"I don't have what to wear ooo!" I tried to tell Alexis again. It was Wednesday evening, right after school closed. Though I wasn't planning on backing out but this party was full of other rich kids right? So it was probably going to be a hell of a night.
He turned to face me. "You don't need to dress extreme. They are people just like you"
"But what will they think if I'm there? What if Rachel and her Demon sisters are there too? What then? You guys can't protect me through the night." I played with my fingers absent mindedly.
"Nothing will happen. We'll make sure of it" he tried to assure me. Key word ; tried. " and the both of you are going to do what? Stand by my side like body guards? No. You wont. " I argued back. He looked perplexed.
"What makes you think we won't, Princessa?"
"Oh, so its Princessa now eh? No more HanHan?"
"Of course there's still HanHan" he looked at me with a smile. "Its our thing. Remember? "
"Oh, how could I forget?" I said dryly. He gave me a coy smile. He then told me to lighten up and that I'll have a good time. I honestly hoped he was right. It was Friday night right? The day couldn't just go by so fast that we'd end up in Friday just now. I nodded at him then the both of us went our separate ways.
Mordecai was picking me up today. I spotted his shiny red highlander next to a blood red motor cycle that looked oddly familiar. I tried not to think much about it. Then I walked fast and got in the car. He told me hi and I said it back. The engine growled to life as he put the key in the hole. We went home in silence but there wasn't any tension. Just the calm relaxing silence that I had been looking for all day. He stopped in front of the pavement and parked his car. I hopped out then I swung my brown rucksack over my shoulder. We walked over to the house still in silence.
Mordecai opened the door and walked straight into the kitchen. The rooms were after the living room so I saw Pedro, Levi and Kevin on the floor playing Solitaire. I greeted them and walked into my room.
Once in, I dumped my bag. After changing into an oversized hoodie with bum shorts, I settled to do some home work. I barely finished one work before I started to loose interest and my concentration. Just staring at the big textbooks drove me on the edge. What was wrong with me? I liked books. My life revolved around books. I even breathed books.
Frustration built within me. Was I getting dull? I could hardly concentrate in school. Now worse than ever. But what was the difference? Back there it was the same thing. What difference did it make here?
But there was a difference. There wasn't any other way to call bullying and bullying was bullying. But there was a difference. Back there a could breathe. Here I felt suffocated and I didn't know why.
I passed my hands through my face as I stared at my scattered books. "You know this," I told myself. "You can do this" Because this wasn't even work. I did far more reading that this in Nigeria
But even those words weren't enough to assure me. Maybe I was thinking too much. Maybe I needed to do other things apart from thinking. I slammed my books shut and uncrossed my legs. Then I got up and made my way to the living room where all five boys were sprawled in.
I got their attention quickly. I then sat down and crossed my legs again while looking at them expectantly. They all looked tired and most of all bored. I did not come over to be eaten alive by boredom.
"So, what's up?" I said
"Nothing" Levi groaned. "I'm so bored. Maybe I should sleep" he giggled.
"I thought you guys were playing Solitaire?"
He looked at me, then blinked, and spoke "what is a Solitaire?"
Pedro smacked his hands on his forehead.
I shook my head. "Nothing never mind"
"Guys... " said Levi, " there's gonna be a party"
"Oh really?" Kevin sat up from his slouched position. "When?"
"And where?" Gabriel asked.
He giggled again. This time nervously. "Uh, you see, uh... Lately we haven't really been having fun and I miss the good old days when... "
"Spit it out, Lev" Mordecai grumbled. Yes, he definitely should. I wanted to hear as well.
"Iamthrowingapartythissaturday," he blurted.
"What?! " all four boys shouted. He giggled again and shrugged.
"Really? " I found myself asking. This Saturday. The looks on their faces was enough to tell me that they weren't supportive of Levi's plan. Well, if this was confession night then I had better said what I wanted to say right now. "Guys, I'm going to a party this Friday night," I played with my fingers. It had become a nervous habit. They looked at me weird. "What isn't it confession night?"
"Well, if it is I have a girlfriend" Mordecai sighed dreamily. Wait, what?
"Eh?" I said.
"Yeah. Her name is Flora Chen."
"Chen? What is she, Chinese? "
"Yes, " Mordecai gave Levi a pointed look. "She is Chinese"
"Awww," I clasped my hands together. "You don't mean it" I said. A Chinese? I wondered how she looked like. Mordecai sighed again, this time he looked as if he were on cloud nine. Actually, he did mean it. Now I wanted to meet her more than ever. "When do I meet her?"
He snapped out of his daze and gave me a funny look. "How do I put this?" He stroked his chiseled chin, pretending to be deep in thought. "Hmm— no." He left no more room for argument.
"Come on, man." Gabriel said. His long legs dangling from the arm of a chair. "I wanna meet her too". The rest of the boys chorused a series of 'me too's' and I grinned wickedly.
He looked at each and everyone of us carefully before he parted his lips. "No" he said again.
"Just invite her for dinner," Kevin suggested.
