Lovely remained motionless on her bed, staring quizzically at Carry who insisted on staying when her mother and Angus left. Why she even bothered to stay was a mystery to Lovely. She never liked Carry, hell, no one truly liked Carry due to her annoyingly loud mouth and frank personality. It's as if the girl didn’t know when to shut up and take a hint in any circumstance, she found herself in. Even Gen, who was a patient person, found it exhausting to be around her.
     
"What do you want?" lovely finally asked, annoyed by how the woman stood in front of her with a smug look plastered on her face. Carry remained silent though and just kept staring at her.
     
Irritated, Lovely picked up a piece of the apple her mother left on her bedside table and threw it at her. Carry managed to dock but lost her footing which resulted in her, stumbling on the floor, paining her bum. Lovely laughed maniacally at the specter and relished the embarrassed form of Carry.
      
"Don't even think for a second that I would believe you stayed out of concern," Lovely managed to say between laughs, but Carry didn’t seem to mind her insults. The woman slowly rose from the floor and regained her composure.
      
"You’re right, I'm not here out of concern. I'm here to help you realize something," she answered matter of factly. Lovely raised an eyebrow, "and that is?” she questioned. Lovely watched how Carry shifted her stance with the beginning of a grin, clear on her face.
     
"Tell me Lovely, did you give that statement to the cops because they questioned you? Or did you drop by the police station willingly to rat on your so-called best friend?"
     
Lovely stared bloody murder, "excuse me,” she yelled, her reply given angrily.
     
Carry all but raised an eyebrow, in that moment, the tables have turned. It was finally her, laughing at the woman on the bed.  "You know what I mean,” came her blunt retort to Lovely.
     
Lovely felt her head throb and wanted nothing more but to get rid of the confusing woman before her. "Carry, if you have nothing important to say, please leave my room. I already have a lot on my plate in case you're too insensitive to notice,” she replied while managing a smile, but half wanting to strangle the woman.
     
Carry took a long deep breath, pushing Lovely's request aside. She wanted Lovely to understand something. She lays on the bed crying, self-loathing, blaming, and surely, their circle of friends would soon join her at a pity party for what happened to Genelyn Calderon.  Carry could almost hear their fake cries and plastic-worded concern. They would probably try to pin the fault on someone, and that someone would surely be her.

She was not innocent at the least, but if she will go down, then someone must come with her. True, it was her who spread the word, she kept the gossip of Gen being a suspect in Ram's disappearance alive, but she did it to survive. It’s because she held a grudge, unlike the self-proclaimed saint that was Lovely Milluki.
“You have always been envious of Gen, bitter from all the things she had that you never will," Carry began.
     
Those short sentences earned her an, "excuse me, what the hell did you just say," retort from a fuming woman on the bed, but Carry refused to be intimidated, despite the glare thrown at her.
     
"You know it's true,” Carry continued. “You pretended to be the faithful friend. Always the understanding wing girl but deep inside you hated Gen. I saw how your eyes squinted whenever she sent you out on an errand, or how your eyes rolled whenever she showed you a new set of clothes, bags, and everything you lacked. Did you feel degraded? Low maybe? She pushed your buttons yet you remained beside her. Was it for the free clothes, food, ride or simply being taken inside her circle of famous friends? But deep inside, you knew, they saw you not simply as Lovely Milluki. No, to them you were just Lovely, Gen's friend." "You were never regarded as anything more than the girl who shadowed Genelyn Calderon. That's why, when the opportunity to pluck her from that pedestal came, you took it. You went to the police station with the sole purpose of harming your so-called best friend."

At that moment, Lovely Milluki was as deadly as a raging bull.  “Oh, stop your nonsense, you social-climbing bitch," she yelled, hoping to end Carry's self-absorbed theories about her friendship with Gen. True, there were moments when she felt envious but never bordered to hate or bitterness. She regarded Gen as a sister and Gen treated her fairly. She may have been below their so-called status quo, but everyone treated her with respect. She never... In a fleeting moment, Lovely Milluki recalled a scene from long ago.
                                                                     Gen was running towards her. Mid-length ebony hair danced with the wind, her emerald eyes shining with happiness and within seconds, Lovely found herself in a python-like embrace with her best friend screaming, "he confessed to me, I'm going out with Mike." The pain in her heart was unbearable for weeks, she cried silent tears at night. Mike was the boy next door. The boy whom Lovely pinned for, but in Gen's defense, she never knew how Lovely felt about that boy. How could she, when Lovely never dared to admit her own fascination to anyone? It was the first instance that she felt a grip of anger and hate toward her best friend.
                                                                    Lovely shook her head willing those thoughts away, she did what she did because it was the right thing and it was the truth.
     
"Did they question you? Or have you gone to the police station to rat on your best friend?” Carry's words suddenly stung. Lovely never truly considered it that way. No, she would never have deliberately put Gen in that awkward and incriminating position. Stubbornly, Lovely remained firm in what she believed. Gen had a lot of things but she shared them with her. When her father died, it was Gen who paid for his funeral. Gen was always there for her. So why would she even subconsciously dream of hurting her? She wouldn't, it was Carry who blew everything out of proportion. It was Carry who started the rumors.
                    
Lovely returned her attention to Carry, eyebrows raised, eyes glaring, challenging the woman to say more. But to her surprise Carry turned towards the door. But before she left she tilted her head a little, not really looking at Lovely.
   
"When the fingers start to point, I would gladly accept them, not that it would change my standing in any way. I have always been the social-climbing bitch. The loud-mouthed gossip girl. The slut, the liar. So when that time comes, I don't even have to shift or flinch because I have always been in that spot. I can't say the same for you though. Miss goody goody I'm so kind to everyone, there's not a single bad bone on my body."
     
Lovely gathered every bit of patience and courage within her not to fall for Carry's taunt. She chose silence rather than argument.

Carry stood there a bit longer seemingly waiting for her reply, but when she realized none would come, she opened the door, and with her back turned to Lovely, her parting words came as a whisper, but loud enough for the woman to hear. "Look deeper and stop pretending, it will save you from all this guilt. I'm free because I wear my face without a mask, unlike your sugar-coated self.”