"Malia?" A very familiar and deep voice asks.
I close my eyes tightly, hoping that it would go away. If I don't see what's happening then it isn't happening, simple. Or so I thought.
"Reality doesn't vanish if you close your eyes." Shane whispers from beside me.
I kick him under the table and push his chair away from me, atleast I tried. Shane was so heavy that I ended pushing myself away. Either way, I was far from his snarky comments. I don't need this sort of negativity.
"You know Lia?" Cole asks the person who walked up.
"Yeah, we're pretty tight. We have all the classes together." Ashton informs my family and bends down and whispers in my ear, "It's like it was meant to be. You should also open your eyes. They're pretty and I don't want to miss a second of looking at them."
I sigh and open my eyes.
"Nice dress." He comments smirking. He didn't need to remind me how my outfit didn't fit in with the ambience. Everyone laughs. Shane gets up and does the bro shake with Ashton, asking him to join us.
I swear, it's like everyone is born to go against what I want. First my brothers now Shane. Do I get a break?
"No, I really must get going. My family is here. I just headed over here to say hi." Ashton excuses himself politely. "It was nice meeting you all."
"You haven't even met us properly. I'm sure we could fit three people in here. We could move around and make space."
I was mentally banging my head against the table repeatedly.
"No, it's alright. I should get back. I'll see you guys tomorrow."
I smile up at him.
"Wait." Jesse screams, the people at the tables around us turn and look. He shrugs it off and looks at Ashton, who stopped. "Mum?" He asks indicating her to talk.
"Hmmm?" She asks looking up from her Confit de Canard. Looked like she was enjoying it. I slowly signal to Dad, who nods his head and cuts almost half the dish into his smaller plate and takes a bite of it. His face speaks it all, it looked like he was really enjoying it, his eyes were closed in pleasure and he lifts his fork and knife to take another bite but he stops himself once he sees my face and passes it on to me under the table so that Mum doesn't notice.
"Yeah, you should drop by sometime and get to know everyone, any friend of Malia's is welcome at the Romero residence." She smiles.
That smile is the smile she's giving when I'm six feet under. Cause that is a better alternative than have both the boys in my house.
"Sure thing." He says and walks away. I stretch to get a look at his family, the family that gave birth to genetic perfection, but to no avail.
"You'll fall off." Shane says. I turn to look at him, only to find him next to me, again. Since Ashton was gone it didn't matter anymore.
Dinner went by pleasantly, playing games, talking about random stuff and the old people reminiscing. To conclude, it was a blast!
We were walking down the parking lot when Shane catches a glimpse of himself in a car window. "What in the wide world?" He asks trying to get a better look.
"What?" I ask innocently.
"My hair, it's green and I'd like to say black but I'm not sure." Shane says.
"It isn't. I'm sure it's just the car. Common they are already at the car." I urgently persuade him, trying to get him to move. Instead of moving like I wanted him to he turned the car mirror to himself.
"Is that, purple?" He asks in disgust. "And green?" He turns to me. "It's the car?" He mocks repeating my words.
"You." He points an accusing finger at me. I make a run for it. Though I'd be lying if I didn't say I was surprised it lasted this long. I jump into the car and lock it. The Matthews look back at me quizzically. I inform them of what happened as Shane knocks on the door. But some sort of realization flashes in his eyes and he walks around to the other side of the car.
Heard of the calm before the storm? This felt like it. He didn't say anything nor was there a hint of anger on his face, it was just his normal face. I looked at him all through the ride home, expecting him to twitch, but no. No reaction from him set me on the edge. It was weird.
Once we got home, he opened the car and looked at me, expecting me to get out. I shake my head and get out the door. He was acting normal, too normal if you ask me. Once I step inside the house, Mama tells me I was being paranoid for no reason, he wasn't angry. Which was what set me on the edge.
"You coming? It's pretty late, I'm gonna hit the bed." Shane informs as he starts climbing the stairs. Before he could set his room up for something I go up with hhim to make sure he did nothing. I change into his tee, in the room, just in case. I double check my side of the bed before settling in, only to find that the only thing on the bed was the sleeping form of Shane.
I get into bed and try to sleep. But all night I just caught glimpses of sleep but it was mostly tossing and turning and checking every fifteen minutes if Shane was up to anything. But he wasn't. When I finally put myself at ease and got five minutes of good, much needed sleep-
"Wake up you orangutan, you're gonna be late for school." Shane says, shaking me up.
"I just slept. Stop shaking me." I shout into the pillow, cause I was sleeping on my belly.
"No we slept at eleven yesterday, that's early." He says as he continues to shake me.
"No, you slept at eleven I just slept." I whine.
"I was in the bathroom trying to get the hair color off for the past hour and you were sleeping when I woke up."
"Well it feels like five minutes." That's when I realize why I didn't sleep yesterday, maybe this is some way of getting back at me. I cautiously turn around and look through the tiny bit I opened my eyes. There were no suspicious contraptions around, so I turn around and go back to sleep.
