Epilogue
Basically, Adam and I actually turned out to be just friends. We decided to cut out any feelings that came between us and see where friendship leads us to. Although it was quite obvious.
I don't get to see Adam as often as I used to but we talk over the phone from time to time. To be honest, I actually did miss him when he was gone and he is still the same person I knew, except the fact that he is 19 and goes to college.
Things got back together over the course of last week. My friends and I are back on talking terms after I apologised.
Hayley and Grace said I was overreacting with the whole Adam thing and thinking of it, they were actually right. I had been acting like Adam cheated on me or worse he was a secret serial killer and I just found out the truth at the wedding.
Quite much had not changed in his life since I left. He still argues with his dad and Paige joins in sometimes. Both Anastasia and him are still living under their dad's roof despite he had plans to move in to aunt Stacey's house. Speaking of Anastasia, her teacher Miss Oliver was fired from the school because of the whole molesting situation which Mr Richardson had to report to the principal about. She had began her job and punishment by serving in a homeless feeding program. Plus she has been warned never to see Anastasia or any other child from her former school.
Anyways that was what happened when I was gone.
Today is my 17th birthday. It's Easter break and My friends decided to take me to one of my favorite places in the world, 6 flags.
It has been so surprising that ever since I got back with them, they've been way nicer than before. I never even told them about the whole suicide thing. Adam was the only one that knew.
I checked my watch to see it was 11 am and the girls will be here soon. Jo offered to pick everyone from their house and take us to 6 flags. Sadly I was the last person she was going to pick only because I was the birthday girl.
My room door swung open and David barged into the room like he always does. Except this time he was holding a medium sized frame wrapped in brown paper.
"You need to learn how to knock." I groaned.
"You need to learn to put signs on your door." David responded and held out the frame. "This was delivered for you."
He dropped the wrapped photo frame on my bed and clasped his hands together.
"From who?" I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Don't know, don't care." He shrugged and walked out immediately before I could say anything else.
I looked at the brown wrapped frame on the bed and there was always that one person who loved wrapping with brown papers. Adam.
I sat down and unwrapped the frame on my lap and behold, it was a picture of me.
It was the photoshoot I did with Adam. I was sited on the white background with my legs crossed, covering my whole bare upper body as I seduced the camera.
It looked amazing.
I was glad Adam didn't choose a photo that exposed my body parts plus it was really selfless of him to give up this photo for the photography contest. It really did look like a winning piece of work anyway.
At the left end corner of the frame had a small paper on it. I picked it up and it wrote:
'Happy birthday to my favourite art. - A.R'
This one simple sentence caused me to smile. Adam never failed to put a smile on my face.
There was a knock on the door and it swung open before I could say "come in."
"Hey birthday girl!" Hayley squealed as she entered with Grace following up behind her.
They both had small wrapped gifts in their hands and this got me more excited.
"Happy birthday to you..!" Grace sang gleefully as she held up her gift in her hands.
"Aww I love you guys so much!" I stood up to hug them both. They giggled in response. But I wasn't just doing it for the sake of love. "Now let's get the gifts unwrapped."
I grabbed both gifts from them and walked over to my bed to open them.
"You couldn't wait for us to give it to you." Hayley scoffed.
"Oh my... Naomi is this you?!" Grace stared at the framed photo on my bed with a startled expression.
Before I could take it away, she grabbed it immediately and the two girls stared at it in amusement.
"Guys please stop looking. I know it's awful." I muttered in embarrassment.
"No it's amazing!" Hayley said while staring at it. "I told you you're going to be a model someday."
"You bet." I scoffed.
"You remind me of this girl that looks just like you. I can't remember her name.." Grace looked up to think.
"Winnie Harlow?" Hayley guessed.
"Yes that model! She looks so much like Naomi." Grace blurted.
"I know! You should meet her someday. She's the first and most popular model with vitiligo."
"How come y'all are just telling me about her now?" I raised my eyebrows at both of them.
"Thought you'll know her. She's like the queen of vitiligo." Hayley said.
"Might look up for her on goog-"
I was cut by a loud car horn outside my window.
"I forgot Jo and Jamie are waiting for us! Let's go now before we miss the 12 pm booking." Grace squealed in excitement and dropped the photo back on my bed immediately.
Hayley was already out of the door before I could get my bag. I looked at the two unwrapped gifts and groaned in frustration. I bet I have to leave it unwrapped till I get back.
"Let's go!" Grace grabbed my arm and started running for the door without letting me hesitate.
The moment we got to the car, I was thrown to the left end of the back seat as Grace and Hayley entered after me.
"Happy birthday Naomi." Jamie and Jo said at the same time.
"Thanks guys!" I responded and looked at Jo, "thanks for offering to ride us Jo."
"No biggie." She scoffed, "besides you have to accept this as my birthday gift to you."
"Just say you couldn't get her one." Jamie snorted.
"Like you got anything for her." Jo snapped and started the car.
"Don't go there biggie." Jamie snapped back the moment the car was moving.
"What did you just call me?" Jo frowned at her.
"Cut the argument!" Hayley interjected as she was beside me. "We can do this tomorrow. Right now let's just be happy till the day gets over. At least just for Naomi."
"Thank you." I mouthed to her. She responded with a smile.
