That night...✓

♣twenty-6

After dropping Ivory off at the creche, I drove around the city with Aaron.

We were listening to music on the radio in silence.

I was waiting for him to talk and he began to, eventually.

"I'm being bullied at school. The holiday away was great but now I'm back here. I'm not that happy about it... My friends are not the best kind of people to keep around and I have a crush on a golden girl who's probably never gonna look my way. I have the attention of this creepy stalker girl in my class who's a huge nerd and walks around in baggy clothes and huge round glasses. Not gonna lie, she's cute but she's a psycho. She tries to defend me when the jocks come but that's... not right, I'm a guy and she just keeps hurting herself. I wish she would stop. I wish everything would stop. I don't wanna go back Aurora, please" He narrated almost breathlessly and his voice cracked at the last word.

He let out a shaky breath when he had calmed down and I thought for a while of what he had said.

"There's nothing you're gonna say that'll make me not report those boys to the principal of your school. Mr. Yerins is a nice man and he loves me, he'll take immediate action." I paused to gauge his reaction.

If he panicked I wouldn't tell Mr. Yerins but I'll have to think of something else.

"Won't the guys just try to hurt me more??" He asked.

I thought about it. That may be right.

So, maybe...

"Stand up to them. Act like you don't care. You've been away for a while, act like you had serious rejiggering while you were away." I said.

"...I guess I could..." He paused unsurely.

"You can. When they come, say you're not ready for shit or something and walk off or something." I said not sure of the scenario I was creating in my head but going along with it anyways.

"Okay...then what about Serena?" He asked.

"The girl you like?" I asked. He nodded with a tint if red in his cheeks.

"Make subtle moves. Say Hi to her in the hallway when you walk past her, randomly bump into her but not to randomly or clumsily, be smart with your words when you talk to her, make yourself be behind her at the lunch line, don't try too hard though, that'll be noticeable. Be subtle." I chuckled thinking of my bro making moves on a girl.

He nodded blushing harder.

In his head he was probably like, “am I actually taking relationship advice from my elder sister who has a daughter without a boyfriend?”

I smiled at the thought, I'm still the elder sister though, so naturally I'm wiser, baby or not.

"Then Esmy..." He wasn't blushing now but he looked like he was thinking of something.

"The creepy girl is named Esmy?" I asked.

"It's actually Esmeralda. I prefer to call her Esmy." He shrugged.

Personally I think the Esmeralda girl seems nice. I wouldn't mind if...she was the one he liked.

"Well, avoid her." I replied after a while.

He chuckled. "That's practically impossible Rora. You don't know her, she's a psycho! Unavoidable! Literally unavoidable." He said laying emphasis.

I chuckled.

"Well...you can try to be her friend. With the knowledge that she's your friend, she'll stop chasing after you so much, she'll at least know that you're her friend." I said.