After the meeting, I sat on my bed, trying to analyse what had just happened.
He didn't say yes. He didn't say no.
I was just stuck there suspended in a triangle, no way forward, no way back.
That night, I managed to sleep, but not without carrying his face into my dreams.
He wasn't smiling, he wasn't angry. Just blank.
Like I owed him something I didn't even understand.
The next morning in school, my body showed up, but my mind stayed home.
I couldn't focus in class.
And of all times for life to spin me like this it had to be during my finals.
I kept reminding myself of my dreams, trying to hold on to them, but it felt like Venus, the goddess of love, had chosen me as her latest experiment.
If not so, then tell me why me?
Hahaha. Maybe I just need to wake up. Reality is knocking, and I've been sleepwalking.
Mary noticed of course she did. She always does.
You're walking like someone that committed a crime, she said, raising her brow.
Maybe I did, I murmured.
Ben just shook his head and hissed. He didn't ask questions. He didn't need to.
His silence was louder than words. His silence said, I told you so.
Life at home wasn't smiling either. It wasn't the same. It hadn't been the same for a while now.
One evening, I sat down with my family heart open, eyes tired, but determined.
The change I wanted had to start with me. No pretending. No assumptions.
To my surprise, it worked.
Because truly, communication matters.
We say family is everything, but if nobody is talking, what exactly are we building?
That talk became something I held close. It even sparked something in me, a sense of purpose. A small light.
I jotted it down later:
"Power of Communication —Don't Assume."
Maybe that will be my next project.
I want to wield my pen like a sword. To reach other families like mine. To remind them that conversations are honest, even if hard can shift the hand of the clock. It's not always smooth, but the outcome is worth the fire.
Mum and Dad are growing old. I see it in their faces. I hear it in their silence.
Ama and Nice are growing fast too fast.
Like rocket science, they keep leaping ahead. Soon, they'll be with me at the university. Life is moving, and I'm just trying to hold my part of the thread.
Just when I was starting to feel normal again, a message came in.
No greetings. No how are you?
Just a cold text Franklin Park. 8PM. Don't be late.
That was it, no emotion, just an instruction like I was another task in his planner.
I didn't go.
Maybe I'm not one of Bill's experiments.
Even the poor still have their pride or don't we?
I'm trying to be the change I want to see. And part of that is knowing when to say no without explanation.
Later, during one of those playful bonding evenings with Ama and Nice, I decided to ask:
What would you do if your friend loved someone I mean really loved to the point of obsession, and still managed to mess it up? She got what she wanted, sort of, but ruined it before she could even say Robinson Jack… all because of pride and rules?
They laughed so hard I felt my heart squeeze.
Ama and Nice:
Your friend is foolish. So poor people have joined in carrying pride? Someone should have told her life doesn't give out gold medals for stubbornness.
Then they laughed again loud, wild, and painful in my ears.
Ama and Nice :
We know it's that balloon face friend of yours Mary. The one who forgets everything by 11AM every day. We're going to taunt her till she confesses.
I stopped them quickly.
They must not tell her. If Mary finds out, she'll know it's me. And I'm not ready for that truth yet.
After they left, I just sat down in my room, staring at the wall, feeling my heart beat like it was counting my mistakes one by one.
POV:
Why did I act so foolish?
What was I thinking, Luna?
Oh! My ancestors must be watching me from the clouds and shaking their heads like, This one? We tried.
Still, even with all the madness I hoped.
I hoped he would call.