"What are you getting?"

"I'm going to get laksa," I turned to look at Sha, "You?"

"Curry chicken with rice. Looks we're both craving for something spicy," and we chuckled to that.

The man in front of me walked off which means my turn next. The young man at the counter greeted me and I did so in return before telling him my order. The name of the place is called Toast Box, it sells all the Singaporean famous local dishes. It's pretty busy, considering that it is a weekday, but it also shows that locals love coming here. Five minutes later, our food arrived and we dug in.

"Hmmm," Sha let out a moan as she took her first mouth, "This is so good, I should come here more often."

I took a mouth of my laksa noodles with a little bit of the soup. "It tastes a little similar to curry," I commented.

"Yeah, but laksa has the samba flavoured added in it as well," Sha explained, "You like it?"

I nodded, "Yeah, it's good. But I prefer curry over this."

We spent the next fifteen minutes talking about the food and gossips in school, Sha insisting she'll bring me all around the country when holidays start- which is in a month. Crazy to think that I've been in school for more than a month now and thankful to have met these wonderful people, especially Sha. I hadn't felt this connected to a person since Zari.

I miss her so much.

"You're most definitely Ms Zhang's favourite student!" she exclaimed. "She always pays special attention to you."

"You jealous?" I teased her.

"No, but it would be nice to be a teacher's pet for once. I swear all teachers hate me," she pouted.

"Well, there was this teacher I had back in Russia who absolutely hated me. Like to her core," I scoffed, thinking back to those unpleasant memories.

I could see Sha's eyes light up a little, probably because I just opened up about my past to her. "How was she like?"

"Really young at the time, probably just came out of university. She must've had a horrible teacher because she treated us like we were in the army," I said with distaste, and Sha listened closely. "If we were late to class or didn't hand in our homework on time, she would ask us to do push-ups and stand at the back of the class for an entire month during her lessons. And if we get three strikes, she'll not mark any of our work for three months."

"Wow. That's insane," Sha responded.

Before I could continue, Sha's phone vibrated and a text notification popped up on the screen. And from the look on Sha's face, I can tell it is from the girl I saw her with at the party.

"Who is it?" I asked even though I knew, because that's what a normal reaction would be.

She looked up from her phone, and I seem to snap her out of her thinking zone. "It's just this... girl."

"Oh."

I take it as she still isn't ready to share, so I'll just go back to what we were talking about before to ease the tension.

But before I could start, Sha beat me to it and said, "Can we get out of here? I want to tell you something."

I nodded and it took us ten minutes to pay for the bills and leave the stall, exit out of the shopping mall and making our way to the bus stop. We were mostly silent, just occasionally making small conversations about the stalls we walked passed as I'm sure she was nervous for later.

She was the one who started the conversation. "That girl was my... ex-girlfriend." She didn't make eye contact with me as she said that and inhaled in a huge breath before saying, "I'm a lesbian."

I didn't know what to respond to that, and Sha continued talking so I take it as she just needed a listening ear right now. "I denied it for so long, so long that I didn't feel attractions towards girls. When I realised my feelings for Carys, I was... uneasy about it and thought it would go away soon. Then she told me she felt the same way about me and that's how our relationship started."

We made a left turn, and I can see the bus stop about two hundred meters from where we are now.

"We were in a relationship for a year before she decided to come out to her parents and some of her close friends. They were accepting of her when she did that. I, on the other hand, wasn't ready and still isn't since my parents don't support homosexuality. We got into a lot of fights about me not being ready to be open with our relationship and had a half-ish breakup at the end of last year, officially calling it quits at the start of this year. We haven't talked for the past few months and when I saw her at the party, I just couldn't..." she trailed off and shook her head a little.

"Well, you're not the only one who saw someone from your past at the party," I said softly, thinking back to my conversation with Walter at the party.

Sha turned her head to me, "That guy you were talking to at the party?" And I nodded my head in response.

"I knew I sensed something between the two of you," she commented. "What happened between the two of you?"

I just realised that I've never open said it out to anyone, not even Zari.

"He was my classmate six years ago and also the first guy that showed a romantic interest toward me. And I don't know why, but I don't think I ever did feel the same way toward him," I said honestly.

Sha furrowed her eyebrows, "But you shouldn't feel guilty about that, some people just don't connect. Plus, you were thirteen at that time."

