Chapter 2

I sniffled as a strong hand defended me and pushed Megan back. She was as shocked as I was.

‘Leave her alone!’ He screamed.

Finally, my hero has arrived. My cheeks went red.

He firmly gripped her hand to prevent touching me. Wow, what a hero.

‘Hey, what is going on here?’ A tall, skinny girl dashed across the hall to stop us. “What’s going on here? James? I wonder where you’ve been. How did you even come here?’

‘I don’t know. I heard Lilith and followed her. Wouldn’t want our friends getting hurt.’

That’s right. That’s what we are. Just friends. But why does my heartache when he utters these words?

‘Ugh, this isn’t fair. Why do you hang out with losers like her James? It’s disgusting to watch.’ Megan yelled aggressively.

‘Hmm...I do agree. Those mud-colored hair and creepy eyes aren’t going to get her anywhere.’ joked one of the Rosa twins Casually.

‘HAHAHAHAHAHAH. Dirthead!!’ Megan laughed uncontrollably.

‘That’s enough.’ Beth came charging at her, but I stopped her.

‘Let her be. She’s not worth it’ I whispered softly in her ear.

‘But- '

I let out a huge sigh. ‘Let’s just go.’ I continued walking without looking in their direction. I really want to ignore her, just for today at least. It’s my birthday and I wanted to have a happy time celebrating it with my dearest friends. And Megan.

I can’t bear to watch my BFF becoming my enemy. It was supposed to be friends to best friends phase, not friends to enemies. Well, things don’t always work out the way you want, especially if you are insecure and ugly.

Oh boy how, I wish I were invisible right now, with all the yammering and shouting in the middle of the hallway, in front of hundreds of students, that too on my BIRTHDAY!?

‘I am indeed a magnet of bad luck’ I mumbled as I continued walking with Beth and May following me, while James was in a heated argument with Megan. May quickly pulled him from them and walked as fast as possible to avoid any other human contact.

‘Let me go I wasn’t done talking yet’ James protested as he swore Megan with his fancy British accent. It was sweet and charming. I wish he would swear to me like that. But that can’t happen. I can’t risk another friendship. Not one, but two friendships.

‘Hey, it’s ok, I think it’s very brave of you there.’ Beth leaned closer to him and kissed him on the forehead.

Suddenly I became distracted for a minute. The thoughts filled and the mental images of them both swirled my mind like a hurricane. Why her? Why not me? What does she have that I don’t? I thought you loved me? But you never told me you loved me. Only friends?

Suddenly someone shook me hard to bring me back into my senses. I startled back into reality as May yelled at me, trying to wake me up. ‘Yes??’ I shifted back and forth to remember what happened. Ah yes, school.

I’ve always liked school. It’s better than home. To me, school is my home. This is where I belong. I have three awesome friends, I am good at math, I’m kind of the teacher’s pet and everyone is nice here. Except for Megan and the Rosa twins. The twins are a mysterious duo, always lurking around the school to cause trouble. In fact, nobody even knows their real name. There are rumors that they were triplets and one of them had an accident and was never to be seen after that. They might be true. But that’s none of my business., and I couldn’t care less.

The bell rang and all of the students scurried inside their classes like a group of mice going into a burrow. We took our respective seats, as assigned by the class monitor. The class was vibrant and optimistic as usual, and I was in the front row. Why? Because James is next to me and I could stay away from Megan as much as possible.

For a minute everything was going fine. I was hyped up and I was almost ready for anything. But no one expected what was coming next.

Suddenly I felt a throbbing pain in my head. Everything around me became blurred. It was difficult to hear anything. I trembled for an unknown reason. I tried to call for help, but nothing came out of my mouth. It was terrible. I felt very uncomfortable. I was able to hear strange voices floating in the air. I could almost feel anything and everything around me, the hard and cold breaths of the students surrounding me and the distant, low whispers of other students. What is happening to me?

I clenched my teeth hard, but I could barely feel anything. It was totally numb. Oh my god, help! I screamed as loud as I could to grab the attention of other people.