The car ride was going to take 50 minutes and we've only been on the road for 20 minutes. None of the girls couldn't stop talking and everyone had a new conversation to bring. Especially when it came to the conversation of me punching Jenna. I really don't know how the news got round school but it did. My friends always had my back whenever there was any sign of Jenna in the hallway. Even without them she knew she could not come close to me anymore because she was going to get another mystery punch from me.
I wish I could tell the whole world this but, it's always worth a try to stand up for yourself. Even if you think it might get worse after it, it proves to your enemy that you're not the weakling they think you are.
"Guys this is my song!" Grace squealed which caused all of us to be silent to hear the song that just came on the radio.
Jamie increased the volume and life is worth living by Justin bieber was playing.
"I love this song!" Hayley added.
Jo, Jamie and I nodded too. This was a song everyone loved. It made everyone feel special.
"I think this song speaks for someone in this car." Grace turned to me.
I furrowed my eyebrows at her. She knew?
Jamie, Jo and Hayley looked at each other and smiled.
Oh my goodness they all knew. Adam told them after he promised not to!
"Screw Adam." I muttered under my breath.
"We all needed to know that you wanted to commit suicide Naomi. This was a big deal and it was something Adam could not keep shut about. Besides he did you a favour." Grace said.
"Grace is right. Don't get mad at Adam. We were always going to find out sooner or later." Hayley added
"Look it's just that I didn't want you guys looking at me like some lunatic." I protested.
"We understand why you did that and nobody is judging you for thinking such way." Hayley said as she puts her hands behind my hair and patted it lightly. "Don't worry your secret is safe with us. We love you Naomi and we don't want to loose you."
"Please don't do it anymore. I was scared when he told me about it." Grace said anxiously.
I looked at all of them as they were all curiously looking at me.
"Don't worry guys I already promised myself not to do it anymore." I waved my hands.
They all sighed in relief which caused me to chuckle at their silly expression.
"I love you." Hayley hugged me and Grace followed her actions too by wrapping herself around Hayley and reaching out to me.
"Get a break." Jamie rolled her eyes at us.
We just giggle at the back and they let go of me.
"Let's sing along!" Jo squealed as she added the volume louder this time. "The song is ending soon."
Hayley held my hand as Grace held hers too so that we will have a bonding when singing along.
"Life is worth living... So live another day.." The girls sang gleefully along with the music while I just remained silent and giggle at their facial expressions.
"The meaning of forgiveness, People make mistakes..." They continued and Hayley elbowed me when she noticed that I was not singing along.
I rolled my eyes and joined in.
"Only God can judge me... Life is worth living again.." We sang along and smiled at each other.
"Another day.." I looked out the window and couldn't stop myself from smiling.
"Life is worth living again." We finished.
It was such a beautiful song for people like me. I feel like I needed to listen to this song everytime suicidal thoughts crossed my mind.
I looked out the window and stared at the blue sky and beautiful clouds. The sun was also shining on my face like it was summer, although it was spring.
Everything felt so peaceful. The girls were having their distinct conversation while I was connecting with the nature outside the window.
I really need to learn how to live without focusing on my faults. I am done pitying for myself and with this new age comes a new life. Everything that happened when I was sixteen remains at the age of sixteen.
I looked down at my skin and smiled. There was nothing more that I could feel but happiness over me. I was alive and nothing else could be better than being alive.
I have to admit but for the first time in history I loved my skin more than ever. Having such an amazing skin condition made me realise a lot of things.
It made me identify the good and bad people around me. I realise that it was easier for me to tell who my true friends are. It was easier for me to have a guy love me for who I am rather than just my looks. It was easier for me to just be... me.
There are only few people in this world that is going through what I am going through but I am glad that I am not all alone in this. Someday I will meet more people like me and we will all share our stories and make the world a better place, rather than letting the world make us feel less important.
Surely, God chose us to be unique and different. This is how things are meant to be and we don't always know why. But what really matters is that we learn to live with it. As we do this, we successfully consider ourselves the strongest people on earth because it was never easy living in a way we didn't to choose to.
To be honest, strong isn't enough to describe who we are. What we have is a lifestyle and not a description.
I was born to live with vitiligo and I will die with vitiligo. Nothing can change it. All I can do from now on is embrace it. Embrace every single flaw because that is what makes us who we are.
Instead of being the queen of cows, I am now the queen of skins. This will be a reminder for me every time I look at myself in the mirror.
Because that is just who I am.
The queen of skins.
__________________
END OF THE COW-BEE
A/N
Again and again, I want to say a very big thank you for those who have been with me right from the beginning of this story. I really appreciate all your comments and votes (I see every single one of them) as this helped a lot in the continuation of this book.
I want to thank God for being there for me right from the start. I want to thank WATTPAD for giving me an opportunity to be able to do what I love most, writing.
Also, I have been considering if I should put this book for WATTY awards or not.
Moreover, I want to apologise for all the grammar errors and wrong use of language. I was still unable to get an editor all through this story and it's not easy for me to see all the mistakes done.
Once again, I love you guys for being there and encouraging me to complete this book because I would have stopped it a very long time ago. This may not be the best book you've read neither is this the best book I could ever write but hopefully by the grace of God there will be more stories in future.
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God bless you all❤️