Bubble Gum Kisses

**Kapittel 28** ***Vanessa***

**"What's up?"**

"I saw that you ate lunch with Georgia Moore during lunch yesterday," she started which made my brows meet in wonder. What was she implying?

Despite the growing anxiousness spreading in my chest like a horde of locusts, I managed to ask her, "Yeah, I was teaching her about the topics in Math class. Why?"

"Be careful about her," she warned, suddenly leaning her upper body to me which automatically made me incline backward to my seat's backrest. This girl was giving me some weird vibes.

"She's not what you think she is," she added, widening her eyes so that I was close to seeing the popping veins in her sclera and putting the lollipop back in her mouth.

We stared at each other's eyes for moments while I stayed silent and speculated about her warning. It didn't seem to be a friendly warning though. But why all of a sudden? Out of concern? Maybe she was one of those people that tend to degrade others. I might not fully know Georgia yet as I just met her yesterday, but I was sure that she was a good person. Well, based on my instincts and observation.

However, the distrustful side of me was tempted to believe in this girl's words. Wait- why would I believe her anyway? We met just now, and we haven't even exchanged names yet. Not to mention that I had always been taught not to believe in words so easily but to base my judgment on the actions instead. The same way was what I decided to do for Georgia.

"Thanks for the advice," I said, maintaining the small, polite smile on my face. "But I think I can handle knowing my acquaintances my own way," I then continued. She was about to open her mouth again when her gaze shifted to somewhere else, then she immediately got on her feet and scurried away, at the same time, I felt a huge figure sitting beside me. It must be my seatmate.

I turned my head to say hi, however, I immediately retreated from the plan when I realized who it was. It was him again, wearing the same arrogant, sardonic smirk that I badly wanted to rub off. Friso.

"Hello, baby girl," he said with that annoying smirk on his face. God, it reminded me of the harsh words he said to me days ago. Those knife-sharp words never failed to pierce my chest and make it tingle with pain.

Choosing to ignore him, I grabbed my bag and began pulling out my notes, and pencil case. I was supposed to check on my notes and see if I had unfinished assignments or unread announcements while I was on a ride to school but I was too busy moping, and now that I was feeling a bit stable, I felt pretty lazy to flip a page. Now, I wasn't. I could use a little distraction from the fact that Friso de Vries himself was sitting beside me, taunting me with those horrific curved lips of his. Unlike before, he was irritable and egotistical. I began to wonder if this was also part of the consequence of my actions.

I remained seated on my spot, my stomach tucked, my back flat, shoulders down, and head drooping while I casually went from letter to letter, word to word, and page to page. My eyes were dead set burning on the thin sheet of parchment designed with kaleidoscopic scribbles out of different color highlighters and pens. All of the things I needed to do were all marked completed. Blinking, I flipped on another page, only to reveal an empty page. Okay, the notes were all clear and I didn't have anything else to do aside from learning today's classes. I answered all my assignments last night anyway.

While it was relieving that I had accomplished the things I was supposed to do, it was aggravating now that I didn't have anything to distract myself. Especially that I felt Friso came closer to me that I could feel his breath fanning over the side of my face. Maybe I should just review my notes in physics, that subject was wracking my brain and forcing it to rewire and reconstruct. Math was hard, but it was easier to understand than physics.

I pulled out my binder notebook and flipped to the notebook for the deliriously painful subject of the fundamental motion and behavior of matter and energy. I needed to study this one carefully since I heard the lecturer loved pulling out pop quizzes. Speaking of studying, I should prepare for the ACT and retake SATS in the next months. I didn't take the SATs seriously during my junior year, and I had been reviewing everything about the tests ever since I started senior year.

My friends, other than Katherine, who shared the same burning fire with me of getting into a high-end university, took the tests early since they didn't want to be stressed when completion came near and the universities, they wanted to get in ended their applications last winter. Only Katherine and I chose to take the test at a later date since we wanted to be fully intact with reviewing everything, not to mention our love for getting under pressure that would render us get the best of ourselves.

Primarily, the endeavor of getting high test scores and getting into a good university was for personal gain, but after that incident, I became more determined to take a retake. Moreover, I didn't intend to take both, but a senior once told me her chances of having her admission accepted is by submitting both of her test scores in the ACT and SAT. Having strong scores on both tests would be sure acceptance. As much as possible, I'd like to secure a position of getting a scholarship since I didn't want to be everlastingly stressed with student loans when I graduate or I didn't want to burden mom, who was insisting on paying for my tuition even though dad prepared a trust fund to cover my college application. I heaved a sigh when I remembered that. Right. After the accident, we learned that dad had actually prepared for everything that would happen in the proceeding years and the funds that it would require. We didn't just inherit a house and a new car from him, but also became beneficiaries of a trust fund.

Dad gave mom a hefty sum of money that she could use to lavish her senior life once she retired. He also set up one to cover Zach's college education, it was under the condition that the money would be used either to pay for tuition or use it as living expenses if ever granted with a scholarship or any granted benefit. I received the same beneficiary and was conditioned to be released once I graduate high school.

After we learned about it, mom insisted that she could cover my tuition and I could use the money for my daily living, but not wanting to burden mom any further with the bills, I wanted to use the money for my living expenses and get a scholarship.

Oh, Dad...

I bit my lower lip at the sudden reminisce of dad, and a shiver ran down my spine. The remembrance of dad wasn't only a lonely episode, but also a terrifying one, it would remind me of the nightmares that had been recurring every night. It was heart-rending that the one I had been longing to see again always came in the form of a grotesque apparition.

Maybe this was dad's way of revenge after my negligence?

"You're fond of making lips bleed now?" an annoyingly haughty voice asked that pulled me off my train of thoughts. "Hey, are you spacing out?" it continued to ask and a large, thick hand waved in front of my eyes.

I sighed as irritation made its way to my chest. I felt like having heartburn. Pretending that I wasn't surprised by Friso's sudden tug from running my thoughts, I flipped another page and mindlessly read the explanations for the gas laws. Though it was a good thing that he distracted me, I would have dwelled on those dark thoughts and ruined my day. It was already ruined by my nightmare, and I was trying to make it a bit better at least. I had the thought of contacting my shrink for help since things were getting a bit worse recently, but mom would surely know about it. I didn't want to worry her as she already had a lot on her plate.

"Wow, you now have cleaner handwriting," he commented while I was in the middle of reviewing my notes. Again, ignore him, Vanessa. Treat him like he didn't exist. "It used to be like a chicken's scratches but it looks a lot better now. I'm impressed," he added and I swear to God, I could feel his grin getting wider upon saying those words while I almost crushed the pen was holding in my palm. Why was he being like this?

"Hey..." he called for my attention again. "Hey," now he was poking me with a blunt object, that seemed like his pencil's eraser or closed pen. "Seriously, Vanessa. Don't tr-"

"Uh... that's my..."

**

Thank you for reading Bubble Gum Kisses! To keep up with my works, future works, and endless frustrations on Twitter: https://twitter.org/RiosMorpheus**