Chapter Twelve 2/2
The house is empty and she stays in the kitchen while Diego goes upstairs to his room.
Lucas arrives after a few minutes and sees Marina alone and says:
"Is everything okay? Did something happen?"
"No, no, everything is fine."
"Wow, you look beautiful as always."
"Thank you."
He approaches her and gives her a hug, but she pulls back and says:
"Don't do that."
"It's just a hug. I'm not going to kiss you."
"Just the same. I've had enough stresses for today and I don't want to stress about you too."
"Diego stressed you out? Ah, but I'm going over there to take care of it now."
"Hey, relax, he didn't do anything. He's not the one who stressed me out. It was a family matter."
"Okay. Can you help me with the preparations? Here's an apron so you won't get dirty.
"Yes, I can, come on."
They go into the kitchen and bake a chocolate cake with whipped cream and strawberries, snacks, candies, and when they're done, they go into the living room to decorate the place.
They take the balls and make some bunches and hang them around the place, and they take a sign that says HAPPY BIRTHDAY and hang it in the middle part of the room.
Then his friend takes a table and with her help they organize everything they have done on it and when they are done, a few minutes go by, until they hear someone knocking on the door.
Diego comes out of his room, goes to the living room and says:
"I saw through the window that it's our grandmother. Hide and turn off the light. "
The three do as asked and as they open the door, they end up with a surprise.
As they open the door, Diego and Lucas are faced with their grandmother all dirty in yellow and white and one of them says:
"Maw Maw, why are you all dirty?"- Lucas asks.
"That was in a cooking class my loves. I ended up knocking over the bowl of eggs on my clothes and they made fun of me by throwing flour on me because they said I would "look great" which didn't work out so well.
"Maw Maw, come in, take a shower and come into the living room," says Diego.
"You did this surprise for me?"-she says holding back tears of emotion-"Who is this beautiful young lady?"
"This is Marina and she came here for your birthday Grandma"- says Diego.
"Wow, what emotion. Welcome Marina. I'll be right back, I'm going to take a shower. Make yourself at home dear."
"Thank you and happy birthday."
Their grandmother goes upstairs to her room and the three sit on the couch to await her.
Dona Ermina comes downstairs wearing a flowered dress of white with blue and with her natural white hair loose that is straight to shoulder height.
The party starts after a few minutes and Marina gives her her present, and she puts it on happily.
The two chat while the boys remain silent and eat their snacks.
They break the cake at 8 pm and the birthday party ends at 8:30 pm.
Lucas takes advantage of the early hour and invites the girl to go out on the balcony to watch the stars. Diego notices and gets upset.
The two sit on the grass at the back of the house and watch the sky.
Marina thinks about Jura and what she said to him via SMS and suddenly Lucas holds her hand and says:
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I was just watching the moon."
"The moon is beautiful isn't it? Just like you."
"Thank you."
She remains silent and Lucas takes advantage and moves closer to the girl. He looks at her deep in her eyes.
Marina starts to get a little afraid and turns away from him. At this moment her cell phone rings to tell her that she has a message.
She excuses herself and opens the message:
"You have no idea how long I've waited to hear you tell me this, but the truth is that I got tired of waiting for you Marina. I still love you, but I couldn't wait my whole life for you. I'm dating a girl who lives nearby. I hope you understand that I can't trade right for wrong. May you be happy. Good night. Ass: Jurandir."
Marina tries to hold back the urge to cry, but eventually a tear falls from her eye.
The boy approaches her and hugs her, asking her what happened, but she can't say, she just cries and sobs non-stop.
After almost an hour of crying, she manages to calm down and they sit down again on the grass with Marina lying on his lap with him caressing her face and wiping her tears away.
She ends up telling him why she is so sad and he says that even though he has known her for such a short time he likes her in a way he has never felt for any girl and asks him for a chance to win her over.
After talking for so long, Lucas checks the time and it is already 9:40 pm and he says that he needs to take her home.
Marina enters the house again and says goodbye to their grandmother. Diego is a little serious, but hugs the girl and says that at school they talk better.
The two of them (Marina and Lucas) drive to her house. They talk about a variety of subjects and she arrives home at 10:00 PM.
When she was about to get out of the car, Lucas held her by the arm and asked:
"Are you really going to be okay?"
"Yes."
"If you want, I'll stay here with you."
"And how would you stay here?"
"If you leave the window open I'll climb up that ladder over there and we'll stay up all night talking and when you're asleep I'll go home."
She gets a little pensive, because she is in need of someone to talk to, but is afraid that her parents might see him and says:
"What if my parents see you in my room or your car in front of our house?"
"Rest assured. Leave the window open and I'll take care of the rest."
"Okay. I'll see you in a little while, then."
She gets out of the car and heads toward her house. As she enters she sees her parents in the living room watching TV and Sandra says:
"Did you have fun daughter?"
"Uhum."
Sandra realizes that she is not well and says:
"Did something happen honey?"
"It's nothing. I just want to go to sleep because I have an early class tomorrow."
"Okay. Good night daughter" - both say in chorus (Sandra and Miguel).
Marina goes up to her room, takes a shower, puts on blue sweatpants and a white blouse and leaves the window of her room open.
She sits on the bed and thinks about what happened to her today until she hears someone calling her.
Marina gets out of bed and goes toward the balcony and sees Lucas. He asks if he can go upstairs now and she allows him to, and he uses the stairs to get around.
When they arrive, they both sit down on the floor and he takes a bag where he brought some sweets, snacks, and some board games.
"I brought this to cheer you up a little."
"Thank you, but what's in this bag?"
"Let me see here: Chocolate, two snacks (drumstick and a cheese risoli with ham), a bottle of grape juice and some board games like chess and dominoes."
"That's nice, but you have to leave before dawn, because if anyone sees you here I'm lost."
"You can leave when you sleep and I'll leave, now let's forget our problems and have some fun."
The two have a snack and spend the night playing, talking, teasing each other.
The weather changes and starts to relampear and Marina gets worried about how he will leave in this time and Lucas decides to leave at once, because it's already 4:14 a.m. and they have an early class tomorrow.
Lucas hugs her tight and says that if there is anything she can call him and he will come running to help her.
She thanks him for everything and he goes down the stairs to leave.
She realizes that her room is a mess, she cleans up and throws some things away, then takes another shower and puts on a lilac and white nightgown, puts on her cell phone to wake her up and falls asleep after a few minutes.
Marina ends up waking up late for not having heard her cell phone wake up and she quickly gets ready putting on her uniform, then she goes downstairs and gets an apple and goes to the porch to get her bike to go to school.
Since she doesn't know any shortcuts, she takes the lane and is late for class.
Luckily there was no inspector around and she doesn't get a warning.
When she gets to class, she doesn't find Lucas anywhere, and sits in the back of the room.
The classes never seem to go by and when it's finally break time she heads for the cafeteria and is startled to see Lucas kissing a girl.