AGNES

Forcing back tears with a shroud of calmness is harder than I ever imagined.

I eventually walk out of the bathroom. Breathe in, breathe out. Don't lose your cool in front of everyone. Most especially, don't let Joey get to you, Agnes.

When I glance at my friends from the back exit, stalling the inevitable, I sight Felix first before I see Yvonne and Tessa happily sharing handbills so ambitiously. And Felix, he made me believe I was wrong about him, he even goes out of his way to help me, yet, all of that is only a lie?

I don't want to recall what Joey said earlier, but I get cold feet even struggling to wrap my mind around it, or join them. I'm too terrified now to accept that what she said is true, but what if...? Big 'WHAT IF'.

I shake my head. Making these conjectures will not give me any answers.

With a heavy sigh, I decide to pick up a handful of flyers to join them. In a way, my mind keeps going back to what happened in the bathroom, and it drains my mojo so bad that even when I try to give out a flyer, people passing notice my lethargic mood and move on to either take one from the others or not at all.

"You are scaring away our potential customers with that face. Where have you been anyway?" Yvonne asks me.

"We were looking all over for you," Tessa adds.

Felix also comes to me. "We have given out lots of leaflets. Xian and Ronald went back to print more."

The sight of Felix getting closer to me gives me awful irks. I don't know what's worse, knowing that I'm just a game to him or the pretence he's been keeping up with all this time. "Okay," I say indifferently and face elsewhere.

"What's wrong?" He asks.

"Nothing," I reply neutrally, although I imagine that to be a more thoughtful response. Does he have any inkling how hard I'm trying to contain myself?

Then an uncomfortable silence drifts between us, and for different reasons. This is me frankly wanting to stick to my initial proposal, while he stares at me with all sorts of confusion.

"Agnes, I'm your friend. You know you can talk to me about anything."

How dare him spit that word from his mouth?! He's no friend of mine. How can this despicable flirt who has no regard for relationships change overnight?

"Is there something wrong?"

"I'm alright. Don't bother about me." I dispatch from their gathering to stand aside, pretending to be as passionate as they were before I joined in.

He comes at me again, more resolute than I've ever seen him. "I know something's wrong. Tell me please."

Why wouldn't he? The way he is pleading gives me more than one reason to believe what Joey said is true. If he wasn't scared, he wouldn't be pushing me this much.

"I said I'm fine."

"Obviously, you're not!"

Obviously, you have a dirty secret you damned two-faced liar! You had the courage to deceive me like this and expect I'd be cool? God! I really want to get away from him right now.

"You are way too quiet today. Did anybody talk to you about anything?"

"Why?" I ask him critically, "is there something somebody needs to tell me?"

He nervously shakes his head. "Not exactly, but if you have overheard any gossip flying around, I assure you, it isn't true. You know how people in this school like to talk nonsense."

"Then it's completely fine."

"Agnes, we are friends... and friends don't keep secrets from each other."

I flare up, "Felix! I said I'm fine!!!"

Yvonne and Tessa stand and stare at both of us from a distance.

"Agnes—"

"Leave me the hell alone!" I throw the leftover flyers in my hand at his face and stomp out.

*

As much as I try not to, I couldn't help myself. I shed miserable rivers of tears all the way home and immediately I see my aunt, I run straight to her to throw myself for a slack hug, staining her white shirt with my soggy cheeks.

"Oh dear, what happened to you?"

"H-how dare him! How dare he do this to me!" I cry on her chest.

She pushes me back to see my deplorable face. "Agnes, please stop being hysterical. Who hurt you?" She asks but her tone gradually becomes livid.

"Felix tricked me, aunty. He made a big fool out of me! He made me believe I could trust in him. I even set aside my differences with him just so we can be friends, but what did he do? He only fooled me!"

Her face turns a chaotic shade of red. "Felix did what!"

"Aunt, somebody told me that Felix made a bet on me. If he is able to make me like him before our senior year ends, he's going to be crowned 'King of the Impossible'. Can you believe that?"

Aunty Cherry reacts harshly. "He made a bet on you! Oh no! That kid is going to get it from me!"

I wail and bury my face inside her embrace. The fact that I'm still bawling my eyes over a guy as pathetic as it sounds makes me even furious. "I trusted him. I was going to be a friend to him. I told him about my past and the reasons I hated him before, but he was deceiving me all along."

