Bright day, scorching bedazzled pradas, and a not so fine ambience. That’s when the Chief Executive Officer—well sort of—of the school magazine publishing Department pranced through the esplanade and into the cafeteria. She wasn’t happy about something. Or maybe, about everything. She walked to the table, where she once belonged to, the 7teen table. It wasn’t marked, labeled or carved with their names but it seems like everyone is informed that they should stay away from the table. She saw somebody that could make her laugh sitting by the table. He was smiling when she caught his gaze.
“Roxy...” He called.
Roxanne replied with a big warm smiled. She laid her diminutive ass on the chair next to him and then she stared, as if waiting for something. A minute without any upshot, she sighed.
“What happened to ‘Roxy Pixie’?” She wondered.
Didn’t she realize she is too little to old to be called pixie?
Harold laughed. He knew she will react this way. He saw her sulky face and he decided to cheer things up. And he did. He sipped the coffee before turning to the young hot juniors that had just passed the table. They were acting like sluts. You know, one button down and so. He darted his eyes back on Roxanne, intensely.
“What’s up? PMS or something?” he laughed. He knows quite a lot of things about PMS since his girlfriend; Chloe is always on a mood swing. He picks up fast.
Roxanne snorted deeply. She had a lot in her mind. One of it is Keith. After the fight by the roadside, Keith became her boyfriend, still, but a nasty one. He started to piss her off every time they meet. He forgot the dates and quitted sending her flowers and stuffs. The last time she heard him saying “I love you” is when he was cuddling with his dog. How nice of him. She truly missed the old him.
“PIXIE!”
Harold shouted on the top of his lungs. Without realizing 5 minutes had passed, Roxanne jerked and set herself back into reality. She had a daydream of the best moments with Keith—the lake, the prom and his smile and everything else. She smiled. He smiled. And someone jumped and stunned them both. It was a girl in a boomed purple—white dotted—dress and she was Demetria.
Demetria is Harold’s—suddenly appeared—sister. She came into Harold’s house with their father and now, since it became inappropriate for her—as a girl—to live with three guys, she moved out and lived with her soon-to-be-mother in an apartment, rented by George. She afraid her feminine side will die off if she stays in the house full with uncivilized-mannered creatures. She misses Harold. The only time she could see him is in the school and that’s only when Harold is not busy. So now, she could have some quality time with Harold, since he’d finished his class early today.
“Hello my lovely brother,” she greeted. “And his beautiful friend,”
She smiled at them both. She shifted fast and sat next to her brother before they could even reply her. Something was shining out of her. Her face was literally sparkling.
“What’s up with that smile, hun? And why do you look so,” he paused. He scanned her for the second time around and pinned his eyes on hers. “FAT!”
“It’s the dress. Tons of my friends told me that. I am so not going to wear this anymore!” she giggled and blushing, shimmering, all at once. Then, she moved a little further from his brother so that he could not see her anymore. On the other side of the table, Roxanne dug her phone out of her pocket and fixed her eyes on the screen. She frowned for a second and excused herself out of the cafeteria. She left them both unnoticed. Harold did try to follow her but Demetria was even faster. She pulled him down back onto his seat and shook her head off. Harold knew he could not make anything better. So, he sat down worryingly.
“How’s your tux? The wedding is next week! You should be ready by now. You are the best man!” Demetria yelled, trying to change the subject. The wedding is going to be in a private island which was sponsored by Mrs. Tedder herself. Only few are invited; close friends and their friends.
Bear in mind that they have no other family other than themselves.
“Oh yeah. Ryan and I are going to hit the town—maybe—tonight, to hunt for THE tuxes. Don’t worry. We’ve got everything under control,” He eased himself. Emphasizing words is his style of lazy talking. Tux is all the same to him, he didn’t even bother to worry about it.
He never knew what is tux to Ryan.
“I invited Chloe and my friends. Hope dad is fine with that,” Harold informed. Somehow, he couldn’t picture the wedding without his friends in it. It would be empty. Considering the number of his father’s friend, which could be none, and few of Cassie’s officemate, he was thinking to put up a notice at the hallway so that everyone would attend and make the wedding merrier. But he didn’t. “You could have SOME of you’re friend along. I’m afraid you will die due to natural causes. Trust me, I’ve been in a wedding which choke the heck out of me,”
“I’m the co-planner. It won’t be like that. It will be the wedding of the year, or maybe of the month, at least,” Demetria brought out her small notebook and passed it to Harold. She commanded him to flip over the folded page and so he did. First thing he saw was a beautiful sketch of the bride’s dress. It was magnificent and a stunner. Then he saw a list of crossed themes and a circled one at the most bottom of the page. The theme is… fairytale.
