Lifeline (Marc Guiu)

Chapter 7

Alicia didn't have too much time to think about everything that had happened with Marc, though certain parts of their time together were being replayed by her brain at the worst possible moments. But once she said goodbye to him, Alicia had to go back home and do more homework. And then on Friday she had a day full of classes. Her plans for the weekend kept her pretty busy too because she was going to be with Victoria most of the time so Friday was a day for getting all of her uni work ready for the next week.

"What should I get for you and Vicky?", asked her mum while they all had breakfast on Saturday.

"What do you mean?"

"She'll have lunch here. What should I cook?"

Alicia sighed. "Mum, Vicky is barely eating so don't bother with a huge lunch because she'll just have two bites and then will feel bad for rejecting the food you made for her. Remember that time you made that fish she hated and she ate all of it just so she wouldn't upset you?"

Her parents laughed. Victoria loved Alicia's mum and had always wanted to act perfect in front of her. But now things were a little more complicated.

"What can I do then? Any ideas?"

"How about you make a big salad to share? And then we can all eat as much as we want from it so it's not putting too much pressure on her".

"Sounds good", said Alicia's mum, picking up her phone to write down the ingredients she had to buy for the salad. "I'll get some chicken too and whoever wants it can have a portion or two of that as well".

"Is Vicky doing better?", now it was her dad's turn to ask.

"It's hard to tell but she got some good news this week. So at least she's not feeling worse".

"What news?"

"Just something a friend told her. Not a friend we share. One of those from her photography classes. We're all trying to help".

Alicia picked up her bowl and took it to the dishwasher. She also tried to hide her face because she had lied. The good news Victoria received was finding out she wasn't pregnant. Alicia had bought a test for her and she was very relieved to see it was negative.

"I'll get everything ready for the sleepover at Vicky's now. I'm going for a walk before lunch if that's ok".

"Sure, honey", said her mum. "Are you meeting anyone?"

"No. I just want to breathe some fresh air".

And that was another lie, because she was meeting Marc. Just to have a drink this time. They were friends too. They could just have a drink and go for a walk together.

"Hi!"

"Hey!", Marc waved back when he saw Alicia approaching and offered her the drink he had bought for her. "Your delicious iced matcha".

"Thank you. Did you have another sip?"

"You know what? I actually did. Just to confirm it was bad and it is. Really bad. But hey, you like it. Your taste couldn't be fully perfect. No one's is".

"You thought my taste was perfect before?"

"Well", started Marc, smirk on his face. "You like me so that says a lot".

"Yeah, please don't tell anyone. It's pretty embarrassing".

Marc laughed and he kept looking at Alicia while they walked. Did she looked prettier today?, he kept wondering.

"You're meeting Vicky later, right?"

"Yeah. I'll have lunch with my parents and head to her place. We'll just watch movies and I'll try to get her to do something girly like face masks and all that. She used to love that".