Bittersweet Moments

22 | More S'mores

22 | More S'mores

"He what?"

"And you what?"

"And he did what!"

My eyes rolling skyward, I pulled out another blade of grass from the backyard. Mitch's back porch was normally calm and peaceful, in contrast to my house where smoke prevailed and cars and people caused noise pollution. Mitch's backyard had a humongous tree in it, and a tire swing hanging from one of its branches. At the side was the vegetable garden and it was all enclosed in a picket fence.

But now, Mitch was tearing through the silence when she freaked out over my words. I had dropped three bombshells on her - Lawrence's kiss, Brennan's tickets, and Maira's offer. I had said them all in one breath, and I wasn't looking forward to explaining the whole thing word per word to her. I'd rather lock the memories up and live in Tumblr.

"Okay," Mitch took heavy breaths, "Let's start from the beginning. Slowly now, please."

It was our first time to meet up since days, and she had missed out on lots. School finally took a breather, but that didn't mean we had a break on homework. In fact, we had a Social Studies project to take care of at this moment, and we had taken an important oath not to procrastinate no matter what happened.

"Is it okay if I don't want to talk about it?" I sighed. Then, I watched Mr. Morgan on the vegetable patch, complete with a gardener outfit and a hat. "Wait, what's that your Dad's reading?"

I craned my neck to make out the apple on the book, and its black cover. "Twilight?" I whispered in slight shock.

"Grandma recommended it to him," said Mitch eagerly. In between watering the plants, her father peeked at the book in interest. "Said something about a romance between Bella and Cedric."

Mitch laughed at the wackiness of it all.

"Did she get the name wrong, or is it really a story about LeStrange and Diggory?" A smile cracked on my face, lightening my mood a little. Mr. Morgan was now sitting cross-legged on the grass, absorbed in the story.

Mitch laughed out loud, "Fine. If you don't want to talk about what you just said, then we'll focus on my Dad's reading. But I'm going to demand an explanation sooner or later."

I rested a hand on her shoulder, "Sooner or later it is."

We stretched our legs together over the steps of the back porch. It was a rather hot day, the breeze blowing fairly and swinging the rocking chair back and forth. I had suggested for us to sit underneath the large tree and play with the swing, but Mitch complained about the bugs.

"Why is your dad reading that suddenly? Don't tell me he has read Fifty Shades," I asked Mitch. While I was preoccupied with a blade of grass, she was busy twirling her hair.

She faced me, eyes as wide as saucers, "Darker. He has read darker."

"Ooh," I winced. "You haven't suggested Harry Potter? LOTR?"

"I have, of course!" she said incredulously, "I'm a human being, don't belittle me! He just doesn't want to read because the books apparently are thick and the letters too small."

I snorted. I had nothing against Twilight or Stephanie Meyer, because all authors had their chances after all. But Mitch was all for the Twilight Series when she was thirteen, but she switched sides so quickly once she finished Harry Potter. Since then, she loathed the weak girl and the sparkling bloodsucker.

"I shouted at him!" she told me, "I told him those books were no good! He wouldn't listen! And you know what he planned to read after Twilight?"

I exhaled through my nose, showing off a small sound of amusement, "What?"