I dragged my body out of the comforting couch and tramped towards the dining table. As soon as I settled into the chair, Kiara enthusiastically uncapped the lid of the vessel. My nose sniffed in all the essence of tangy steam from the spaghetti Bolognese. It suddenly reminded me of home, my mom, the laughter I used to have at the dinner table, for every lame joke that my dad cracked; that every moment my mom used to get annoyed for the commentary we used make on her cooking- skills, as an epic dad-daughter team.

"Is that enough?" Kiara's voice snapped me back to the reality. My eyes widened at the amount of spaghetti that was piled up on my plate, with a pool of red sauce around it.

'What does she think of me? A troll or something?'

Nevertheless I dug my fork in and started eating and slurping the heck out of it. Kiara burst into a snorty laughter and tried to hide it by sticking her long index on her crimson lips. My hurried and hastened​ eating slowly paced down. I tucked strings of hair that were dangling in front of my eyes behind my ears and acted all natural, trying not to become an embarrassed-goose in front of them.

"Why act so royal, when you are hungry as hell? And where did you buy that 'shyness' from, and since when?" She narrowed her brows and Chuckled.

"I am not shy..." I blurted, wiping my lips with a hand towel.

"Like, duhh? From that 'super-boy' she is dating with..." Barb gave her sassy little eye roll, slurping the spaghetti. As soon as she caught my irk, she suddenly said, "and, it's so delish...Mom", looping her index and thumb in a gesture of saying super. Poor thing was happy that her mother, for the first time in years, had cooked her some real food. And more over she was dining with us.

"Aww, thanks Barb. But you got to eat all of that, okay? No wasting." Kiara warned, putting on a fake serious look on her face.

"Mm..mh." Barb nodded, licking the red sauce from her lips.

I squeezed my eyes and glared at the devil's face, poking her feet with my toes. She sheepishly looked down onto her platter. 'How dare she speak of me like that? I'mma kill her later!'

"So?" Kiara looked at me expectantly, pausing after having a mouth full of food.

'Uh oh! What do I tell her?'

"So what? What do you mean?" I rolled my guilty eyes.

"You and Neon. Huh?" She asked, rolling her tongue on her canine, in an attempt to pick the sticking food.

"I uh...It's...it's complicated. All I know is that, he is not like what we had assumed him to be. He saved us. So, that's that. There is nothing more to it." I said, not daring enough to look into her eyes. "Can't we just enjoy the food for one night? If you don't want me eating with you, I'll go back." I know, it was very evil of me to say those bi**hy words, but I had to before things got out of control.

She sighed and pressed my fingers which were resting on the table top. I was shaken by her every other act, that day. First was that, she didn't reek of alcohol; second, that she went ahead and cooked some tasty food for us and now that, she was giving me this sort of emotional support. What more could go wrong? I felt like I was living in some sort of alternate universe. But then again, it was a whole different type of day.
"It's okay. Just don't be naïve, okay. No matter what, I am by your side." She genuinely smiled.

My 'resting snob' face took a few seconds to soften, I returned the same gesture and smiled at her. "Thank you."

"So, how is the karate going?" She changed the subject, relieving the uneasiness that was haunting us that evening. And the talk went on until all of us were full. There was nothing left to throw into the trash can, the vessel didn't even need washing, that's how empty it was.

I slumped into my comforter and swiped my cellphone open and set the alarm. It thudded onto my work desk as I tossed it carelessly. Turning the bed lamp off, I wriggled to get comfy inside the warm covers. But within no time I sprung upright gasping at the silhouette, that was standing at the half opened door way.

"Barb! You scared me." I let out a sigh of relief, holding my hand across my thumping chest, and turned the lights back on.

"It's me you silly" she giggled, walking towards me holding her pink Pooh Bear and climbed to snuggle beside me.

"Yeah. I know that it's you, but why are you here? Didn't your mom read you stories today?" I asked covering my comforter upto her neck. I knew, even if Kiara did her part well, Barb was used to me being around her, it was natural on her part to react like that.

"She did." She nodded and slowly turned to face me. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." I frowned.

"Where's my dad? Today was the best day. But..." She didn't complete her statement, but I understood what she meant.

I mean, nobody knew who actually was Barb's father. Kiara never made it clear, all she ever told my mom was, that she was in a serious relationship with a guy and things happened, but he never came back. At least, that's according to my knowledge.

I didn't know what was I even supposed to say, the bitter truth that her father is an asshole who abandoned her and her mom; or another sweet lie to fool her around.

Although I hated it, I decided to go for the latter. I supported my neck with my hand, lying on my elbow and pointed my other index to the window, "You see those stars there? He is the brightest one of them. He is watching over you from the other side." I stuttered to make up a cheesy story, but it turned out be lame.

She frowned her face, she was not six anymore, she was nine for god's sake. Time for all those made-up stories to go into the garbage.

"So, is he in another country?" She asked hesitantly.

"Exactly!" I sat up, crossing my legs and straightened my back. It was like a cue that I needed. "He is a millionaire, he works for a...a big international company..."

"Like, Nova-Gen?"