Like, seriously? Who are you trying to fool? Your little sister or what?
“Don’t jump into any conclusion just yet! What it means is a white-themed occasion. Think of bouquets of white roses on the grass, the doves, the horses and all, it will be as if a prince’s wedding. Our prince!”
“Prince? You must be kidding. He’s too old for that! If it was mine, then it will be all fine. We are talking about two aged pigeon right now. They are not getting any younger with that theme. Trust me, I know your trick!” He garroted and tried to get away form this annoying little conversation. “Next time, if you want to talk about this, don’t find me. I’m bad at all this. I prefer they get it done in Vegas. Simple! A preacher, Elvis costume, and a damn ring! Done,” Harold exhaled out loud.
“Why are you against dad? This wedding? I thought you agreed to this?” Demetria puckered her thin brows. “You should be happy,”
“I AM happy for dad. It just… look around. Where are all my friends? They used to be here almost all of the time. But now, it seems like I’m the only one. Sorry, I’m just too worried about Roxanne and all. I’ll be okay. And Demi, deep in my heart, I do want to see dad happy. You’re not the only good child here,”
Demetria’s hand ran to Harold’s. She grabbed it softly and she wore a tiny smile on her glowing face. “It will be all fine,” she promised him.
…
The green scenery of the garden was so beautiful. The blossoming flowers were breath-taking. The air perfumed with refreshing lavender-like smell and the wind blew steadily. Dylan was slackening at the tree when nearly everyone was heading back home. He wore a big headphone on his head which block the noise from entering his head. He put Taylor’s in his playlist—all of them. They were Comfort’s favorites. He stared far and out of nowhere, Izzy sat down next to him. This time, he looked far better than before.
“Alone, Again?”
Dylan nodded. He tried to look at Izzy right on his eyes but he couldn’t, knowing every thing was different now and then. There’s no more Fantastic Four, or the awesome four, or the four brothers or the quadruplet. It was now the separated four. He placed his hand on Izzy’s shoulder and smiled “Thank you. I won’t be here if it wasn’t you who bailed me out of the misery. I was lucky you were there. I know this sounds silly, but I love you man,”
“Urm,” Izzy didn’t know how to reply. He felt like a savior, for once.
“Let’s grab something to eat. I’m starving,” Dylan pulled Izzy up and over to the car. Then, he drove to a Chinese Restaurant not far from the school.
They took their seat at the last table of the restaurant by the window. They were—maybe—the first customer. The restaurant looked untouched, unlike its normal condition. The floor was white-marbled, spotless. The tables and chairs were arranged satisfactorily which made the room appeared more spacious. With an old Chinese song playing in the background, a waitress in a white tight top emerged out from the back. She sophisticatedly strutted towards the ravenous alpha males.
“Can I take you order please?” Her twang was so exotic. The scrumptiously sounded voice turned Dylan up. He was now awake than ever.
Izzy was clueless. He never had eaten in a Chinese restaurant before. He didn’t even know how to read the menu. Dylan giggled, being so different from he was ten minutes ago.
“Zha jiang mian for two and a pot of tea please,” he passed back the menu to the waitress and winked at her. The waitress smiled and bowed down to reach the pen on the table. From this vantage, Dylan could see something that he should've not. The waiteress bended inintentionly on purpose. Dylan’s eyes were locked and Izzy grined.
“Your chinese is good. Mind me helping to improve it?”
“Nah, I prefer to be gay now!” Dylan laughed histerically. He waited for this moment since Comfort left him. He wanted to make fun of the girls again and desired to be the old version of Dylan Andrew Bradshaw. The waiteress’ face flushed and she stomped back to the kitchen. Both friends then cackled feverishly.
“Look now, this is me showing my gratitude to you for being there for me when I need a hand and a shoulder to cry on. Well, not literally,” he laughed. “Thank you again. I’m now believed there is actually someone better than Comfort out there. I just have to look harder or maybe, stop searching and appreciate what I have. I have my friends, especially you. You gave me strength. I should not waste it on mourning over her. It is just not worth it anymore. She won’t come back,” Dylan changed into a brand new person. He learned a lesson from the past and it gave him power to move on.
He turned out to a better one, hopefully.
