She's One in a Million

Forty

It was like a dream.

Or Deja Vu' as what they called it. She was standing at the center of the ball room, looking at people in their black and gold attires, sipping their champagnes, chatting and laughing.

It was that night when she went to the Montgomery's and met his world. She was dressed in that beautiful dress and went to that beautiful house. She met old people that listened to her wild stories attentively. She danced with Ian that night where they held hands and looking at each others eyes.

She had a great moment until she saw Emilia walking away from the ballroom, Max could feel her chest getting heavy.

She watch Casey talking to other people when Ian approached her and talked to her for a while before the two of them to dance. Max remembered it very well, too where she watched the two of them. That was also the time when a beautiful young lady-in her teens approached Max. She noticed they had the same blue eyes with Ian.

"How's your night, Max?" the young lady asked her.

"I'm having a great time."

"I'm glad." She smiled.

"Uhm-are you perhaps Ian's sister?"

"Uhuh. How'd you know? Oh wait, why am I asking? People refer to me as Ian's girl version. Pssh."

"Iris, dear. Don't slouch." a soft warning came behind them and had them looking at a beautiful woman who look very young for an early 50s woman. She has a delicate face, soft feminine features and an angelic smile that even got Max got mesmerize for while. And beside her, was a tall man around the woman's age. His face looked rather tired but the sparkle on his blue eyes made Max think that he was a happy and contented man.

"Hello, you're Maxine, right?" the woman asked her and Max could guessed, that she was Ian's mother.

Max remembered how tense she got when she realized that Ian's mother and her sister approached them. She couldn't give an answer without looking at her in the eyes. She was just glad that Ian and Casey approached them after their dance.

And all of a sudden, she was at the center of the room, alone. She could feel her hands tremble as she looked into the eyes starring right back at her. Everybody, including Ian, began to whisper. Louder and louder but Max couldn't understand their words.

She couldn't cope up with them and she felt so out of place. She saw the distance of their worlds.

All she ever wanted to do was cover her ears and shut her eyes.

"Hey,Max!" the shout of her name woke her up. She look around,and gave a heavy sigh, before she looked at her brother's worried face. 

"I just had a dream."

"What sort of dream? It seems to me it was a bad one."

"Probably because of last night's episode. I've been thinking about it the whole night." She answered, sitting on her bed this time. Jesse sat beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I just thought that maybe my insecurities took the best of me. I blame myself for everything and hurting myself in the process. I just---I shouldn't have left them like that. At least not that way. Especially to Casey and to Emilia and Ian."

Her brother quiet her down. "You didn't do anything wrong. I think what you did was a brave thing to do. People won't judge you for that. When you let out yourself in front of that camera last night-finally, you let go of the things that is hindering you to be happy. They'd understand. Ian would understand."