CHAPTER 8

MAYFLOWERS AND MISTAKES

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It was morning and the sun was shining. Oh! My God! I was going to get my freedom today and the weather made me hum and sing. I had so much energy that I wouldn't miss one word of Mrs. Lin in my notes.

I called Irsia to ask her to pick me up.

"Hey... can you come and pick me up? Elec's going to see Miles."

"I am sorry, Margo. I am at the school already to use the printer. My printer's broke."

"Oh! It's okay. I can walk," I declared and I took my bag and checked for the pepper spray, since I was about to walk alone and took my raincoat just in case. Elec and Irsia didn't believe in pepper spray. As for me, I had already used pepper spray once and I didn't want to think about it. It would break my rage meter. I told my mom that I was leaving for school.

"Are you walking alone today?" Again, with the interrogation.

"Yes, mom."

"Wait. Stay put. Your father's almost ready. He'll drop you at school."

Now, that didn't happen very often. I either walked to school with my friends or I rode shotgun with Elec most days, and when she couldn't, Irsia was my ride or I walked alone. These were my options and my dad dropping me at school was a miracle.

I listened to the class so keenly that for the first time Mrs. Lin didn't stare at me for once for the whole hour. At the programming lab, I watched Aiden code like a pro, sitting beside me. Irsia was sitting in another row of computers. She seemed too occupied with the logic that was given to us by our teacher, Mrs. Devina Davis.

I couldn't keep my curiosity at bay looking at Aiden's zippy attitude. "Why are you so happy in the programming lab? Everyone else hates it."

A smooth breathy chuckle with his eyes still tenacious on the screen. "I feel like I am building something. Like... I have power over something to build it as I want and then when I finish, I get a feeling of accomplishment." His hands were still typing, hitting all the letters on the keyboard. He put his hand up in indication that he had finished programming on the logic Mrs. Davis assigned us.

Mrs. Davis walked to his computer. "That's great." She gave an appreciative, dainty pat on his shoulder and walked away.

"Hey Aiden, can you help me out with this logic? It's confusing." That Fiona was who was sitting in the opposite row, involving her hair in a causeless twirl which was coloured to match Elec's natural hair colour.

"Uhh... I have one more program to finish."

Giggling, I elbowed him. He raised his eyebrow in a gleeful warning. Irsia, in the same row as Fiona, cleared her throat to tell us that she saw that.

"Go help her with the program," I whispered to him, letting my giggles flow.

"I am not sure it's with the programming that she wants help." Again, he flashed that same cocky smile.

I shook my head in disbelief that I just witnessed Fiona ogling all over Aiden. At lunch, Irsia again went on and on about the person in Auroville Villa.

"After you guys left last night, I saw that person looking straight at me through the window."

"What?" That was me and Aiden in unison.

"Yeah. Apparently, that person knows that we are watching. Well, that I am watching," she corrected, as if she read my mind. "And I am pretty sure it is a her. I think I saw hair."

"Irsia, it's dangerous. Stop looking for something interesting," I insisted. I couldn't believe that I just said that it was something interesting.

"And something about that person looking at me gave me the most uncool chills." She mimicked a shiver.

"Irsia, what Margo says is right. You should stop looking. If a person lives in a house that is abandoned after a murder... I am not saying that the person must be disturbed but there is a pretty good chance that the person could be dangerous. With everything that is going on around us, we don't need to walk into a house that stands as a memorial for a horrible murder."

I caught Irsia's hand and swatted her hand away when she tried to take my water bottle. Aiden laughed and handed his water bottle to her.

"What would you do if I am choking to death? Will you still deny me water?" She was obviously pissed off, but I was not going to give my personal things to anyone.

"Do you think we should call Elec? Remind her not to murder Miles...??" I prompted.

"Gooood idea," Aiden drawled.

I turned my phone on and, to my horror, there were 12 calls and several messages. My face froze. I took a deep breath to shove back my left-over tears. I knew Aiden and Irsia saw me choking on my own tears, but I tried to keep it cool.

"How many calls did you get today?" Aiden asked, fixing his elbows on the table.

"Less than yesterday." Ironically.

"I'm sorry, Margo. Turn off your phone, I'll call her from my phone." Irsia had her sweetened, distressed voice on.

"No, I've already called her." I waited for her to pick up my call. "Hey..." I chirped, trying to swallow the nausea that was building up. "Are you being nice to him?"

"Yeah, Walker. Can I call you later?" She was obviously trying to avoid me.

"Wait. What's going on?"

"I really can't talk right now. I'll call you later. And yes. Hope you understand." And she hung up.

Befuddled, I declared, "I think everything is good. There was some noise. She said she'll call me later."

"Wow!" Aiden laughed.

"Aiden, don't forget the wow factor that is going on between you and Fiona." Irsia prompted.

"Oh! come on... there is nothing going on between us."

"Did you just say us? U...S? us?"

Everything that they both talked, bickered, and mocked each other, I heard them all in outro. I had a brief moment of boketto. How did Kyle do this to me? What did I do wrong? Deep down, I knew all along the way that he wasn't the right person for me. He could have just left me, broken up with me. Why did he drag Aiden into our issues and why did he pass my number to every other pervert in town? Again, my phone rang and I jumped at it. I turned it off instantly.

"Was that one of your fans? I heard from Mason Campbell that he is a great fan of you." Fiona had a way of watching us. All the damn time. And she clearly knew about the phone stalking that I had been having. Mason was a friend of Kyle. I knew he had active participation in this.

"How did you know about it, Fiona?" Aiden's business-like cadence was new.

"I have my ways," she said proudly, as if he was praising her. "Where is your Alpha? Running loose to break someone else's heart?"

"Mind shutting up, Fiona?" I didn't know how, but she was the only person at school who could get on my nerves so quickly.

