~Chapter 29~

They were green. As green as Mother Nature, as green as an Amazon forest, as green as a green flag. She found herself getting lost in those pools of green until her name was uttered by the man beneath her.

"Beautiful." is the only word she could mumble. Rio of course heard this for he flushed bright red making him more adorable. Emilia couldn't help but plant kisses on his cheek for which he giggled like a child that soon transformed into moans as she travelled further down from his cheek to his neck, adorning his pale skin with red marks. They stared at each other for a while enjoying each other's comfortable presence by being snugly tucked in each other's embrace.

"Pizza?"

"B-burger?"

"Okay burger it is then." She slid off him making him miss her warmth already to order burger through phone. Rio too wore his t shirt and upon catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror of her dressing table, he yelped.

"Mia, what have you done?" the said person peeped into the mirror and caught the glimpse of her handiwork. She made a proud face that earned her a "There's nothing to be proud of!" from her boyfriend. She chuckled as she hopped down the stairs ignoring her yelling boyfriend.

Even though Roschend is a small suburban town, it has become urbanized greatly during the past few years. Shopping malls, cafes, multiplexes have established and helped in the growth of business. During the following weekend, two best friends met up at the gate of the school. They had planned to do some window shopping today, looking at the latest collections of dresses of the shops. The blonde and the pink haired girl chewing bubblegum looked around in various stores and they were cooing inside a soft toy store commenting how cute a certain dinosaur soft toy was when the blonde turned back upon her name being called.

Unfortunately it turned out to be someone whom she never wanted to see. That person is accompanied by a little girl who stared at the pink haired girl with her mouth agape full of curiosity.

"You." The one who destroyed my life and my relationship with mother.

"What do you mean by 'you', Emilia? Its Dad."

"I don't remember having the likes of you as 'Dad'."

"Emilia!"

"Ugh! Stop taking my name, you are making it filthy." She grimaced and looked at her friend. "Let's get out of this place."

If seen properly, one could easily spot the trembling of the blonde's hand that were gripped tightly and comfortingly by her bestie as they exited the store, the mall until they reached far enough to be followed by that person. The blonde squatted down on the road preventing the other girl from moving further, having and panting while clutching her backpack like a desperate life line support.

The next school day, Rio had a surprise for Emilia.

"Uh…um…so I know t-that this is a sensitive t-topic b-but….I saw u-uh yo-your mother last e-evening."

He had to mention about this when I am eating.

Immediately, she lost her appetite, she lowered her spoon beside the half eaten pasta on her plate. She liked today's pasta and was deciding to get a second helping because it was exceptionally delicious, unfortunately, Rio had to go ahead and ruin it. His cluelessness sometimes irks her. She had already been in a bad mood ever since her encounter with her 'step-father' at the mall and although the pasta managed to cheer her to some extent, it became tasteless now.

"And?"

"During my part time s-shift, I s-saw her, w-we locked e-eyes, she l-looked pretty m-mad be-because s-she scof-ffed at me."

"So?"

"S-so, I-I was w-wondering, if I should a-apologise….?" Rio mumbled the last portion of his sentence but his girlfriend had already heard it. When he looked up to her face from his twiddling fingers, he wasn't ready to see the expression on her face.

Emilia saw how her boyfriend was surprised to see her angry, she wanted to scream and yell at him but being a clueless bastard, but she controlled herself as her rational self took hold of her brain; "Rio." She spoke with great restraint.

"Y-yeah?" He realized that he had fucked up. Royally fucked up. Why did he mention it to her? He should've left it alone! He knew that she was in a seemingly bad mood from morning, he wanted to ask her but hesitated and then he just had to tell about her mother. He should've waited until her mood got better! But what if the mood got worse again?

"Never…."

"E-eh?" He was so busy with his internal blabbering that he didn't even realize that she had started to talk.

"...Never ever apologize to that woman of all people. Never look at her, even if you do, look away. In fact, don't bring her up in front of me anymore." She finished gravely, took her unfinished pasta, dumped it in the dustbin and stalked out of the cafeteria like some vengeful ghost.

"OooooooHhhhhhhhhhhhh, hey hey Daniel Daniel, looks like it's trouble in paradise." Tim tapped Daniel's arm. The addressed teenager looked at the table where a mortified nerd sat alone. His eyes hardened. He remembered how he was embarrassingly knocked out by this lanky son of a bitch in the washroom. He had opened his eyes in the infirmary.

She was right, he is indeed a useless bully. He couldn't even take down one thin, lanky idiot who does nothing but remained glued to books all day with zero sense of fashion and totally not worth of someone like Emilia. Soon, his cronies crowded and stopped the nerd of the targeted table from exiting the cafeteria. Daniel was never a man of words, he preferred his fists more than his mouth. But today he surprised himself and his fellow jocks by sitting on the same seat where his ex-girlfriend sat few minutes back opposite of the nerd covered in bangs.

How does he even see?

 Moreover, this seat is still warm…..

"Erm, Danny?" One of the jock threw a curious glance at their leader who sat down instead of punching the daylights out of his rival.

"Ahem, sit down all of you."

"Eh?" "Huh?" "Sit down?" "Is he joking?" glances were exchanged among the jocks but they sat down hesitantly. Rio narrowed his eyes behind his bangs and he mentally calculated that how he'll escape if things start to go south.

"Today we'll be civil."