He And Her

Description:

“I’ll be there. Tell me when, tell me where; no matter what, I’ll be there as fast as I can. If you need me, you just have to call. I’m not a superhero but I’ll be there for you.”

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I. Fall from grace

They were living in the same high-class hotel but only met in kindergarten. A boy and a girl. Reagan Landsdale and Roseanne Craftford. A short ink black haired boy with green forest eyes and a naturally tanned skin and on the other side, a cute chocolate hair girl with adorable brown eyes. He was the only son of the chain restaurant’s Landsdale owner, Karine Landsdale and she was the daughter of the one and only fashion creator Craftford, Leanna Craftford. They were two of the most notorious heir children, living on the best side of B country. Haughty and spoiled they were, accustomed to having others bend to their every will. Before long, she became the chief of the girls, and he was the leader of the boys. Wanting each one to impose their views on the whole class, it wasn’t long before the two children started a fight, a divergence of opinion more often between them than any form of cooperation –not that children’s fights really mattered anyway, more so when it was mostly verbal and when frustrated, tears were used. Surprisingly, he was more of a crybaby than she would ever be. The moment she started to tear up, it was like a dam was released from his eyes and in the end, instead of her, it would be him the crying mess. They gave quite the headaches to their caretakers.

Forced to share the same rooms, activities and more so, pushed by the adults to befriend each other, they ended up accepting each other’s presence. Anyway, no matter how much they whined to their mothers, the latter was unwilling to do something about the other, they could only be resigned and learned to curb their own pride to compromise.

That said, it wasn’t too long though before they became real friends, and when they learned that they shared the same living place, they were often meeting at their hotel. The class wasn’t all that peaceful, however, for, now that they understood each other to the point of finishing each one’s sentence, they became small little tyrants for their caretakers. The days of headaches for the latter had long to continue again.

Those days, however, hadn’t lasted more than two years. His mother, who was in the middle of a legal case, had finally been sentenced to thirty-five years of imprisonment, all her assets taken, her credit cards frozen, forced to repay the debts and returned the money. From a rich heir, he became a little nobody without a penny to his name. Or rather not, he became the destitute heir, the criminal’s child, the target of bullies for years to come whenever his mother’s family name was pronounced.

*

His father had long disappeared in nature and never had he known the man. Without the person's photos, he would actually be unable to know what the man looked like. Nevertheless,  while waiting in one of the offices of social services where he was, it was still his father's family that had been called. A kind woman, presenting herself as his father’s little sister came to him, telling him that they would be together from now on. Reagan had been unwilling, trashing and shouting for his mother and when the stranger-turned-family promised him to bring him to her, he calmed down enough to listen.

Aunt Philomena indeed brought him to see his mother sometime later in the day. 

Karin Landsdale was behind a transparent glass and he had to hold a phone to talk to her. His usually beautiful mother didn’t have her lips red as she used to, her nails had been cut short. From the two weeks he hadn’t seen her, her cheekbones were more pronounced and her tears were unwilling to stop. Reagan cried harder looking at her like that, pleading with her to come out, to let them go back to their house in the hotel, let him play with Michel, Kito, and Roseanne.  He didn’t want to stay with strangers anymore. Tears ran down his cheeks and ran down hers too, but no matter what, she was telling him to be a good boy and follow aunt Phil, she couldn’t come back for now. When he asked if she was abandoning him, a strangle voiced came out of her, and she had to turn around a bit, hiding her bleeding heart as she wiped as she could her face, trying to regain a semblance of countenance. When she turned back, a forced smile that she wanted reassuring was on her lips, assuring him that no, he hasn't been abandoned. When the guard came to signal the end of the time, Reagan had to be brought out shouting, kicking and crying, unwilling to separate from his mother. 

After that, he was quite quiet, refusing to answer when talked to... no words came from his mouth all through the road from the prison to his new home.

Aunt Philomena was living far, far away from his old home, they had to sit in her car for a long time before arriving at the destination. They traveled for one night and two mornings before arriving.

Her home was small, smaller than his bedroom. There weren’t any of his toys, he couldn’t have his favorite foods and he couldn’t meet with his friends anymore. No matter how much he cried or threw a tantrum, his aunt refused to let him go back. Many nights, he slept while crying his eyes out.

Eventually, he had to do as he was told... he was no longer his mother's most favorite person... for obviously, like those people she dismissed, he too, had been dismissed.

For a time, the young boy thought his mother 'fired' him from her life because he hadn't been good enough and since he never shared such preoccupation with others, no one could correct him. It was only after he grew a bit more than he understood what exactly happened... quite brutally.