…
“How many time must I say for you guys to understand me?!” Roxanne pushed all the files on the table to the floor. With a little bit green color to be added to her skin, she will look exactly like a midget ogre. She grabbed a file labeled “Report of the week: Aaron Gonzalez in demand” and pointed it at Linda, one of the reporters. “You know what this is? Rubbish! And it belonged to the rubbish bin. You want me to throw it for you or you want to do it yourself? I’m sick of these!” she yelled like a mad psychopath. Then, she threw the files aiming for Linda’s head but it was saved by Keith.
“All of you, out, now!” Keith shouted.
In split of second, the room was cleared. Keith and Roxanne stared heatedly at each other. The temperature—possibly—rose by a Celsius. The heat was like woe. They can cook chicken in here; it’s like oven by now.
“You know what? You are so selfish. A little brat who thinks this world is only revolves around her, yeah, that’s you, Roxanne. Try to look around. Nobody actually likes you. Our juniors smile at you not because they respect but they are afraid of you. You never thanked them. You bossed around without giving any recognition. Who you think you are? You pay them? No,” Keith was out of his polite manners. He couldn’t carry the burden on his head anymore. He was so mad, so angry at his girlfriend.
Roxanne couldn’t accept the fact that it was from her boyfriend. She fell on the chair and broke down. The tears flowed down to her cheek, then to her blouse. Devastation after another, she was torn.
“Look now. When I need someone the most to be here with me, you threw me amber. You burnt me down. I am not sure why you are so against me. You left me unattended. Keith, tell me what you want? What I did so wrong?”
Keith ignored her.
Ignorance is your new best friend honey.
“Keith…”
Her voice was so low. No one could actually heard her, but there’s a small heart, somehow detected the sincerity of the voice. He turned and paced slowly towards her. He darted his eyes on hers. There’s a small line separating disgusted and sympathy look, and Keith’s gaze was precisely on the line. As he reached her, he kneed down. He held up her chin and pushed his face to hers. They could feel each other’s breath. Hers was unsteady, but his made her quiet. The heartbeats became like drum rolls. He closed his eyes for her to follow. They both stayed this way for more or less than three minutes.
“I loved you but I’m sorry, we have to end this now,”
And there goes the infamous last word.
Keith propped himself up and straighten like a soldier called for attention. “There’s no need any reason. It’s just it,” he planted a kiss on her wet cheek and disappeared out from the room. He left her stunned. He left her breathless. He left her hanging.
“Keithhh…” her voice trailed off.
Put your lighters up. And let’s mourn.
“Roxy...” He called.
Roxanne replied with a big warm smiled. She laid her diminutive ass on the chair next to him and then she stared, as if waiting for something. A minute without any upshot, she sighed.
“What happened to ‘Roxy Pixie’?” She wondered.
Didn’t she realize she is too little to old to be called pixie?
Harold laughed. He knew she will react this way. He saw her sulky face and he decided to cheer things up. And he did. He sipped the coffee before turning to the young hot juniors that had just passed the table. They were acting like sluts. You know, one button down and so. He darted his eyes back on Roxanne, intensely.
“What’s up? PMS or something?” he laughed. He knows quite a lot of things about PMS since his girlfriend; Chloe is always on a mood swing. He picks up fast.
Roxanne snorted deeply. She had a lot in her mind. One of it is Keith. After the fight by the roadside, Keith became her boyfriend, still, but a nasty one. He started to piss her off every time they meet. He forgot the dates and quitted sending her flowers and stuffs. The last time she heard him saying “I love you” is when he was cuddling with his dog. How nice of him. She truly missed the old him.
“PIXIE!”
Harold shouted on the top of his lungs. Without realizing 5 minutes had passed, Roxanne jerked and set herself back into reality. She had a daydream of the best moments with Keith—the lake, the prom and his smile and everything else. She smiled. He smiled. And someone jumped and stunned them both. It was a girl in a boomed purple—white dotted—dress and she was Demetria.
Demetria is Harold’s—suddenly appeared—sister. She came into Harold’s house with their father and now, since it became inappropriate for her—as a girl—to live with three guys, she moved out and lived with her soon-to-be-mother in an apartment, rented by George. She afraid her feminine side will die off if she stays in the house full with uncivilized-mannered creatures. She misses Harold. The only time she could see him is in the school and that’s only when Harold is not busy. So now, she could have some quality time with Harold, since he’d finished his class early today.
“Hello my lovely brother,” she greeted. “And his beautiful friend,”
She smiled at them both. She shifted fast and sat next to her brother before they could even reply her. Something was shining out of her. Her face was literally sparkling.