Somebody, please help me.

I heard a cold, deep voice of someone, most probably an adult, but definitely a guy. ‘Trust no one, Trust nothing. It’s a lie.’ The deep voice echoed throughout my head. I wondered if anyone else heard it. Or is it just me? Then everything seemed quiet for a minute. Darkness surrounded me as I kept trembling.

The next thing I know, I woke up at the infirmary, broke out in cold sweat. Everything in the room was bathed in white, from the walls to the blanket on my legs. Suddenly I could everything going on around me. My head was still spinning.

‘Lily!’ May shrieked in surprise

‘W…what happened?’ I was confused. my head was pounding and my heart bounced at every small sound.

‘Oh, you fainted in the middle of the lecture. It totally freaked out everyone!’ she bit her nails anxiously. ‘Are you okay now?’

I sat up straight in my bed. ‘Well, I’m still feeling a bit nauseated. How long was I out anyway?’

‘for four long hours’ she replied uneasily

‘oh,’ I was a bit disappointed. Grandma would be the first person to come here if she heard I got hurt. Maybe she forgot? Or nobody told her so?

‘And your mother, she tried to reach you via phone for hours. I answered the phone for you and told your mother about your fainting. And I’m sorry’ She looked like she was about to cry.

‘No, it’s okay I guess, but where is Mom?’ I’m getting more and more suspicious now. She would never call me during school unnecessarily. Why would she call me now unless an emergency? Did she know in advance about my fainting and wanted to call me to check on me? Nah, even if she knew about it, she honestly wouldn’t bother anyway.

‘Well…. she’s not coming because… um…you know what to call her yourself and find out?' she grabbed the phone and kept on insisting to call my Mom. ‘Okay,’ I finally gave up and agreed on calling her.

I opened my phone and the screen emitted a bright light, too bright for me. Some notifications appeared on the screen: 13 missed calls and texts from Mom, 10 missed calls from sister and 1 missed call, and 1 text message from grandma.

I decided to call my mother first. She was in a state of pain and panic. ‘LILITH! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? WHY AREN’T YOU ANSWERING MY CALLS?’ she kept yelling until I asked her to calm down. ‘Hey Mom, sorry I was out for four hours, so please calm down and tell me what happened.’

She took a deep breath. ‘Lily’ she said shakingly. ‘Your grandma, she passed away this morning. I’m sorry dear I know--’ I immediately cut my phone after hearing this. Tears started welling up and rolling down my cheek. No, not grandma, anyone but her. Why is the world so cruel, taking all the things I love the most? First my Mom, then my sister, and now my grandma? I screamed out of frustration as my friends stood beside me and rubbed my shoulders calmly. ‘It’s ok Lilith we are here for you’ May hugged me tightly around.

I opened the message from grandma. It was an audio recording. I clicked play to hear her message. Her last message. My hands were quivering with fear and sadness. I told myself I was going to be okay but I was definitely not. Grandma was the one who spoke. Her voice was so soft and shaky that you could barely hear it. She said: ‘Lilith dear, I know you have been through a lot in your life and I am sorry that I couldn't help you. Please know that I love you, Mary and Maria, more than anything in this world. This is why I have passed on my biggest wealth to you. I wish I told you sooner so that you wouldn’t have to find it out yourself. I have written all the details in my journal. Please find it and read it as soon as possible. Stay strong dear, I know you can do it and grandma wants to say that she’s very proud of you my little darlings. Thank you for everything and please don’t cry dear. Because they say, the end of something is the beginning of another thing. Grandma loves you all. Take care.’

No. No, no-no-no. Please don’t tell me this is happening. Oh, grandma, why? You said you would never leave me because you love me and always will keep your heart open for me. I don’t want any wealth grandma, I want you. How could you ever rest in peace knowing that I'm suffering here?

‘I love you too grandma. Always did, always will’ I muttered quietly as the tears swelled up my eyes and started to drift down my cheeks like a waterfall as May was still hugging me tightly.