Reagan started primary school in this new city. It was nothing like his mother used to promise him. Many times, instead of been driven home immediately after school, he had to wait for his aunt who was most of the times late to take him home. Previously, if something interested him, he just had to take it and someone who followed behind him would pay but now he was told that he couldn’t do that anymore: there wasn’t enough money to pay for whatever he wanted. There actually wasn't enough money to replace his clothes whenever he didn't like them anymore. Worse than that, there were days when he would go hungry the whole time at school and when coming back his aunt would have yet to cook and he had to sit and wait. The previously spoiled little prince dearly missed the ready-made cakes always available, the cook his mother paid for who would always cook his favorites, he was even missing the nagging Ben, his mother’s chauffeur.

*

Meanwhile, one day, Roseanne woke to never see her friend again. She asked left and right, her mother and her father, but besides saying that he left, they were unwilling to say where, or rather they always said he went back to his family. What family, wasn’t his mother living here too? How could he go like that, without so much as a goodbye. Roseanne threw a tantrum, kicked and fussed up, but in the end, she never saw her friend again and as years passed, she forgot even his existence.

II. Meeting again

Roseanne did her primary school in Rosemary’s primary school, a select one where she met her best friend for life, Pamela Maddison. Pamela was the daughter of a well-off financial high figure and despite her young age, was already following her mother’s steps and making her name in the modeling career. All children magazines had at least one of her photos. Between the two girls, it was a complementary relationship: where Pamela was always laughing and easy-going, Roseanne had to be serious and full of sermons, her smile rare and reserved for those worthy. They did, however, understand each other like no one else.

Then came the time to choose a middle school. Roseanne, despite her young age, heavily influenced by her mother, learned to plan far ahead. Her future had to be as brilliant as that of her mother's, if not better. She needed then, to choose all the best thing possibles. She chose a well-renowned school, it was both a middle school and a high school and had a high rate of its students entering an excellent university without difficulty. Grace middle school. It was an all-girl school with strict discipline. Pamela followed her there and the other girl couldn’t be happier.

Grace was indeed an all-girl school, were mannerism were taught along with the normal courses. It honed Roseanne’s tyrannical's and prideful's nature to another level. During those years, her mother had a fall out with her father and in the end, it was decided that Roseanne was to stay by her mother’s side. Without saying goodbye in person, she just came home one day to find a letter in her bedroom by her father's handwriting. There was a feeling of déjà vu, a painful memory long buried in, unwilling to resurface, but hurting all the same. 

Her mother, after the divorce, became even more workaholic and terribly bitter. She looked at life sarcastically and had little, to absolutely no good thing to say about anything or anyone. She took her anger on everyone, Roseanne being the one taking most of the brunt. The poor preteen couldn’t do anything without it being criticized, even her perfect notes were told to be too little. In constant research for her mother’s approval, she became every cliché spoiled brat in the book, the manipulative person she would later grow to be when the situation wasn’t in her favor.

Those years, though, weren’t all that bad. Being in the company of girls, in her darkest days, she dreamed of prince charming on his white horse. They spent nights talking on the phone about it with Pam. It was, after all, that time of life when young girl fantasized about that perfect man that would sweep them off of their feet.

By her last year of middle school, her mother already had another husband, and her father had found himself his own new wife. There were still underlying tensions, but nonetheless, they spent familial reunions all together, laughing and joking around. Sometimes though, in the midst of all that, Roseanne couldn't help herself but feel a little excluded. These two had their own new family after all.

Eyton Daniels.

She met him there, in one of her mother’s celebrational banquet. That boy was everything she dreamed her hero to be. His eyes as blue as the shiny sky and his hair as blond as the sand on the beach. Roseanne swore, she heard the ringing bell and all the singing of the little cherubs in the air. It was the person she needed to meet. Most certainly, her future husband, she thought at the time. All that was left was the horse and the armor he had in her dreams.

It turned out, he was the son of one of her mother’s models and accompanied her there. They exchanged phone numbers and she slept that day, dreaming of herself in a white wedding dress, Eyton’s smile was bright on his face while waiting for her down the aisle; when she appeared, they took their vows under everyone's gaze and acclamations.

*

Her new stepfather, Rowen, already had a child of his own, who was going to be inscribed in Linton’s high school and for the sake of getting closer, her mother had asked of her to go study there. It looked like they were asking for her opinion but she knew better than most, that it was somewhat of command and she could only comply.

It became something of fate, or maybe fate was really at work as she met Eyton there. All her reluctance and her inner cursing towards the new members of the family faded like that. Instead, her fantasizes went deeper. She with Eyton, they were destined to be. Holding to ridiculous thoughts like that, she couldn’t help herself then, but start mapping out how her life would be, dreaming about that fateful encounter and that dreamy wedding once again. Pamela, who had flown away came back in the country, her carrier as a model at a pause, for now, the time for her to finish with high school.

