60 Days

Harbinger

In a huge Glory High cafeteria, Stella, Alina, Ava, and Rue have settled on the seats near the left corner, away from the center and the doors. Ava was happily munching on her chocolate bar while Stella was piercing her salad with her plastic fork while listening to Rue complain about the upcoming test.

"It's not fair; the year is yet to take off, and they want us to give tests."

"Yeah, very unfair," Stella replied halfheartedly while attentively looking at the doors.

Alina looked back towards the door and saw no one. It was as if she was waiting for someone. Ava was too busy to note anything as she licked the inside of the wrapper. Alina smiled and stopped. A pang of pain tore through her heart.

Anna used to love doing that, she thought. She looked at her phone. No texts, no calls. How is she? She asked herself. It had been three days since she decided not to check Anna's Instagram account, but she was missing her best friend. What would happen if she just sent a direct message to her on Instagram?

He opened her Instagram account, and without even looking at her feed, she searched for Anna Garcia. She clicked on her best friend's profile.

Best friend moving on after leaving for different cities would have always been a difficult but very acceptable truth, but Alina couldn't comprehend the truth she was seeing right now on her best friend's profile.

"Alina... Hey..." Stella was looking at Alina with concerned eyes. Why was she concerned? Alina touched her face and felt the warm tears on her cheek. "What's up?" Stella asked. Alina looked at Rue and Ava, who were looking at her with the same eyes.

No, no, no, no, this can't be. Alina prayed. What was she praying for? She looked at her phone once again and stood up.

"Alina?" Stella called. She should have known this or should have seen this coming. With her eyes on the screen and tears filling them, she moved towards the door to escape the cafeteria.

"Alina!" Rue called to her, and that was when she ran into the catalyst of an unwanted chain of events standing in front of her in the shape of a handsome and strong man with those beautiful, deep chocolate eyes.

His arms were holding her in place. She looked at his blurry face and muttered an apology while pushing herself out of his hold.

"Another wanna be." A girl beside the guy snorted. "Hey, Millie found a partner for you." Her words boomed, and a few people laughed.

"Theo..." Rue's voice came from behind her. She must have been following her. "She was just going through something. Don't start with her."

Going through something would be a very casual way of putting in the betrayal Alina was facing. Her best friend, her supposed soulmate, would be made of honor. Her well-wisher. Maybe she was never any of these words at all. Maybe not from the start. She was too blind to see it. But blaming the girl would...

"Yo?" The beautiful girl snapped her fingers in front of Alina's face. "Done daydreaming?" Rude.

"Tessa, I told you..." Rue remarked irritatingly. Tessa... Theo... She rubbed her eyes and looked at them both.

"Fine, get her away from us," Tessa boredly replied to Rue while waving her hands.

I had noticed her somewhere, Alina thought.

"Do I need to ask for a tray, Millie, dear?" Tessa moved away towards Millie, and that's when it hit her. They were the ones on the beach.

The group moved away from Alina and made their way towards the table where Tessa was sitting. Rue nudged Alina's hand, while Stella and Ava were still looking concerned.