Hershey Kisses

Thirtieth Kiss

No doubt about it, I'm inside a hospital. And it wasn't your ordinary hospital. The door slide opens and the nurse steps in with a clipboard.

"You're finally awake, Sophia." mom calmly sighs. Ever since she became a head nurse, she had less time with my brother and I; but we understood her schedule.

"Mom..."

"Don't speak." she comes forward and checks my monitor. "Whatever lie you tell me, Mrs. Rice has explained everything to me." I looked away ashamed of my behavior. "They were able to capture the perpetrator who injured you that same night." That's a relief. "I'm sorry for giving you the wrong idea." In all my life, I never heard her apologized to me before. Then another person storms in without hesitation.

"Is ate awake!!" my brother yells as he sees me wide awake. He runs and hugs me tight crying against my arm. "Ate, you're alive!!!"

"I'm alive." I pat his head slowly. He continues crying as mom pulls him away.

"That's enough, Rufus." she slaps his hand, "She needs to rest."

"Sorry, nanay." he frowns as he walks away. She pushes him out of the door and comes back to me.

"I don't want to know how you met the Rice family after all these years." she starts nagging.

"If you weren't so busy, then maybe you'd know what I've been doing." I groaned turning my body sideways.

"You're right." she sighs, "I may have not been part of your life, even dad. But you should know better when to start acting like an adult. We expected you to become a smart young adult, not an immature girl who runs away from her schoolwork and chases boys."

"She wasn't like that, Mrs. Sho." a voice disagrees her. Bryan came in with his arms folded. "Sure she skipped a few classes, but her grades have been at the top and she was helping out a friend. Nothing more."

"How would you know since you don't go to the same school?" she questions him.

"Because we attended the same classes." Chris and Penny came in. "Sure she was a hopeless romantic throughout the years, but she stayed focused in school even I had to ask for her help.

"It's true," Penny adds on, "Chris is terrible in Chemistry and she helped me in English. Your daughter was terrific as a tutor and a friend." Mom rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue.

"Have you applied for college?" she asks me.

"I did...." I pouted.

"We'll continue our talk once you come back home." she flips the pages on the clipboard and leaves the room. Chris and Penny ran and hugged me tight.

"We missed you, Hayate!!" they repeated said hugging me tighter.

"Hayate...." Bryan raises an eyebrow.

"Right...." I understood what he wanted me to do, "Girls.... my name wasn't really Hayate. It's..."

"Sophia." Chris backed up. "We know. But you're more of a Hayate than a Sophia." Well that was a huge relief.

"Even though Sophia is a prettier name, you're still Hayate to us." Penny pouted, "But I love you, girl."

"Sorry I didn't formally introduce myself." Bryan breaks in our little circle. "Name's Bryan Yoon. You may not know me..."

"Oh she's told us tons about you, loverboy." Penny nudges at him, "She couldn't stop talking about you even when you broke her heart."

"Penny!!" I slapped her arm.

"Besides all that." Chris interrupts, "You're a great friend though in the end. Juliet told us." Juliet?

"Wait Juliet was found!!" I changed the subject. They turned to me realizing I didn't know something.