*

Reagan went to a public middle school. His previously neatly dressed hair was now constantly a mess, his clothing matching his surroundings, describing all too well the modest income of his aunt. The young man could be considered to have successfully blended in. Mostly wearing worn out jeans and t-shirts, simple and unknown brand's shoes. Anyway, his whole days were spent in the library, who was it that would care about his clothing there. Looking at him now, no one would think that he used to have the best things that could be offered some mere years ago. Nowadays, he could barely remember how his life used to be by his mother’s side. His family name was quite famous though, and more often than not, he was ridiculed for that, a state which in the end, ended up with him using more of his fists than his words. 

Reality slapped him on the face though and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't make them all shut up. They had, with his aunt, being forced to move a few time and after a few years, the gentlewoman forced him to change his family name and take his father's instead of his mother's that he had always used until now.

*

If there was one thing that Reagan could pride himself in, was most certainly his brain. It worked better than his fists anyway. He was a hard worker and that, he wasn’t afraid to repeat such, always snatching the first place in everything -so long as it wasn't sports.

He obtained a scholarship and went to Linton high school, quite decided to succeed in life and take on his mother's name once more when he would be of age. He would then make that name even more famous than it previously as... 

Linton high school... It was a well-reputed school and as long as he kept working hard, he could reduce his aunt's stress since he entered through a scholarship and planned on keeping using it all through his time there. Recently, aunt Phil started seeing someone and confessed that it wasn’t quite easy with a child not that she blamed him. He had a good relationship with his aunt. And contrary to others his age, he was quite easy to live with. If anything, the pride he used to have and that haughtiness had successfully been curbed and he never knew those pulsions related to puberty other parents complained about. 

*

They met in high school again. Memories from so long ago, how could it be remembered? They were two opposites that never slid together. 

She was a bit of a tyrant even there, the leader of the girls still. He had to work hard to maintain his position, so he always scored first, and her, forever habituated to have the first place couldn’t help but remark him, not that she liked his unkempt hair, his bedroom face and his clothes that he had worn as though he didn’t know how to tie a tie! She itched to rearrange it.

For years, he had used his father’s name to get away from trouble, who knew who deterred it, but once again, he was called the fraudster’s child, the thieve. Such a thing had him so much riled up that he couldn’t quite pretend those who snob him didn’t exist. He had first thought he wouldn't mingle himself with those other rich and haughty people but now that they dragged him and taunt him, there was no way he could pretend it didn't happen!

III. Feelings and Co.

Being a teenager was far from easy and having troubles with her eating habits didn't help. Roseanne couldn't help herself but always make herself vomit from fear of being less than perfect, fear of becoming plump or worse, fat. Others could be fat if they wanted, she, Roseanne Craftford, couldn't afford it. Even her own best friend was such a model, her mother was stylish, what kind of shame would it be, she thought if she grew fat? She needed to discipline herself more, she thought, needed to eat less, or if she ate too much, needed to vomit it all. She really, absolutely, couldn't afford any excess fat in her body!

With thoughts like that, and hiding them really well, no one, not even her best friend, noted her decreasing health. And how could they? Her makeup and her manner of being gave nothing away. With that kind of 'discipline', she more or less stabilized her weight to her desire number. Her beauty, she couldn't help it, but always compared herself to her more famous best friend, a little envious how the others had more ease to talk with her mother than herself who was her own blood and flesh.

Nevertheless, she showed no such fears or insecurities. Instead, she was known as the queen in the high school, the one in command, the one everyone was looking up to as a reference.

Heartaches, during her puberty, had been quite many. The first starting with Eyton, her very first crush. 

Roseanne’s childish and dreamy future shattered and went to nothingness when she learned that her best friend had slept with her just recently made boyfriend. It was a mistake, had pleaded Pam, asking for forgiveness. Roseanne, herself, had yet to kiss him but her best friend already did the deed. For the first time, the two girls clashed, forgiveness unwilling to be given, she was, unwilling even, to talk to both parties involved, ready to ignore their existence for the rest of her life. 

That heartbreak compelled her to eat too much, much more than what she did during her usual anxieties' break. Her eating disorder flaring that much, it couldn't be helped when she gained weight, diminishing her self-esteem and questioning her worth compared to her perfect ex-best friend. She didn't stay depressed long though, instead, Roseanne struggled on her own with her weight, not letting anyone see anything of her insecurities. She was a Craftford after all, she had to be perfect. She was the queen of high school and had a reputation to maintain. No one should catch her anything but confident. 

