When the doorbell finally rang, Alexis flung downstairs towards the main door to receive Natalia. She opened the door and swung her arms around Natalia to embrace her warmly. Happiness danced on Natalia's face when she received the warm welcome from her friend, "Missed me so much huh?"
"Come inside. Of course I missed you. We have so much to catch up on." Alexis grabbed Natalia's hand and led her towards her room in a hurry. Natalia scoffed softly as her eyebrows knitted together with this odd behavior of her friend. Lexi's head must have been badly injured, she thought.
Alexis sat on her bed and patted right next to her demanding Natalia to settle down. "So many weird things are happening to me lately. I have no idea what is going on."
Natalia clicked her tongue and waved her hand to gesture Alexis to stop talking. "First things first, I am very angry with you for telling me not to worry, when clearly those girls were coming at you again. Why didn't you tell me anything?"
Alexis slouched with her head down and didn't say a word. The memories that she tried so hard to suppress came gushing fresh in her mind. Tears started to glitter in the rim of her green eyes as if she could feel the punches all over again.
"Alexis… I know it has been really hard for you. But not telling anyone about the incident will only make you feel worse. You need to learn to open yourself up. Sharing your pain will make you feel a bit lighter. Please Lexi…" Natalia saw that her friend went back to being her silent self and tried to make her talk, "Tell me what happened yesterday?"
Alexis let out a small sigh while holding the rim of her dress and opened her lips, "I was walking towards my home when I bumped into Jimmy. He said that he was meeting his friend and then offered to walk me home saying his friend's house was near my house."
"Jimmy as in Captain Jimmy from our simulation class?" Natalia asked out of curiosity. Alexis nodded to confirm. "Wait, isn't one of those bullies his girlfriend?"
"Not anymore, I guess." Alexis rolled her eyes and then continued, "And after walking for about five minutes, those three girls appeared in front of us." And then Alexis went into the flashback…
Judy had both of her hands tucked inside the pockets of her pants. Two steps behind her, Mina and Nora were standing on the either side of her, in triangular formation. Mina scrunched her brows a little when she saw her boyfriend with their prey.
"Hey Mina, what is your dog doing with our little alien?" Judy said in her cold voice with unflinching eyes that stared at Jimmy as if she was asking him to leave the place. Alexis could feel cold shiver running down her spine when she heard Judy's cold words tearing down the silent road.
Jimmy was done taking profane words from Judy, "Mind your tongue, Judy. Stop disrespecting everyone. And what are you doing standing behind her Mina? I thought you were done with this bitch." Jimmy deliberately tried to arouse misunderstanding between them in the hopes of starting an in-fight. He wanted Mina to stop following around Judy like a puppy. His plan seemed to work.
Judy turned sideways to face Mina and asked while pointing a finger at herself, "You're done with this bitch?"
Mina stuttered, "W- what? I- I've never s- said that… I wo- wouldn't dare to say such words." Cold sweat started to trickle down her forehead. Judy wouldn't spare Mina if she even thought about going behind her back.
Judy then turned to her other side to face Nora and asked, "Do you know anything about this Nora? Is this rat betraying me?"
Nora was quite calm and composed as opposed to Mina. She replied with an unbothered tone, "Mina wouldn't dare say anything against you. Besides, isn't she your favorite pup?"
After she heard Nora, an evil smirk appeared on her face as if she figured out the whole scheme of Jimmy. She pulled out a round gadget from her pocket and pressed the button to form a rod out of it. Then she handed it to Mina and said, "Prove your loyalty to me. Take out the dog."
Mina's eyes widened with shock. She knew that Judy didn't like Jimmy, but asking her to beat her own boyfriend was too much to handle, "But… Judy… he's my boyfriend."
"Then why does he keep messing with our prey? Teach him a lesson so that he won't put his nose where it doesn't belong anymore." Judy said without a flinch, in a commanding voice.
"But…" Mina obviously didn't want to hit her own boyfriend.
"That's an order." Judy said very sternly that almost made Mina jump out of fear.
And Mina started to move closer to Jimmy as if she was following an imperial order. A strand of sadness lingered in her eyes. When her eyes met Jimmy she looked at him with accusing eyes as if to say that he brought this upon himself. Just when she was standing in front of him with hesitation, Judy looked at Nora and pointed her brows towards Jimmy. Nora understood what she had to do.
"What are you doing Mina? You are better than this. Please, put that away and let's go home." Jimmy was trying to convince his girlfriend to leave.
Right then he felt a smash at the back of his head. Everything went blurry. He could see his girlfriend shouting his name but couldn't hear it as his ears were ringing. Alexis was standing right beside him who was now covering her mouth in shock. She could not believe what just happened.
Jimmy fell down on the ground with a thud. Nora glanced at Judy who was now giving a quirky smile. Her attention was quickly grabbed by Mina who shouted, "What did you do Nora? He is my boyfriend dammit."
"Then you should have put him in the lease and stopped him from chasing our prey. Are you sure that he is in love with you and not with this fish-head?" Nora said while glancing at petrified Alexis.
"Just shut up Nora." Those words from Nora brought out the jealousy in Mina's heart. She turned towards Alexis, clenched Alexis by her neck and shouted, "What black magic did you use on him huh? Why does he keep following you and praising you?"
Alexis was gasping for air and was struggling. Judy didn't like her prey being touched by her lackey and then screamed, "Mina! Take your dog with you. Nora, you can go along with her."
Mina let go of Alexis and she coughed to get enough air; she was in pain. The two girls held Jimmy's arm over their shoulder and dragged him away. Now, it was just Judy and Alexis.