surprised. "Yes. And why do you care?"
He stares dead at me. "Forget I said anything."
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«How do you know about my birthday?» I blush as I texted that to Rex. He just spoke about my birthday. The exact date making me realize that it is just two weeks away.
«I saw it on your Facebook.» Gosh, he is so attentive. I roll on my bed, feeling more giddy than ever.
"Hey there lover girl." I flinch and immediately jolt up at the sound of Mom’s voice. I really want to tell her off for barging in, but I know it would do nothing because it’s her habit. "What is it?"
"A bunch of girls just pulled up out front in a sports car. And they are asking for you, said they are friends."
"Friends?"
I run downstairs to see them. "There she finally is! Hey girl!" Courtney exclaims. Curry is also here along with two other girls that I recognize to be Courtney’s friends. I glance at their faces pensively. "What are you guys doing here?" I ask. This cannot be good at all. "What else? We have come to drag you to that sleepover."
"Did I hear sleepover?" Mom asks, stepping out from behind me.
"Yes ma’am. We want her to come. But she says that you would not allow. So we are here to plead that you should let her. The sleepover would not be fun without her." They all put their palms together, begging. I never knew they were so serious about wanting me to come.
My hope was on mom. I naturally thought that she would stand by my side and not agree. But then she surprises me by saying; "Of course. She can go. I don’t have a problem with that." She says with a smile.
I look at her frozen in unexpressed shock. They all squeal, thanking her. "It’s nothing. I’m actually excited. Gweneth has not been to one of those before. I was starting to get worried that she didn’t have friends. I’m happy knowing she has friends like you girls. But is it not still quite too early for a sleepover? The sun has not set yet."
"Yeah, we just wanted to shop and get a few things."
Mom tilts her head slightly at that statement. "Like what, booze and smokes?"
"No, we don’t do those." Curry quickly responds. "It’s candies. We all love candies, don’t we?" Mom shakes her head in sarcastic agreement. "Yeah, yeah. Quite convincing. I believe you girls. Don’t drink too much."
"We won’t!" They all chorus. "Just a few sips at most." Says one of Courtney’s friends "And who is hosting this sleepover?"
"My house. Don’t worry, it is totally secure. No one can break in." Courtney responds.
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"Wow. You seem to be doing fine in that school. I was worried for nothing. They look like nice girls." Mom says sipping her smoothie.
"I can’t believe you agreed. You should have made up some kind of excuse." I scold. Packing my pajamas into a small tote bag.
"I am not much of a tiger mom. Why would you want me to be seen like that?"
"Yeah, sure you aren’t." I go into the bathroom to get my toothbrush and come back out to change my clothes. "Try and roll with them as much as you can. It is not too early for you to start building connections that would help you later on. You are attending a school full of rich kids. Don’t just study. Use it to your advantage."
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"Curry was right. Your mom does seem cool." Courtney tells me. I throw a glance at Curry. This must have been her idea. "I guess so." I respond dryly, plugging my earphones back on as the conversation shifts from me as quickly as it came.
I am glad that I have these earphones. If not I would have been forced to listen to them speak about things that I can’t relate to. What their next summer trip would be, the gowns they are going to wear for the Charity Gala next week and what theme they are going to go with—because Courtney is among the planners of the event.
Sighs! I hope morning comes quickly.