Haylen's POV:
"That's a lame excuse." Zoe rolled her eyes.
I shrugged, "Up to you to believe or not."
Stanley grinned wider, "If you don't mind, I can actually tell you more about the myths."
"No thanks." I'm already dealing with enough physics calculations to settle and read about non existing beings.
"Haylen I swear you are such an ass." Zoe said a bit annoyed.
I folded my arms, "What now?."
"Okay girls!," Stanley chuckled as he placed his hands on our shoulders.
I itched to move away from his touch, "Let's go for some snack time!." He said.
.
.
.
We finished eating at a nearby restaurant and decided to take a stroll in order to exercise our body after nearly finishing a mountain of foods.
We barely walked for ten minutes when a woman—roughly in her late thirties stood in front of us.
She was wearing a sky blue dress that seemed nearly the same color as that of brown because of the dirts on it, and even had holes on the sides of it.
From a first glance, I could tell it was a secondhand wear.
Her chestnut hair was as rough as tangled nests.
She looked weak, tired, sick.
"Please, lend me some money." She begged, nearly on her knees.
Zoe scrunched her nose in disgust, "Eww, you stink, when was the last time you took a proper bath? Shoo away." She said, disgust all over her face.
Stanley frowned, "Look here woman, we don't have money, go ask another person."
The woman reached out to hold his hand, but Stanley flinched.
Like she was a plague.
That made me mad.
Really mad.
"Are you crazy?." I shouted at him, and he blinked his eyes in confusion.
I pulled the woman up and reaching for my pocket, I pulled a black card and gave it to her.
Her eye's widened; blue-greenish eyes that looked strikingly familiar to that of Jacean, with the same golden flecks around them.
"Ma'am, there are about a thousands dollar in it. Spend it, take care of yourself."
"You…" she covered her mouth in shock, trying to kneel down to give her gratitude.
But I stopped her.
"Thank you so much," she held my hands. For someone who looked this rough, I expected her hands to be rough too. But they were warm and really soft, "I really don't know how to thank you for this."
I smiled, "You are welcome. The pin is triple 0 and 8. Now, hurry home."
She bowed her head in thanks again before hurriedly walking away, weakness obvious in her body.
I stood up, "Zoe, you mustn't be mean all the time."
She gazed at me, "Haylen, what's your problem?."
"My problem is you," I faced her, "stop acting like a goddamned brat for once! Don't you feel terrible for how you were treating that woman?." I yelled at her, not minding the attention I was stirring.
I had always been cool with attention anyways.
Stanley frowned, "She's just a poor worthless woman, why you fussing over —."
"Shut up green haired, I'm talking to Zoe, not you. I never said you could interfere."
He raised his hands, "Woah, calm down Haylen."
Zoe narrowed her eyes, "Since when did you start having sympathy for people? You have done worst than what I did today, and all of a sudden you are pretending to be an angel?."
"I'm not pretending to be any angel."
"Then why you being so upset about what I did? Just because of an ordinary beggar you don't know?." She asked.
'Because she seemed so much like Jacean'
Like the woman he told me about. His mother.
My mind spoke our loud.
I imagined that woman to be Jacean's mom; poor, and helpless because of love, and being treated like a piece of shit that's no longer needed.
I turned away from Zoe and Stanley, "Call it a day, I'm already tired. I'm done, I've got school tomorrow."I said. And without waiting for any of them to say a word, I walked away.
.
.
.
Damn, I was overreacting, but Zoe's behavior had annoyed the hell out of me. Her behavior towards the woman I think to be Jacean's mom.
.
.
.
Burying myself deep inside my blankets in my room wasn't really something I wanted it to be on a Monday night. There would be school, yet there was no sign of sleep in me.
Like no atom of it.
The house was quiet, Aunt Katherine wasn't around and there was no one to gist with.
I switched on my phone and tapped on my instagram. Zoe was active, but no way in hell I'd chat her. I was still mad at her.
I strolled down absentmindedly viewing people's stories and was about to exit when I received a message from an unknown number.
Curious, I opened it.
*80191842*:
Hey.
Me:Who is this?
*80191842*:
Don't you recognize your babe or the love of your life anymore?.
Confusion clouded my head for a while before realization hit me.
It was Jacean.
Me: Jacean right?.
*80191842*: Yep, sup?
I beamed at the text,
Me: I'm chill, you?
*80191842*: I'm cold.
I reacted in his message with a laughing emoji and saved his contact as the slowburner.
Me: How did you get my number?
Slowbuner: That's a secret a stalker like me shouldn't expose.
Me: Okay.
Slowburner: What you doing?
Me:Nothing much, just trying to sleep for school tomorrow. U?
Slowburner : playing Cod with my friends.
Me: You are lucky, I'm here with no one. Was about to go offline.
Slowburner: You have Zoe though.
I stared at his message, wondering if I should tell him about I and Zoe's little misunderstanding.
Me: I don't think her mom would go flow with the idea of her staying over at my place cus Zoe's been hella busy.
He sent a laughing emoji.
Slowburner: her mom has always been giving her stuffs to do or meeting people.
Me: Yeah, true.
He read my message but didn't reply.
Good ten minutes passed, still, no reply.
I bit my lip. Why was I bothered about when he'd reply?
Only then did it occur to me that I was actually waiting for him to text back for ten minutes.
Switching off my phone, I threw it aside.
Some kind of strange feelings was spreading in my chest; feelings that I couldn't explain.
What is wrong with me these days?