“What’s up with that smile, hun? And why do you look so,” he paused. He scanned her for the second time around and pinned his eyes on hers. “FAT!”
“It’s the dress. Tons of my friends told me that. I am so not going to wear this anymore!” she giggled and blushing, shimmering, all at once. Then, she moved a little further from his brother so that he could not see her anymore. On the other side of the table, Roxanne dug her phone out of her pocket and fixed her eyes on the screen. She frowned for a second and excused herself out of the cafeteria. She left them both unnoticed. Harold did try to follow her but Demetria was even faster. She pulled him down back onto his seat and shook her head off. Harold knew he could not make anything better. So, he sat down worryingly.
“How’s your tux? The wedding is next week! You should be ready by now. You are the best man!” Demetria yelled, trying to change the subject. The wedding is going to be in a private island which was sponsored by Mrs. Tedder herself. Only few are invited; close friends and their friends.
Bear in mind that they have no other family other than themselves.
“Oh yeah. Ryan and I are going to hit the town—maybe—tonight, to hunt for THE tuxes. Don’t worry. We’ve got everything under control,” He eased himself. Emphasizing words is his style of lazy talking. Tux is all the same to him, he didn’t even bother to worry about it.
He never knew what is tux to Ryan.
“I invited Chloe and my friends. Hope dad is fine with that,” Harold informed. Somehow, he couldn’t picture the wedding without his friends in it. It would be empty. Considering the number of his father’s friend, which could be none, and few of Cassie’s officemate, he was thinking to put up a notice at the hallway so that everyone would attend and make the wedding merrier. But he didn’t. “You could have SOME of you’re friend along. I’m afraid you will die due to natural causes. Trust me, I’ve been in a wedding which choke the heck out of me,”
“I’m the co-planner. It won’t be like that. It will be the wedding of the year, or maybe of the month, at least,” Demetria brought out her small notebook and passed it to Harold. She commanded him to flip over the folded page and so he did. First thing he saw was a beautiful sketch of the bride’s dress. It was magnificent and a stunner. Then he saw a list of crossed themes and a circled one at the most bottom of the page. The theme is… fairytale.
Like, seriously? Who are you trying to fool? Your little sister or what?
“Don’t jump into any conclusion just yet! What it means is a white-themed occasion. Think of bouquets of white roses on the grass, the doves, the horses and all, it will be as if a prince’s wedding. Our prince!”
“Prince? You must be kidding. He’s too old for that! If it was mine, then it will be all fine. We are talking about two aged pigeon right now. They are not getting any younger with that theme. Trust me, I know your trick!” He garroted and tried to get away form this annoying little conversation. “Next time, if you want to talk about this, don’t find me. I’m bad at all this. I prefer they get it done in Vegas. Simple! A preacher, Elvis costume, and a damn ring! Done,” Harold exhaled out loud.
“Why are you against dad? This wedding? I thought you agreed to this?” Demetria puckered her thin brows. “You should be happy,”
“I AM happy for dad. It just… look around. Where are all my friends? They used to be here almost all of the time. But now, it seems like I’m the only one. Sorry, I’m just too worried about Roxanne and all. I’ll be okay. And Demi, deep in my heart, I do want to see dad happy. You’re not the only good child here,”
Demetria’s hand ran to Harold’s. She grabbed it softly and she wore a tiny smile on her glowing face. “It will be all fine,” she promised him.
…
The green scenery of the garden was so beautiful. The blossoming flowers were breath-taking. The air perfumed with refreshing lavender-like smell and the wind blew steadily. Dylan was slackening at the tree when nearly everyone was heading back home. He wore a big headphone on his head which block the noise from entering his head. He put Taylor’s in his playlist—all of them. They were Comfort’s favorites. He stared far and out of nowhere, Izzy sat down next to him. This time, he looked far better than before.
“Alone, Again?”
Dylan nodded. He tried to look at Izzy right on his eyes but he couldn’t, knowing every thing was different now and then. There’s no more Fantastic Four, or the awesome four, or the four brothers or the quadruplet. It was now the separated four. He placed his hand on Izzy’s shoulder and smiled “Thank you. I won’t be here if it wasn’t you who bailed me out of the misery. I was lucky you were there. I know this sounds silly, but I love you man,”
“Urm,” Izzy didn’t know how to reply. He felt like a savior, for once.
