Branden texting; Hey check on Mariana,I just felt her anger.
Haile; I just did your majesty,she is ok now but she almost lost control Infront of the whole school. I had
to....pretend..to..embrace her to ...calm her down am sorry.
Branden; You did what!? You are not allowed to touch her. Never ever do that again...you hear me!!
Branden was furious,he had pulled the car over to text Haile after he felt the change of emotion from Mariana. He almost made a U-turn to go back but decided to use the body guard he had assigned to look after her. But then he heard what he did and almost lost it.
Just because Haile was assigned to protect Mariana didn't mean Branden was ok with physical contact,he was still a man and no man apart from him ,was allowed to be close to her. It drove him crazy to know he was not going to be close to Mariana at all times. He felt like turning himself to a shadow,that way he would remain by her side.
'I must find a way to be by her side no matter what ,even if I have to go back to high school to do it' Branden thought.
****
Lisa approached Mariana,she had seen Alex with her best friend. Alex walked away without waiting for her to even say hi. Ever since their date,they had not seen much of each other. Just the occasional texts of hi and hey,it was starting to bother Lisa. It was like the two most important people in her life fell of the face of the earth,then showed up together again.
"What was that?" Lisa asked Mariana in tone that was saying she did not like what she saw.
"What was what? Are you not going to say hi,I missed you Lisa!" Mariana caught the accusatory pitch in Lisa's tone.
"Why did Alex just hug you? And where have you been for the last four days?" Lisa started bombarding Mariana with questions.
Mariana knew her friend and she was sure Lisa was mad at her. So she calmed herself down and took her friend's hand, dragging her to the cafeteria away from the crowd of students,who were still coming in. She had to somehow explain things to Lisa,she had not thought of the extent of what she would reveal.
As soon as they got there Mariana made sure there was no one around and led Lisa to seat.
"'Hi Mariana,how are you,are you ok ...?'That's what I was expecting from you Lisa." Mariana stated trying to look offended,though she knew it would not work with the girl Infront of her.
"Answer me first Em,what was that with Alex?" Lisa clearly did not care about anything else at that moment.
"Huh!..I don't know what you mean,but if it is the hug then I can't even explain that. He has never done that at all. I was wondering ,have you two gotten that close that he thinks it should extend to me as well?"
"Pshh, ati close,alinighost kutoka Friday. Nimejaribu kumpigia simu hashiki. And it was the same for yours as well. Were you together?"
(He ghosted me from Friday. I have been calling him but he didn't pick my calls.)
"Together?God no,I was with my mom and grandma and...a few others who I will tell you about some other time." Mariana did not mention Branden deliberately,he was a topic on his own and it would be hard to talk of him in the short time they had. "Why would you think I was with Alex."
"That hug...and the fact that you both disappeared on me from Saturday,is it just a coincidence?...I think not. He is also acting weird..I am sure he saw me just now but he didn't wait for me to say hi or explain why I haven't seen him for all those days." Lisa said disappointment was all over her face.
"I did not know you were the jealous type." Mariana said smiling. Lisa punched her lightly on her arm and they both laughed. "Am serious Em,this guy is driving me nuts. I had no intention of falling for him but probably I waited for him for so long that I fell for him." Lisa said. Mariana couldn't help but feel sorry for Lisa. She was now angry at Alex,how dare he make her friend feel like this.
For a split second her eyes turned golden and Lisa saw it but then they had turned back to their original grey. She rubbed her eyes thinking maybe she saw wrong. Mariana caught Lisa rubbing her eyes and asked,"what is it,why are rubbing you eyes that hard? They will turn red!"
"Your eyes,I thought I saw...maybe it's just reflection." Lisa concluded.
Mariana took out her phone and looked at her reflection. She sighed after seeing her eyes were the usual grey they had. "So where have you been? And what happened to you,did you get better?" She heard Lisa ask.
Mariana thought for a while and decided it was not yet time to divulge all the information to her best friend just yet. She was going to tell her half truths. "Well on Friday when I got home I was so sick,I went straight to bed. My mom made me soup and did her best to bring my fever down.
The following day grandma came and they both decided not to take me to hospital, according to my grandma it was not that serious. So on Saturday we went to my.. my grandmother's vacation house. And wow that place is beautiful,I have to take you there one day. If she lets me. On Sunday, some eld....some family members came. Said they had important stuff to talk to us about.
And yeah that's it,I spent all those days there. Me and my mom just got back, yesterday."
"What about your phone couldn't you call me? Lisa asked, although Mariana was explaining herself,she didn't buy it one bit. There was something Mariana was hiding and she would find out soon enough.
"The trans...I mean...I was so sick my mom took my phone, she said I needed to rest. Sorry Lisa I did not reach out,but don't worry I will tell you the whole story and I hope you forgive me." Lisa squinted her eyes at Mariana which showed her the explanation was not satisfactory.
The bell rang which indicated the start of lessons. The girls went to class after Mariana promised they would talk later. It would be hard to hide stuff from Lisa,this was something she had never done before.