Chapter 13 - Report

Sabrina's POV

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Yuseff asked me, and his eyebrows furrowed when he noticed me uncomfortable in my seat.

"Y-Yeah, of course. Hmm, Excuse me, I'll just go to the powder room," and then I hurriedly stood up without waiting for his reply.

I went directly to the powder room. I don't know why I did that, but that's what my mind told me to do. I'm not sure if Red is really going towards our table, but it looked like it. I stayed for a few minutes before deciding to go out, and I wished I had stayed longer because I was surprised when I saw Red cozily leaning against the wall his hands are in his pockets.

"You're with Torres?" he casually asked me. He looked at me with an accusing look in his eyes.

"You mean Yuseff? Y-Yeah! Is there a problem?" I asked him baffled by his question.

"Is he --?".

"Is he what?" I cut him off.

His jaw clenched as he looked at me like I'm some kind of puzzle he's frustrated to solved.

"Forget it," he said and then let out a heavy sighed. "By the way, where's my shirt? " he asked me all of a sudden.

"Really? You're asking me that here at the Cafe?" I can't believe he approached me here just for the shirt. I mean he's asking it like it's his only shirt and can't live another day without it.

"It's in my bag. I would have given it earlier if only you didn't skip our class just to date someone" I said without thinking.

"You and your imagination!" I met his playful gaze. "Yesterday, you said that Kelsey is my girlfriend, and now you're accusing me of skipping class just to date someone? What's next Sabrina? That I'll be your boyfriend?" and his mouth twisted into a devilish smile.

"Funny!" I glared at him. "In your dreams, and stop denying it because you're with someone awhile ago."

The nerve of this guy. Why would I want him to be my boyfriend? Duh! He's not my type! He's so full of himself.

He chuckled and made me annoyed at him even more. I scowled at him.

"I did not skip class. I attended a Leadership training, and the girl I'm with is my---"

"Excuse me, I have to take this call," I interrupted him when my phone rings, and it's Dad who's calling.

I left Red and tried to go back to our table. Dad said he's already outside waiting for me.

Yuseff lifted his eyes when he saw me coming towards him. He looked at me before settling his eyes on someone behind me. I saw Red, and he just walked past us and went back to his table.

"Sorry, but I have to go" I said to Yuseff. "My Dad is here, and he's waiting for me outside."

I felt guilty leaving him. The only consolation I have is we already finished the report and the PowerPoint presentation.

"It's okay. I'll be going home too." then he started getting his things.

I introduced Yuseff to Dad when we got out of the Cafe. I don't remember introducing a guy to Dad so I felt awkward when I introduced him. Dad looked at Yuseff for a while before smiling at me and even teased me if I'm really sure that Yuseff is just my friend.

Yuseff awkwardly laughed upon hearing it. I didn't know if Dad was only joking when he invited Yuseff to visit our home, especially when I mentioned that we lived in the same subdivision. Of course, Yuseff said yes, maybe out of respect to Dad, or maybe he's shy to reject Dad's offer.

***

"Good afternoon everyone. We will be discussing Causes and Effects of a Broken Family", that's the topic that was assigned to us. I clicked on our PowerPoint presentation as Yuseff distribute the handouts.

"As we all know, Family is the basic unit of society..." I said as my introduction.

I am confident that we will finish the report smoothly as we have prepared it well. The first part of our report went well. There are few questions thrown at us but I believed we addressed them correctly.

Now, it's Yuseff's turn to report. I can see that he came prepared as he is no longer looking at his notes and just focus on explaining what the PowerPoint is showing.

"...there are lots of negativity that affects society produced by broken families..." - Yuseff

We know the topic is very sensitive so we expect that some might ask questions or raised some concerns about it.

"...society has series of problems like rape, theft, murder/homicide, violence, noise pollution, and others. It said that all these problems are from people who lacked proper teaching at their home; usually, those are broken families..." - Yuseff

Yuseff stopped his report when Red raised his hand.

