Chapter 7

It's one of those moments in life when things suddenly go down the drain.

There I was with a smile plastered on my face, thinking nothing could ever destroy what I found and just a second later, this had to happen. Thev voice I heard from behind me was a familiar low feminine voice. If I had a chance to pick between talking with every other person in the room to her alone, I would definitely pick the former. This is going to be difficult.

"Alex" I acknowledged, turning around to face the girl that was supposed to be my childhood friend. She was just like she looked on social media but out of all, I would say I really liked the way she looked. It wasn't too much, neither was it too little. The dress was white with little specks of gold here and there. The single bracelet on her wrist took my attention, it was strikingly beautiful and that made it one of the few times I got attracted to jewelry.

Alex was like Leo to me. Let's rephrase that, Alex could've been more than Leo to me. Our parents knew each other even before our births. It was a relationship since childhood and I didn't know why but both families didn't get along well. I didn't know anything about Alex's dad but I knew her world famous mom and how she couldn't stand my mother. It wasn't a quarrel and it never causes a problem but there was this atmosphere between them that just wasn't right. I never got the reason why but whatever it is, it went on to ruin the relationship between I and Alex.

We were never friends from the start, just two people that knew each other. She got invited to parties and gatherings by my family and I got invited to hers. Even when we got to see each other often, we didn't go as far as anything above a single 'hi' and even that stopped after a while. Nothing really happened to cause the differences between us, it just started and grew.

She, unlike me, started her life in high school. She was already on banners and TV by the time and this girl grew famous quickly. Everyone knew about it and I even tried reaching out to her then but she didn't reply to the message and that was a slap in the face. I guess that's when the whole thing started, she was the first to show she didn't like me. I didn't do anything to reciprocate her action and that's how it has been since then.

"Hi Alex, I love your dress"

"I know, it's Gucci and you? What are you wearing?"

"A green armless outfit with beads, I guess"

Her laugh was so loud, almost everyone heard it. My eyes scanned the whole room and everywhere it went it got connected to another. That's when things started to go south, everything's been so good, I never thought it would still turn out this bad. I was still composed, however, knowing I could still handle a single laugh.

"You are so immature. Tell me, did puberty see you and run away?"

Literally, I was wearing a green outfit. It was beautiful but there's nothing much to it besides the beads. It made me look down at myself in shame as I stood there with no idea what she meant "Look Alex, I don't understand your question and it'll take you literally nothing to clarify."

"I mean what designer is this?" She said and once again, scanning me from head to toe "Not the color, silly"

"Oh, I actually have no idea what it is but what matters is the beauty of it"

"What matters is the price tag and the fact it's nothing close to the code but who am I to complain? First time in a party this elegant, isn't it?"

Painful to listen to but true. It truly was my first time at a party like this and may probably be my last as well with the way things were "Yeah whatever, can I leave now?"

"I'm just playing with you, no need to be so angry."

"You obviously weren't joking"

"Glad you noticed. So how was it?"

"How was what?"

"Getting the proper grammar to speak to Leo?" Then she laughed again and even louder than before. Things were getting out of hands and escalating quickly as well. People were staring, some were whispering and I was already the centre of attention. I got the full meaning of what they warned me about. Dad was wrong to have told me to stay with females. The Leo he told me to ignore just happened to be there best person I saw that night.

"This isn't funny Alex, you're embarrassing me"

"Embarrassing? I'm just playing with you"

"Well, you don't sound like you are. You're out of high school Alex, you should at least have the tiniest bit of maturity in you"

"What are you talking about? You're also out of high school, aren't you? But here you are looking like a sixth grader. Besides, you're the one who stared at him like a god. I bet you've never had a guy wink at you before"

I've never felt this way about my look before. Everything I'd buried deep in me was awakening by those words. Those were feelings I left behind and problems I handled in the past. I had gone through the whole low esteem phase already and even during that time, it's not like I had anyone say such to me about it. Words were trapped in my mouth, I no longer had anything to say or even knew what to say as a matter of fact.

"Leave me alone"

So much for talking to a female. This was by far the worst conversation I've ever had with anyone in my life. It's funny how I didn't even do a thing to deserve any of this. She just woke up one day and said to herself 'it's high time I hated this girl'. I didn't want want to believe she was always like this normally or treated everyone the same way she just treated me cause from what I knew, Alex had a lot of people that loved he or so I saw on social media.

"Christina this, Christina that and Christina can't speak for herself, what a surprise? I never expected much from you from the start. You were always proud to begin with and now here you are acting like an innocent little girl"

"Proud? What are you talking about? I was never proud"

"You're wrong to think I'll stand here and talk about childhood problems. Come to think of it, it really didn't matter if you were proud or not. Even if you're blind, you'd see that finally, I win"

First I was someone's childhood crush and didn't know a thing about it and now someone completely hates me for being so proud and I also had no idea about it. I wonder how all of this was happening at my back all this time. We saw each other a couple of times throughout our lives but I never came out proud to her or at least that's what I thought. I was just that little shy kid that didn't know how to look up, how in the world is that proud?

First time talking to her in a while and this is what I get? Great.

"All these are things you made up In your mind. I was never proud, I was literally the most timid kid amongst us. Besides, I tried to reach out to you in high school and you didn't respond so who's proud?"

"You and your stupid family a_"

"My family isn't stupid"

"Are you saying mine is incomplete? It's not my fault I don't have a father"

"What are you saying?"

The next thing that happened came in a flash. It was unexpected, I didn't see it coming at all. I was taken aback when I saw her face morph into something else. The smile vanished in a second and tears started rolling down her face. It was like a dam waiting to be broken, she had it in all this time. I can't believe Alex would victimize herself to a point where she was literally letting out fake tears.

"Stop it Alex, this isn't funny anymore"

"I can't believe you would say something like that to me!"

Her voice went from twenty to hundred. Every single person in the room heard and saw what happened and they took what she served. It didn't look like anyone saw she was faking it, looks of pity was evident on their faces as she ran out of the room. It felt like I was the only one in the room. I too was just a second away from breaking down cause I'd caused more than enough drama to spread everywhere. My parents would hear of it and be disappointed as well. No one would understand this isn't my fault. I was set up and I had nothing to prove that I was innocent.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Leo hurriedly walking to where I was but before he could reach me, I turned and walked out of the room. It was a walk of shame and I did a really good job by making my face the most neutral it could ever be. There were things bottled up in me and I couldn't just wait to make it back home.

Once the doors were, I was welcomed by flashes from cameras and microphones pointed at me. The people I expected to see earlier were finally here. They arrived the worst they they possibly could seeing Alex was also outside and the questions were directed to what just happened.