Chapter 8

“Wake up sleepy.” I heard someone order me which was followed by the usual prodding of my face. I slowly opened my eyes and found a familiar little girl standing over me with an elated smile plastered on her face.

“Morning Mia.” I groaned as I sat up from the couch that I’d always sleep on when I ended up in this house.

“Morning.” Her everlasting cheeriness was one of the things that kept me going. “I brought you tea.”

“Did you make it?” I jokingly asked as I reached for the steaming mug on the coffee table.

“I can’t yet, I’m still too small.” That brought a smile to my face. She always acted older than what she was but her vocabulary always reminded that she was just a seven year old little girl.

“Thank you for bringing it to me then.”

“Mom says we’re going to have breakfast first and then we can play together.” She definitely had too much energy for me this morning but I didn’t really want to be around people today, even if she was just a little girl wanting someone to play with her and especially not after what happened last night.

“I can’t play with you today, I need to go home and finish some work.” I informed her.

“Only after you have some breakfast.” Her mother told me as she came into the room and set two plates on the table.

“Thank you.” My mood instantly changed once I saw Mia’s parents, Michael and Sarah Castle, settle themselves on the couches in the lounge. It’s not that I didn’t like them, I just hated what I kept doing to them and I hated the fact that I couldn’t stop myself from doing it. They didn’t deserve it and neither did their children.

“How are you feeling?” Mr Castle asked me.

“Look, we don’t have to do this. As usual, I just drank a little too much and your house was the closest so I came here.” I explained myself as I grabbed a piece of toast and took a bite of it.

“But you were not drunk when you came here. You could’ve driven home perfectly fine on your own last night.” Mr Castle definitely knew me well enough.

“And we have to talk about it because this… it’s not healthy for you.” Mrs Castle added.

“We can’t possibly know or understand what you are going through or what you have been going through since your mother…” Mr Castle stopped himself, he always did. He hated speaking about what happened to my mother and that angered me, even now.

“Say it, she did it for you so say it.” I ordered him as I stared at the couple. They were such a sweet couple and I knew that sitting me down and talking to me like this was something they never wanted to do but if they were brave enough to start it then they needed to follow through.

“I know you might be angry and I understand that but sooner or later you have to accept it and see all the good that your mom did.” Mrs Castle told me.

“You think I don’t see it? Why do you think I come here? My mother sacrificed herself to save you and your husband from that criminal so that your children can grow up with both their parents. This little girl gets to wake up with a smile every single day knowing that her mother and father are waiting to greet her in the next room. That’s what my mother did and I am proud of her for that but what did that leave me with? I wake up every day cursing the fact that she had to sacrifice herself to save others, to save both of you.” My rage was definitely starting to get a hold of me but I was not going to let it satisfy itself. This family did not deserve that.

“We are grateful for what she did.” Mrs Castle replied.

“And that’s why you will just have to accept me coming here whenever I need to because this place, your children, is where I need to be sometimes.”

“We’re not saying that we don’t want you here. You are our family as well, we watched you grow up so you’re as much our child as well.” I knew Mrs Castle meant every word of that and I appreciated it. I knew they’d always be there whenever I needed them.

“All we’re asking is that you don’t come here the way you did last night. We want you to open up to us so at least tell us what’s wrong. We don’t mind having you and you’re always welcome to sleep on the couch but we want to help you and we can only do that if you let us. All that anger and resentment you might have, you need to start facing it head on.” Mr Castle told me.

“I’m fine.” I reluctantly replied. Footsteps coming down the stairs grabbed our attention before we saw who they belonged to, Micheal.

“Morning Sweetie.” Mrs Castle greeted her the young boy. He said nothing as he sleepily went over to his mother and sat on her lap while cuddling her again. I grabbed the cup again then gulped the warm liquid until there wasn’t any left.

“I’ll be on my way then.” I placed the cup on the table again then stood up. “Thank you for the tea and breakfast and for the couch.”

“You don’t have to go.” Mrs Castle told me.

“I have work to do.” I could see that she wanted to say something else but she stopped herself.

“Whatever you need, you can always call.” Mr Castle told me.

“Thank you for everything, bye everyone.” I greeted them then made my way to the door. I didn’t wait for their greeting before I stepped out into the chilly morning air. The cold air nipped at my bare forearms but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. My house wasn’t too far from the Castle’s but it was far enough away for me to regret not taking my jacket out of my car last night.

“Are you still upset at me?” Carlene asked me during our last period on Monday. We were taking notes down from the screen being projected on the board in front of the class.

“I thought you’d be happy; Valda and I aren’t a couple.” I pointed out. I saw Valda sitting by the window in front of the class but I paid no attention to her. I hadn’t even greeted her, let alone speak to her today. The last time we spoke to each other was on Saturday and I was definitely fine with that arrangement.

“I didn’t want you to be miserable though. You were so happy with her even if you guys were just friends.”

