The determination

After Mai had heard the confession, she didn't have any time to process what Simon was really saying. She was hoping she could at least see his eyes, or what type of face he was making, but she saw none of it.

For he was already running with his bike, and heading straight back into his own house. Leaving her once again, on her own, in front of her doorway.

'Wait! What, what is with all these boys running away without letting me say anything!' She screamed inside. 'Do I not have a second to think about what has just happened?'

Nonetheless, it was clear that Simon had just confessed his feelings to her. All the thoughts she had, everything Chris had said, it was all true. Heading inside, she took off her shoes and headed straight up the stairs.

"Hey Mai, your back late!" Her mother shouted. " Wait, where are you going? Are you not going to have dinner!"

Ignoring her mothers calls, she went to her room. Lied down on her bed and lifted her pillow slightly in front of her face.

"1…2…3.. AHHHHH!" She screamed into the pillow, the sound being muffled.

Hearing Mai's screams by the staircase, her mother thought it might be best to leave her be.

When she had finally run out of breath, she took the pillow off and her face was sweaty, her heart was beating rapidly. Every time she thought about the words spoken to her, she grabbed the pillow again screaming into it. Repeating this process again and again, finally she was completely worn out to the point where she could no longer speak.

Her throat was feeling horse, and now this just seemed like another problem to her. With everything going wrong, she had one person to blame.

'Maybe Simon was joking. He's going to come and pick me up for school tomorrow, and tell me that it was all a joke, right? Just like he did before.'

Even though she was thinking this, trying to tell herself it wasn't true, she knew it was. Of course he wasn't joking, it was the only thing that made sense.

'Why did this happen though?' She started to think. 'In the future, I ended up with Chris, but when I met the future Simon, he didn't talk about any of this. Did I do something to change what happened, or did he just keep it all a secret?

'I mean, this is a pretty big reason why maybe the two of us stopped talking.' She thought.

Thinking about it all too much was driving her crazy, and she didn't know what to do. She liked having Simon as a friend, he was her best friend, but at the same time, she wanted to continue having her future with Chris.

Was it possible to have both? Or in the end, was the future she had experienced inevitabile. Going through her phone, she had thought about texting Simon, or at least waiting for a reply from him, but it never did come.

That's when her eyes saw another name, Shirley.

'And I thought he really liked her.'

Before she knew it, she had already pressed the call button, she didn't really know what she was doing but Shirley had eventually answered.

"Oh Mai, this is the first time you've called me, I guess something interesting must have happened with you and Chris that you wanted to tell me?" Shirley sad, cheekly laughing on the other end.

"Unfortunately, I think this might be one of the worst days of my life." Mai replied. She thought about whether she should tell Shirley or not, but now she realised that everything Simon had said about her was most likely a lie, and wanting to have someone to confide in, she did so anyway.

"I thought as much." Shirley replied. "Sometimes being the new girl, things are more obvious to the eye. You could tell the way he looked at you. You know when me and him sat next to each other on the bus, when we spoke about you, his tone of voice and everything he said was completely different."

"Really..." Mai said as her heart started to beat faster and her stomach started to flutter, but then, when the image of Simon came into her head, right now all she wanted to do was punch him.

"I now understand why you were trying to set the two of us up as well. I think deep down, you knew this as well Mai, but the question you need to ask yourself now that he has confessed, is do you like him back?" Shirley asked.

Thinking about it long and hard, she and Simon had spent so much time together, she was wondering if there ever was that spark inside her being felt.

"I love Simon." Mai answered. "As a friend, but I just don't feel the same way about him as I do Chris."

"And I understand that well." Shirley replied. "We can't force ourselves to like someone and at the same time it feels like we can't control who we like. Look, when we're at school, I'll try my best to keep Simon out of the picture for you, and despite everything I've said I want you to think of one more thing, as I end this call.

"Are you sure you're picking the right boy?" Shirley asked. The call ended between the two of them there.

The call with Shirley at first had reconfirmed a lot of Mai's feelings, she was glad she called Shirley, but noted what she said at the end.

"Damn you Simon, I can't have unpredictable things keep happening," She said, as she stormed downstairs and headed to the kitchen.

Her mother, seeing what type of mood she was in, decided to stay out of her way, that was until she had grabbed an onion, and the Chili sauce from the fridge.

"Umm mom, what is Sis going to do with that?" Cindy asked.

A small bowl was placed to the side. Straight away, Mai started to cut the onions, soon her eyes started watering up and she would collect the tiers in the bowl, but what she did next truly shocked them.

Cindy was left with her mouth wide open, and her mother had dropped the cabbage she was holding in place. For Mai, had rubbed child sauce right underneath her eyes.

The pain was searing hot, and she continued to put the tears into the bowl.

'I can't make myself cry, but I can do this. No matter what I'm going to the future.'