"Yeah? Why not? We could get uhm... Whatever Chinese like." Said Pedro.
"I have an idea. We could get her cockroaches" Levi beamed. "They're gross but Chinese eat them, I'm sure she'd like them raw and crunchy. " he then tapped his chin before he began to demonstrate. "Maybe we could get her a bunch of insects and amphibians. I hope she likes those... I'll make sure they're extra large."
We blinked.
"And I know just where to find them!" He exclaimed like he won a lottery.
"– thanks Lev, but I don't think she—"
"Nonsense!" He waved off. "She is coming over next Sunday and I'll do the honors of cooking."
Mordecai sent me a helpless look. He didn't like where Levi was going and to be honest I loved it.
"You don't have to –"
"Nonsense. " he said with much more intensity. "Its been a while since I've cooked a whole meal. And I miss that."
"You cooked for us last week" his twin pointed out. Levi sent him a dangerous look then he smiled.
"This is special, sweet brother of mine."
"You can't be serious about the cooking. She doesn't have to come, I-I-I, its just not right for me to leave all the work to you, I–"
Levi shushed him. "Hush, don't speak any more nonsense, Mordecai. I'm cooking and she's coming and that's final."
My brother finally gave up and hung his head low. He was probably trying to come up with some other excuse and with the way things were going it was like Levi wasn't buying it, any of it.
Oh how I wished for Sunday to come really soon.
"I thought you were having back pains?" Kevin smirked. He knew the right ways to annoy his brother. Everyone knew that both Levi and Kevin knew how to cook but Levi had this strange liking to actually want to cook and cook it well.
Levi flicked his tongue, "I was but I'm fine now"
Kevin still pressed on. "But I thought you had a pressing headache two hours ago." A smirk plastered itself on his face. Levi was gradually turning red.
"Shut up, man" he murmured through gritted teeth, still managing a subtle smile. A loud laugh erupted from Kevin and I laughed along. Levi then folded his arms and pouted.
"So Hannah, " Pedro said. "Your party, where's it at?"
"oh... Its held by one boy like that. They call him Matt Dowel."
"Dowel?" Gabriel hummed. "The name sounds pretty familiar"
"Anyways," I continued."I don't even know if I should go sef. I wonder how it will be like. "
"Like any regular party, " Pedro shrugged. "Dance, eat, drink, screw, have fun"
Mordecai made a noise. "Uh no. Hannah is not screwing ".
Pedro laughed. "Chill man, I'm just saying."
Mordecai then sent him a look. "Don't 'just say' anything. Its over my dead body". Everyone began to laugh but I just chuckled.
Then his attention directed at me again. "Mordecai said you dance."
And now all their eyes were on me. I couldn't help but blush at the at the attention. I replied with a nod. He smirked, "really?" I nodded again. "Then you have nothing to worry about. You are good at it, aren't you?" I blushed harder.
"Yeah, she's really good. And she has a lot of energy" Mordecai said proudly.
"That's nice, I dance too" Gabriel commented. "I'm like a robot kind of guy. So I dance the robot and some break dance," my brows shot up. That was impressive. I nodded with a grin.
"Then, you have nothing to worry about. Just be free and have a good time." Pedro told me. "so who are you going with?"
"Alexis, Jordan and Kenneth." I said. Pedro frowned.
"Who?" Mordecai asked.
"They're my friends." I said in an obvious tone.
"Well just be safe." He said after a long pause. Honestly I thought he'd throw a tantrum and not let me go. I smiled gratefully.
Pedro still frowned then pursed his lips. "I don't like them".
I held back a groan. Was he doing this now? I personally did not like when someone told me they didn't like a friend of mine. I always became very defensive and extremely annoyed. So I looked at Pedro with angry eyes, sending him message with my eyes.
But like any other idiot, he chose to ignore my warnings. "I don't trust them. Especially that angry looking one, the emo guy."
"Kenneth's not emo" I bit back.
He hummed, "Kenneth... So that's his name. Interesting."
"There is nothing wrong with him," I glared at him. I also didn't miss the look of curiosity that Mordecai was giving me.
"There's nothing wrong with who?" Levi asked us but non of us answered him.
"Three boys? As friends? Come on Hannah. And that Kenneth guy doesn't look nice, neither of them do"
I was becoming angry. "What the hell do you mean? They are the nicest people on planet earth." Okay, maybe I told a little lie over there. Kenneth wasn't the nicest but I had a feeling that he still had good in him.
"No" he glared at me, "they aren't"
"What do you mean!" I threw my hands in the air in frustration. "You don't know Anything about them. So don't you dare."
Everybody else stared in silence.
"Hannah, I'm just trying to look out for you. They aren't good guys."
I bounced my feet and folded my arms, tensed in stance. "Why? What did they do to you?"
He broke the eye contact for a millisecond then he glanced at our curious audience. "What would I do to show you that they aren't all nice?"
"Nothing." I said with spite, stood up and stormed away. I wouldn't let him ruin my fun evening.