Reagan, on his part, was struggling to shut all these mouths that were ridiculing him and trying to find the one at the source of his troubles. Just who did he offend to have the person instigated others to attack him via his mother's name once more?

"Roseanna Craftford" had answered some of his friends.

The queen liked to be first in anything and for those who weren't looking up to her or weren't her friends, she didn't particularly have a good reputation. Unwilling to let himself be trampled on, Reagan went to find her during a break. They were not in the same class and he didn't particularly know her, nor knew her face for that matter, but she was 'the queen', he just had to ask where she was, to be answered. And indeed, finding her was the least difficult thing to do in school. Surrounded by her minions, here she was, at the cafeteria.

Haughty, spoiled and absolutely disrespectful, she made him understand that she didn't have time to deal with no name people. So what if he was a little bit intelligent, it stated that he wasn't worth her time. Would it be ungentlemanly if he confessed that more than once he thought of throttling the bitch?

Unable to find the one behind the scenes, Reagan, could, for the moment, only swallow his anger and complained to the school, not really putting much hope that they would find the culprit.

The responsible one? It was someone trying to ingratiate himself with the queen. She did know who was behind it but to the person's surprise, instead of being thanked he was being scolded, though, besides that, she made no motion to report the person, and neither did she lift the sole finger to help Reagan who was still being bullied.

The boy, however, needed no one's help anyway. Collecting pieces of evidence of his mistreatment he personally made life heard for those who wouldn't let him in peace and used the school regulations to have the school punish them in his stead. 

*

Roseanne, when her mind wasn't on her perfect notes, was on her devastated relationships. She had cried so much at night. Now was the time for payback. Forgive and forget? How could she be willing! She thought, with a little bit of help, she would be able to seduce Eyton back and when he would be deep in love with her, she would dump him. And for her best friend, she would let her taste how bitter it was to lose your boyfriend to someone dear. So, pretending to forgive them, she slowly devised such a plan.  Who was supposed to help her? Who else if not the school's notorious playboy, Venezio Altares. The fact that Pam used to crush on him was just all the more satisfactory. 

Venezio was a dirty blond hair boy, who liked wearing brand clothes and shoes, pricey watches and way too much gel in his hair. Personally, Roseanne would never fall for someone like that. His ego couldn't grow more and his sense of rightness was quite dubious. To be honest he was quite the opposite of what she liked. Where Eyton was chivalrous this one was screaming danger, keep away. The kind of bad boy her friend liked. 

Venezio, although Eyton's friend had no qualm in going with her plan, pretending to use it to kill boredom. They never meet at school though, always after, at a cafe, in his limousine or a private place. Being seeing near this scandalous boy wouldn't be good at all for her own image. 

The plan was going well, for a time. Pam had no doubts and Eyton was once more slowly falling for her. Though Venezio was outrageous, his remarks were like no other and since he knew personally that friend of his he was more efficient than any magazine could ever dream to be concerning Eyton's preferences... It was just... Roseanne didn't like the person she was turning out to be. She couldn't bear destroy Pam's shiny eyes, brimming with happiness nor play any more than she already did with Eyton's feelings.

She chickened out... and called everything quit... A little too late though. Venezio had already sent Eyton's and Roseanne's kissing photos to her best friend, suggesting that they did more. 
The two girls fell out once again, Eyton, ashamed couldn't believe his ears as the girls argued... As she saw the departing back of her angry friend, Roseanne felt none of the satisfaction she thought she would be filled with there was just tears and hurt and the bitterness that she once again was crossed with someone she considered her sister.

*

That evening she went alone to a relatively isolated cafe and commanded sweets like never before, wolfing the whole thing down to calm herself. At home, she mopingly continued to eat in her bedroom. The very next day, the video of her unsightly eatings were circulating in the campus and a vague of nausea hit her. Running towards the defective toilets at the back of schools that were out of access, she vomited there and spent her whole day uneasy.

Reagan found her there. It was the only place at school where he could be at ease without others troubling his studies deliberately, so he had the habits of being there during breaks when he wouldn't be with his friends. The retching sounds intrigued him and he opened one stall to see her, two fingers in her mouth, retching and trying to vomit all she could.

"You're just damaging your health like that," he told her, making her turned in fright.

The idea of letting her to her own device traversed him, but in the end, he couldn't quite ignore her, and, looking at the glare she was sending his way, he wondered why he even bothered?