"That's not why I came to your table." She looked straight at Aiden. "I was wondering if you would go with me to Kyle's party this weekend."

Aiden was unscrewing his water bottle; he didn't realize that Fiona was talking to him. Irsia had to give him a nudge, and his sudden realization reaction made me want to withhold my bubbling giggles. Seeing him blink at Fiona was pressingly charming. Irsia and I looked at each other. Damn! Elec missed to see this. I didn't care if Aiden liked Fiona, but he had to know that she was dangerous and crazy too. I mean, the girl would go to any extent to find details about us. Trust me, that girl could write a book about us. She was to the core obsessed with us.

"I'm busy. I can't," he said, running his fingers through his wispy hair. Cool and laid back.

"What a shame...!" The lilt in her voice was alarmingly flirty. "I thought it'd be fun." And she swaggered away.

With an imperceptible oscillation to his head, he again flashed that cocky smile, suddenly turning flushed and goofy.

"That's gross," Irsia and I said in unison. Irsia slapped his shoulder. "Get out of here."

Irsia was a really great friend. Though she was close with Aiden, she wouldn't go in between him or his decisions about a girl. I, on the other hand, felt a little sad that he might be falling for a heinous coquette.

It was evening. Before I went to the library, Irsia got my phone and took the SIM card out. We were in the parking lot, sitting in her car.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes..." I nodded my head and I let the fact sink in that I had to lie to my mom. Realistically. And even though I might get scolded, it would be worth it to get rid of this phone number and be free.

"I came handy," she chirped, with her usual enthusiasm.

She took out from her bag what looked like a ball pin and scratched it. She then put it down and asked me to stamp it, and I did. It looked a little bruised, but I had a doubt that it might be slightly alive. So, I put it back into my phone and checked. Well, my SIM card just wouldn't die. I took it out again. She used her nail cutter to cut one edge of the SIM card - just an infinitesimally small cut. Now I was sure that it wouldn't work. She again used her ball pin to scratch the outer layer of the SIM card to make it look like it was stamped by a lot of people. I sighed. I didn't even have to check again because it looked dead by succumbing to its injuries.

"Whoever said - difficult to make, easy to destroy..."

She laughed. "Don't worry. As soon as you get new digits, everything will be fine but... remember not to give the new digits to anyone else."

I nodded, agreeing to what she said. She left to take her run. She went for a run every evening for at least 5 kilometers. I wished I had that kind of determination.

I was reshelving at the library and my eyes fell over the newspaper. I took a minute to read it. Again, the news was about the ghouls taking away bodies from graves in Coldlyn. People just said it was the ghouls, but no one actually had proof. Another page said about the suicide of a woman from Aelburn. She was released from the CONMISDUM protection center after 60 days because her daughter, who went missing, returned to her home and had killed herself. The mother was so depressed that she hung herself. The thing about these suicides that was so disturbing was that the people affected by CONMISDUM hallucinated when they hurt themselves with sharp objects. They mutated themselves, but they felt no pain because they were numb emotionally and physically. They wouldn't feel pain until the last drop of blood was drained from their bodies. They kept hurting themselves till their last breath, like it was the most important thing they could do with their last breath. Sometimes, they tried to kill their family when they returned. Some were murdered like that, or they killed themselves. That was why the government built the CONMISDUM protection center.

People were released from the CONMISDUM protection center only if the missing person from the family came back and was found dead by killing themselves. There were even some rumors that when officers from the CONMISDUM facility found a missing person, the staff of the facility murdered them by making it look like they killed themselves and had been lying; that no missing person was found because there was no solution to stop this disease.

The only best way to safeguard ourselves was not to befriend anyone new or spend time with anyone new because who would know who was infected. Some wore masks as if that would safeguard them, but the thing was, none of us knew from what we were running. So, I didn't believe in wearing a mask. Neither did most kids at my school. All that masks did was suffocate us. The government made an announcement not to befriend anyone new or talk to strangers. And I followed that. It wasn't hard to follow since I didn't go out much and my life pretty much revolved around very few people.

Thoughts of Desiree flashed. I couldn't picture her becoming someone with CONMISDUM. I hoped she'd find peace wherever she was. As I finished reshelving, I waved bye to Mrs. Wilder and stepped out the library. I picked up my bag, mentally prepared myself that I had to lie to my mom about the phone and the SIM card. As I walked out, I saw Aiden walking toward me.

"What are you doing here?"

"I am about to break a rule of Electra...," he said, sprightly, punching the air. "Wait here, I'll return the book to the respected librarian," he mocked, and walked past me.

"You better put that in the shelf where it belongs...," I said, turning to look at him.

"Uhhh... my mom's better than you."

I stood by the mayflower tree. It was in full bloom. I wondered if there were any nests up the tree and inspected the tree looking up. The red of the tree totally engulfed the green. It was poetic to see one thing engulfing another. Did the bright burning flowers know that they got to engulf and hide the leaves and its greenness only for about 3 months? Hmm... probably not. That was the kind of passion I had for Kyle. Brief, but it burned bright.

"Are you done?"

I jumped at the voice of him. "How long have been here?"

"Just enough to catch you gawking at the flowers...," he said, looking up at the flowers. Again, with the mocking tone.

"I think it's Irsia's influence on you. You catch every detail," I scoffed.

"No... actually she would have noted down how many minutes you were staring at the tree and what all directions your neck turned." He started walking and I followed him.

I laughed. "You are right."

"And it's not just Irsia's influence. It's more of your influence," he said, half-turning.

"My influence?" I paused. "What are you doing back here?"

"I told you, I am breaking Elec's rule." He walked his long legs slow to match my pace. I was actually walking slower than usual. The wind was nice. I liked walking in the breezy weather, letting my hair fly, hugging my raincoat.

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