CHAPTER 25 (ANOTHER WAR)
Some girls get it and some just don't. Some stop and the others refuse to back away. Why's it so hard for some girls to get this through their skull: you can't just have him.
This was what I thought as I was watching the movie 'My Best Friend's Wedding.' Julia Roberts was desperately trying to woo her former flame into coming back to her, and during his wedding day too!
I felt sorry for Julia Roberts' character (she is quite funny and adorable) but the fact remains that he's not hers. He's already about to get married to Cameron Diaz for Pete's sake.
The film was pretty cool. It was funny, and I laughed at the ending. It was sweet.
I turned off the television, a smile on my face. That was a really good movie.
All of a sudden, my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and began answering the call.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Hey Anthea", Danny's voice answered.
"Ah. Danny. What's up?"
"Listen, can you come to the park? Say at one this afternoon?"
"Sure Danny. I'll be there."
"Great! See you then. Bye. Love you."
"Okay Danny. Bye. Love you too."
I was sitting on a bench, waiting for Danny. I came in early so I could relax here at the park.
All of a sudden, somebody placed their hands over my eyes, obstructing my view.
"Heya!" I heard Pamela giggle.
I laughed. "Okay. Let go of me Pamela."
She let go and I whirled around. She was wearing a cute gray cardigan over her white shirt and plaid skirt. Her red hair was loose today.
"Hey. What're you doing here?" I asked her, thinking this was mere coincidence.
She shrugged. "I don't know exactly why. Harry called me. he said he wanted to go out on a date. So I came."
Ah. Maybe the dating place was a coincidence.
After waiting and chatting a bit, Jessica arrived as well. Her heels were clicking on the pavement as she approached.
"Hey guys. You're here too?" she asked breathlessly.
"Yup. Dougie asked you to come here too?" I asked her.
"Yeah. He told me he wanted to meet up", she replied.
Wow. Was this yet another coincidence?
After a few minutes had flown by, Nicole and Jenny came by as well. Both were carrying cups of latte from Starbucks.
Okay. I was getting a feeling now that all of this wasn't mere coincidence.
We were all chatting again and wondering why we were meeting at the exact same spot.
A few more minutes rolled by and Aloura and Alice came.
Whoa! Were they coming too?
Alice looked like she came fresh from a photo shoot as she was wearing a purple ruffled dress, green tote and black heels. She had light make-up on her face as well.
"Anthea, do you know her?" Jessica nudged me.
I nodded. "Yup. She's Alice. Jacob's girlfriend."
"Whoa. Your brother's lucky. She's gorgeous."
I smiled. Alice was much more than a pretty face. "I know. She's absolutely wonderful."
We all said hello to Aloura as she saw us. She seemed to be surprised as well to see us.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say the guys planned all of this", Aloura smirked.
We all nodded. Yup. This was no coincidence.
"Ah. By the way. Meet my model, Alice Clairbourne", Aloura introduced Alice to us.
"Hey guys", Alice waved to us.
We all waved back.
"Anthea, how are you and your brother?" Alice asked me, a sweet smile on her face.
"Good. He's been loose on me now", I grinned back.
"Ah. That's good to hear."
Pretty soon, Evangeline arrived as well.
"I suppose the guys called you", she grinned.
We all nodded. Harry had called Evangeline to come.
So here we were, waiting for our guys. I wondered if Nicole had a pair though. Aaron was in Paris.
All of a sudden, a sleek black limousine parked its way across the park. It was obvious as to who owned this: Thomas Michael Fletcher.
I smiled, knowing that they had planned all of this.
The doors swung open, and the first one who came out was Dougie. He was holding a bouquet of assorted, bright-colored flowers. After that, Harry emerged, carrying a different set of flowers. Pretty soon, James, Danny, Thomas, Jacob, and (much to everyone's surprise) Aaron.
Nicole gasped as she saw Aaron carrying a bouquet of flowers and grinning widely at her. All this time, she thought he was in Paris. This was such a nice turn of events for her that she ran towards him and locked him into a tight embrace.
"Aaron! Oh my gosh! I can't believe you came!" she squealed in delight.
Aaron chuckled and pecked her on the cheek, which caused her to go red. "Of course. I had free time, so I came to visit you guys. I really wanted to see you."
Nicole could only grin, too happy to express how she felt in words.
Dougie gave his bouquet to Jessica. Jessica looked touched and kissed him softly. Aw… They've been going strong until now.
Harry gave his to Pamela and Pamela gave him a soft and quick kiss on the lips, but hugged him tightly. Jenny and James laughed and hugged each other tightly.
Jacob seemed toy shy to display his affections for Alice and decided to peck her on the cheek. Alice didn't mind though. She only giggled and said that it was nice of my brother to surprise her. I winked at Jacob and he grinned back.
