"I love you so much, Antonio!" a petite brown-haired, dark skinned Mexican actress screams toward the male standing a few metres from her.
He shrugs, looking down at the grassy field where they stood.
"Look at me?" Her tone less of a command, more of a plea. "I do everything for you!"
Tears stroll down her pretty face, her watery eyes focused on the dark, tall, brown muscular specimen standing before her.
He shakes his head, signalling his disapproval. "I didn't ask you for anything, Paloma. I never did."
"You didn't have to, Antonio. I do it because I love you. I love you, Antonio!" Her last words louder to convey her message.
"I don't love you!" he screams back. "...and I never will. My heart belongs to another, and you know this." His eyes pleading with her to understand.
He runs his hand through his brown hair in frustration, then rests his body on the wall with a sigh, in a way that highlights his smaller waist and his long muscular legs.
"You keep saying this," she starts sobbing, "...but your eyes tell me a different story. Your touch tells me something different. I am starting to think this love of yours is a fable. A story just to ward me off, Antonio!"
He looks at her, guilt in his eyes. "You were just a dare, Paloma, to prove my love to the one I love. You were nothing more."
"How can you love her? She is cruel and she treats you like an obj—"
"Look! I love Maria!" he screams defensively, looking straight into her eyes, his gaze strong, his stare cold. "I love Maria." He repeats it this way she knows for sure he is not lying.
...
I hear a hiss interrupting my movie flow. My gaze shifts to the person behind me, a family-sized pack of potato chips, a huge bowl of ice cream, and a bottle of diet soda in hand.
"Maria is pregnant, by the way. They end up together, he and Paloma."
I move my gaze to my beautiful sister. My eyes fall to her throat. I could just choke her.
A handful of popcorn in my mouth preventing me from shouting, bitch shut the fuck up.
I look at her, making sure my face conveys my discontent.
"Antonio and Maria break up after he finds out the baby belongs to Juan Manuel," she continues, ignoring me.
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?
Popcorn in my mouth causes me to break into a dry cough. I pick up the bottle of soda from the wooden table beside me.
"I hate you!" I manage to get out after my series of coughs.
She smiles at me. "I thought you hate telenovelas. You say they are too dramatic."
"And I thought you were on a diet. Don't you have a date tomorrow?" I shoot back.
She smirks, gazing deeply into my eyes. "You hate telenovelas, don't you?" She wanted me to bounce.
"I do, but honestly…" A smile curves on my lips. "I get why you are always watching telenovelas. This movie is awesome."
"Riya." This was a gentle warning.
"I mean you never see it coming. He loves Maria, Maria loves him, he loves Paloma, Maria is pregnant, he is not the father, they break up, they marry, they divorce. I mean it has all the twists and turns!"
I dash another handful of popcorn into my mouth, a little falling from my mouth back into the popcorn bowl.
"Eww! Stop eating like that, Riya!"
Blond. Tall… well, 5ft 7. Skinny. Fair. My sister could as well be a main character, and she sure acted like one.
I look at her face. She was much disgusted and irritated. I was messing up her previously cleaned home and hogging her couch watching an old episode of Home of Love, one of her favorite telenovelas.
As much as she loved watching Home of Love, she probably did not want to watch it at this time.
"Eating like what, Charlie?" I say, ignoring her irritation. I was bored and she was my outlet.
"You are eating like a pig!" Charlie barks out, clearly starting to get irritated.
"Like a disgusting pig! And yes, I love Home of Love, but there are newer episodes I would rather watch...... Get out"
She walks closer, stepping on a packet of cookies she hadn't noticed before.
She scans the couch. "Look at the sitting room. It is a mess!"
Really, it was just two packets of cookies that had fallen from the cookie bowl. She was overreacting.
Like I said… main character. Way too dramatic.
I look at my older sister, side-eyeing her for a bit before picking up the two packets and placing them in the bowl.
"Sorry."
She looks at me, her eyes saying get the fuck out of my couch. I stand, picking up the laptop placed on the center table.
"What are you doing?" Charlie asks, looking at her laptop in my hand.
"Fine! Whatever! I will just use my phone instead," I smirk, dashing into my room.
I should probably continue watching the movie, I think to myself, dashing up the stairs toward my room. I turn on the bulb, then walk toward the center, jumping on my rustic bed. I hear its usual squeaking.
So soft. I feel fatigue take over me. This was a good quality foam.
I will watch the movie another time.
I close my eyes hoping to fall asleep but like a well- thought out prank my sleep eluded me.
