The Minor Complications of Love

Chapter Nine: Raindrops, Tears, and the Memories that Come with It

"Ay dios mio Mia hija!"

Mia stumbled through the door, completely drenched by the rain after a last minute decision of walking instead of taking the bus which ultimately and honestly, was the worst and most horrible decision she ever had to make today.

As she kept her head down, Mia's mother watched her with a face of absolute horror, worried about the current state of her beloved daughter.

"Is everything all right?" She asked, but Mia just kept silent.

"Mia, you know you can tell me anything right?" Her mother assured her.

Mia sighed then thought for a while whether she was going to tell her mother her troubles or just show her that she was perfectly fine. After thinking for a solid minute, she looked up at her mother and forced out a smile.

"I'm fine," she uttered, trying to fight back the tears that were peeking out of her eyelids as she chanted in her head how she hoped that the tears wouldn't stream down her cheeks. But then again, if it did, would they stand out? Or would the pain just hide through the raindrops that had made its way on her face after she practically bathed under the strong rain? After all, that was about the only thing she was good at – masking the pain, camouflaging, and being plain invisible.

"Are you sure?" Her mother asked, clutching onto the broom she was holding even more tightly. This action had caught Mia's eye.

Looking away from her anxious mother, Mia was just about done with causing any more trouble to anybody.

"Yeah, I am. Anyway, I'm going to take a shower now."

Her mother nodded in return, watching Mia quickly make her way to her room.

Hurriedly shutting and locking the door behind her, Mia crouched down on the floor, breaking down. With her back leaned over against her door, Mia cried as she had recalled what had occurred earlier. How much more embarrassing could she get? Drew clearly had no interest in her. It was then that Mia had thought that maybe she should just stop pursuing him and just accept where their relationship as friends were going – nowhere.

Picking herself up, Mia slowly walked over to her bathroom to get ready for her shower. As she turned the shower knob and let the warm water run through, she reminisced on the old days when it just used to be Drew and her against the world. She wished she could have treasured those days a bit more – those days before she had to handle the unmanageable problem of growing up.

She sighed a heavy one. Guess, this was what she would have to get for taking those moments for granted. But... could anyone really blame her? She always thought that maybe, just maybe, their friendship could last forever. Obviously, she was too naïve for anything.

Mia finished her shower. She stepped out and turned to face at her mirror. Slowly, she wiped away the moist that had clouded her reflection. She looked into herself for a moment. Maybe she wouldn't say too naïve. Maybe she was just extremely stupid.

More tears ran down her nearly expressionless face.

"M-Mia? Why are you crying?"

Mia remembered this one time in middle school when she was crying in the cafeteria. Drew was poking fun on her pigtails when she just suddenly burst into tears. She remembered how he panicked so much. He kept apologizing over and over again as Mia tried her best to explain what was actually going on, but really couldn't due to her then state.

Bella laughed as she decided to just do the explaining herself.

"So you mean Mia's crying because the boyfriend of her favorite shoujo character ended up cheating on her on his male best friend?" Drew asked with a puzzled look.