[ footprint of the meteor. ]
BEADS OF SWEAT COLLECT ON HER FOREHEAD, a slow gulp taking by Amelia as she avoids the interrogative eyes of her best friend. Millie wrings her hands together, nervously and her eyes jump around everywhere except on Raya.
"So—"
"Get out of my house, Amelia." Raya cuts her off, voice monotonous and cold enough to leave Millie at the edge of tears. "You don't even pay rent."
Millie pauses. "You don't pay rent either, though?"
Raya shrugs, moving her chopsticks around in her bowl and looking over to Millie, who sat opposite to her on the huge dining table. Neither of them ate their food, instead opted for suffering in unbearable silence.
"It's officially been a week since you've come back from Korea," Raya slams down her chopsticks, finally. "And you haven't gone back to your home, once. Millie, not even once."
Millie sighs, placing down her chopsticks as well, numerous excuses hanging over the tip of her tongue. Raya interrupts before Millie could dish even a single one out. "You said you'd tell me everything, but you've said nothing."
Raya's eyes and voice soften. "You left Thailand without an explanation, and now you refuse to go home. You refuse to tell me anything about it either, and I'm your best friend." Raya extends a hand on the table, inviting Millie to hold it. "I asked Ren, and you haven't even told him. Millie, something's wrong and you have to talk about it!"
Millie chews on her bottom lip silently, but her hand goes on the table, intertwining with Raya's. After several beats, Millie takes in a deep inhale.
"I fought with Mom, an year ago..."
Millie threw every clothing item she'd ever owned into her small suitcase, knocking things around and letting them fall to the ground.
The crashing sounds made several maids rush to the room, and they hung at the doorway, shocked. The eldest tried asking but a harsh glare from Amelia and her lips sealed themselves shut.
"Amelia Chailai Suksawat!" A shrill voice, belonging to Kohsoom Suksawat halted Millie's motions briefly before she resumed again. The staff make way for the woman to enter the room, fearful glances shared between them. "Stop this—" Her mother said, through gritted teeth. "—at once."
Millie looked her mother dead in the eye, picked up a vase from her bedside table and dropped it on the floor. A sickly sweet smile took her features. "No." Came the very blunt reply.
Kohsoom Suksawat crossed the few steps into her daughter's room and her slender hand came in contact loudly with Millie's cheek. Momentarily stunned, Millie stared at her mother in shock, holding her cheek.
"Stop with this shameful behaviour, right n—"
"Slap me all you want." Millie laughed out. "But I'm leaving this God awful place."
Millie tried to close the zip of her suitcase, struggling due to the haphazardly thrown clothes. A maid, out of pure instinct, made a move to help the young girl. Met with a harsh look, she stepped back.
"And where do you plan to go. Huh?" Millie's mother challenged. "What else do you have beside me in this place? Do you think my people won't find you wherever you go?"
Millie, poking the inside of her cheek with her tongue, looked her mother in the eye. "I'm leaving this country. I'm going to dad. He has shared custody anyway, you just never took me."
Kohsoom's lips part, but Millie continued. "Anything, to get away from my unloving mother to someone who actually cares."
Her mother burst out laughing, yet it seemed forced. "Fine." She scoffed, pausing the fake laughter. All she had for her daughter was a glare. "Go and see how much he cares. And if he cares more than I do."
Millie drags the suitcase behind her, picking it up as she went down the stairs, her mother and the staff following.
"You're being ungrateful—"
"I'd rather be 'ungrateful' and doing what I love than be grateful to your lies and do your bidding for the rest of my life!" Millie screamed. Thunder crackled outside, just on cue.
Raya sighs, her thumb slowly caressing the back of Millie's hand. "...and so, for an year. I did what I loved. I learnt music and—" Millie cuts herself off with a sigh.
"And ... I came back."
Millie offers nothing more after that, and Raya doesn't prod for more. They sit in silence, eating their steamed rice in a more bearable, and comfortable quiet than before. Their hands intertwined, and hearts softer through the night.
"Gotta be honest, Mils." Roy, an old friend and now classmate tells her as he pops another sandwich in his mouth. "The food just tastes better off yours, than mine." They sit in the cafeteria, enjoying life as much a they ould.
"I will haunt you in your dreams," Millie threatens with no effect. The boy chews even happily and his hand ghosts over her lunch once more. Her friends tease her, pretending to swipe at her food one times too many, until Millie throws a cucumber at a girl's face and they stop.
"What's with you and the F4?" Mona, her new classmate asks, not aware about Millie being an ex student at Kocher before. "You know? That day during the Red Card, you were sitting with them."
"You were there?" Millie blurts out through a mouthful of bread. "I thought you guys avoided or didn't like the game. That's why I was friends with you."