Turning and shifting and turning, I feel uncomfortable.
Fatigue and discomfort, a sign of my boredom.
I could hear Charlie's laughs and exclamations from downstairs.
I pick up my phone. I could just stream the movie…
I open my movie app, then search it..... over a hundred episodes and counting.
I was definitely not using my data to stream over a hundred episodes. It would be too expensive.
I drop my phone.
My eyes landed on the reading desk.
That book was there.
The same dusty off-putting book some old bookseller had forced me to buy a month ago.
I feel unease flowing through my body.
I am not one to insult people, especially the old, but she was very out of place...... Like a case that didn't fit into the cupboard.
I am not going to read, especially that book. I declare against my boredom, I should go to sleep.
My brain starts replaying the incident of that day against my will.
Her soul piercing eyes
Her all-knowing smile
The creepy feel of her palms grazing my skin
I needed to get away.
Her voice was calm and shaky, it leaked into my soul, taking control.
I felt played with
I felt fear
I was a rabbit in a snake's hold
I jerk up from the bed, shutting off my memory flow, I had already purchased the book.
I never had to see her again, I was never going to buy from her again, it was done.
My gaze falls right book laying there.
Still
Reading had gotten me nowhere in life.
It was a waste of time, all this trophies. All these experience and I was no better than a basic girl.....broken-hearted, used, and abandoned.
I pick up my phone, looking through messages.
Right, I am a loner. Who would text me?
I had no exciting messages. Just reminders of my outstanding student loans, a bank debit alert, and a message from the creep I had been avoiding.
I click on his message.
Hey Riya, why don't you come to my place for a date.
I roll my eyes. He scared me. He was creepy and always looking at my thighs. Why would I go to his place?
"Hey Henry," I text back, ignoring his question.
He isn't online.
Fuck.
Even Henry the creep is absent. My entire life is absent.
No friends. No plans. Just silence and notifications I don’t care about.
I close my eyes, resorting to daydreaming as a last resort.
I had always wanted to be popular like Charlie, both in college and high school.
In high school, I was very much overweight. No one popular wanted to be friends with me.
I was no one but Charlie's fat bear sister.
In highschool, my nickname had even been Riya Fat Bear after the well known children cartoon Ron Patrol
In college, I was too much of an anti-social bookworm.
College was much better—being fat did not matter as much—but I was not focused on social gatherings.
By my third year, I had completely isolated myself but who cares, I already had a job and several awards right?.
I had become skinny from too much reading and stress.
I was too busy for friends.
Well… I regret it all now.
Only a few years out of college, I had no connections, no friends, no job. Nothing but meaningless trophies.
My days are a cycle of sleeping, waking up late, going to my waitressing job at the city diner, and occasionally my favorite activity—going to the market.
My highly rated GPA and extracurricular intern hours had not gotten me my dream money-making job yet.
After enslaving myself for a multi-billionaire conglomerate without pay, I wasn't even hired.
Mr. Clavinton commended me by saying I was a great intern—very by the book, as he had put it.
But he had not hired me, neither did he write a recommendation.
Even after I asked.
I was too much of a talent for him to let another company have me. He smiled, laughing it off, the bastard blacklisted me.
For the first time, he handed me some money—taxi money—since his company had no vacancy and I was his favorite intern of all time, as he had put it.
$75,000 per annum down the drain.
My great gleaming future.
I smirk. All down the drain.
A tear strolls down my eyes.
That is enough daydreaming.
I look over to the desk. It just sits there, still. Waiting. Taunting me.
I am not going to read, I try to remind myself,
it was just a boring old book.
Just go to sleep.
I look over at the desk
"A little peek would not hurt."
I stand up, heading eastward a few steps away from my bed.
My curiosity takes bites of my anxiety
Walking back, I sit at the footstool of the bed. There it laid in my hands, the creepy old woman's book
It was a novel, probably a classic. The cover is very uncoloured. It gave a drab feeling.
"Well, we don't judge books by their covers, now do we?"
The face of the old woman flashes briefly in my head. Her creepy all-knowing smile, the icky feeling behind her touch.
"We don't judge books by their sellers either," I sigh.
Creepy and desperate.
It might be because no one wanted the damn boring book. She had to scan someone into buying it.
How unfortunate I am.
I had already purchased it, No harm in just reading.
I proceed to open the book.
I feel unease shivering my spine.
It is just a book, Right?
I smirk, my hands flipping the page.