Individual

Chapter 12

As she neared the shopping centre where Organico was located, Kay found her steps slowing down. She subconsciously looked through her short contact list, her friend’s words replaying in her mind.

Right before she entered the building, Kay stopped walking. She hadn’t drunk coconut water for two days straight, because of the drama Brooklyn Sargent caused. Her mood was that ruined.

She started thinking about what her conversation with Eden. Why was she so discomposed when Clyde was brought up? Was he really so important if he was on her contact list? She’d made that point herself, and now she was analysing something she’d uttered without thinking. She wondered if he was more important than she’d thought he was.

Nonsense. Her mind was full of rubbish because of Eden’s fooling around. Clyde was just a normal guy. Like Sam, Conan, Denzil, Vincent. He was good looking and friendly—just a normal guy.

Still, she found her legs taking her away from the shopping centre and on the way home. Maybe she just wasn’t in the right state of mind to think about this kind of thing now. A great, long nap would help.

Edwin was twenty-two, a barrister, and he’d asked out his first girlfriend - his coworker - three months ago. Tristan dated a poor girl in year twelve, and she had to witness Tristan being thrown out of the house for a night because he “wasn’t old enough” to date and had to wait until he got a job of his own.

“Earn your own money before you start treating random girls like princesses!” their father had shouted.

Which made sense to Kay, since she’d seen Tristan buy the girl meals at fancy restaurants multiple times. It was his pocket money, definitely, but he still hadn’t earned it by himself. And almost immediately after he graduated from university, he brought another girl home. Andrew, however, was always busy with his army dream, and never bothered to get a girlfriend.

Kay leaned sideways against the glass wall of the mall and sighed. Was she overreacting because of what Eden had said? But Eden had said something similar for a boy called Sylvester in primary school, and Kay hadn’t taken that badly to the comments. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and detached herself from the wall, continuing her route home.

On the way, her finger hovered over Clyde’s contact on her screen, and she finally texted him. She didn’t know why she felt like she had to explain her absence to him, but found the perfect excuse nonetheless.

Me: This is Kay. I’m going on a one week coconut water detox. Don’t miss me too much. [16:47]

Right as she hit the send button, she regretted the last bit of her message.

It sounded so desperate. He probably hadn’t even thought of her the past three days, let alone miss her. She made herself sound cocky and brimming with confidence, when all she wanted to do at that moment was crawl into a hole and hide her reddening face.

~

Clyde punched Olivia’s phone number into the keypad and waited for her to pick up. There was background noise on the other end, but no one’s voice.

Clyde cleared his throat into the speaker. “Hey… Olivia?”

The line was silent, then Olivia’s irritable voice could be heard. “What?”

“I talked to your headmaster today, and—” Clyde started.

“I told you, you don’t have to!” Olivia interrupted. “He’s a useless piece of shite.”

Clyde ignored her words and resumed. “—and he can’t give you another chance in the school—”

“Good riddance.”