~Keep Your Word, Lina~

The doorbell rang three times in quick succession causing Dolores to quit what she was doing to attend to the door. She could bet her cute tote bag that it was Adelina at the door to disturb her. She had left her in school the moment the bell rang for closing hour because Adelina got into trouble with Carlos and was served detention.

As she went along the corridor to answer the door downstairs, she met some housekeepers tending to their duties. She greeted a few of them before going to the door. She pulled it open to reveal Adelina's angry face. Pretending not to be aware of whatever made her pissed, Dolores ushered her in with a huge smile.

"Come on in, Lina."

The addressed walked in seething in pure hate and anger. "I hate Carlos. He's so much of a dick head. If I get him in my hands, I'm going to squeeze out the life from him."

Dolores closed the door then turned to her with a raised eyebrow. "Does this anger have to do with what happened today?"

"Of course it does. I had to spend an extra hour in school. On a Wednesday afternoon. Isn't that the meanest thing ever? And it's all his fault."

Dolores pursed her lips to prevent herself from laughing. It wasn't advisable to do such whenever Adelina was in her ranting mode. She could turn on you and rain curses from above like a storm. "I thought I asked you to let him go." She said instead.

"I was going to, but he is just so infuriating." She took a calming breath. "I won't let him get under my skin."

Dolores laughed. "That's good." Then she walked upstairs to her room with Adelina trailing from behind her. When they had both settled down on her bed, Adelina brought out her phone.

"Texting Noona?" Dolores asked.

"Yeah. I need to tell her that I won't be coming home tonight. There's a lot of gists I need to tell you and they can't wait." Her fingers were still typing with super speed as she spoke.

Dolores folded her legs under her while she watched her punch away. Her best friend's face seemed peaceful despite the anger and radiating with happiness. In the end, she summed her behavior up to a guy being the reason. Finally, Adelina raised her head and her eyes twinkled; that familiar twinkle which spoke only of mischief.

I know you're up to no good again, Lina.

"I met this guy today while I was driving home from school."

Dolores clapped suddenly and pointed a manicured finger at her friend. "I knew it. I knew this happiness couldn't be about you being generally happy or anything. I knew there had to be a boy behind it and it turned out to be true."

Adelina rolled her eyes. "Duh, I wasn't told to hang out with girls."

"Whatever."

"Anyway, it's Grayson."

Dolores' face furrowed deeply in a frown. Her brain was working endlessly to put a face to the name but it wasn't working. "Grayson who?"

"Grayson, the school's jockey."

Dolroes' eyes widened to saucers. "You don't say. Grayson? How did you bump into him? How were you even able to get him to talk to you?"

Crossing her tanned legs, Adelina haughtily tossed her hair behind her. "Hullo, it's me we're talking about. I was driving home yesterday after going to get some stuffs from the grocery for Noona. She makes me do grocery shopping for her all the time and I think it's just to bully me."

"I don't think so, Lina. I think she just wants you to be able to grow up doing basic things for yourself."

She shrugged. "I guess so. Anyway, as I was saying, I met Grayson in the grocery store where I went to shop and boy, was he looking absolutely edible in a white tee and jeans."

Dolores didn't understand Adelina's obsession with guys who were sporty. All of her previous exes were either famous highschool footballers or basketball players. Only a few times had she dated hockey players but the relationships always didn't last long because according to Adelina, their ego was larger than life itself.

She had just recently broken up with a french artist whom she tried dating for the first time, and who seemed to be really interested in being with her for the long run. Her reasons; she didn't like that he always called any thing she did 'eskweezit'. Be it flunking her calculus test, flipping her hair or doodling in her awful handwriting. The look on his face when Adelina called it off was indeed artistic for he was displaying a myriad of emotions all in the same moment. They both had a good laugh over it after he had left in a french cursing fit.

Now, she was on to the next in a matter of weeks. Her new target was Grayson, the captain of the school's basketball team and Dolores was already feeling sorry for him before they even started.

"Why do you need to date him?"

"Who? Grayson?"

"No, Shit sherlock." Dolores slapped her forehead in exhaustion. Adelina was really a handful. "Yes, Grayson, when you know that at the end you get tired and eventually move on from him to another."

"Whoever said I was going to date him. We're just getting to know each other as friends and he asked me out on a movie date for next weekend."

"Look at me. Does my forehead scream stupid to you? Because I know you better than I understand the formulas in calculus."

Adelina fell over on the bed and her hands went up in resignation. "Alright, alright. You got me. But I promise, this would end up well. My longest relationship was about six months, so I can handle this. Trust me."

A loud laughter erupted from Dolores which startled her and it was unplanned. If she remembered vividly, Adelina's last relationship ended on a short, sad and funny note. "If I remember well," a finger was on her chin in a thoughtful manner, "Your last relationship ended on the sixth week. I know this because you promised you were gonna keep it and asked that I mark the date for you."

Adelina stared at her in confusion. "Did I say that?" She waved a hand dismissively. "Nah, I must have been kidding. I mean it for real now."

Dolores hoped that she was going to keep to her word and do her best to keep the relationship this time without her throwing a dramatic fit. "If you say so. By the way, have you talked to your parents recently?"

"No. There's no news from them yet. But I did get a video call from them through Noona's tablet yesterday."

She watched as Adelina's initial cheerful expression drop several degrees. It always happened whenever it was time to talk about her parents and it was due to the fact that she hadn't seen any one of them since they traveled to Saudi Arabia some four years back.

Dolores found it rather disturbing that they made calls to their daughter only through the phone of her nanny and not directly to her.

"That doesn't even account for the times they have been away from you for years."

"I know but you don't see me complaining. I'm quite satisfied as long as they remember they have a daughter somewhere." She unconsciously thumbed the pillow laying across her thighs.

Her words pulled the strings at Dolores' heart. Here she was being ungrateful by complaining to her Dad about him being too busy while there was someone else who hadn't seen her parents for four years. At that realization, she made a mental note to show her father a lot of appreciation when he arrived later in the evening.

"You know what I think?"

A small "what?" Came from her lips in reply.

"I think you have the most doting and dutiful parents. They might not be home as often as you need them to but I want you to know they're really doing their best to make life as comfortable as possible for you and Noona."

At last, Dolores managed to crack a smile out of Adelina even though it looked like it was wavering and bordering on tears. "Really? Thank you." She crawled over to where Dolores sat, throwing her hands around her in a tight hug.

She reciprocated with a sincere hug of her own. In that moment, she knew Adelina was only a lonely girl struggling with a lot of insecurities and choosing to solve her problems by thriving on the attention she got from a lot of guys. Hence, her short term relationships. It wasn't hard for someone like her to not feel sad and burdened by the questionable thoughts of their parents' love for them.

Nevertheless, she was determined to give a thousand percent of her love to show that she wasn't alone and would never be.

~~~{•}~~~

Emotional chapter for me
Reminds me of things I don't want to think about, but it's fine now... I guess

Anyway, please click on the star at the end of the chapter if you like this.

~~Tequila~~