Once Marlene and her brother stopped dancing to the music, they both went upstairs to call it a night. Since the tragedy, they both agreed to sleep in bedrooms that were right next door to each other, so they could easily comfort each other if one had a nightmare.

It appeared that Joshua was also beginning to have some hallucinations of his own, since Elle told Marlene about his panic attacks.

Marlene knew her brother must have had some traumatic experiences abroad, but learning about this new dilemma just added more trauma to her own problems. So, she just had to work on one item at a time in order for her to relax.

The solid walls between the siblings walls were supposed to be sound proof, but Joshua's loud snores were still heard by his sister.

Thus, Marlene kept waking up in the middle of the night and tried to rearrange her room to make herself busy. She didn't want to wake up her brother as well, so she tried to move the items as quietly as possible.

Marlene figured if she read more of Owen's journal, she'd soon fall asleep since she still needed to rest due to her jet lag.

So, she picked up his book and went to the page where she placed the bookmark.

~~

The continuation:

When we went to the same homeroom class together, I was surprised to know more about you.

I wanted to test you for my 'experiment' because I wanted to see if my charm could really lure you to like me. However, I could easily see that it annoyed you instead. But I know beyond your nasty smirks, you still wanted me to be around, since you kept looking for my whereabouts.

I still remember what my mentor, Seth told me about women. He said that the number one reason why men frequently and repeatedly lie to women is to help them maintain their delusional fantasies of what the "ideal man" should be. I don't really know what that is, but I do know that I should have been my own self in high school.

I kept telling myself that I was not in love with you, even though my heart told me to go for it. But as usual I allowed other girls to swoon over me as we spent our four years of high school. I tried many tricks of the trade to impress you, but I didn't know if you liked me or was just aggravated with my nuisance. Thus, that is why I turned to your sister for advice.

Robinaire was also in the way; I knew he had 'eyes' for you when we met you on the SJU bleachers. I don't think you noticed it because you were still asleep that day, but his facial features suddenly turned bright when he saw you.

Before we went up to see you, Robin also told me to meet his 'precious' Marlene. At first I thought he was your boyfriend, and that I wouldn't have a chance to be with you. However, when you told me Robinaire was just a friend, I wanted to warn you about his advances - but couldn't. I didn't want to ruin your relationship with him. I don't have the heart to hurt you like that.

The major shock that I did not anticipate was to see Gretel Blanchet in high school again. Recall, that I mentioned to you that she annoyed me when I was in elementary school? I found out that she lived a couple of blocks from my aunt's house, since we took the same bus ride home together. You never got a chance to see that for she would somehow wait for you to leave the school campus before she left. Gretel somehow wanted to avoid you for some reason and we'd only figure out why when she kidnapped us.

Gretel had history class with me that freshman year. However, she tried to switch her class schedules for some reason to pester me. So, instead of just having her in one class, I would have her in my Chemistry and English classes. I didn't want her to be my lab partner, but our teacher, Mr. Nicholson, made that switch.

She always had her hands on me, as we switched beakers and tested out different chemicals in our tubes. One time, when Mr. Nicholson was demonstrating how to make a small fireworks display using aluminum in the sink, Gretel incidentally took some chemicals to make her own project. Apparently, she mixed the wrong ingredients and started a little fire! Thankfully, there was a fire hydrant nearby so it was put out immediately. In the end, Gretel and I were given an 'F' that day for not following directions. I was so mad at her that day, that instead of going to my next class period, I decided to blow off some steam playing ball by myself. But I managed to pull that 'F' grade to an 'A', by staying after school to do some extra work for Mr. Nicholson and did my own work before Gretel could spoil it.

When I had English class with her, there were many times that she wanted to sit by me. I always tried to make it early in class, so I could pick any seat where two seatmates on either side would already be occupied, but even if that happened, Gretel always managed to sit close by me.

When our assignment had to deal with the Shakespearean play "Romeo and Juliet", she wanted to recite a soliloquy of Juliet's line in front of the class. She would then ask the teacher, Mrs. Jenkins, if I could be her Romeo, which upset me. I could not find any way to back out of her request, because I did not want the teacher to give me a bad grade.

However, what alarmed me was that this infamous girl I once knew was speaking in a gibberish tone as if she was stuttering for some apparent reason. I knew she did not have a speech problem when we were young, and for some reason I knew this was probably a gag of hers. Gretel was a person who always wanted to be part of the 'in crowd' for I knew about her past. She just didn't know how to present herself wisely.

So when I confided my theory to one of my classmates, she begged the school psychologist to talk to Gretel. I did not think at that time that it would cause so much trouble for I learned that her mother scolded her. I felt pity for her, but it was Gretel's fault with what she did.

I always tried to evade her whenever I could, so when Coach Smith mentioned that baseball tryouts were happening during lunch time, I took up that opportunity. That was also the same place where I met our good friends, Noah, Christian, Luke and of course, Robinaire. All of them have their quirks and flaws, but I wouldn't trade them for anything, since they were the longest line of friends I ever had since my dad wrecked my childhood.

Therefore, Marlene that was the reason why I kept quiet on that ordeal. I didn't want to make it a difficult issue as it already was. I wanted my beautiful princess to be happy, but it was hard to balance everything at the same time.

That is why when Robinaire came up with the idea of taking you with him in a hot air balloon ride, I wanted to be part of that excursion too.

After several tries, Robin finally agreed, but only if I would date his sister. And if that was the only way I could get close to you on the trip, that's what I did.

~~

A/N

Dear readers,

It would soon be time for the four friends to go on a weekend trip on a hot air balloon ride. I don't know if any of you remember hearing about that summer trip that the Lewises had from my first book, but I think it is time to tell you what Marlene's friends had in store for her. So that is what the next chapter will be about. I hope you will be able to wait for it.

I dedicate this chapter to my new Wattpad friend and follower Iris Chacon. We are indeed 'flowers that need to stick together'!

Thank you for waiting for this update. As you may know from reading my profile, my Carpe Diem books are going through some major editing changes. But it doesn't mean I will not stop posting up new chapters. Thank you again to those who have helped me improve on my writing. I now learned that writing a novel is not quite an easy task.

I've tried to make it clear for my readers, that my characters all have flaws. Marlene is clumsy and aloof, Owen wants someone to love him for he never received it as a child. He also wants to be part of the 'pack of guys who will treat him as their equal', as the 'Outfielders' did not do that.

Now I will let you know about two of my other somewhat new characters. Elle is a fashionista, she is studying to be a fashion designer and soon will be a major part of the story. Joshua has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and is beginning to show it to his girlfriend and sister. My original plan is to develop these stories in four books, so please let me continue doing that. Thank you.