IV. Friendship and affinity 

Their friendship couldn't be called one, it was mostly Reagan being meddlesome and Roseanne, tolerating him for the sake of not having him expose her ugly secret. For a time, he tried to force into her brain the idea that making herself vomit was dangerous. Roseanne wasn't stupid. Who didn't know it was unhealthy? But, she thought, it was something she controlled and it was something she did sparsely, no need to fret about her collapsing or suffering any backlash from it.

It wasn't easy for her to regain her footing as queen after that video, considering that she was always ordering people on what they could eat or not. Her image as untainted had been torn apart too when photos of her kissing Eyton surfaced, then photos of her with Venezio on compromising positions were made to light. It wasn't that she had an affair with Venezio, but when she was learning how to seduce from him, they had demonstrated the postures with their bodies, and the angle from the photos was taken from really excellent, emphasizing all the more the ambiguous scenes. The image of a cheap girl had been pasted to her then. The school, expulsing her for a couple of days didn't help.

Her mother had lectured her and forced her to undergo a pregnancy test, then a battery of tests such as HIV and the rest, greatly stating how much she was disappointed.

By the time she went back to school, from a queen she became a recluse. Venezio who had been expulsed the same numbers of days as her didn't seem all the more bothered by it. Roseanne didn't go out of her way trying to regain her position either nor did she try to stick to her brother as her mother had asked or more ordered. For once, her mother was actually the last person she wanted to hear from. Her recent notes weren't all too brilliant and recently she started making herself vomit more and more.

The only one who knew of it was constantly on her back and recently started threatening to inform her parents.

"I'll stop, okay," she ended up compromising when she saw how utterly serious he was.

The two who were hanging more and more started studying together, while Roseanne was doing her best to pretend nothing else was wrong around her. In her desolate state, she felt good to have someone by her side. Is she was still in the mood to used her usual cheesy metaphor then, it would that, in her deserted palace, he was the only one who willingly stayed. No vassal, no assistant and none of her noble friend. This commoner was the only one who accompanied the queen as the castle was burning, and tried his hardest to extinguished the flames.

From there, their relationship got better. More than with his friends, Reagan was hanging with her. And while she was regaining her footing with her notes, she couldn't say the same concerning her other friendships. Slowly though, she was regaining her confidence and that new person who had installed herself as queen, even though at the beginning Roseanne didn't care, she now responded to her provocation and didn't herself be undone anymore.

*

Roseanne asked Reagan out, one night, quite out of the blue. They shared mostly the same interests and from their talks, she could see that they had quite a similar point of view on many things. 

Reagan, looking from the corner of his eyes at the faraway disappearing silhouettes of Eyton and Pam, wondered a bit if she was trying to distract herself with him. How impolite would it be to blatantly refuse being used?

“I invite,” she hastily said, not catching him looking at her former friends.

What an annoying person she could be sometimes. He could imagine that frown on her face was at the thought that he could bring her in those poor quarter where microbes run freely as she liked to say. Far from being offended, he gave her a smile and complied. It wouldn't hurt to go along with her once in a while. It’s been long since he last went to see a film or went out simply for that matter, it would benefit him too. Even more, now that he wasn't the one paying. A brush of fresh air on his skin definitely wouldn’t be bad in those conditions.

“Look at you," she had criticized, "you’d think the poor boy is allergic to the sun, are you trying to become some kind of vampire or what?”

Well, Reagan had always been more of an indoor than an outdoor person.

*

They arranged a place to meet, and he waited for her there. It was six-thirty at his watch. He didn't have to wait for long, that she came with her chauffeur and Reagan twitched at the car she brought. Just where in the world was she planning to bring him? With a bit of apprehension, he entered as the chauffeur opened the door for him.

Inside, Roseanne was sitting, for once, her hair wasn't intricately held but merrily left to the wind and she wore what she certainly thought was casual but Reagan would beg to differ. She did make some efforts anyway. They exchanged some pleasantry and she still kept her mouth sealed concerning the place she was taking him. A surprise she had said. And when he asked if his dressing was good enough for the place, she responded that it didn't matter, they were going to be let in no matter what. Reagan's mouth twitched again at that. He had spent some efforts to dress okay? Look at his neatly combed hair, look at his new shirt, look, look... clearly he needed some kind of praises! 

On the road, her phone vibrated, and even if he didn’t really mean to, but from where he sat, Reagan could easily peek at what was written. “I’m in front of your house, can you come, I want to talk.” He hastily retracted his eyes before she noticed and when she looked up at him, her eyes had a myriad of emotions, hope, nervousness and a bit of shame when she settled her gaze on him.

“I’ts okay to annul if you have somewhere to go,” he gently gave her a way out of her dilemma. He doubted anyway, he could spend a good night if her mind was constantly somewhere else.

