Bubble Gum Kisses

**Kapittel 27** ***Vanessa***

**I was endlessly sighing** and feeling blue while on my ride to school. My day started in an ugly way as I woke up from another night's terror. My mood had been then bad ever since. Is it so selfish to ask for some peaceful sleep? I wanted to lie down on my bed and think about how to make my frustrations vanish for a bit but mom suddenly barged in and made me get out of bed. But it turned out to be a good distraction I forgot about the dream the soonest I took a shower however, I fell asleep in the car on the way to school but dreamed of it again and everything went back to square one. I couldn't help but feel depressed all over again. I felt crazy having that traumatic scene flash in my dreams every time I sleep, reminding me of the sin that I'd done. I felt that I was being punished- no, I was punished. After all, everything was my fault. I never saved Dad from the accident. I didn't do anything and just laid down on the ground, I didn't even make an effort to move a single muscle.

"Vanessa?" Mom called out, pulling me away from my reverie. I raised my head from the glass window and looked at her. She then pointed to the window and said, "We're here."

"Oh," I gasped and took a look outside. She was right, we have arrived. "I'll be going now, Mom," I said while picking up my bag.

"Take care, sweetie," she said as I opened the door with one hand before stepping out, but no matter how sweet her voice sounded, the sight of her worried eyes didn't escape my sight. It made me feel a punch in the gut. She must have noticed that I was spacing out for a while. I must prevent myself from doing that again. Mom was a worrywart. Once she got worried about something, she would think about it all day and wouldn't be able to concentrate at work, and I didn't want that to happen. I didn't want to be a burden. I'd been a burden enough that resulted in Dad's death. I wanted to be the pillar that could keep my family strong.

Feeling energized, I shook my head and slapped my cheeks with each hand, mentally noting myself to be always positive and beat the depressing thoughts away before walking to the building where my first class was going to be held. **From:** ***Georgia***

*What classes are you having today?*

**To:** ***Georgia***

*Humanities, American History, Chemistry...*

**From:** ***Georgia***

*That sucks, looks like I won't have classes the same as yours today [*

**To:** ***Georgia***

*Sad*.

**From:** ***Georgia***

*Can we have lunch together then?*

I smiled and put my phone back in my pocket as soon as I sent my answer, not noticing that someone's back was right in front of me, bumping it. A small gasp emerged and the person turned half of his body towards me, probably to take a look at me.

"Oof, sorry," I apologized to the guy I'd bumped into without looking him in the eye and scrunching my nose. Most of the students I encountered yesterday were pretty much nice so I thought that it'd be no problem with this one and proceeded to walk past them but a hand took a hold of my wrist, stopping me.

"It's you!" a voice behind my back said.

"Who?" I turned my head to look at the person. The moment I did, a set of jovial chinky eyes stared down at me. My eyebrows kissed, feeling a sense of familiarity upon seeing them. I was sure I had seen those eyes a long time ago. But who? "You don't remember me, Van?" the guy asked excitedly with a wide smile on his lips, rendering his eyes folding to a crescent moon. He was gazing at me as if he knew me. But I didn't recall any memory of encountering him. Have we ever met before...?

"Oh!" I gasped when I finally remembered who he was. "You're the guy I met at the gas station! Was it..." I gazed up at the ceiling as I recalled his name, "Totoro?"

His sudden laugh surprised me. "I can't believe you mistook my name from a movie character," he said, his eyes now gazing at me in amusement. "It's Toshiro." "Oh, right." My lips formed into an O, remembering his name before repeating it. "Toshiro."

He nodded eagerly while I pursed my lips. I never thought that I'd meet him here, I expected that we wouldn't see each other again like how any other strangers did. It seemed that the odds had other plans, I thought as I gripped the strap of my bag and opened my lips to create a conversation when a figure instantaneously emerged behind Toshiro's back and the next thing I knew, I was being pulled by the arm. The grip was too strong that my wrist was beginning to hurt. I wanted to halt my steps but I was afraid of falling and end up getting dragged instead, humiliating myself. So I decided to talk to the person dragging me since I believed everything could be solved with civil exchanges.

"Hey, could we please stop?" I asked but I received no answer, instead he began walking faster and I fastened my pace to match his speed. Who was he? Why was he dragging me? I wondered. What I only was that this person was a guy because of his strong build and was wearing slacks instead of a skirt.

I tried to peek at the guy's face he would suddenly swerve which would render me swerve too. We suddenly took a turn and the next thing I knew, my back was slammed against the wall and the person's arms blocked each of my sides, caging me with his large, towering figure. My spine shivered and my hands went cold when I realized who the person was. Friso.

Oh, God. I had been thinking of avoiding him some time ago like what Angie had advised me, but I never thought that he would come to me instead. The odds had different plans, really.

"I didn't expect to see you here, baby girl," he said mockingly, his jaw moving as if he was chewing something then suddenly blew and popped his bubble right into my face. It irritated me, realizing that he just popped a gum right in front of my face.

"What do you want?" I asked, seething, anger raging inside my veins that my neck was heating up and so was my face. But somehow, I couldn't help but think of our situation right now. Our proximity was closer than a conjoined twins' nearness from each other's faces. His hot breath was fanning over my face, his eyes were glaring daggers at me with a dangle of boiling anger sparking in the nasty atmosphere between us.

I thought that we could have a peaceful conversation and closure about our past one day but looking at the expression on his face? It seemed that he had no plans for that but so was I... I guess. I always thought and visualized a calm conversation and clearing up the misunderstandings before but now that he was at my face, the idea to initiate a conversation between us was unimaginable. I couldn't even feel my jaw and voicebox cooperating in an attempt to speak. He smirked while chewing his bubble gum. Irritating me more. "Nothing at all. Just wanting to see my little pet."

"I am not your pet," I retorted with every word clenching on my teeth. What was he up to now, calling me like that?

"Oh yeah, pet?"

I fell quiet for a second, not knowing how to retort while glaring at him as well, almost burning holes in his head as he glared back at me with the same annoying smirk on his face. What do I do now? I wanted to talk things out with him but it seemed to me that he didn't drag me for that kind of conversation, and I was getting hotheaded with everything that spouted out his mouth. But what did he want? Was I that hateful to him that he couldn't afford to just ignore me? Did he want to get back at me?

My train of thought was cut short when his eyes suddenly dropped. I followed his gaze and realized that he was looking at my necklace, the one that my friends gave me. "Pretty necklace you got there," he said and reached a hand to touch it but my instincts kicked in and I pushed him hard.

"Go away!" I said, before running off to the first place that I thought, was the room where my first class would be held.

**I came to the classroom gasping for air.** After moments of getting enough rest, I sat on the seat I found on the back. I observed the people around me, waiting for someone to tell me that it was their seat, and opened my bag to prepare for class. I was in the middle of preparing my stuff for class when a girl suddenly appeared before my table. Through my peripheral vision, I could see her licking and sucking a green lollipop while watching me anxiously do my thing. As moments passed by, my head was swirling with lots of questions. Who was she? What did she want? Why had she been staring at me for a long time? Did I do something wrong?

"Hi," she suddenly greeted which surprised me. I looked up at her and she took the lollipop off her mouth with a loud pop! "Sorry, I was waiting for you to finish organizing," she said, explaining why she was staring at me for too long earlier. It relieved me though, I anxiously thought that she was just gonna stare at me forever.

"I see, it's okay," I said with a small smile before popping the question, "What's up?"

**

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