Fashionista

Chapter 28

I smiled as Kathy's face moved about on the screen, "I'm so excited, Lia. There's so much to be grateful for."

I agreed with her, "It's not surprising things worked out for you, Kathy. I'm really happy your dad is okay now."

She frantically nodded, and the poor connection made it seem like she was nodding for nearly ten seconds, "I'm really happy too. My mom thought for sure this was going to be the end, she wasn't eating or going to work anymore. It's a good thing we didn't give up, especially with prayer."

I laughed, "Now, my friend is back to her boy-crazy, fan fiction obsessed self."

She smiled wearily, and we were silent for a while each pondering on the good things we had achieved together, near or not. I looked out my room window, appreciating the clear skies and the hummingbirds situated on the sill.

"I have something to tell you.", Kathy started in an entirely different voice.

I nodded, and this was her sign to go ahead, "Well, I applied for college and I got into one of them."

"I'm so happy for you, this does really seem like our year.", I frowned slightly, "Although I thought you wanted a gap year?"

"Well, yes I did. But then after all my family has been through, I want to be ready if anything happened again."

I shook my head, "No, don't say that. Nothing's going to happen anytime soon."

She nearly shouted, "You don't know that, I don't know that. We don't know that!", She paled before continuing, "I'm sorry for my outburst. I heard the doctor tell my parents there could be a relapse, and I want to be ready when that happens."

"I understand Kathy, and I sincerely support your decision. Are your parents are aware of your acceptance?"

"Yes, of course and they understand although I think Dad feels a bit guilty that his condition pushed me. Anyway, I'll be starting in Yale during fall.", She beamed, excitedly.

I gasped, "Yale? You didn't tell me you were accepted into Yale."

She looked into the screen, feigning surprise, "I didn't? I really thought I did. Oh well, now you know." She shrugged.

"There has to be a celebration, girlfriend. Unfortunately, it's going to be virtual."

"A celebration is a celebration, girlfriend.", She pointed out, mimicking me. Sticking her tongue out in a playful manner, she continued, "Invite all the girls and Leo too, and I don't need you to explain why you both can't be in the same room.", She added, sensing my eagerness to dispute Leo's appearance. After a week of avoiding his calls, inviting him over would be awkward.

I resigned, "Okay, tomorrow at 10pm.", I said, more of a statement than a question. Seeing my mistake, I leaned back as a way of showing non-finality but she just shrugged.

"That's fine by me, as long as I see everyone.", She paused, glancing sideways towards her door, "Well, Mom is calling. We'll see each other tomorrow right?"

"Of course, we will. Love you girl."

"Love you more.", She smiled and ended the Zoom call. Few minutes later, I hit the sheets falling into a dreamless sleep.

*****

I sat on my bed, silently crunching the dry cornflakes in my plate, as I people watched from my window. I observed as few people walked in and out of the nearby stores, facemasks and shields present. The day was chilly, with a lot of noise breezing in from within the rooms of the complex, mostly due to the confinement people were forced into.

I returned my attention to Finesse class, and groaned inwardly. Fashionista school refused to pause online classes, even with the casualties turning up everyday in Rome. From what I heard, some of the students had lost family or friends to the corona epidemic and the school had given them some time to mourn their loss but still, the situation didn't seem to be letting up soon.

Taking as much notes as I could, I nearly jumped for joy when a chirp sounded, signifying the end of classes for the day. In mere seconds, every student was offline and my hand hovered on the offline button until I saw an incoming call from Vanessa.

"Hey Amelia.", Vanessa's chirpy voice sounded near, but far away.

"I'm fine.", I automatically replied. It wasn't a lie, but then it was robotic, never thought of. Besides who would be happy with the way things were right now? No movement, every food was delivered, schools, churches, banks and markets were closed for the next one month.

"Still there?", I heard her ask.

"Yes, I am. How are you doing?", I repeated her question, half-expecting fine. What I wasn't expecting was an overwhelming outpour of emotions, feelings and events that had been happening in her seemingly busy life. I listened patiently, looking out the window once in a while to look at the empty streets, even the occasional stray cats were missing.

"... and now after this call, I'm going to call each student that has been personally affected to offer words of consolation.", Vanessa was saying, when I tuned back into the happenings in my room.

"That would be nice for them, I hope you have a speech well-planned.", I attempted to joke, but the light attempt went over Vanessa as she shrugged.

"I guess. But what could I say to reduce their pain? I can't even assure them of academic success as school is still going on.", She looked stressed, with slight brown bags under her hazel eyes.

"Vanessa, I'm sure you'll work everything out, you're good enough for all this and more. What you need to do after this is take a hot shower, dress up and be there for those students."

A smile crinkled at her lips,"Now you sound like an adult."

"Now I sound like an adult.", I agreed.

I picked at my nails for a bit, "This isn't how I imagined my first year in college would be. Staying away from friends and the outside world, online classes, delivered food and groceries. I didn't expect this."

She shook her head, slightly swaying her blond curls, "None of us expected the world to be on pause, Amelia. I suppose after all this, we'll be happy to just be alive. Right now, that's all we're praying for."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. It's about being appreciative for everything, especially your wedding."

Vanessa playfully rolled her eyes, "Of course you would bring that up. Carlos just proposed, and with all these happenings it might be till next year before I say 'I DO'."

I got up to pour another dry cereal-milk-sugar mixture into my plate, "Well doesn't matter, I'm still doing a countdown anyway."

She seemed to glance at the bottom part of her screen before looking directly into the camera again, "Amelia, I'll talk to you later. I need to freshen up for the condolence visits."

"No problem, take care.", I finished, waving till she logged off. Once again, I sighed and continued with my cereal.

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