Sinclair Secrets

Chapter 6: Poor Arielle got bullied... again.

"What took you so long?" Patty immediately asked as soon as she saw me walk out of the lobby. She had been pacing back and forth beside Vaughn's car with her phone on her ear which she immediately pocketed when she saw me.

Vaughn was leaning by the car's door and looked at me with searching eyes.

"Wala. Nag-restroom lang ako." Sabi ko nalang na bumuntong-hininga

Patty raised an eyebrow. "Pero bakit parang ang dilim-dilim n'yang itsura mo?"

I looked down. "Wala lang siguro ako sa mood ngayon. Tayo na?"

I walked over to Vaughn so I could get in the car. He didn't budge. He still had that look on his face.

I let out a sigh. "It was really nothing, Vaughn."

He still seemed unconvinced. He was eyeing me like he knew there's something I'm not telling him.

"I just wanna go home." I said tiredly.

He was about to open the car's door when we heard somebody talking.

"Nakakainis talaga!" Boses babae at parang gigil na gigil ito. They were coming out of the lobby. I realized it was Nikka's. Vaughn and Patty must have recognized it too coz they too stopped and listened.

"Girl, she's scary talaga kanina. Akala ko talaga sasabunutan n 'ya na ta'yo!" It was Venus.

"And did you see her eyes? It was really creepy. I felt like she was gonna pull out a bloody dagger from her bag anytime and-"

"Shut it!" Nikka hissed at Cheryll.

They clammed up when they saw us staring at them. They looked even more uneasy when they saw Vaughn was there. Their eyes shifting from Patty to Vaughn and to me.

Nikka forced a shaky smile and said, "Hi-Vaughn. We were just about to go home. Kay, bye!" She said and they were out of there so fast.

Lalo akong nawala sa mood. I opened the car door, got in and slammed it shut.

Vaughn and Patty got in a minute after. Tahimik lang sila but I know they already have a good idea of what happened.

"You okay?" Patty asked when we were already on their way out the school gate.

"Okay lang.Don't worry about me." I answered and looked outside the window.

"Because?" Vaughn countered. Mahina lang pagpapatakbo nya ngayon which means he wants to talk.

"I can take care of myself." I said quietly.

"I remembered the last time you said that you almost drowned in a pool." He added nonchalantly.

"Your admirers almost drowned me in the pool." I emphasized. Last year yun nangyari, on ourJunior-Senior's Ball. It was actually partly because of him kaya yun nangyari. He had a lot of requests then to be escorted by him but he dumped them all and said he'd rather go with his bestfriend instead. I actually refused since I already had the premonition something bad would happen to whoever girl dares go hand in hand with him. Kaso sabi niya kung hindi lang din naman ako ang magiging date niya sa Ball, hindi na s'ya aattend. No Vaughn means No Ball for me since hindi papayag ang kuya kung wala si Vaughn sa mga ganoong school events and I badly wanted to attend kasi pupunta sa event na'yun si Bamboo, yung love na love kong singer. In the end, we went together at yun nga yung nagyari. Marunong ako actually lumangoy pero di ko kinaya ang bigat ng gown ko that time kaya muntikan na'ko malunod kung wala lang may nakapansin sa akin at di ako nasagip ni Vaughn. Ang porma-porma naming pumunta doon, basang-basa kami umuwi.

"Bessy..." awat ni Patty.

I fell silent. Galit na galit actually si Vaughn noon. The party was put to a screeching halt. He bawled out the manager of the hotel for their security negligence. He summoned the culprits to turn themselves in or he's 'gonna f***g call in NBI and turn hell over to find them'. When still nobody showed up, he did exactly what he said and called in NBI because he said it was an attempted 'murder' and he could never forgive whoever did it. It was a complete disaster back then, which ended up to ten of our girl schoolmates getting expelled from school, the hotel owner lifting all the expenses as compensation for their negligence and Principal Sheerman desperately begging Vaughn to hush things out for the sake of the school's reputation. I had never seen him go mad like that before and I never wanted to see him like that again. Ever.