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Her eyes settled on the black gown hanging loosely on her slender frame, her hair styled and curled in a loose bun at the top of her head with some strands framing the side of her face.

It was her first time attending a burial in years, something she never looked forward to, and the reason was obvious.

"So..." Her voice broke out softly as she took her eyes off the mirror and directed it at the lady seated on the bed. "What do you think?"

Dawn raised her head to look at the other lady, squeezing her brows slightly. "About you staring at yourself for a while now? Well, I think you will be getting us late." She answered with her usual teasing humor before rising to her feet.

"C'mon..." Maria groaned slightly with a chuckle, stepping closer to her friend to pick up her handbag. "My whole vibe. I am going there to encourage Ted and his family. I should look cheerful myself, right?"

"Well..." Her voice faded to release the softest scoff that made her friend wonder about the need for that. "To be honest with you, I don't think the word 'cheerful' associates well with of late."

Maria's brows were quick to rise at those words, but instead of responding to her silent question, the other woman simply walked passed her to get the car keys.

"Let's get going?" Dawn said as she glanced up at Maria who could only nod her head in a dry response before following her out of the door.

They both climbed into the car parked outside, and once they were sitting comfortably in the driver's seat, Maria decided to tackle the topic they were discussing some minutes before.

"What did you mean by that?" She questioned, without taking her blue eyes off the road ahead of them.

A groan sounded from Dawn before responding with a strained voice, "What now?"

"You know..." the other lady shrugged. "I hope you didn't think I will pretend not to care about someone saying 'cheerfulness' does not apply to me," she added and couldn't resist shooting a pointed glance at Dawn.

"That's not what I said. I said the word 'cheerful'--"

"Doesn't matter, Dawn. You should understand me." Maria interjected in defense before her voice softened. "What did you mean by that?"

"I meant it as I said it, girl. Straight forward and plain." Dawn responded after glancing sideways in a flash, giving her the chance to see just how serious she was being. "You don't look that happy lately and you know it. I don't know if it's all because of what happened to Ted or if there are more things bothering you." She concluded with a shrug, letting her black eyes settle back on the road ahead of them.

At these words, the smallest beam left Maria's eyes as it faded away slowly, knowing how true they were.

It was only a week ago things between her and Jayden started to turn more intimate, following how she got the shock of her life when he suggested they should date, to which he told her to think it.

Ever since then, it was right to say her brain had been in total conflict with her heart.

It sometimes made her feel guilty for her best friend because instead of giving her whole attention to him during this hard time, a second was all she needed for her mind to race back to Jayden.

With a heavy breath, her blue eyes danced to the lady close to her, and she felt it was high time she shared her problem with someone.

Even if she wanted to, Maria was not sure how to begin. Her situation didn't make much sense. She walked into a mess of falling for someone who was way out of her grade, someone who was publicly known to be engaged to someone else, and most importantly, someone who she felt she had a forgotten history with his father; one that must be bad enough to make her faint at a mere sight of his image.

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