“Let’s grab something to eat. I’m starving,” Dylan pulled Izzy up and over to the car. Then, he drove to a Chinese Restaurant not far from the school.
They took their seat at the last table of the restaurant by the window. They were—maybe—the first customer. The restaurant looked untouched, unlike its normal condition. The floor was white-marbled, spotless. The tables and chairs were arranged satisfactorily which made the room appeared more spacious. With an old Chinese song playing in the background, a waitress in a white tight top emerged out from the back. She sophisticatedly strutted towards the ravenous alpha males.
“Can I take you order please?” Her twang was so exotic. The scrumptiously sounded voice turned Dylan up. He was now awake than ever.
Izzy was clueless. He never had eaten in a Chinese restaurant before. He didn’t even know how to read the menu. Dylan giggled, being so different from he was ten minutes ago.
“Zha jiang mian for two and a pot of tea please,” he passed back the menu to the waitress and winked at her. The waitress smiled and bowed down to reach the pen on the table. From this vantage, Dylan could see something that he should've not. The waiteress bended inintentionly on purpose. Dylan’s eyes were locked and Izzy grined.
“Your chinese is good. Mind me helping to improve it?”
“Nah, I prefer to be gay now!” Dylan laughed histerically. He waited for this moment since Comfort left him. He wanted to make fun of the girls again and desired to be the old version of Dylan Andrew Bradshaw. The waiteress’ face flushed and she stomped back to the kitchen. Both friends then cackled feverishly.
“Look now, this is me showing my gratitude to you for being there for me when I need a hand and a shoulder to cry on. Well, not literally,” he laughed. “Thank you again. I’m now believed there is actually someone better than Comfort out there. I just have to look harder or maybe, stop searching and appreciate what I have. I have my friends, especially you. You gave me strength. I should not waste it on mourning over her. It is just not worth it anymore. She won’t come back,” Dylan changed into a brand new person. He learned a lesson from the past and it gave him power to move on.
He turned out to a better one, hopefully.
…
“How many time must I say for you guys to understand me?!” Roxanne pushed all the files on the table to the floor. With a little bit green color to be added to her skin, she will look exactly like a midget ogre. She grabbed a file labeled “Report of the week: Aaron Gonzalez in demand” and pointed it at Linda, one of the reporters. “You know what this is? Rubbish! And it belonged to the rubbish bin. You want me to throw it for you or you want to do it yourself? I’m sick of these!” she yelled like a mad psychopath. Then, she threw the files aiming for Linda’s head but it was saved by Keith.
“All of you, out, now!” Keith shouted.
In split of second, the room was cleared. Keith and Roxanne stared heatedly at each other. The temperature—possibly—rose by a Celsius. The heat was like woe. They can cook chicken in here; it’s like oven by now.
“You know what? You are so selfish. A little brat who thinks this world is only revolves around her, yeah, that’s you, Roxanne. Try to look around. Nobody actually likes you. Our juniors smile at you not because they respect but they are afraid of you. You never thanked them. You bossed around without giving any recognition. Who you think you are? You pay them? No,” Keith was out of his polite manners. He couldn’t carry the burden on his head anymore. He was so mad, so angry at his girlfriend.
Roxanne couldn’t accept the fact that it was from her boyfriend. She fell on the chair and broke down. The tears flowed down to her cheek, then to her blouse. Devastation after another, she was torn.
“Look now. When I need someone the most to be here with me, you threw me amber. You burnt me down. I am not sure why you are so against me. You left me unattended. Keith, tell me what you want? What I did so wrong?”
Keith ignored her.
Ignorance is your new best friend honey.
“Keith…”
Her voice was so low. No one could actually heard her, but there’s a small heart, somehow detected the sincerity of the voice. He turned and paced slowly towards her. He darted his eyes on hers. There’s a small line separating disgusted and sympathy look, and Keith’s gaze was precisely on the line. As he reached her, he kneed down. He held up her chin and pushed his face to hers. They could feel each other’s breath. Hers was unsteady, but his made her quiet. The heartbeats became like drum rolls. He closed his eyes for her to follow. They both stayed this way for more or less than three minutes.
“I loved you but I’m sorry, we have to end this now,”
And there goes the infamous last word.
Keith propped himself up and straighten like a soldier called for attention. “There’s no need any reason. It’s just it,” he planted a kiss on her wet cheek and disappeared out from the room. He left her stunned. He left her breathless. He left her hanging.
“Keithhh…” her voice trailed off.
Put your lighters up. And let’s mourn.
