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Aware that I look extremely devasted as I left my room, walking down the stairs, I muster up a forced smile.

Before I could greet my parents, my Mom ask, "why aren't you ready for school?" Well there's no need to fake smile.

"Too sick to go." I take one of the long stools around the Island. My Mom pushes my food that was covered to me. She and my Dad have already eaten.

After having a hard time falling asleep last night, which has never happened before. I forced myself to sleep, only to wake up this morning feeling dispirited.

My Mom had to yell my name more than three times for breakfast, before I got off my bed. I fully expected her to come up and force me downstairs or something. Not bothering to take a shower, I just brushed my teeth and washed my face.

"Where is Dad?" I ask her, noticing his absence.

"He's packing his things for the trip. Did mine last night, but he was too lazy to do his and now he's rushing." She shakes her head with a laugh.

My lips lift up into a little smile. I definitely took the lazy trait from my Dad.

"Who said anything about rushing?" My Dad's voice booms as he walks into the kitchen.

"I'm all done." He says like he just won a trophy.

Deciding that this is the moment to tell my parents what I planned to, I say, "there's something I wanna tell you guys." I let the words out, not looking at their faces. My fork is in-between my fingers, dancing on the plate.

Although, I already know what I want and nothing can change mind, I still thought on it last night in the long hours of sleeplessness.

"What is it cupcake?" I raise my head at them, hearing my Dad's voice.

"I don't want to go to college." They both stare at me speechless, their expressions mute and the room falls silent.

Seeing that they were not gonna say anything, I look back at my food and start eating, despite not having an appetite.

Few more seconds to minutes passed before they finally spoke up.

"What? Why?" My Mom rushes to my side, her voice soft and her expression clouded with worry.

This isn't something I just thought about last night, I've always not wanted to go to college. I just didn't say anything cause I thought I will change my mind later-on.

Besides, I didn't have a reason before now. But presently, I feel like I do.

"Is this about that boy?" My Mom and I both swipe our head to my Dad, seeing his vexed face.

"What boy?" Confusion fills me.

"That tutor of yours." He exaggerates with his hands, his eyebrows creased.

"Dad come on." I deadpan. I didn't even remotely think that way. "Why would Cade have anything to do with this?" I retort curtly.

"Don't mind your Father Freya--" My Mom runs her hand down my hair in a soothing way, "---but what made you make that decision?" I look up at her.

"Nothing made me Mom. It's something I don't wanna do." My Dad comes to my side.

"Are sure that's what you want?" I was surprised at the soft tone his voice has taken.

"Yes that's what I want." I say, looking between both my worried parents.

"I want you to still think on it Freya. You still have some time before you graduate high-school." I wanted to protest against my Mom, cause I know nothing will change my mind. Instead, I nod.

"We will talk about this when we return okay cupcake?" I nod at my Dad. I don't know what's there to talk about though.

Some hours later, they were ready to leave.

"Freya!" My Mom calls me from the living room to the kitchen. My Dad was taking their suitcases to the car.

She shows me everything she's prepared for me to eat for the next three days. I nod and repeated after her anytime she asked me something. It ended with us laughing.

"I haven't seen Ophelia for some while. Does she know you're sick?" I put a frozen pizza into the oven. It's already past twelve PM and my tummy is hungry for lunch.

"She was here on Sunday Mom." I point out and she nods in remembrance.

"We need to leave Amy, our flight is in thirty minutes." My Dad walks into the kitchen with a briefcase in his hand.

He hands me the permission slip for my absence off school to give to my principal. I don't think I'll even go to school for the rest of the week.

"Remember, if you're sick of staying home alone. You can go to the Maxwell's. You know Ashely is always thrilled to have you over." I nod with a little smile.

"And no opening doors for strangers." My Mom and I both laugh at my Dad's silly interjection.

"You guys are only gonna be gone for three days, I think I can manage on my own just fine." I assure them sarcastically.

Normally, I would've stayed at Ophelia's but I decided not too this time.

Things haven't been the smoothest lately. Knowing my persuasive bestie, she won't let me breathe if I don't let her know what's going on and I think we all know how disastrous that will be.

