Living and Lying

Stuff

The first two days were a haze. It had all been silly and unforgettable bonds with my families (this always include Damien and Samantha's). Nothing but great adventures and warm laughs. As soon as I have tried the parasailing, I felt light, as if I was lifted from the troubles of the ground. My mother and I went scuba diving while everybody else went to dive off a cliff. I wasn't being a pussy to choose the scuba diving over the cliff, it's just that such extremities could give me a heart attack.

The last time I tried something extreme of other kind, I had fainted after the ride because of intense fear. It was traumatizing, being in a roller coaster. It was no fun at all having experienced that sick, gutted feeling in your stomach as the railings went up and down. The 360 rotation was a killer. Fucking hell, it felt like I was being tortured by satan for 3 fucking minutes. I cried the whole 2-hour ride to home.

"This looks glamouring." Samantha said, her voice chirpy as always, her eyes glinting as she checked the key card given to us.

I leaned closer to see and shifted my gaze away, finding it uninteresting. It was our key card for the stilt house we were staying at. It had words embedded in calligraphy at the bottom which stated the location of our stilt house.

"Took you a long time to figure." I mumbled, as I stare out the window of the car and took notice of the weather, not having the greatest mood. "What a shitty hour. I didn't know that Sol could be depressed... it was all smiley and sparkly just few hours ago." I said, pouting as the rain poured subtly.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine tomorrow." Damien said, reassuring.

Ah, tomorrow. I'm not so sure what to feel for tomorrow. I would never feel the same way again about achieving something big the way I have used to. However, in contrast, there would be Mr. Hermant. I don't feel like getting excited for I was being held back by the events that took me here today. It certainly wasn't something I am close to be proud of.

It wasn't long when the service car dropped us off at the entrance of our stilt house which was the third house at the West of the hill. It had been reserved for the supposed VIP guest.

We were supposed to stay on different stilt houses, me and my family at the North of the Hill where the beautiful scenery of the whole island could be seen, Samantha and Damien somewhere on the Northeastern and northwestern part.

"Darling, your favorite guy wanted me to relay you something." Dad said with his big smile as he entered the kitchen while he loosened his tie.

My mom and I were baking our favorite cinammon rolls as dad popped inside the kitchen. I wondered what it was. The last time he relayed me something was about how the office of the United Nations wanted to have a presscon with us. Dad was never the type to announce such things spontaneously. We had a formal gathering with the family of Damien and Samantha the last time he announced.

"You're home early." Mom said, approaching dad and gave him a kiss.

"Um...Yes?" I invoked as I clapped the flour off my hands.

"You know what was interesting—," Dad said as he glided across the kitchen, grabbing hold of an apple from the fruit bowl on the dining table and took a bite.

"What?" I said, impatient, too eager to hear what all this was about. After all, this 'favorite guy' was Mr. Hermant.