Chapter Two.

Five years ago, California...

****

"Who would believe that--" Abby yelled, but the restless heavy pouring seemed to had gotten in her way.

"Huh!" I turned back to grab the last words I'd missed, still managing to escape the ferocious beatings that came with the rain. Strong gusty wind blew before my face, causing goosebumps all over skin. I shivered in cold and felt my breathing harder and my chest tightening by the minute.

"The rain!" She managed to say before sliding down on the slippery ground. It wasn't a pretty sight with the surging water nearly blinding my eyes, but that mouth of mine was still able to manage a roaring laughter while having to reluctantly sip in showering cloud tears falling from the sky. It was so funny having to leave the mall with new sets of expensive wears, only to forget to shop for at least one umbrella. Although, Abby did offered we'd better gotten one since the weather forecast that evening was a stormy one. But, pfft! Those weather bullshits were mostly garbage lies. One time it made me carry an umbrella through out the fucking sunny day, with no single drop of rainfall. Who was to say that day would be any different?

"You shouldn't be..., you shouldn't laugh right now!" She wheezed as she tried getting up. It even became more funny as she continued tossing back and fourth on the floor like a penguin, but I quickly rushed to assist her get up.

"You look stupid with that flicker on!" I just had to give my honest review on a friend's outfit.

"What!?" She shouted directly at my ear, almost deafening it.

"Nothing." I drawled out. It didn't matter if she heard me or not. The remorseless weather was already catching up on us, and I might had loved catching ball as a football keeper in kindergarten, but the one thing I'd never liked to catch was the fever.

We hurried to escape the splatting and slapping of the increasingly heave of cloudburst. We'd only manage to cover a few spot before the eerie darkness had highlighted over our heads, like a new season premier of the merciless rain was about to be released. It was funny how pile of water had already flooded the Northern ruins of downtown Sacramento. Plastic dumps and refuges littered the floor as our already sore and drenched legs waddled in them. We were supposed to quickly get one or two (or a few hundreds) things at Arden Fair Mall, then get back home quickly with the driver, right in time dinner. But here we were, scurrying down the empty clammy streets of California because our idiot driver was nowhere to be found. "Lets just wait," Abby had sweetly offered again, and of course I'd completely ignored her.

"Zoe!" I snapped out at Abby's cry, and  my eyes followed her stretched out hands to a cover shelter. A shady looking worn out store just a few blocks from where we were. At least I wasn't alone. She was here, with me. And so we raced on to the spot to escape for a while. That memory had been the best of my life so far. The harsh and enraged moment of the cloud's heavy pour had helped washed my eyes clean, and provided reality to my very sight. A friend is what the heart needs all the time because friendship is a single soul living in two bodies.

My other half, my soulmate was maybe not a boy. It was her.

Present day, London...

****

The buzz of the school bell got students immediately evacuating out of class for lunch, but for some reason it just held me still. Normally though, I wasn't the type to belittle myself eating in some cage like a wild animal with the other kids. Plus, I didn't even have lunch. I just munch on whatever goodies I find in my purse at that moment, where ever I found myself at. And I rarely see myself on the chairs of the school's cafeteria. So I was used to the aroma of my favorite caramel scented candy and my Chanel Coco Mademoiselle perf that spelled out; My personal space!

The soft hint of the afternoon's sun that partially escaped through the windows adjacent to me eclipsed before my eyes, suddenly transferring my gaze to the hooded figure of a tall, slender person in front of me. His face gently contoured with the dark shade that came with the hood on his head. How rude of this person.

"You get a zero." I commended him. He may had thought it was brave of him standing up to me like that, but I will never be interested in the St Rudford's boys. But really, it's not everyday you see a boyfriend material walk up to you like that and I must say I was a little impressed. His silence that probably only aroused perplexity made me sigh in surcease, still I had to give it to him for his brilliant plan into tricking me he was bad enough to go out with me. He deserved a peck.

"Mr Marie's daughter?" He asked in the most softest tone I'd ever heard; deep, cool, sexy in a way that would turn even the most virgins of all on.

"Who's asking?" I didn't really cared.

"Your new nemesis." He bluntly replied. New nemesis? "You should better watch your back now." He warned, at least that was what it was supposed to be. A warning. Or even a threat, but it just came out blank like he'd rehearsed his line a dozen times and still got it wrong. A small image of his lower lips caught my eyes before he paced off. The warm sunlight fell on me again and for the first time in years, I felt like that again. He couldn't just disappear like that. Who the hell was he anyway? I rushed out of the classroom and surveyed round the hallway, only for me to realize the dreary isolation catching up with me once again. Disappointedly, I stepped back to the classroom with the empty chairs and desks as my company. A caramel sweet dropped from my purse and I quickly realised the unlocked zipper. The ground just probably wanted to have his own take so I did the one thing that was expected of anyone. The students in the cafeteria could likely have all heard the stomping of my feet from their various seats. Loud, aggressive, also the reasonable thing to do. "No one, not even the ground is going to take what's mine." I muttered. Call it jealousy or not, but rather than taking my stuffs, I'd destroyed it instead so neither of us could have it. That is, if I'd failed to destroy you first though.