"Okay Cupcake. Take care of yourself." They both wrap me for a hug. I start my new normal again, aka coughing.

"And we are going to the hospital when we get back. You're coughing too much for just a flu." I immediately stiffened at my Mom's words. That can't happen. We can't go to the hospital, they'll find out my secret if we do.

My Mom raised her hand to touch my face, a frown resting on her face as she observes me.

"There's no need to go to the hospital. I'll be fine before you guys get back." You know that's bullshit Freya.

I move away from them. "You guys better start going, so you won't miss your flight." I cover my mouth with my arm and cough into it. "And this flu is really contagious." I say to them, making them laugh.

My Mom didn't fail to repeat all that she's told me as I walk them to the car.

"We'll call you everyday cupcake." My face breaks into a smile.

"Sure Dad." They made it seem like they were travelling for months.

"Love you, bye!" I wave at them as they drove off.

"Love you too!" I yell back, chuckling lightly.

I went back into the house and lock the door behind me. I'm not expecting anyone and I certainly don't want to be around anyone right now.

Except Cade.

I can't help but crave him. I wish he was here with me.

I take my pizza from the oven, assisting it with a bottle of soda. I went to the living room, placed myself on a sofa and got comfortable. With my pizza slice in one hand, I flicked through Netflix with the remote control in my free hand.

Nothing seemed to grab my attention or more preferably, I wasn't in the mood to watch anything. So I turned off the TV when I was done eating. For the first time in my life, I didn't confine to movies that are literally a safe haven for me.

The day has barely gone by, so I could do absolutely anything...or nothing at all.

I walk up to room, finally deciding to take a nap. I put my little towel before my mouth when the cough started again. When I remove the tiny piece from my mouth, my eyes catches something that caused my heart to skip.

There was blood on it. Blood from my mouth. Blood from inside of me.

The sight causes me to start breathing with struggle. I hold onto my bedroom door when I got to it. I could hear the sound of my heavy breaths, it was scaring me.

Fear and panic gripped me as I thought about my present state. Tears fill my eyes as I slide down the doorframe, my back against it.

I thought I could handle it but I was just trying to make myself feel better with false hope.

I'm scared, terrified and hurting.

I don't know when I broke into a cry. This is far bigger than me, but I must carry it by myself.

I have to try.

"Holy shit Freya! You look like shit." That was the first thing Ophelia greeted me with as I opened the front door.

"I'm gonna kiss your face with this door if you utter one more word about my appearance." Her face slowly breaks into a smile.

She attacks me for a hug. "I missed you boo. School sucked without you today." I hugged her back tightly. I missed her more.

"And I thought you were the life of the party." She laughs at my statement as we pulled apart. Someone clears their throat behind us, divulging their presence.

Ophelia moves aside and I come face to face with a very jovial looking Zayn.

"Hey grumpy." I laugh light-heartedly at the nickname. He embraces me for a warm hug.

"Am I grumpy?" I hugged his tall form, looking up at him.

He pursed his lips before speaking. "You are, in cute way." I noticed he didn't show any sign of pulling away from me until I did.

Zayn continues looking at me in an unfamiliar way. I didn't have the chance to read his face, before getting pulled by Ophelia into the house, since we've been standing at the porch.

Ophelia informed me they were coming over after school. Her phone call was what woke me up from my rest. I tried not to think about what happened with/to me just some hours ago.

It made me restless and weak.

"Dude aren't you coming in?!" Zayn yells to someone in the car parked outside, stopping Ophelia and I in our tracks. It didn't take long for me to know it was Cade.

He's here too.

My tummy flutters at the thought of seeing him. It feels like I haven't seen him in forever.

He was here yesterday dummy.

I didn't hear his response because of Ophelia's overshadowing voice. "Come on, let's go get you ready." In no time, we were in my room.

"Ready for what?" I ask her, confused.

She wasted no second in going to my closet. She starts rampaging through my clothes.

Her frenzied movements paused when she looked back at me. "We are going to a Drive-in theater." She ends with a squeal, excitement overflowing out of her.

