First
1533 Words
Why do plants and flowers wither every fall? Why do cells die and new ones born? Why was it easy for objects to discard unwanted parts, but for humans it was impossible?
“Max, were you sure about this? Why did you turn my invitation down?”
She bit her nail. She already expected this reaction, but her heart squeezes.
“No, I didn’t. Remember the last time we had karaoke in your house?”
Her friend looked down. It became silent after she posed her question.
“Ah!” she pulled her armchair next to hers. “You went home past your curfew, your parents almost disowned you.”
She clapped her hands and leaned closer to her best friend.
“I can’t afford to piss them off now that I need allowance from them more than ever.”
Her parents were not strict however, the event they talked about was her first time to stay in someone’s house at 1 am it made her parents lose a screw in their heads.
As for her allowance, she would do any menial tasks such as plucking her parents’ and Grandma’s gray hairs, massaging her parents who just arrived home after their stressful day at work, walking her grumpy neighbor’s dog, and babysitting her bratty cousin.
Where did she get the strength to do all these?
For Maxine, there were things worth dying for. An example would be her imaginary husbands from the Webtoon and n*********d.
“I understand. My baby turned me down and next was you.”
She was about to say they could reschedule the karaoke session the other day, but the teacher in charge of the Science Week entered the room. The teacher chased out her friend, who was not even a participant in the said event.
“Guys, I made a pairing for the activities.”
Maxine was all ears, looking forward to meeting her new friend and partner.
“Now, for the 10th pairing, it would be Ms. Del Luna and Mr. Bertrand. Now please sit there.”
It drew a big question mark all over her face. Their eyes followed her movements as she walked to a seat on the right side of the classroom pointed by the teacher.
“Was there something wrong with my face?”
She unzipped her bag, pulled the neatly folded handkerchief inside, and wiped her face with it.
“There was nothing wrong with you, it was me.”
Her head tilted to her left. A dashing guy with sparkling teeth was in front of her. She averted her gaze because her partner’s looks were on another level. He was one of the dashing Dukes who jumped out of the manhwa.
When she gained confidence, she smiled back and extended her hand.
“I’m Maxine, and you are?”
Her cheeks turned red as a tomato. Her partner just kissed the back of her hand.
“I’m Kent. You made my day complete by accepting me as your partner. Next time put more hand cream; your hand was rough.”
Her smile of happiness turned to a smile of patience. She drank water to cool her head a bit.
The next hour was torture. It was a challenge to focus on what the teacher discussed when you sit beside the devil spouting unrelated words.
“Mr. Bertrand, could you please let the poor woman beside you take down her notes?”
The guy raised his hands and shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t dare to bother the woman but talked back to the teacher asking for a 15-minute break.
The teacher agreed, but he lowered it down to 10. The girls invited Maxine if she wanted to go to the bathroom together, to which she agreed.
“I don’t know why girls needed to go to the bathroom with reinforcements. What kind of ritual were you doing inside, huh?! Were you summoning a rare Pokemon?” Kent commented.
One girl smacked his head and the only thing Maxine did was to cover her mouth.
In all the people, he didn’t even care and invited the guys to the bathroom as well.
Maxine prayed in her head. She volunteered so her class would have a representative, but why would they give her a crazy partner?
When they got inside the bathroom, some girls introduced themselves as Kent’s classmates.
“Maxine, listen to me. Be careful with Kent. He is a jerk. Do not fall for his charms. He’s deadly, so, even if he was two years older than you, it’s fine to disrespect him. “
“Yes, he was mischievous, but how will he become the cause of my death?”
A tomboyish girl with short hair put her hands on Maxine’s shoulder.
“His witty pranks almost gave me a heart attack. He asked why the prints of my panties were cartoonish!”
“Me too! He called me Dora when I had my bangs!”
Maxine sided with Kent when the last girl spoke.
She suddenly felt dizzy. She didn’t know if these girls aimed to warn or complain.
After the long, dreadful discussion, which lasted for an hour but Maxine felt it was forever, she dashed. Two more hours and her favorite local bookstore would start the sales of the physical book plus merchandise of her favorite manhwa characters.
She was outside the school gates, finding reception; her data was as slow as a sea turtle.
Why did this happen at the time she needed to call an Uber the most?
A loud horn made her leap. Her phone almost slipped from her hands.
“Hey, want a ride? Hop on!”
In front of her was a black Toyota Vios.
Maxine weighed everything. If he would accept Kent’s offer, he would be there earlier. All she had to do was endure the trip from their school to the shopping mall, which would only last for 10 minutes.
“C’mon! Don’t worry, I won’t charge you!”
Her love for her husband was bigger, so she accepted the evil’s invitation.
When she hopped in his car, she noticed the guy didn’t wear his seatbelt. What else she would do? Of course, it was to buckle it up for him.
“What were you doing?”
“Helping you wear your seatbelt?”
“Why?”
“I don’t want us to be in trouble.”
“I had been driving every day, no one’s scolded me why I didn’t wear this stupid restrictive strap!”
“I’m sorry. My impression was you just forgot to put it on.”
“Fine, I’ll put it on.”
Maxine was quiet the whole ride. She thanked him before getting out of the car, but she only scratched her head when he also got out.
Kent put his shoulder on Maxine as they entered the mall.
“Uhm, Kent, your hand is on my shoulder.”
“Why do you like to state the obvious?”
She heaved a sigh.
“Yes, but people might think we’re couples.”
“Why worry about people’s opinions? Be thankful they linked you to an awesome man like me.”
She just shook her head. Arguing with this man was pointless.
The image of the familiar store reflected in her eyes enough for her to sprint towards the queue.
“Was this for the sale of the manhwa?” she asked the woman in nurse’s uniform.
“Yes!”
Even though the long tables were empty, she can’t wait to buy the merch!
“Hey.”
Her body hair stood up when someone placed an icy hand on her shoulder.
“Why did you leave an awesome man for a 2D guy?”
His robotic voice gave her goosebumps. She talked with the nurse, even if it was difficult for her to make new friends just to combat the unpleasant aura behind her.
“Finally, after days of grinding, you ended up in my arms!” she exclaimed while carrying shopping bags of random merch and four volumes of the manhwa.
Ditching her best friend’s karaoke invitation to squeeze herself inside the mall since fans of the w*******l raided the bookstore was worth it.
She couldn’t stop herself from humming although she withdrew half of her savings and even though her kinky hair strands were out of the place. Would you blame her?
Her husbands were blazing than any of the hottest men alive, the merch included were freaking cute, and her birthday was just around the corner!
“Hey, why are you invested in imaginary characters?”
She forgot him hours ago. She assumed he would leave if no one cared for him, but he also bought the merches, which made Maxine arched her brows.
“Said by the man who also bought the merch.”
“This was for my spoiled sister.”
Her eyes glistened. Finally, she saw his likable trait.
“Really? You’re like my brother because he bought me a limited-edition merch on his trip.”
“I think you misunderstood. This was to blackmail her. Or if I don’t want to wash the dishes, I didn’t even use.”
It crushed her impression of being a caring big brother in her mind.
She was about to preach to the guy when she saw her BFF’s boyfriend flirting with another girl.
- Writer