"You know I always thought you were this crazy person," a voice behind me said, and I almost jumped out of my skin upon even hearing the first word alone. Ahh, sneaky bastard. I raised my head up high, my back still facing the direction of the person. "Now, I see how my instinct was always right." He finished, being all proud and stupid I guessed.

"And you--" I stopped half way, noticing the person behind me as I turned. He was back again. "You?"

"Yes, me. I couldn't continue to run and hide any longer. And that threat, i'm so sorry for that." He confessed. Fuck! It was so romantic that I paused in the moment with my arms akimbo to study the confident being. The hood of his sweatshirt was off his head now so his messy caramel brown hair was visible. Tiger brown eyes that stood well on his fair skin, carefully observing me in admiration, and pierced lips so fine and pink firmly flattened like; 'If I spoke I would be too amorous, which I do not want to be'. Why was he super tall though? Hmm, I can manage. So what, he's like several feet taller than me? He'd have to do. I hated it when anyone was more superior than I was, so I prefer my guys quite exactly same heights as me. That is if the universe one day allows me worthy enough of a man.

"Are you done?" He teased. I was already falling in love. Damn he was cute. But I mustn't show it. My pride was already knocking at the door.

"Nice pompadour. The curls are rather messy however--"

"It's not a pompadour." He corrected, but I knew very well what that hairstyle was. Man I hated Pompadour. Same with punk.

"And that pierced lips by the way is so sexy." I ignored.

"Zoe," he called, and I realized that he'd even knew my name."

"He even knows my name." I blurted out, grinning from ear to ear.

"We go to the same school, dummy." Dummy? "And who wouldn't know you? You're famous for all the crimes you make, don't you know?" he lashed out, and I couldn't tell if that was a new way of being sexy or he was just angry. Then it hit me.

"So you want money as well." I sighed in disappointment. Some people with a striking sense of confident would usually approach me, asked for money, threatening to sue me for one stupid thing I'd done to them if I didn't settle them. In other to shut them up (mostly because I'd promised to be a good girl to my dad, and I try to live up to that expectation) I'd call my lawyer and he'd shut them up with a reasonable amount of cash. Sadly, I was still the popular monster who was bound to be single till I died.

"What?" he asked.

"Well I guess you're not here to propose your feelings to me, are you? You just want money like the others." I dragged a chair in front and sat down.

"Money? I'm not here for that." He pulled a chair as well and sat down directly opposite me, striking an eye to eye contact. I just rolled my eyes and anticipated as to what crime he would propose I'd committed this time. "Your father is about to ruin a poor family, and you need to stop him."

"My father?" For one moment, I was actually relieved it wasn't he was lashing out at. "Well then, he's a busy man but I can buy you a few minute of his time. Say... Next Sunday evening?"

"By then, he'd had won." He commented.

"Won what? I don't know if I have any business or say in this--"

"My family would be bankrupted. I need your help. Please." He pleaded, very convincing in an odd way.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked.

"Talk to your father. Convince him or something. Listen, there's this small restaurant along the road, my dad owns it and has been running it for quite a while now. It's a family restaurant that my late grandmother had been managing actually, before she passed away. For years now that has been the source of our daily income." He sighed. "And now, your dad...he, he's going to take it down. He bought the whole of that area, and he's literally going to take down the buildings to open up a new company. He can't do that."

"So in a nut shell, you still want money?" I questioned. He clearly wanted money to start up a new restaurant.

"Are you even listening at all? Businesses are about to burn down in a matter of weeks, or even days. What are they supposed to do by then? What are they supposed to eat? How!-" He pointed out his claims, his voice growing louder and louder by the minute, and just as he began realising as well, he lowered his voice again. "How are they supposed to live? He can't do this. You can't let him do this. I'm not going to let him." He got up then began to take his leave, but stopped half way to the door and turned to face me. "You know what, I thought you would be better. I thought there would be this, this tiny amount of good in you, and that others would actually be worth a little bit to you. But I guess I was wrong. You're just a heartless being like your father." With those last words, he stormed off. He was wrong again. I wasn't like my father. I was worse. My father is a good man, I'm the devil, not him. It didn't take long before I realised that I had the upper hand here. That I could stop all of this and saved some lives. That thought strangely felt good. Who'd ever thought that I would ever want to help others besides myself. And that being good, was actually...well, good.

Maybe he'd just hypnotized me in some kind of way, I didn't know. But I did observed that I liked it. I like me and whatever it was that he'd done to make me liked me.