Cevic

Chapter 22

Sorry this is kind of a filler chapter but it's necessary for the flow. :(

“Making friends hurts, because farewell has to happen in one way or another. But the crazy thing is, it’s worth it despite the pain.”

 

 

Equation that relates hurt and love

 

The chocolate cake surprisingly beat granola bars. Its sweetness invaded my taste buds, seducing me into trance. We had to scrape the surface off because the wax had melted.

 “We totally played truant during the last few periods. All of us snuck out. Sasha and Lisa chose the cake,” explained Jackson, licking chocolate off his thumb. “The rest of us split up and bought balloons, streamers, markers and all that stuff.”

 “You enjoyed playing truant,” said Payton matter-of-factly.

Jackson was unabashed. “Of course.”

  For the next hour, all of us talked. We talked like Regina and Eric Jamison weren’t going away to a faraway country. We talked about stupid school assignments, uncooperative, irritating project partners, hot boys, hot girls, new trends, weird teachers, new love, new breakups.

  We talked about nothing important, and somehow, everything was worthy in its every golden way.

“We have presents for you two of course,” began Sasha, tossing her curls, pulling a plastic package out of her denim schoolbag with golden zips and studs. “Regina….”

  Sasha pulled out a beige shoebox, and handed it over to Rezia. “I was totally rushing when I bought these because I was skipping classes, but I have no doubt in these. A girl needs good shoes, beautiful shoes, and no offense to your brand-less sneakers. Beautiful shoes take girls to places and makes everything better.”

   Rezia received the box with sincere gratefulness in her eyes. Once again surprise and warmth flooded me from head to toe. Sasha had barely known Rezia, yet she had even bothered…

 “Thank you,” said Rezia softly. “I’ll wear them everyday.”

 Sasha sniffed. “Glad to hear that, hon. Eric. It’s not a great deal, but this is something to remind you of that crazy game you played and led our team to victory.” She fished out a keychain- with a little boy made of clay throwing basketball into a hoop.

  She dropped in into my hands. Laughs erupted from mouths.

“Thanks,” I laughed. “I’ll hang it on my bag and look at it everyday- and be reminded of the miraculous way you snatched the ball out of Shannon’s hands and screamed for your messed up curls.”

  Lisa smirked. “Typical Sash.”

Jackson cleared his throat. “Well, I got gifts for you two with Lisa, because I don’t know girls’ stuff.” He handed a plastic bag to me. “Open it. You need them.”

  I undid the red elastic, and pulled out three books. One was a comic book- with a picture of a huge, green monster standing with other tall and built people.

 “For your information, the green monster is Hulk. You seriously need some comic education,” deadpanned Jackson.

 I looked down, feigning to be offended. “You compared me to this thing?”