I'm so upset. I'm so angry. I let go of her to find a chair to sit. She squats in front of me to gently bring my chin up so I can look at her. "Oh dear, don't cry. I don't want you shedding a tear over that boy."

"What else can I do? I don't have it in me to be brave anymore. My trust is totally broken."

For the first time in so long I'm feeling this way. This act of betrayal is far worse than me feeling abandoned by my own father. I shouldn't have let him in in the first place, and now it's difficult to get him out.

My world has truly crashed.

"You know what, I'll make sure that that young man is not permitted to see you nor come close to you. He's not permitted in this house, and as for you, my dear, I don't want you going to that workshop ever again. Do you hear me?"

Yeah. This freaking sucks. As if I was not already conflicted enough, now I am not sure if I should feel worse, but that thought of not going to the workshop hurts a whole lot. Oh well, so it goes, I just have to endure one more heartbreak.

I stand up and hurry into my room, shutting the door so I can take this pain all out on my pillow.

FELIX

The following day, I vow to myself, nothing will stop me from teaching that idiot a lesson.

I barge into the class and find him chatting with his friends. But I shoot from the hip regardless, and sucker punched to his face. He lands on the floor with a whomp, a bit hurt from the impact, prompting his friends to disappear from sight.

"What did you do that for?" He yelps.

"What did you tell Agnes?"

"Shouldn't you ask me first before reacting like that?" He clenches at his jaw for bruises.

"Answer me!" I shout. Who is he to tell me how I ought to react when my patience with him has already wore thin?

"I did not tell her anything! We hardly even talk to each other. You know that."

He can still deny? Even after one blow and he's lying helplessly on the floor with a bloody nose. Damn! This guy is really shameless. "If it wasn't you, then who did?"

"Gosh, Felix! I don't know!"

My mouth twitches as my fists ball in, willing to punch the living daylight out of his face until he confesses. I'll extract the truth from him by any means possible.

All of a sudden, an adult's voice calls out. "Who are the boys fighting in class?"

I whirl around in my shocked silence to see Mr. Rufus, our Mathematics instructor who is more of a strict disciplinarian than an actual teacher. He hardly ever smiles. What he does for a living other than teaching the hardest subject is hunt for hapless students to make as scapegoats. He stands near the door with a scowl and piercing eyes that relates fiendish intentions.

"What is the reason for this fight?"

Rex stands up and dusts himself. "Sir, we aren't fighting."

He raises an eyebrow at him. "Follow me to the principal's office now. Both of you."

*

This is one among many consequences of being friends with Rex. No matter how hard one tries to be that moral student, all they need to do to ruin that image is to associate with him.

I have never been summoned to the principal's office in my life. As for Rex, that is like his other classroom. Unfortunately, because of him, that will all be flushed down the drain.

I walk ahead of Rex to the principal's office. No one ever walks in there and comes out without some kind of punishment. Mr. Rufus ushers me and Rex into the room.

As we step inside, we face the principal settled stiffly behind her fine desk. She looks at us with displeasure. I take she must be tired sick to see Rex once again. As for me, it definitely feels like I'm in a court trial.

"Someone reported you two," she starts off.

"But we weren't fighting, Principal Alexandra," Rex advocates, "he only overreacted, and I was not expecting that so I stumbled and fell on the floor."

She looks at Rex over the rim of her eyeglasses, then at me and back at Rex. "Mr. Shay, why are you covering up for him?"

"I'm not. I'm telling you the truth."

"And you, Mr. King," she turns her boiling gaze towards me, "did you bully your classmate?"

Bully my classmate?! I'm the one who is bullied here! Then again, I dare not say that out loud if I am to stay out of more trouble. Simply just go with the alibi. "I was not bullying him, Principal Alexandra. He got me annoyed because he just couldn't control his mouth."

Besides that, I'm quite surprised Mr. Rufus isn't meddling in. Usually, he'll do anything to make sure students end up in more trouble.

She sighs, looking at both of us critically. "You'll both serve your punishment in detention after school for the rest of the week."

"Ma'am—"

"And if you say another word, you will also help the janitors the following week," she interrupts Rex.

Principal Alexandra Carolina Buttons, a woman never short of punishments to dish out. Totally the scariest woman I have ever met, even with her jaded facial expressions.

I walk out, accepting my fate.

* # * #

I wonder why you would read a story up till this point. Do you wanna know how the story ends?