It Should Have Been Like This

Book Thirty-five: forgive me not? Okay, on to the next hunk!

Joyful exclamation.

    I looked at my partner and frowned. He was busy making friends with a kid holding a pack of crackers. Lost course. Eventually, I'd have to sing on my own. Such a wonderful way for the night to turn out.

   Serenity and Zachary sang to a song by Jennifer Lopaz, Zyane and Sera sang to yummy by Justin Bieber, no surprise there. Then Zyaire and Rominic sang to something about happy rainbow. It was ridiculous, funny, stupid and again, ridiculous. But surprisingly, their score was higher than Sera's and Zayne's. Now it was mine and Perry's.

   "Perry, come on, we gotta go," I called out. Perry can sing, he was taught. It would be a great point to my score, if only he can actually focus and sing. Perry turned his head, looked at me and rolled his eyes back to the kid waving a cracker at him.

Well, I'm on my own now.

   "You can do it, Mom, I believe in you," now if Zach said that with a little more enthusiasm, I would have been happy, but he didn't. The others didn't cheer me on because I am their rival. I climbed on the stage, my eyes finding Rominic's. Maybe an apology song would help, yes. But what apology song? I only knew four apology songs. Bryan Adam's please forgive me, Linkin Park's in between, but Rominic hates both of them. I played it one time before we had the fight and he went crazy. I would sing Adele's hello or Justin Bieber's sorry, but he would roll his eyes at it. Knowing him, I needed to just sing a song about love, a song that makes my voice looks cool. That's it! I know the perfect song!

   I made eye contact with him but he looked away. Thankfully, it wasn't one of those karaokes that makes your voice sounds terrible. I chose my song, feeling very excited and positive that after the song, his anger would lessen.

   "I would tell you that I love you tonight
   But I know that I've got time on my side
   Where you goin'? Why you leavin' so soon?
   Is there somewhere else that's better for you?

   What is love if you're not here with me?
   What is love if it's not guaranteed?
   What is love if it just ups and leaves?

   What is love if you're not here no more?
   What is love if you're not really sure?
   What is love?
   What is love?..." I closed my eyes and sang my heart out. I really wanted to sing Bryan Adam's, it best explained my heart, but I couldn't because impressing him was more important. When I was done singing, the crowd applaud. My score was the highest, I won!

   I excitedly bounced towards them, smiling widely. "Mom, that was so cool!" Serene squealed.

   "Yeah, amazing!" I said with fake enthusiasm, waiting for him to comment but he rather stare at his phone. I impatiently placed my hands on my hips, my smile turning into a scorn as I watched him ignore me. The gut of the man. People make mistakes and I went through the agony of wearing the life squeezing dress for him. Even my hair and makeup was overdone just for him and he still ignored me. Maybe he thought I was still exactly like the Lavender he knew. It's either he forgot poverty changed me, or he had no idea.

Wanna play that kind of song, fine, let's rock and roll.

   "Kids, I'm going to grab me a drink," I said, narrowing my eyes at him, a coy smirk on my lips. After they all hummed, I did what I should have done in the first place. I mean, what's the point of wearing the dress suffocating me when I cover it with a coat? I pulled the trench coat off and stretched it to Zyaire, knowing he would comment. He whistled playfully.

   "Darn, Mom, you look smashing. Why did you wear the coat in the first place?" I don't know, maybe because it's like zero decree in here and the dress is both handless and backless because I won't classify the strap back as one. Also because it's very short and brought out my curves in a very unholy way.