First Kiss & Broken Promises

Chapter 2 - "You are back!"

She slapped me! My mouth hung open in shock as Annie's words slowly sunk in. How could she? My mind kept asking as my hands tightened painfully around Annie's until she gasped. I loosened my grip immediately, looking at her apologetically.

"That evil bitch!" I cursed. "She has no right." I struggled to hold my anger in because I knew Annie would totally freak out if I reacted badly. 

"Divi, it was my fault. I provoked her," Annie explained, absently rubbing her left cheek. I winced. Typical Annie - blaming herself for everything that happened around her.

"Are you kidding me? How is it your fault?" I scolded. "Doesn't matter what you did Annie. You are sixteen; she has no business laying her hand on you. Do you understand?"

"I called her a bitch," she said sheepishly, pulling her left cheek in, a trademark of hers when she felt guilty about something.

"You did?" I exclaimed in wonder.

Annie and swearing were like oil and water. I was sure her step-mom Vanya deserved it. Annie looked lost in her own thoughts, probably feeling so guilty that she would have decided, right about now, to apologize to that evil witch of a step-mom. No way!

"Divi, I think I should...." I was so right.

I was already shaking my head.

"Do you think I should..." She started again, raising her perfect brow.

"Nope." I popped the 'p' shaking my head vigorously, my ponytail swinging from shoulder to shoulder. "Absolutely not! She should be the one apologizing to you," I said vehemently. And I'll make damn sure she does, I silently swore.

"You think! She scares me Divi," Annie reluctantly admitted.

"She is a scary woman!" I agreed. "But I am scarier!" I growled, drawing my hands out like claws on both sides of my face. I distorted my face and widened my eyes, bringing the pupils together to meet at the bridge of my broad nose, trying to impersonate the evil look. I couldn't bear to see the sadness in my friend's eyes.

Annie burst out laughing, "You look like one of those demons on Supernatural, only funnier."

Satisfied, I gave up the pose and swatted her shoulder. "I look cuter too," I said grinning from ear to ear. I drew a chair close to her and sat straddling its back to my chest. "Now tell me, why did you call her a bitch? I know you wouldn't have cursed without a reason."

Annie's eyes briefly flashed with anger before she replied, "She called you names and told me not to spend so much time with you."

"Oh!" was my brilliant reaction. I was too shocked to even hear her step-mother take enough interest in her daughter to forbid her from doing something. She had been practically ignoring Annie's existence from that God awful moment she stepped into the Shiv Shankar residence.

Annie's mother passed away eight years ago. She was an only child of a businessman who lived more aboard flights, at airports, and in hotels than at home. Annie truly lost everything the day she lost her mother. No known relatives to speak of and left at the mercy of a litany of servants, all she had was us.

She practically grew up with us for almost a year after that when one day her father, out of the blue, walked in with a wife in tow - a woman I hated at first sight. Annie's stepmom looked like an angel, but the coldness in her eyes could do nothing to warm a child's heart. Her abject neglect of a ten-year-old, who happened to be my best friend, only increased my hatred for her.

The new Mrs. Shiv Shankar began to feel more like a demon and less like a woman to me with each of Annie's failed efforts to win the affections of her 'new mother'. Annie, innocently, eagerly, and mistakenly opened her heart to a stranger who stepped into her life in the role of her mother.