"Yes, Venus?" My mom asks me back.

Relief washes over me like a cold shower. She answered!

"Mom, where are you right now? How am I gonna get into the house?!"

I could feel her eyes rolling as she said, "I'm at the grocery. I forgot to go there a while ago and now we have no dinner. Oh and for your little problem, just wait for me. I promise I won't take long."

There it is again. Someone making a promise that they'll be here, that they'll come back, and they won't take long.

Left with no choice, I responded with an "okay" and ended the call.

I sat on our front porch and stared at our front lawn. If was nothing much, really.

There were green grasses on either side of the sidewalk which was leading up to where I was.

Our front lawn had no fences so anybody could just step on it if they had the balls to. This is part of the reason we had no plants.

The other part of the reason, which was in fact the bigger part, was because my mom couldn't garden to save her life.

Ooh, this brings up some good memories.

This one happened in my old town and there was this one time to my mom suddenly had an obsession over these plants that were called "succulents".

The succulents needed less management and so it wouldn't die as easily.

Of course, on discovering this, my mom immediately thought that this was her chance to be successful in gardening.

So my mom and her friends went to this place which was about a city away just to buy them.

I remember after seeing the plants I really thought that maybe this would be it.

Well, it turns out we thought wrong.

My mom gave the plants too much water which is quite ironic because the last time we had 'normal' plants she gave them too little water...

What a huge waste of money!

Anyway, we were greatly saddened by that but then something changed when we entered that toy store.

One day, my mom went to the grocery to buy, well, groceries like what she is doing right now. Only difference is she actually went there on schedule.

I came with her because it was a Sunday and I was doing nothing like always.

See, my mom and I get distracted easily so we usually make side-trips before we make it to the actual point.

We came across this toy store which was so different from the one we had in our town.

This store had stuff that could make adults and kids alike enjoy it.

We were awed by this and entered. The first thing we noticed was that the place was crowded by people.

My mom and I ventured more into it and that was when I saw something of my interest.

"Mom, look at this!" I called her, "They're rubber plants!"

My mom came over to me and inspected it. "I think these grow when you give them water."

My eyes widened in delight. "We should totally get these!"

My mom nodded with a smile and grabbed two packs of it, each pack containing 8 small, potted, rubber plants.

We lined up the long line at the counter and paid for it. The saleslady stored it in a colourful plastic bag that was just the right size.

I thanked her and exited the store. I noticed a jewelry shop located next to it.

Before my mom could rush to it, I pulled her to the way of the grocery and said, "Mom! We need to get going. We have to be done before lunch time."

My mom looked reluctant to go away from the jewelry shop but did anyway because she knew I was right.

So that's how we got our rubber plants. We started to water the plants regularly and they grew bigger but then stopped a week after when we start to forget watering it.

The plants became to shrink and this was when I realised we were hopeless. We couldn't even handle rubber plants, dang it!

Before I could reminisce more memories, a pair of headlights shot through the darkness.

My mom honked the car making me flinch at the loud noise. She parked it in our parking lot as I got up and pulled my suitcase.

"So, how was your day?" My mom asked whilst unlocking the door.

I thought about this for a moment. Should I tell her?

Nah.

Wait, but she does know I have a new friend which means she will question about him (or her, she doesn't really him).

My mom stared at me, waiting for a response. My lips quivered as I responded.

"I'm fine."

My mom rolled her eyes as she proceeded to open the door. "You know, when someone says 'I'm fine' it usually means they're not."

"But mom, those only happen in cliché stories! I'm definitely not cliché and neither is my life," I lied through my teeth.

Now that I think about it, I am really cliché. Whatever, it doesn't matter anyway.

My mom gave up on getting something out of me. "Okay, fine. I'll take that answer."

I restrained myself from showing any signs of relief that she stopped asking.

I entered my mediocre house and took in the not-so-lovely sight.

It's walls were a light shade of yellow with a touch of white. Most of our furniture were blue and violet complementing each other nicely.

I looked left and saw our living room. It had a 32-inch TV that definitely looked too small when placed on our wall.

The sofas were positioned adjacent to each other in front of the TV. In between them and the TV, there was a wooden table with its length longer than its width.

Forward from where she was was the dining room. Their stood one large tables with 8 violet chairs surrounding it.

Next to it was the kitchen which was like a normal kitchen. It had a stove, an oven, a microwave, a sink, a lot of cabinets and cupboards and a few other stuff.

On top of our largest cabinet was some ingredients for baking and cooking. There was flour, eggs, sugar, brown sugar, etc.

I headed to my first destination which was my room. The staircase to my room was located before the kitchen.

I climbed up its polished wooden steps. I found myself in the hallway of the second floor in which my room was located at the right side.

I casually opened the door to be revealed with a trashed place.

