Flicker | ✔️

Chapter 2: Maya

Edited

I'm engulfed in the sounds that surround me; the rhythmic tapping of Darren's fingers on the steering wheel.

The ride to school is pretty quiet as usual, apart from the songs playing in the background. I don't often enjoy making smalltalk with Darren as it often results to speaking of football over and over again and I'm pretty much over that conversational topic so I keep my mouth shut.

He parks the car at the school's parking and then we both get out. A bunch of girls immediately hurry to Darren with the fakest faces I've seen. They're the girls that'll do anything for sex and they're known for that. What they do with their bodies is their concern but when they find themselves in my house is when I have a problem with them.

I ignore the girls and their rather lame attempts at seducing my brother and make my way into the hallways.

"Maya!" I hear and I turn around to see Gigi. Her full name is Gianna but everyone calls her Gigi. She approaches me, her long curly brown hair is down today and her amber eyes sparkle more than usual. Even her outfit is more carefully fitted to impress, showcasing curves in just the right areas.

I close my locker and offer her a small smile.
School has become my safe haven. My sanctuary. A home away from home. I feel safe, relaxed and tests are just a way to assure my position as the owner of my Dad's law firm. I was always a "daddy's little girl" and in my heart I always will be. If he can look down upon me and say 'I'm proud' then it would have been all worth it.

Darren, however, never showed any interest for the company ever since he was little. It was clear to him that sports was his thing, and dad's firm was not. He can be what he wants to be but I'll become a lawyer and defend the voices of the unheard and be as honorable as dad once was.

Because of dad's job we are rich. We really are, and that's something I have come to be ashamed of and loathe with a pure internal hate. People who didn't even know me recognized me as 'the lucky girl who gets everything she wants'. In some ways that may be true but in a thousand others, it is clear that it is not.

I receive the burning hate of my mother and I've lost my closest family member; my father. If that makes me lucky then why do I not feel that way? I get materialized things that hold no sentimental affection. I want my mom back. I know deep down that this longing for the past will result in nothing but pain, yet I still hold onto that flicker of hope, desperately wishing that she'd come back, even though it's evident that she's already too far gone.

I've never thought of myself as snobbish. I may be privileged in ways that others aren't but I hate it. I hate the looks I get as my brother's expensive car rolls into the parking, or the sneers other girls give me as they see my richly-made clothing nor the over-the-top sympathy I am sometimes given by eager teachers. Appearing professional in front of everyone is important for my mother. I would rather stay in the crowd, unspottable, undetected. But what I want never matters.

"Hey Gigi. What's up? You seem happier than usual."

"Hmmm..?" She hums giving me that interrogatory face she has when she's excited to tell me something.

"Come on. What happened?" I indulge, my interest getting more and more peeked.

"Connor asked me out on a date!"

I smile as my bestfriend gushes with excitement.

"That's wonderful! How long has it been since you liked him?"