Roy sneaks another piece of Millie's food into his mouth and tells her, "I don't support it but you have to watch. But then again, I just went cause Mona did." His voice drops at the last sentence / confession as his gaze drifts to the blonde next to him.
Mona, not hearing that, or at least pretending not to, says, "I find them hot. Which is weird, I know!" She explains quickly, just in case they decided to comment on her questionable taste. "But Millie, you're friends with them?"
Still stuffing her face, Millie nods, "Mhm. Childhood besht friends." She swallows her mouthful. "Thyme was like my first friend. And then, through him I met the others. Thankfully, I'm not a part of the stupid Fantastic Four boy band."
Roy gasps dramatically, standing up. He receives a badly aimed spoon at his crotch. "Drama queen!" Mona and Millie scold in unison.
Groaning in pain, Roy points in front of him.
The aforementioned, Fantastic Four Boy Band stand in the middle of the cafeteria. Three fourth look annoyed and amused. One fourth of the F4 glowers at a girl in front of him.
Millie facepalms. God, not again.
She notices, just then, the silence that had stilled over the cafeteria. Upon further observation, Millie notes that the whole scene was because the poor girl had spilled her noodles on Thyme's shoes.
Seriously, dramatic much?
The girl Thyme glowers at shakes in silent tears, and Millie feels a pang of sympathy for her.
"Buy me a pair?" Thyme asks, managing to look pissed off and amused at the same time. "Do you know what these are?"
"An ugly ass pair of shoes!" Millie hollers, standing up and cupping her hands around her mouth. Roy and Mona push her into her seat, shushing her and smacking her head.
Thyme's finger points in the direction of Millie's voice and his eyes close for a brief second, as if he was asking for the patience to deal with this. "I'll deal with you later." He mutters, and glares at the poor junior in front of him again.
"Do you know what these are?" He repeats. "These are tailor-made in Paris."
Millie snorts, receiving another smack and a whole round of shushing from Roy and Mona. Tailor-made in Paris? Who would pay for bedazzled yet horrendous shoes like that? Millie catches the three fourth half of F4 look and wink in her direction.
They had the same thought process as her, she knew.
Millie nods her head in Thyme's direction, staring down the three. They better stop Thyme before he does something stupid to the girl. Millie was already holding a grudge from the last Red Card. If he decided to something to her, Millie would most definitely not forgive him. Taking the clue, MJ cut in,
"Hey, Thyme. Go easy on her, she's cute."
Thyme pays no attention. The girl still crying tells Thyme she'd do anything or whatever it took to get him to forgive her. Then she reaches out and tries to take his hand. Millie squints in confusion.
"Whatever it takes?" Thyme smirks. "What would that be?"
The grins slip from Kavin and MJ's faces. Students around them throw suggestions, with one saying she could clean his shoes.
Roy decides to input his own suggestion. "Or lick them."
It was Millie turn to smack his on the head and shush him. The girl sniffles, and a chanting ensues around the cafeteria, telling her to lick the shoes. Roy joins in on the clapping and Millie kicks his shin, making him hunch over in pain. Mona snickers.
The chanting grows louder and Millie wonders if she should aim her spoon at Thyme's head. The girl clearly didn't deserve this and the boys wouldn't do a thing, as opposed to this they might be—
Smack. A loud thump on a table silences the chant, as a girl stands up. Thyme attention lands on her, and Millie winces in sympathy. Another poor girl.
"What are you doing?" Thyme asks as the girl stands between him and the crying one. Her head remains low, fists balled by her side. "Answer me—" Thyme starts to demand.
"I think this is too much." She cuts him, her voice raised and authoritative.
Millie gasps. She knew that voice! Her one-way adopted daughter from the roof!
Her eyes go to Ren's and she mouths, 'Roof girl!' to him. His eyes narrow—obviously he did not understand that, so he looks back at Roof Girl.
Thyme grows increasingly frustrated, and Roof Girl in an attempt to salvage the situation keeps talking, taking his sarcastic questions and threats as temporary deafness on his part.
"You dare to order me around?" The girl mistakes that too as a question meant to be answered and starts to speak but shuts herself up, noticing the daggers Thyme was glaring at her.
"Sure, I forgive your friend. As per your order." The more sarcastic Thyme grew the more angrier it was. It was Fact Number One in the book called How To Be Thyme's Friend : The First Edition. The second fact being, the dumber Thyme grew, the happier he—no, scratch that, he was dumb without conditions.
He takes slow steps to the friend Roof Girl was defending, bending low to whisper something to her. Millie frowns in confusion once again, seeing the girl's lips quirk into a smile for a brief second. That was... questionable.
He walks away.
He walks away!?