"Mel, it's almost eight, we have only twenty minutes to get there." He says, sighing.
"I'm not coming today, I have an almost perfect attendance and I don't like Math anyway." I say and close my eyes. "And why is the room dark if it's almost eight?"
"Cause you are closing your eyes." He says as-a-matter-of-factly, I could feel him rolling his eyes at me.
I hear the door close. Finally, some peace at last. I could finally sleep without being disturbed. But no, the world had to be against me.
"What is this rumor of you not going to school that I'm hearing?" Mama asks as she barges in.
"I'm sleepy. I didn't sleep all night cause I was busy making sure Shane wasn't up to something." I inform.
"I told you that you're fretting over nothing. Now get your lazy butt off that bed and go for the second hour." She orders.
"No. Please let me sleep in." I beg her. Giving her my best puppy dog eyes.
"You're mother is going to kill me for this." She sighs as she gets off the bed. "I better call her before she finds out from school."
Now I can get some rest. Not.
"Lee, why aren't you at school?" Jesse asks as he walks into the room, mere minutes after Mama left. Why can't anyone let me sleep in peace?
"Cause I didn't sleep last night you goose. Now let me sleep." I shout.
"Yeah, yeah. Chapter one of Malia 101: Malia loves her sleep more than anything in this entire universe. She will kill you if you disturb it. I remember." He sighs as he walks out the room. Though I wanted to ask him what he was doing here, I was too into my sleep to bother.
Malia 101 was a book I made for my family when I turned 15, for them to avoid being murdered. It contained everything that was important to me and what matters the most to me. It also gave an insight as to what would cheer me up when I am down. I gave it to Shane's family too, cause they were family.
_____
"Morning." I say rubbing my eyes, as I walk down the stairs. I would have continued to sleep if I wasn't starving. I ignored it for as long as I could but my poor tummy had started growling, hence my awakening.
"We were just about to pack up. Shane is still not done with dinner, take the dish from the fridge and go join him." Mama instructs me.
I take the food out and out some on my plate and place it in the oven.
"That's not necessary dear, I just out it in, I doubt it's gone cold." I check the temperature, it was room temp. I guess she was right.
"Shane my beautiful best friend, how are you today?" I ask, pumped after my sleep.
"I'm good my midget friend but I know a certain someone who isn't." He says in a sing song voice.
"Who? Is it Mr. Russo? I knew he secretly loved me, despite me murdering his subject. He loves me." I say the last bit like Happy.
"We should cut you off of television and phone, some times not all of us get your references." He says.
"No. Besides if you were cool enough, you'd know what I was talking about. But now we have stated that you aren't cool, so give me a good reason as to why I should continue to hang out with you?" I question him, narrowing my eyes.
"Because, you love me." He does the Happy imitation, it made me happy. I clap my hands in delight and hug him.
"I knew you were cool enough to hang out with me." I laugh and semi shout in joy.
"What am I supposed to do? You never let me watch anything important, like WWE or NBA." He complains.
"All the good matches are done by the time we get home, you should stream it online like I do. I haven't missed a single basketball or football match in the last five years." I boast, rubbing it in his face. "Besides, you can't make me miss my shows."
"My point precisely. Separating you from your cartoons and soaps are next to impossible. Even Skittles don't do the work, unless you really want to watch what I wanna watch but you want free Skittles with it."
"I'm witty." I shrug. "So who missed me?"
"A certain someone who dropped in during dinner to say hi." He smirks.
"Oh. Why?" I ask.
"I'm guessing because he didn't see you all day today." He deadpans.
I roll my eyes and change the topic.
"Guess what I did today?" I ask enthusiastically.
"Sleep?" He deadpans again.
I frown in frustration, stupid know it all.
"You won't guess who dropped in today." I say. Happy to finally have one over his head.
"Jesse?" He deadpans.
"But you won't guess why." Still retaining my excitement, holding on to the tiny ray if hope.
"To have the food we packed and brought over from the restaurant yesterday."
I have information. I know why he was here now.
"Let me guess." Shane continues. "You didn't know." He laughs.
"I was almost asleep every time someone barged in. Do you know how annoying that is?" I ask exasperated.
"Only you Mel, only you." He smiles pulling me and my fork into a hug. Let's just say, his white t-shirt will never be white again.
Humans! What's up? I know it's been long but I'm a busy girl and updating often us kinda off the table but I promise to do my best to stick to my schedule, okay?
What do you think of the chapter? I really like it. I'm proud of it even.
Who watched 13 reasons why? Is it just me or did anyone else close their eyes or switch off the monitor while Hannah cut her wrists? It really messes with your head though...
So does Riverdale. I mean every week, I think a different person murdered Jason Blossom, but I think my best bet is Cheryl. I dunno, I might change my mind again but that's who I suspected more than once.
Anyway hope you enjoyed my chapter and my mini rant. Toodles, until the next time.
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