The Shadows of Memory Lane (Book 2) [Gxg]

Chapter 30

It was a Tuesday. It wasn't a great Tuesday either. The sun was shining but it seemed as if it wasn't in the mood to and it was only doing so because it was its job. 'Me and you both' thought Jordan as he continued typing. He hardly went to work anymore, he preferred to work from home, so that he didn't have to look at his boss' irritating face.

"I'm leaving Jordan," Kira called out from the living room. At least he was made to believe that she was Kira. His brain still hadn't fully accepted her as the woman he'd fallen in love with when he had been fifteen. She seemed so... dark. Which contradicted his view of her- his light in the darkness. She seemed criminal. She'd killed a person. That piece of information was like one of those lumps of food that got stuck in your oesophagus and refused to budge. It wasn't blocking his whole system of functioning- but it was still a nuisance- hard to digest. 

"Ok hon, have a good day," he shouted back, despite his internal confusions. He was working on ignoring the voices in his head. They were wrong. The voice that spoke boldest was always the one speaking the biggest lies. The weakest was the one that represented the truth. The one that fabricated the honesty left in his muddled lifestyle. He shook his head as he gazed at the screen in front of him and began his monotonous work again.

Kira closed the door quietly behind her and set off. She had to tell her. That Tuesday was going to be the day. It was seven in the evening and she'd just left her house, lying that she was going to get something for work. After Linda and Juan had graduated, she'd continued working as an English teacher in Maple High. And though it made her seem a little weird in the eyes of her students, she never let anyone sit in the seat that used to be Haley's. Whenever she taught, she could almost imagine those brown eyes staring back up at her, intently absorbing all the information they were receiving. Whenever she let them write, she could see the stray curls of hair falling all over her face, annoying her as she wrote. She could here the slight scratching of her pen against the paper of her notebook. She could see the thoughtful look on her face as she bit her pen, searching for new ideas. She could see Haley. And since teaching her was what she loved the most, this imaginative version of Haley that was seated in her every class is what encouraged her to continue teaching. The students loved her methods. And the principal had praised her on multiple occasions. But none of this mattered as much as teaching her dead daughter. 

Kira drove through the L.A. traffic. Praying every light to go green as it had so many years ago. At least this time she was sure the brakes worked. She never left without checking anymore- call it paranoia. She ringed her wrists in anticipation every time she stopped at a red light, she bit her lip until she'd peeled a bit of skin of with her teeth. She was nervous to say the least. It wasn't easy to come clean. Especially in this situation. Linda was going to hate her more than she already did. But she had to do it... before she found out in another way.

...

Linda, Jimena, Juan and Amia had invited Guillermo over for dinner on his last night in L.A. They had first planned on going out to eat, but then decided that they'd rather eat Amia's, Juan's and Jimena's gourmet food. Linda sat on the counter, half-drooling as she watched her three friends prepare the food. She tried to sneak in a bite, but she earned three consecutive slaps so she gave up. 

"Be useful and go set up the table," Amia said, as she wiped her forehead with a towel.

"Yes mother," Linda chorused.

Amia smacked her with the towel.

"Ewwwww that towel has your sweat cooties on it!!"

"Just go!"

"Okay okay," Linda gave in. She picked up some clean plates and bowls and went to arrange them on the table. 

Once she was out of the room, Jimena locked the kitchen door and took the cake out from the fridge. It was chocolate- obviously, Linda hated all other flavours. And it had 3 layers, with chocolate ganache and chocolate buttercream in between. Amia had neatly spelt Happy Birthday Linda on top with the buttercream and Juan had drawn an easel, canvas and some paintbrushes on the side. Jimena carefully added those sugary edible metallic balls, for extra decoration and they were done. None of them had wished her. None of her university friends even knew her birthday except for Kyle. And he knew that it was best not to wish her either. But Jimena wouldn't take no for an answer. She'd wanted to do something, however small, for her birthday. She just hoped that nothing would go wrong.