FOR ALL THE GIRLS !

02. chapter

[ WE 17-21 YEAR OLDS ACTING LIKE EVERY TEST WE FAIL RUINS US, LIKE EVERY PERSON WE LOSE IS OUR LAST. EVERY MISTAKE ISN'T PERMANENT JUST BREATHE. KEEP GOING SHIT WILL WORK OUT !
— unknown. ]

♡

LANA GARDINER'S mother is beautiful.

Obsidian hair cut at the nape of the neck, a button nose, small lips and the most gorgeous pair of honey eyes Wesley's ever seen.

He racks his brain, all the way back to freshman year, and remembers that Lana's mother is Filipino.

She smiles at him the same way his mother does. His heartstrings tug and feels a sense of nostalgia break through.

"Hello Mrs. Gardiner," He begins, using politeness in his tone. "I'm here to see Lana? I'm her classmate from school." He says.

All at once the lovely expression on her face dissipates into thin air, and it replaces itself with an anxious frown.

"Oh." She says after a moment of silence. The woman fiddles with her hair clip for a while and sighs. "She doesn't want to see anyone. She hasn't for a while. I'm sorry." Wesley doesn't know why but she bows her head ever so slightly when she apologizes.

"Oh uhm, well, I have something of hers. Do you think you can relay that message to her? Thank you." He tells her, and gets ready to leave.

♡

Wesley hangs out with Maurice the next day. They slurp on root beer floats and binge on cheesy fries while watching marathons of The Office in Maurice's house.

He pops a fry in his mouth when he gets a call from an unknown number. Instinctively he answers it.

"Hello?" A woman says.

"Hello." He parrots. "May I ask who this is?"

He listens while she answers, the response making him straighten in his seat. The boy thanks her and ends the call whilst gathering his things up.

"What's up? Who was that?" Maurice questions, raising a brow.

"A friend." He casually answers. He stuffs everything inside his bag. "Man I'm super sorry but I have to get going. Something came up."

"What? Wait you're leaving? Now?" Maurice rambles and Wesley nods, not bothering to answer Maurice. He wouldn't understand anyway.

"Bye!" Wesley shouts in hurry and leaves.

♡

"Thank you." Wesley tells Mrs. Gardiner. "It means so much to me."

"I was surprised at first." She says, lacing her hands together. Worry lines etch onto her face. "She's always said no to anyone that came to visit her. Even the principal and the teachers who came out of concern. I didn't know what to do. One day she just, came crying and told me that she didn't want to go to school anymore, that she didn't want to do anything."

Is it our fault?

Wesley stays silent. He knows that what happened to Lana may not have been his and his friends' fault entirely but his guilty conscience impels him to take half of the blame.

"When I told her that you had something to give her," she goes on, laughing dryly. "She told me to let you in. God."

"Where is she?" He settles for asking a simple question.

"In her room. She hardly moves from there. It's locked half of the time. Normally whenever she does this I scream at her, scold her and knock some sense into her. But this time, I was too afraid to, I was scared she was gonna break." Her voice cracks.

He doesn't feel like interrupting. He doesn't want to either.

Wesley waits patiently till she's done explaining. He's hanging on to every word as if his life depends on it. he feels a knot in his stomach; pain.

She directs him upstairs and points at one door, identical to the rest. "She's inside. She won't move." She tells him and Wesley nods.

He knocks and opens the door.

[ A/N : do you guys hate me for taking things so slow? I'm sorry. I want to ease everything in and not just blurt it out. Also, is this writing okay? Is it boring? Robotic? Idk ]