"Yes?" Yuseff acknowledges Red.

"I just can't help but react. Negativity produced by those in the broken families? Societal problems USUALLY caused by broken families? Do you have the statistics for this?" Red asked seriously.

"We do have our reference. And as we have said, we are not generalizing. But if you take a look at the background of those who commit wrongs in the society, they are usually from broken families." Yuseff answered immediately.

"Well, they might be from broken families, but that's only one of the MANY factors. You were talking as if it's the sole reason." Red said, still contradicting what Yuseff has said.

Red did not attempt to hide the annoyance in his face. I was about to speak when Yuseff replied.

"I'm sorry Mr. Salazar, I think you are getting the wrong context here. We are not here to condemn anybody, neither you. We are just here to report on this matter. If you have personal issues, let us not bring them out here. Let us be subjective of our perspectives. We are not your enemy. Yes, we do have statistics to refer from, and we also agree that it's not the only reason." Yuseff defended.

I could feel the tension between the two of them.

"Then you must be clear! It's as if you are magnifying the issue of broken families being the root cause of negative behaviors and deviances within our society. Come on, you should be straight with your facts." He looked at Yuseff with a challenging expression.

I know that my classmates have also noticed the tension. I heard them whispering about it.

"Sorry, but that is not the only content of our report. Earlier, my partner Sabrina already discussed the causes. And now, we are just in the 'Effects of Broken Families in the Society' section which is in the middle part of our report. If you let us go through more, maybe we can agree later on." Yuseff calmly said and stared directly at Red.

"Fine. Just don't be biased." Red uttered before he sat down.

"That will be noted." Yuseff blandly said before presenting again to the class "Broken Families not only affects society. The ones who suffer more are its children..."

***

*Acquaintance Party*

I'm wearing a tube sparkly light blue gown paired with a glittery masquerade mask.

If I were to be asked, I will not attend the acquaintance party but my parents insisted that my gown is ready and even asked Cheska to help them convinced me to attend the party.

Mommy hired a glam team just for this event. Imagine how pressured I am, and they made sure that I don't have a choice but to say YES.

I'm outside the venue and I could already hear the loud music from inside but I'm still hesitant to went in.

"Hi. Why aren't you coming in yet? a girl suddenly asked me. She's already wearing a mask and she looked gorgeous in her beautiful red gown.

"Sorry, Louise by the way," she added and smiled at me before extending her hand for a shake.

"Sabrina," I smiled and shake our hands.

"Let's go, the program is about to start'" she said and then started walking.

I found out that Louise is taking Civil Engineering, and it's also her first time attending the Acquaintance Party. There was never a dull moment with Louise she is so bubbly and never runs out of topic. Louise and I were seated at one table. There were five of us at a table, one man and four women. The girls are busy doing some retouch on their makeups.

According to the program, there's a part later that we will all take off our masks, the reason why others are busy checking their looks even behind their masquerade masks.

"Look! Check how handsome Red is. He really looks like a prince. A modern prince." one of the girls at our table said.

I immediately followed where they were looking. I saw a man wearing a prince-like outfit. He really looked like a prince from those fairy tale books, and the mask added a mysterious effect on his whole look. Wait, how did they find out that it was Red??

My question was answered when I heard them talked about a tagged picture in one of Red's social media account. She's holding her phone and showed the picture to her friends.

I looked at Red again and suddenly remembered what happened after we did our report. I tried to talk to him after our class.

Flashback:

"Red," I called him. He stopped walking and turned to me. I can see no emotions on his face " Here's your shirt!

Thank you!" I said and handed his shirt. He looked at me and then shifted his gaze to his shirt. His jaw clenched.

Without saying a word, he just nodded, get his shirt, and turned his back to me.

What happened? Isn't he going to say something? Like how he waited for me at the Cafe just to asked about his shirt!

"Red, wait!" I called him, but he just continued walking like he didn't hear me calling him.