My clothes were everywhere, books and papers laid on the bed and random table tops, the computer desk had everything on it, my laptop had wires all over its keyboard.

My eyes scanned the mess once more.

This was okay. I don't think I would have to clean for another week.

I ran and jumped to my twin sized bed making most of the stuff on it bounce and fall loudly on the ground.

The suitcase I was once dragging earlier now was placed on my spinning chair (you know, the one that most gamers have).

Whilst laying down on the bed like a starfish, I stared at the ceiling.

Thoughts clouded my head once again. The lamp on my ceiling reminded me of doughnuts.

Krispy Kreme sells doughnuts...I remember when it first opened in my town, I joined in the crowd of people who were waiting in line during the opening.

I went there not because of the free doughnuts they gave but because of the thought.

Naw, I'm just kidding. The latter is actually just 25% of the reason why I came. The former of course is 99% of the reason.

I actually also got to watch them (mostly the machines) make it when I went to my cousin's state.

The glaze was oddly satisfying as it fell and covered the doughnut. Oooh, yes...

A high pitched repeated scream came from my phone and I was interrupted from my thoughts again.

Who could be calling me? I thought.

I grabbed my phone from the other side of the bed and accepted the call without checking the caller's ID.

"Hello? Who is this? Why are you calling me?" I asked with a hint of annoyance in my tone.

"It's Gabriel."

The second the name left my phone's speaker, my body became warmer and tears of rage pooled my eyes.

I did not want him to know I was angry though. He'd think I'm too dramatic.

I stretched my arm so that the phone was not close to me and I took in deep breaths.

Once I calmed myself, I placed back the phone next to my ear.

"Yes Gabriel?" I said in a sickly sweet voice.

I could feel him flinch from the other side. "Uh, Venus. Are you mad at me?"

OF COURSE I AM! WHY DID YOU THINK I WOULDN'T BE?!

But instead I answered with the same sickly sweet tone but with sarcasm laced in it too, "Of course not! Why would I ever be mad at you?"

Gabriel got the hint that I was indeed mad. He just didn't know that it made me feel betrayed as well. It's better to keep it that way.

"Look, I'm sorry for ditching you Venus but it was a dare."

A DARE?!

The fiery pits of hell went berserk and broke loose. "WHAT THE HECK DO YOU MEAN DARE?! SO YOU NEVER WANTED ME TO BE YOUR FRIEND? ALL OF IT WAS FAKE THEN! Gosh, you should win an Oscar for that good acting skills you have!"

I could feel him flinch again from the other side.

"NO! No! Of course not! I love to be your friend. The dare was to actually ditch you when you expected a ride home with me or else I would be labeled uncool..... Did I just say that out loud?"

"SO YOU DITCHED ME SO YOU WOULDN'T BE LABELED AS UNCOOL?! OUR FRIENDSHIP MEANT NOTHING TO YOU THEN?"

"That was such a jerk thing to do... I'm truly sorry. I was scared when they dared me okay? I didn't want to be at the bottom of the school hierarchy that time but now I know that doesn't matter."

I was still mad at him. Of course I was! But I calmed down a little once realizing that he did want to be my friend.

Still, that was mean of him to do and I really did not want to hear him anymore.

I ended our conversation abruptly, "I don't want to talk to you. Bye."

I heard his shouts of "NO! PLEASE! LET'S STILL BE FRIENDS!" fade away as the call ended.

I didn't know what to do. Food would help me though. It was always there for me.

I skipped down the stairs and went to the dining table for dinner.

My mom was already done eating. She was in her room doing her work.

Thankfully, our walls our soundproof so she may have not heard that. She also loves to put on loud music though so I'm safe.

I ate my dinner alone. The chilly air of the night blew in the windows. It gave me goosebumps.

Who knows what could be hiding in the dark right now?

I stared at the window across me. There was a large area of land until the next house. Trees and plants grew on it.

I shivered again as a gust of wind entered from my window.

I halted my eating and decided to close it. The dining room won't even be that hot.

Then I went back to eating...

-

"Venus! Please wait! I'm sorry and I want to start over again," Gabriel shouted as he tried to push through the crowd to get to me.

It was lunch time and the hallways were crowded with starving students.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Starting over sounded good.

Still facing front, I said as I hear his heavy breaths coming closer, "I'll consider it. Let's talk this over at our table."

Gabriel finally arrived beside me after much pushing. "Finally you agreed. I'd hate to lose you."

I softened up and said, "Awww, I'd hate losing you too."

"Hug?" He cheekily grinned. I grinned back and hugged him. He smelled so good.

I was painfully smaller than him that his chin was able to rest on top of my head.

"I like our hugs," Gabriel commented. I nodded in agreement.

"Let's get lunch, yeah?" I said after we pulled back.