She had a big smile on her face then as she assured to make up to him later and asked where she could have the chauffeur let him off or if he would rather return home.

The car drove away and it seemed to him that it couldn’t get away fast enough from here. Making sure the car disappeared all the way before turning around, his shoes clicking on the concrete, the only sound to accompany him in this vast sea of people. As he walked, all idea of rejoicing in this day tuned to dust, and he wondered a bit why it mattered if she was here or not in the first place. He could still very well spend a good night

*

She had been contacted by Eyton. It turned out, the blond boy merrily wanted to apologize and explained himself. Roseanne would have called him a gentleman if not for what he did with her best friend.

During the vacancy, Roseanne and Reagan lost touch. She had flown to some countries and he stayed where he was, taking part-time jobs. When the next year came, she was once again at the peak of her form, once again the queen. Reagan wasn't quite clear on everything that happened, but he knew that she had resumed her friendship with Pamela and Eyton: and more surprisingly, she professed to have moved on, no longer being in love with Eyton. They too stayed friends but didn't really spend as much time together as before. Reagan wasn’t too concerned about it, he had his own group of friends and more so, between the two of them, it was mostly studying together or sharing some points of view on one thing or another, like some films, music. heir taste, no matter how different they could be from one another was quite similar on various and when they had a divergence, it was stimulating, to debate about it.

That state was quite good.

Until she felt a need to turn him into some kind of confident. He had wondered then if she confused him with one of her girlfriends.

As they were studying in the school's library on a Saturday morning, though she had been distracted the whole morning, he had simply asked what ailed her, never expecting the answer to be something so... intimate! She suddenly confessed not being a virgin to him anymore and from all the people she could have lost it too, it was Venezio, that playboy! It seemed during the vacancy, they were in contact and she learned to appreciate the person behind the facade he presented himself to be.

What of a boy who grew never knowing his mother, always seeing his father changed girls every week.... bla bla bla she went on and on about how passionate and romantic Venezio was, about how no one knew the real him.

Then again, if she went out with him, she was a bit scared how it would affect her friendships with Eyton and Pam. Reagan vaguely heard that those three were in conflict though he couldn't really say why. He was actually only half-listening. To be honest, all those four people's relationship was all too messy in his opinion but didn’t comment as such. Instead, when she was finished, he asked her what exactly she was waiting for him to say. Angry at his unhelpful statement, she left without a word, packing her books and items of furniture. Sighing, Reagan resumed reading his book. 

He was like an old man, his friends said, but he thought that, far from that, it could actually be the contrary. Maybe his pheromones hadn’t quicked in yet, for he found all these teenage antics more than he could handle. Was puberty, in view of biological secretions selective? If so, he asked to be spared!

The next week, the whole story of Roseanne and Venezio was on the campus’s journal. Venezio whole life and most intimate confessions to his secret girlfriend were made public. Coming to school, Reagan found them both arguing and Venezio leaving angrily, turning around to hop on his yellow sports car and driving away, clearly having no intention to assist in lessons today. Seeing him, Roseanne latched at him. Somehow, she got the idea that he was the one who tattled and promised him retribution. At the time, Reagan didn't even know what she was talking about and by the time he was informed, she unwilling to listen to his side of the story. 


The rest is under construction!!!

*

He was being confessed to. At the back of the yard in front of a particularly big and old tree, a cute first year was professing her undying love to him. He wondered though, had they ever met? Did they once converse, for the life of him he couldn’t remember.

She was blushing gently, her smile a bit forced, her eyes flickering to the side, nervous. Straining his ears, he could faintly hear the giggles coming from the wall behind him and it dawned on him that it certainly was one of the girls’ pranks. How childish and altogether cruel. He wasn’t in the mood to humor anyone.

As he turned around to go, he saw Roseanne running towards him.

“It wasn’t me,” she said hastily, her breath halting.

He didn’t respond. Never turn to look at her. She could have been air that he didn’t care at this moment.

IV

Her story with Venezio continued. The young man wore high clothes, gel thick in his hair and his mouth couldn’t be any more arrogant than what he already was. He liked flanking his money wherever he went and wasn’t all that respectuous.

From his side, he was going out with his friend. They were in the same literacy club and he found her company way more enojable and relawing thatn any other child of this side of B country.

For a time her relationship seemed stable, until for some reason, her boyfriend, feeling restrained, cheated on her. Angry, they immediately broke up. She wanted to find her friend to vent, but the latter had tok the flight to C country for the holidays, and she was unwilling to meet up with anyone lese of the girl to school. She after al, had to maintain that leader view, inebranlable. She called, Reagan didn’t answer. She ended u being conforted by her former crush, Eyton. And somehow, this spareked her love for him once again.

