Won Over

E

I skipped into the sitting room, feeling good with myself for no reason apart from the fact that I'm alive to see another day. The incident of two weeks ago was already forgotten by me and I hope everyone else too. The past should be left in the past, not to be made a future.

That didn't make sense.

All I mean is, the past is in the past.

"Why are you always looking happy?" Les asked.

Les is a name I coined from Shirtless because calling him Shirtless all the time was too stressful.

I shrugged. "I'm happy to be alive. Thankfully, we all scaled through yesterday. What's not to be happy about that?"

"Everything." Maho muttered darkly.

"Oh, come on! Look at the bright side of things. I got more amazing, you got more intimidating, Les got more friendly, Blue's cheeks got softer -"

"Hey! That's creepy." Blue protested while Maho rolled his eyes and said, "Should I be happy? Perhaps I should skip all the way into the ocean because you said that?"

Les just looked amused.

I was about to reply him when Panda breezed into the room with the rest of the gang. I turned my attention to them and saluted. "Yo peeps!"

And it seems like that's the only greeting I know. Sooner or later someone will realize and call me out on it. Until then, let me enjoy shouting "Yo peeps!" to them whenever I see them.

Panda smiled at me in return while the rest of them grunted out their response, took their seats and started minding their business.

I smiled slightly at him in return. I wasn't entirely over what had happened but as I pointed out earlier, the past is in the past. It's time we got past it and lived in the present.

Enough said.

I brought my mind back to the present and looked at all of them, frowning as realization dawned on me. They were all on their phones, clicking away.

I didn't have a phone, my uncle never bought any for my siblings and I. Neither did we go to school.

He did allow us to watch TV though. I don't know if we're supposed to be grateful for that because we were only allowed to watch one channel.

Also, he always had at least one bodyguard stationed in the sitting room with us to monitor us while we watched TV.

I moved towards Panda. "Hey."

He looked up immediately. "Hey."

"Um, you have a phone?" I smiled shyly. I sat down beside him on the rug and lowered my voice so that the others wouldn't hear what we were talking about.

"Yeah." He dragged out the word, trying to assess what I said. I watched as he decoded what I said and sat up straighter. "You don't?"

I shook my head. "No."

"What? How come?" He looked extremely shocked, like it was impossible for someone not to possess a phone. Well, considering this is the 21st century, it could be a shock to some.

And a heart attack to others.

We were so engrossed in our discussion as I told him why that we didn't notice the others were looking at us until Beauty spoke up. "What's up with you two? Panda and Peaches."

Panda and I turned to look at them confusedly. "What?" He asked.

"Yeah, like did you know each other before coming here?" She continued.