"See, now you get it! So, when he comes to visit you, he'll bring you snow globes from all around the world and....Barbie dolls of course." I cleared my lying throat immediately.

She grinned, but that was not a real one, I instantly knew that.

"Good night, Lee." she wailed toppling to the other side.

"Good night Barb." I too wailed, but her voice told it all.
************************************

I tightened my pony tail as I turned around to lock the door of our house. Barb hopped down the door steps, strapping up her backpack. I got a call from Alita, I instantly swiped it to answer.

"Where are you at?" She spoke from the other side.

"On my door step. Why?" I answered, as I slid the key into my pocket.

"Oh. Don't take the school bus, I'll be there in a minute." she said and hung up on me, before I even said 'okay'.

"You were all over the news!"

I gritted my teeth at the sound of his voice.

'Oh god...not now!'

I squeezed my eyes looking at him, not quite ready to ruin my mood, day or both. "Yeah. If not, I would of been dead by now." With that laid flat on his face, I reluctantly nodded.

"Anyway, welcome back to life then." He chuckled, getting into the car.
After strapping the seat belt, he raised his eyebrows, "wanna come?"

"No thanks. Alita is gonna be here." I hollered, crossing my arms. I looked the other way in anticipation of seeing her grey car any time sooner. I was at the tip of my toe to escape from the situation.

"Okay, see you at the practice then."
He swirled the steering wheel and drove off.

I exhaled briskly in relief. Soon the much awaited grey car pulled over at my house and I hopped in.

Alita's smile widened as she hugged me, "my god, you were all over the T.V!" she squeaked into my ears.

"Is nobody happy to see me alive?" I withdrew from her hug rolling my eyes and engaged myself immensely in buckling my seat belt alone. "'Cause, nobody is asking me something like, 'how are you Lee?' or 'are you okay?' But nooo... All you guys know is that I was on the T.V."

"Okay. Sorry, I was a li'l bit star-struck. That's all." she twisted her lips inside, and squeezed her left eye showing her index and thumb pressing into each other. I shook my head chuckling. I have to agree, she knows how to get away with things with those puppy eyes.

"Shall we go now?" I showed my hand ahead, shrugging my shoulders. And within minutes of peaceful drive, we were already in the campus.

The gawking eyes and mocking chuckles were more in number than usual lining the hallway. Every person I passed by, either scanned my face as if I was a stripper or catcalled my name.

"I should have foreseen it." I said to Alita looking towards one of them.

"I'll catch up with you later!"
Alita vanished from my sight, that was very 'unusual' of her.

"But..." I turned around, by then she had left the hallway.

'Guess it's only you Lee!'
I took in a long breath and opened my locker, rotating the knob to '404' - my birthday- password.

As soon as the metallic door creaked open, hundreds of crumpled papers fell over my face and chest.

'What the heck?'

I picked one from the ground, and smoothened it, I knew what was coming my way. Literally, every flyer had a cartoon version of me and Neon-blaze kissing each other. I crumpled it back and threw it aside and pulled off all the papers that were littering my locker. And retrieved my Karate uniform and shut the door back with a loud clank.

"So, how was the make out session?" The red headed face blocked my way. I ground my teeth and moved aside to walk away. He again blocked my path.

"Joe, you are blocking me." I glared into his face, crossing my arms.
He popped a bubble and then continued chomping on his chewing gum. His friends who were enjoying every bit of the show, giggled even more. I moved aside and started walking towards the practice hall. I didn't want to ruin my day and it was already more than late for my karate class.

His footsteps followed me and he stopped me again holding by my shoulders. I had had enough, I instantly clenched his hand and twisted his arm behind his shoulders, "That's enough Joe, I'mma rip your balls off, if youu..." My words trailed off, when I found out it wasn't him.

"Oww...ow!"

I reflexively released his arm, as he squeezed his ice blue eyes, grimacing his long face in pain.

"I am so...sorry. I didn't know that it was you!" I pleaded with him, holding my hands together apologetically.

"Quite a grip you got there." Pete swung his shoulder back and forth, relieving the pain.

"Sorry. I thought it was Joe." I said peeking behind him. Joe and his nasty friends were laughing their hearts out fist bumping each other, as if they had won a lottery ticket or something.

Pete glanced behind his back and nodded to me. "Morons. Come on, let's get out of here." He took me by my hand and dragged me into the practice hall.

"Wait. Don't you have classes?"
I asked as he undid and yanked his grey hooded windbreaker over his head. He winked at me in response and pulled out a yellow t-shirt from his bag.

"Guess what? I'm in!" He announced flashing his uniform.

"What? But why?" My eyebrows furrowed into a deep frown.

"Why not?" He spread his arms wide open, walking backwards for a few steps. He turned around and then ran towards the boys' changing room.

"Welcome to the fight-club, then." I hollered half-heartedly and shook my head, as I hobbled towards girls' changing room.

'But, how am I going to concentrate at all, with him being around here? Ugh!'

I pulled on my purple tee, giving myself a pep talk. 'It's okay Lee. Every thing is under control. Play it cool, that's it, alright?'