In the end, she was once again rejected even though for a time he appeared to reciprocate her felings. Apparently her overseas best friend had just brke nup things with her boyfriend there and in the end, she lost to the possibility of him being with her.

She saturated his voice messages that night.

“Why would anyone look at me when I have a best friend that looks like that? She was a model you know. But quit because it bored her.”

“I’m being a bitchy friend, aren’t I?”

It was good that she was aware of it herself.

*

In the end, he couldn’t quite stay away and pretend she didn’t need someone’s company. So, they talked the whole night on the phone and she cried the whole night. Actually, she was the one who did all the talking, he just made sure that she poured her heart out and to respond when asked a question.

The following week at school, they were together more often than not, actually, she was the one searching for him in the library. His girlfriend didn't quite like that, and he transmitted the message. Angry and annoyed at being discarded, she yelled that she would leave him alone! For some reason, the week following that, he was accused of stealing the school’s money, the amount being the exact one he needed for his aunt’s wedding present. He had the ticket of having paid the necklace with that money.

His first thinking was that she was the one wanting to pay back at him but in the end, she was the one, who stuck up to him, helping him when she had the occasion to ignore or worsened his situation. A flicker of surprise traversed his eyes quickly replaced by gratitude.

It was years later that they would learn it was something Vinezio did out of jealousy to have him expel and further away from his ex for whom he still had feelings.

*

He stayed with his girlfriend all the way to the end of high school but university separated them. They chose distant ones. In the end, the resigned themselves and friendly broke up.

He ended up in the same university as Vinezio, while Roseanne was in hers and Pamela had chosen to wait for the next years before seeing. Coincidentally, she was in the same university as Eyton. All flames rekindled again.

V

They walked more together and in this sea of strangers, seeing this face was appeasing. Though, they were friends, nothing more. And from his side, Reagan learned to tolerated Venizio. It didn’t seem impossible to be friends. They met again at the wedding ceremony between Eyton and Pamela’s wedding. They were only twenty-one but professed to be ready to love each other until death does them part. He found it… well, only time would tell.

He found her in the toilets, crying and a mess and completely wasted. She was holding a necklace. It was a bracelet he knew all too well, he saw by her neck way too much. He wondered why he ever thought she had turned the page anyway.

“Eyton and Pamela. Of course, they make sense, what was I even thinking? Who would love this fat person, look, I had to adjust my clothes again for them to fit”

“You’re beautiful. You’re not fat. And for the love of whatever you hold dear, do stop with the chemicals.”

That night, she vomited more on his tight-fitting tuxedo than in the bowels of the toilet. He brought her to her back to the apartment, a bit regretting to not have let her to her own devices.

They stayed in touch after that.

Her relationship with Venezio got resumed. He used to think about them, this wasn’t a love relationship, this was mutual destruction. They were like blazing fire. Complete opposite, they had nothing to do together, but somehow, in her eyes and for everyone else apart from him actually, they made sense. He wondered why even now. Was it that other person’s tendency to change girls as his expensive clothes, was it, instead, the money affiliated to his name? He just wondered why they were so much intense in one another's presence.

*

In his third year, he suddenly realized, when assisting to one of Roseanne’s and her mother’s dispute, that it was so long since the last time he visited his mother. Now, she wasn’t even aware that he wasn’t using his name anymore but rather his father’s name? Would she be disheartened?

VI

He got a girlfriend. A bit clingy but really sweet and gentle. But she slowly became too possessive for him. Selecting who could be his friends and who couldn’t. There were some concessions he was willing to make, but once she went too far.

“Stop with those traditional Sundays then!” she had shouted in a dispute. The whole dispute was about how he was seeing Roseanne once in a month. He found that quite hypocrite when she had her own group of friends she never was willing to give up on. Even her ex was one of them.

She had thus stepped onto a limit he was unwilling and unable to accomodate. If one thing, he dearly loved, was his family as shallow as the notion grew to be on him considering his father’s absence. For him, Roseanne had become family, as well as Eyton and Pamela and even Venezio.

Did Reagan truly like his girlfriend? He did, he thought. He did even love her and some times indulged himself in a possibility of forever by her side. However, what he hated the most, was when someone was trying to dictate his every move and those he could befriend. He wasn’t particularly a jealous person and never quite judged her friendship with anyone but she meddled too much; and his best friend, contrary to those friends he was willing to cut off, was someone important to him.

In all the way that matters, they couldn’t be 

friends, there was no way he was cutting Roseanne out of his life. Today’s ultimatum was one too many.

Thus ended his second serious relationship.

