Keeping Her Afloat (Book 1)

~¶Three¶~

~Keep Your Word, Lina~

The doorbell rang three times in quick succession causing Dolores to quit what she was doing to attend to the door. She could bet her cute tote bag that it was Adelina at the door to disturb her. She had left her in school the moment the bell rang for closing hour because Adelina got into trouble with Carlos and was served detention.

As she went along the corridor to answer the door downstairs, she met some housekeepers tending to their duties. She greeted a few of them before going to the door. She pulled it open to reveal Adelina's angry face. Pretending not to be aware of whatever made her pissed, Dolores ushered her in with a huge smile.

"Come on in, Lina."

The addressed walked in seething in pure hate and anger. "I hate Carlos. He's so much of a dick head. If I get him in my hands, I'm going to squeeze out the life from him."

Dolores closed the door then turned to her with a raised eyebrow. "Does this anger have to do with what happened today?"

"Of course it does. I had to spend an extra hour in school. On a Wednesday afternoon. Isn't that the meanest thing ever? And it's all his fault."

Dolores pursed her lips to prevent herself from laughing. It wasn't advisable to do such whenever Adelina was in her ranting mode. She could turn on you and rain curses from above like a storm. "I thought I asked you to let him go." She said instead.

"I was going to, but he is just so infuriating." She took a calming breath. "I won't let him get under my skin."

Dolores laughed. "That's good." Then she walked upstairs to her room with Adelina trailing from behind her. When they had both settled down on her bed, Adelina brought out her phone.

"Texting Noona?" Dolores asked.

"Yeah. I need to tell her that I won't be coming home tonight. There's a lot of gists I need to tell you and they can't wait." Her fingers were still typing with super speed as she spoke.

Dolores folded her legs under her while she watched her punch away. Her best friend's face seemed peaceful despite the anger and radiating with happiness. In the end, she summed her behavior up to a guy being the reason. Finally, Adelina raised her head and her eyes twinkled; that familiar twinkle which spoke only of mischief.

I know you're up to no good again, Lina.

"I met this guy today while I was driving home from school."

Dolores clapped suddenly and pointed a manicured finger at her friend. "I knew it. I knew this happiness couldn't be about you being generally happy or anything. I knew there had to be a boy behind it and it turned out to be true."

Adelina rolled her eyes. "Duh, I wasn't told to hang out with girls."

"Whatever."

"Anyway, it's Grayson."

Dolores' face furrowed deeply in a frown. Her brain was working endlessly to put a face to the name but it wasn't working. "Grayson who?"

"Grayson, the school's jockey."

Dolroes' eyes widened to saucers. "You don't say. Grayson? How did you bump into him? How were you even able to get him to talk to you?"

Crossing her tanned legs, Adelina haughtily tossed her hair behind her. "Hullo, it's me we're talking about. I was driving home yesterday after going to get some stuffs from the grocery for Noona. She makes me do grocery shopping for her all the time and I think it's just to bully me."

"I don't think so, Lina. I think she just wants you to be able to grow up doing basic things for yourself."

She shrugged. "I guess so. Anyway, as I was saying, I met Grayson in the grocery store where I went to shop and boy, was he looking absolutely edible in a white tee and jeans."