Chatter rises up in the cafeteria again, but this time hushed and secretive. People expected altercation or maybe even violence on Thyme's part. But just ... forgiving her?
Roy taps Millie's arm, pointing her to something once again. Millie follows the gaze to Ren, looking back at her and mouthing something. She raises a brow, understanding absolutely nothing.
They really needed to find a better and effective way to communicate.
Ren sighs and points at the roof. Millie nods, letting him know that it was indeed Roof Girl. Ren points again and follows after Thyme with his hands in his pockets.
"What was that about?" Mona whispers, as Millie's two friends eye her weirdly. Yeah, what was that about? Millie, of course, had no idea whether Mona was referring to the whole drama, or Thyme walking away without doing anything, or the interaction between her and Ren.
"Who cares." Roy shrugs, sitting between the two girls and almost instantaneously receiving punches from them as they verbally abuse him for even suggesting or participating in the stupidity the other's enjoyed so much. "Okay, okay! I'm sorry!" Roy shrieks, shielding himself with his hands as much as he could.
Millie calms down, munching slowly at her remaining food, thinking back at the events. The girl was acting a bit weird, but then again—a lot of juniors had a crush on the F4. The girl was probably one of them and tackled with Thyme at the wrong— "HOLY SHIT!"
Millie startles her two friends and half the cafeteria at her loud exclamation. "He wants to meet me at the roof!" She chokes on her sandwich, picks up her bag and runs.
"You could have just said, 'Meet me at the roof' instead of whatever that was." Millie grumbles for the fifth time, scribbling down answers on a notebook as Ren continues to poke fun at her for getting that so late.
They sat in what Millie had assumed was now 'their' spot. The small, tucked away corner between a clutter of desks and chairs. Millie, upon arrival found Ren leaning against the ledge, wind blowing through his hair. They had discussed Roof Girl and Thyme still not apologizing for last week, as they stood side by side.
"For the fifth time, I said exactly that." He chuckles, sitting next to her and doodling in his sketchbook. They made idle conversation along with doing their own thing. Which really was Millie actually caring for academics, and Ren not so much as he drew the girl next to him.
"Anyway," Millie huffs. "I was at Raya's—"
"You're always at Raya's." He points out matter-of-factly. It seemed like everyone knew she'd been holding down her fort at her best friend's. Millie wasn't sure if she was comfortable with it being common knowledge.
"So?"
"So, I'm just saying something is wrong. I wont ask until you tell me." He dismisses the almost confrontation. Millie contemplates telling him—it wouldn't hurt, right?—but then decides against it.
"Anyway! I as at Raya's—" She glares at him, daring him to interrupt. But all Ren does is look at her and down at his sketchbook with a grin. Just like that, the mood lightens again. "—and she told me something that she thinks you'd like to know."
"And what is that?"
Millie opens her mouth to tell him about P'Mira coming back from Paris, finally, but her phone buzzes. And again. And then again. God, no. She prays it's not what she thinks it is as she opens her phone and clicks on the group chat.
Well enough, and as expected, it's a picture of Roof Girl and a red card. The next few texts were people contemplating what to do with the girl. And then a video of Roof Girl running off to somewhere.
"Is he crazy?" Millie scoffs out in disbelief, angling her phone towards Ren who was peering onto the screen with curiosity. "To a girl? Not that girls can't hold their shit and fight—but I thought I taught him to respect women."
Ren's lips quirk in an almost smile at her words but somber up quickly when Millie stands up, determined. "I'm going to give him a piece of my mind." She takes swift, willed steps to the door, almost opening it when Ren's voice, just slightly raised above normal, stops her.
"Do you know where he is?" She, in fact, did not. But she was not going to admit that so easily. Milli turns, walking the whole length of the roof, putting an act of thinking.
She stares at Ren, hoping he'd tell her where the boy is without her asking. It was a matter of her reputation. Not that she had one, anyway.
She finally goes back to the door, letting her forehead fall on it.
"No..." Millie hesitantly admits. "But I'm sure MJ or Kavin know..."
"MJ is skipping to play basketball with the love of his life, and I'm sure Kavin is already at some girl's house." Millie turns around and stalks back to the small bunch of table and chairs where they were previously sitting.
She had several questions. Many about how he knew that, and many about why he knew that. She pointed a finger at him, eyes squinting. "More on the first part later. And I'll find him somehow!"
hi :)
all the chapters are going to be this short.
i start to hate my work when it gets too long
or maybe ... my attention span is just ...
not good. huh. huh.
this chapter seems kinda filler - ish but ill try to be better !!
wish me luck for boards bbgs
anyways, millie is gorya's mom confirmed.
i kinda love millie's past, the way imma scatter bits
and pieces of it in every chapter ahhhhckck
how we liking this so far?