"Yeah, I know that. I just thought that not having my biological parents be with me for my whole life, spending ten years in foster care, dealing with an abusive foster dad and losing my amazing foster mom, would break me in a way that I could never love someone." I can feel my voice starting to break no matter how hard I didn't want to break down right now, "My life has been so horrible that when something good happens, I'm so afraid it doesn't last."

"Oh my god," she whispered and hugged me tightly in the middle of a walkway. "You're really strong, you know that?"

Tears were threatening to fall and this time, I allowed them to.

I sniffled. "Yeah, thanks."

Not long after, we reached the bus stop and took a sit on the bench while waiting. It was a hot afternoon of thirty-three degrees outside and sweat was already forming on my forehead.

"Sorry I um, I kind of switched the topic to me when you were sharing," I stuttered.

Her eyes widened a little. "No! It's totally fine. I'm glad that you feel safe opening up to me about your past," and gave me a reassuring smile.

I returned the smile. "Do keep me updated if you're planning on doing anything about it."

"I'm not going to poach her anymore. She's seeing someone else now and if we can't come to terms of me coming out, then there's no point really," she pursed her lips into a straight line and looked onto the ground.

I put one hand on her shoulder. "Hey, whenever you're ready okay? No need to rush, it's your journey after all."

In my peripheral, I saw the bus approaching. "I really enjoyed talking to you today," and she went in for a half hug as we're quickly pulled away when the bus stopped.

"Me too, see you on Monday!" I waved to her before boarding the bus.

Later that evening, I got myself ready to go to Helena and Leah's house for dinner with Breton. I decided to go with white-jean material shorts with medium pink puffy long sleeves off the shoulder blouse. I always have on the necklace which Nikita gave me, added a little lip balm and finished it off with a pair of maroon coloured converse. Breton went with full length dark blue jeans with a light blue polo t-shirt and his black Nike shoes.

"Let's go, Alveanea!" Breton raised his voice from the living room. I quickly grabbed my small nude coloured sling bag and stuffed my phone in before running down the stairs to the living room. I saw that he already walked out of the house and was talking to the officer who was stationed outside of our house, informing him that we'll be going out this evening. He will be stationed outside Helena and Leah's house as they're given orders to follows us anywhere after dark until the attacker is caught. As much as I appreciate what they're doing, it would be nice to take a breather from the police in general.

I guess I really can never catch a break.

I joined Breton in the car after I locked the door, with the police car following right behind us. During the fifteen-minute drive, Breton and I talked about what he dish he should teach me to cook for dinner the following week, how I'm staying up past midnight during weekdays as mid-year exams are happening next week and some adult gossip in his workplace.

Unknown: You better watch your back.

"You okay?" Breton asked me, which caused me to jump a little. "You look nervous."

"Y-yeah," I tried to come up with a lie as quick as possible. "Sha just sent over some exam stuff, and it looks like Greek words to me," I faked a chuckle.

He nodded in understanding, "As much I want to ace the exams, but for tonight, let's enjoy it with Helena and Leah. No thinking about stressful things, okay?"

"Yeah." My reply was contradicting what I was feeling.

I was greeted by Leah as she hugged me immediately after opening the door. She was squealing with excitement as after two dinners at Breton's house, I finally got to see her room, which she said it's something she takes pride in the decorating department.

I heard someone clearing their throat and turned to see it was Helena, with Breton at her side, holding her waist. "Girls, where do you think you're going?"

"To my room." Leah answered, "Since you guys seemed a little preoccupied with other... things."

Breton broke the silence, "Not anymore. Alveanea, come to help set the table."

"And Leah, go to the room to get some candles." Leah nodded and walked into the room. "Need to feel a little spirit here right, honey?" She took a step toward Breton and placed a kiss on his lips as he mumbled a 'yes'.

I just pretended like I didn't notice that and continued to put the utensils on the table.

"I'm going to take out the trash, be right back." And I heard the peck of their lips before Helena closed the door behind her.

"Want some raspberry juice? Helena made this and it's terrific." Breton poured the juice from a huge jug into a glass.

"Later, I'm not thirsty right now." And went to put the dishes onto the table. All of the dishes smelt freaking amazing and made my mouth water.

Then I heard a loud collapsing sound and turned my head to see that it was Breton who had fallen onto the ground.

"Breton?" I quickly rushed toward him and saw his unconscious body on the ground. "Oh my god!"

My heartbeat started to multiply at such a fast rate that everything around me turned blurry as my fingers found their way to his neck, desperately seeking for a heartbeat. I sighed in relief when I found it.

But that relief soon hitched in my throat as I felt a cold metal on my neck.

"Don't make a single sound."