“Apparently I was just someone to pass the time with so I don’t think that she even thought of me as a friend.”

“I’m sure that’s not what she meant.”

“Why are you even defending her?”

“I’m not defending her, I’m just saying that you might’ve misunderstood her.” I turned to look at Carlene but her nervous expression told me everything that I needed to know.

“Fine, I’ll drop it.” She immediately returned to her work but I was unmoved.

“I’m curious, since Valda and I are not a couple, why didn’t you want us together?” I decided to ask her. “And don’t give me that crap you said on Friday, be honest.”

“I just knew that she was going to hurt you and I didn’t want that for you.” She was really sticking to her guns with that.

“Why didn’t you warn me about Heidi then as well?” I shot back.

“That was a cheap shot.” She replied with a blank stare.

“I’m talking about what happened after she moved. Why didn’t you warn me then?”

“Because I wanted to believe in you guys. Heidi is like a sister to me so I didn’t want to think anything bad of her, I still don’t.” At least she was being honest there. I didn’t know that they still had such a deep bond even after she moved away. “And don’t forget that I was the one that showed you that video.”

“True.” I agreed as I remembered the video.

“All she did was make-out with that guy at a party and she was really sorry about it so why did you really break up with her?”

“She lied to me for months and then she goes and sticks her tongue down someone else’s throat when we were trying to make our relationship work log distance; I’d just been hurt by her too badly.” I admitted.

“She was drunk though…”

“So that excuses her?” I stared her down until she ended up looking away and releasing a sigh. “Look, Heidi and I will probably always be unfinished but that doesn’t mean that I can’t move on with my life and find someone else who will love me as much as I love them.”

“And you think that could’ve been Valda?” She asked as both of us continued writing.

“I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t think so.” I admitted.

“Maybe it still could be.”

“I’m really getting confused with you. First you’re against Valda and I and now you’re supporting us.”

“I just want you to be happy and if Valda is the person that brings you that happiness then I don’t have any problems with that.”

“You’re too late with that though, Valda and I are finished.” I stated as the bell rang to signal the end of the day. “I don’t plan on talking to her any time soon.”

“Don’t you guys have that quiz?” I totally forgot about that. Regret immediately flooded my mind as I realized that I couldn’t exactly avoid her there. “I swear, your memory is useless.”

“It’s useful enough.” I replied as I began packing up.

“Well good luck this afternoon. I will see you tomorrow.”

“See you.” I sighed as I slung my arms through the straps of my bag then exited the class. I couldn’t believe that I forgot about the quiz, I was so angry at myself. I didn’t want to talk to Valda but I guess I could keep it professional. We don’t need to talk any more than what was necessary. I made my way to my locker first then decided to bite the bullet and just make my way to the library. What’s the worst that could happen anyway?

“Glad you could make it.” Geoffrey told me as I entered the library. I immediately spotted Valda sitting by the table we’ve been using positioned right under the window. “Ready for the first round tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” I reluctantly replied.

“Now that you’re here, we can start.” He stated then went to the main table. “Everyone listen up! There have been a few updates and changes to the competitions. Because of the increase in schools entering the debate competition, there will be an extra preliminary round. Thankfully we’ve already completed two rounds so we just need to complete one more round and we’ll make it through to the knockout stages. For the quiz competition, they’ve added an extra element during the knockout stages. They’ve added a timeline round for extra points. All you’re basically doing is putting the events in the correct chronological order. It requires two people and we already have our expert historian so we will just have to decide who his partner will be for the knockout rounds.”

“But that requires the two of them to pass the preliminary rounds first.” Ren commented. I was pretty confident that Valda and I would pass the first rounds with ease even if our teamwork was not exactly the best right now.

“Don’t worry about that, Valda and Hudson have that covered. Our main focus is trying to get as much points in this next debate round as possible. If those other new teams manage to get more points now then we won’t even make it to the knockout rounds so everyone let’s get to work.” Geoffrey ordered us. I made my way to Valda then silently took a seat by the table and embraced the awkward silence.

“Look, I’m sorry for what I said at the party. I didn’t mean that I don’t want to spend more time with you or that I didn’t enjoy our time together. All I meant was that I wanted to speak to Geoffrey for a while.” Valda explained.

“I had to show you around last week so we were forced to spend time together. We don’t have to continue spending time together, you can go and make other friends that you might get along with.” I replied.

“I enjoy spending time with you and your friends so I would like to continue that.” That made me a little happier but I wasn’t going to show her.

“I think they would like that as well.”

“Can we perhaps start over? No being forced to hangout together and no awkwardness, just a plain and simple restart?” That was an interesting suggestion and I actually agreed with her reasoning.

“Fine but we can start properly tomorrow.”

“I agree.” She flashed me a smile then turned to the books placed on the table. “Anyway, let’s prepare for tomorrow.”