That same night, he got a call from Roseanne. She was drunk. Again. He had yet to know the reason but was quite sure that Venezio had his imprint in the story.

He was already angry but now that he came and saw her state, half-naked and completely wasted in a bar, it was one step higher. She started vomiting on his shirt and it ended in his shoes. Cursing in his head, he dragged the woman back to her apartment. Angry and with nowhere to vent, he could only sigh miscontedly as he gently held her hair, letting her poured out all that she had the misfortune to eat and drink.

To be honest, he was a bit tired of these two people’s relationship. It didn’t get better after high school, actually if possible, it only worsened. They were in a sort of an on-again-off-again relationship. A destructive one if his opinion was asked, but nowadays, she wanted to know nothing of his opinions on her partner, she made sure to tell. Not that it stopped him from criticizing.

The morning she woke up, she took the medicines he put on her nightstand and without surprise saw Reagan in her living room. It wasn’t the first time after all.

“I broke up with Eyton.” She announced.

“Oh” he answered noncommittally, briefly wondering how many times he heard this sentence in the span of three months. Too many times, and too much to be counted. He didn’t ask anything and kept on looking at the documentary on the tv.

*

It seemed she was once and for all determined to let that page of her life behind her. Venezio and Roseanne herself had yet to tell him exactly what happened this time but it seemed for once, it was she, who was adamant in not coming back together. He had been impressed when, no matter what Venezio did, those high romantic gestures as a declaration with an aeroplane, people singing her name in the street, an interview on tv and whatnot, no matter what he did, she stayed firm in her position.

She used to look at him with those eyes, like he was the sun in her life, the best thing that ever happened to her world. But now, she couldn’t give him the time of the day. It was then that he truly did start to believe that she was serious this time, and he also wondered just what big of a mess did Venezio do for this unyielding response. She used to forgive so many things before…

It turned out, he once again cheated on her and this time even got someone pregnant.

“I made too many mistakes.” He has whispered and cried in Reagan’s lounge some night following his rejection. The whole story came pouring out. Venezio had his reasons. Of course, he always did. He just had to always sound like the pitiful party, the unloved person who needed comfort. Reagan had to wonder if it wasn't some kind of pathology.

Gulping down the contain of his cup, his voice frosty and angry on behalf of his other friend, Reagan seriously said,

“She didn’t snap because you made too many mistakes, she snapped because you made the same mistake too many times!”

*

The post-breakup wasn’t that easy on her. Actually, he thought, it was all befalling on him. Wasn't he the real victim here? With her temper, she was comfortable with no one, one time angry, one time mopey. Just when did he actually become some kind of therapeute?

“Does he regret?” She asked, her eyes not looking at him, stubbornly fixing the screen of his tv, as her hands cradled the giant pot of ice.

“I think he does.”

She nodded,

“Good. Let him regret.”

VII

“I am sick,” came his rough voice from her phone.

Shuffling to find the lighter, she turned it on and frowned at the one hour a.m from her clock on the wall.

“If you have an urgency, you better called an ambulance, why call me?”

“I’m sick,” he whined again, “And hot and my body is sored.”

Glancing at her phone again she saw that it was the third march. His mother's birthday. She sighed and turned off the call.

At the other side, Reagan grunted. Ungrateful, he muttered. Turning again and again, really uncomfortable.

Aproximately thirty minutes later, the keys clicked and the door opened. Roseanne with a manteaux and under her pajama still on, dangle the spare keys he had offered her whenever she felt like crashing for their traditional Sundays which most of the time was done in his apartment now.

She measured his forehead and put a thermomether. It was only 38.5, nt=othing really that worrying. It was just that sick Reagan was sticky and… turn into a grumpy child.

Giving him some tablets, she cuddled with him until he slept.

***

It wasn’t too long before he too, tasted what it was like to be awoken at an ungodly hour.

“Say, is it that I am not beatuitful enough?”

She asked two years after that when she heard that Venezio was marrying. It wasn’t her best time, since just mere weeks she broke with yet another boyfriend.

It was dead in the night, one hour or maybe two, he hadn’t really checked after her distressed call.

“If only you could see yourself through my eyes. You’re the most beautiful woman in the world.”

“You’re the gentlest liar.” She smiled at him.

*

“If I close my eyes and make a wish, will you be here when I’ll open them?” she asked.

“Always.”

He’s a bit of an idiot. No, actually he was a complete idiot. When she called here, he was on the verge of going through an interview for a post. It was a golden opportunity. One that he left, running behind and for the life of him, he wasn’t regretting it. He obviously had something wrong with his head.

He kissed her and suddenly he thought, he understood why it never worked with anyone else. He wondered a bit if she felt the same.