❝ THIS FEELING'S SO ALIEN. NEED TO KNOW IF YOU'RE JUST A FRIEND. ARE YOU A SECRET I'M HOLDING IN? SO LEAVE IT ON MY BRAIN IF YOU FEEL THE SAME. LIE BUT I NOTICE IT, DON'T KNOW THE RULES BUT I GOT TO WIN. THE PARANOIA IS SINKIN' IN, SO LEAVE ON MY BR...
( ALIEN ) ( CHAPTER ONE ) ❝STRANGE OVER NORMAL, ANY DAY. ❞
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DINNER AT THE LOPEZ-NIEVES household was often one of the few times Keola's mind was at ease. She was in a familiar place, with her loving family around her and she was enjoying a plate of her mom's spaghetti.
But tonight, her mind was complete chaos.
Her best friend, neighbor (and also longtime crush), Jamal, invited her to hang out with his friends. Now, she had no problem with any of them, per se, but she was afraid that if she said yes, that if she met them, she would say or do something wrong and she would humiliate herself, or worse, that they would deem her pathetic and somehow convince Jamal to stop hanging out with her.
And she couldn't particularly afford to lose one of the two only friends she had, especially if her other friend was 921.305 miles away from her.
A part of her knew she was probably overacting, that his friends wouldn't be so cruel that they would try to make their friend lose a friend, but Keola didn't particularly hold the best record at making friends... or at socializing with people. It had taken her almost a year to start asking people their order without stuttering at the bakery. Hell, she still stuttered when she was the one who was ordering. But as her therapist, Dr. Emilia says, ''You can't win if you don't play.''
Keola knew that if she wanted to get better, she would have to take risks, to at least take baby steps. In every recovery, there were steps, working at her parent's bakery was the first, creating more close relationships with more kids of her age would be the second.
And if she wanted to make progress, it was a step she would have to take. She had to take all the steps necessary because she needed to get better.
She put her fork aside as she cleared her throat to get her mom's attention. She knew that her mother would probably say yes to her request, it didn't make her any less nervous, though.
"So... um." She started slowly, her tone a little too nervous, her hands a little too shaky. "Jamal, uh, he-he invited me to hang out wi-with his friends today. ¿Is it okay if I go to the Martinez's? I-I promise I won't stay too late."
It should be noticed that Cristina Nieves Castro was more than thrilled to hear that her oldest daughter would be interacting with other teens.
"Honey, sure! I'm really glad you're hanging out with Jamal's friends, I know for sure that Geny's son is a good boy but the other two seem nice too." She excitedly grabbed Antonio's hand as she continued to talk to Keola."Oh, I'm so glad you're finally hanging out with them, Dr. Emilia and us think you need to establish more relationships with people of your age, this is perfect!"
Antonio then calmly got into the conversation. "Yeah, and K, don't worry about staying too late, it's the last day of school. Just, you be careful if you go anywhere, but we trust that Jamal can walk you back home if it gets too tale."
