WINDOWS ⋮ TATBILB

THIRTEEN

13 · 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

finally

『

· · ·

HAVING NOT SEEN ANYONE DURING THE BREAK, THEA WAS CERTAIN THAT JOSH COMING OVER FOR NEW YEAR WAS GOING TO END IN DISASTER.

"Anak! Someone is at the door!" cried out her mother from the living room. "Go open it!"

Thea wanted to ignore her mom. After all, she was far away in her room while her mother was right next to the front door. It was just like calling her daughter down to pick up the remote on the coffee table in front of her. Oh well, what could she do about this habit of her mother's?

Still, she didn't want to get in trouble for disobeying her mom. She trudged over to the front door, not bothering to look through the peep door, and opened.

There, she saw a tall, familiar figure. One she was immediately dreading seeing.

"What are you doing here, Ethan?" she sighed. "You didn't defend me, you instead played pacifist even though I know how much you despise Lilian. What, did you take her side?"

"I didn't take anyone's side then, Thea. But you were acting out of irrational anger and you needed to calm down that day."

"She leaked my letter to the whole school! God, I really don't wanna see anyone right now, Alright? Please just leave."

She began to close the door when he stuck a hand out to stop her.

"Thea, she didn't do it."

"Bullshit."

"It's true!" he protested.

She glared at her friend, staring deep into his eyes to discern the truth. Was he just lying to her? Or was he truly trustworthy? She saw how serious he was about it, how there was barely a trace of a smile on his face.

"Can you please let me in so I can explain everything? I need to pee really bad."

"I-" she shook her head. "Fine. But it better be a damn good explanation."

He nodded and quickly dashed to the bathroom.

· · ·

"Okay, listen," Ethan said after swallowing his third piece of pan de sal from her pantry, "Lilian never sent it anonymously to the office. Someone must have found it and thought it was supposed to be an announcement for school."