"Lia..." I groan and land on my bed face flat. "I'm in no state to go to a drive-in. I'm sick, remember?" My words sounded muffled cause of my position faced directly on the bed.

"And that's why we agreed to get you out of this house. I know you'll probably die from isolation or the flu, if I don't get your lazy ass out into the real world." Maybe they are forgetting my sick state and by that I mean, my false but somewhat real flu situation.

"I don't wanna go anywhere." I bicker like a child. My compliant didn't budge Ophelia. She expectantly starts throwing clothes towards the bed that lands on me.

Within the next minutes, she puts together an outfit. "It will get colder outside Lia." I scrutinize the mini cargo skirt she hands to me.

"We will be in the car, so don't worry about that and get dressed." She hurries like we are on a deadline for something important.

I'm supposed to not spend time with or around Cade, but somehow the universe just enjoys taunting me.

A knock comes at my door. "Come in." I say.

My bedroom door cracks open. For a second there, I thought he was the one, but it turns out it was Zayn. He peeks his head inside my room.

"What are you doing?" I ask in-between a little laugh. Ophelia has seemly gone back to her self-given task at hand.

"Thought I should let you know I've eaten half of your pizza." He opens the door probably.

Ophelia didn't even let him step in before matching towards him. "Shoo away my dimple twin, I have to get Freya ready." She backs him out of the door frame.

I watch them in amusement. "Might as well finish the whole thing Zayn." I refer to my eaten Pizza, causing him to laugh. I ate only half of it earlier and covered the rest.

I didn't miss the look he stared at me with, before Ophelia closed the door. It was similar to his expression from before. That's not weird?

I take off my comfortable sweatshirt and sweatpants. I put on the forest green cargo mini skirt and a black fitted sheer top, my black bra visible from the inside.

"Now that's more like it!" I chuckle at Ophelia's elated self, her eyes filled with pride at her simple work on my body. Her outfit is similar to mine. A pink mini skirt and a white corset top, with white boots.

"I'm not wearing makeup Ophelia." I deadpan, after putting on my black combat boots.

"Let me do that 'clean girl makeup' or 'cherry blossom makeup' on you, that's trending on the socials." I roll my eyes at her. I have no intention of sitting down for long minutes to hours for makeup.

"Aren't you the one rushing for us to go? You know makeup takes time." I sit in front of the mirror above the table.

"Reasonable point." She agrees.

I pack my hair into a high ponytale, leaving few strands to fall at the side. I top my lips with lipgloss and I was ready to go. I travel my eyes around my messed up room. It looks liked a junkyard of clothes.

"You're helping me clean this mess up when we get back." I tell Ophelia, but she just smiles cheekily.

Zayn had already gone outside to the car we went left my room. Ophelia steps out before me. I turn off the lights in the house and lock the door, before walking towards the car.

Cade's eyes are on me. I instantly knew as I approached them in the car. He has stared at me so much, I've gotten use to his effective piercing grey eyes.

It defies any distance between us.

Ophelia sat at the passengers side, Zayn was at the back seat and Cade is on the driver's seat. Opening the backdoor, my eyes smoothly connects with Cade. He wasn't looking ahead of him, rather behind him. At me precisely.

For a minute, it felt like time slowed down and it was just us present and alone in this moment. He never fails to amaze me with his beauty. Cade's eyes travel down my body and I swear, I saw his very attracting adam apple gulp down.

After what felt like an eternity, the silence broke by his voice. "You know there's gonna be cold right? Shouldn't you have worn something more covering?" He mutters.

And he has done it again.

Treating me like I'm his fucking baby sister!

"And hi to you too." My voice comes out harsher than I intended. I climb into the car and close the door. Zayn and Ophelia were mute for some reason.

Fifteen minutes into our ride, we realised we needed another car, considering we're staying in the cars to watch whatever movie is being premiered tonight. We all couldn't be in one car.

So we came back to my house for my car. I wasn't planning on driving, so I asked Ophelia to drive instead. She happily did so, although I know she wanted to be by Cade's side.

We decided to go to the diner we usually go to after school, since we still had some time and it was still pretty early to go to the Drive-in.

♡ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴs♡