Thomas gave a gentle peck on Evangeline's cheek. Evangeline looked delighted as she received the flowers. Apparently, Thomas had just picked her favourite kind.
I hugged Danny and gave him a small kiss as he reached me.
"Thank you", I smiled at him.
He grinned. "Sure thing."
Finally, Tom arrived carrying two boxes of cake. He was grinning and making a beeline for Aloura.
All of a sudden, Aloura gasped and clapped her hands to her mouth. "Oh my gosh! I forgot!"
Tom let out a chuckle. "What? You forgot your own birthday?"
We turned to look at her. We didn't know it was her birthday.
"Really Aloura?" Pamela asked.
Aloura was laughing so hard now. "Er… yeah. I forgot that it was. I've been so caught up with my work. Aw… Thanks guys."
After hearing this, we all burst into a loud chorus of Happy Birthday. Aloura was so overwhelmed with the surprise that she looked like she could cry. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.
After blowing her cake, we all sat down on a red-striped mat laid across the grassy area of the park. The guys each prepared a different dish. Namely, lasagne, salad, spaghetti, nachos, Skittles (Dougie was too lazy to cook). We were all chatting and basically having a good time.
We all kind of went sad when James said that he was going to leave soon. His time here was too short.
I saw Jenny's face fall as she heard this. I don't even know if she's let James know how she really felt about him.
I was smiling at her and giving her the you'd-better-tell-him-soon look. She only shrugged, unsure whether she could pluck up the courage to tell James.
But she'd better do it soon, because time was running out.
Nicole and Aaron looked like they were having a really great time. To Nicole's delight, Aaron bought her a gift that she had been raving about: a PSP. It even had the game Tekken on it.
"Oh my gosh!" was all Nicole could say and she gave a swift kiss to Aaron on the cheek.
Aaron turned red and chuckled.
Pamela and Harry were looking very sweet as well. Pamela gave Harry a teddy bear that she sewed herself. It was only now that I noticed that her fingers were covered in bandages. I was wondering why she kept on hiding her hands behind her back, as if carrying something illegal.
"Pamela… You got injured sewing this, didn't you?" Harry asked quietly as he held her gift.
Pamela nodded but had a smile on her face. "Er… Yeah. Well, it was hard. But I didn't mind. I mean, it doesn't look abnormal does it?"
I examined the teddy bear. Aside from the huge head that was totally incongruous to its body, it looked fine.
Harry smiled at her. "No it's not. It's perfect."
After that, he gave a soft kiss to Pamela. Pamela giggled and thanked him.
Tom had another sweet treat for Aloura. She gave her a small box wrapped in colourful shiny wrapper. As she opened it, it revealed an Iphone.
Cool!! I was amazed by Tom.
She gasped and thanked Tom over and over again. As a sign of her immense gratitude, she gave Tom two pecks on the cheek, leaving lipstick marks. I laughed as I saw Tom go red. Thomas and Evangeline were laughing.
Jessica and Dougie were chatting and throwing peanuts at each other. After their little peanut was, I saw Jessica place her head on Dougie's shoulder and he began stroking her hair.
Jacob and Alice were also busy talking. This time, it was about their work. Alice kept on reminding Jacob not to stress himself out too much. Jacob chuckled, saying that he'd be okay.
"Oh my gosh!! It's you!!" a piercing, girlish scream suddenly erupted, nearly pulverizing my ear drums.
Danny hugged me, also surprised by the noise.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked me.
"I'm fine Danny", I replied.
Jeez! What was up with that? Who was that?
Without anyone expecting it, a girl suddenly threw herself at Jacob, pinning him to the mat. Everyone else moved out of the way so as to avoid the collision.
Danny ushered me out of the way, wrapping his arms around me.
Alice gasped as he saw her boyfriend being pinned to the ground.
I gasped as I saw who had done the crime.
It was Laura.
She was giggling now, her hair swaying in different directions.
"I can't believe I got to see you again! It's ever such a surprise!" she squealed.
Jacob looked confused, disgusted even. He had no memory whatsoever of this girl. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh. We met at a party. I bumped into you. I'm Laura. Just in case you forgot. I knew we had a connection from the—"
But she never got to finish her sentence because Alice violently pulled her away from Jacob. She landed hard on her butt.
Wow. Alice was strong!
She had a furious expression on her face as she helped Jacob get up.
"What was that for?!" Laura demanded, finally standing up. I could see a few blades of grass stuck on her shorts.
Alice stood erect as she went in front of Laura, lips pursed and a menacing expression on her face.
"You'd better stay away from my boyfriend. Do you hear me?" she threatened Laura.
I was surprised that Laura showed no fear at all of Alice. Alice towered over her.
Laura gave out a harsh laugh. "You? His girlfriend? Oh please. Jacob dear, what have you done to punish yourself?"
This time, I could feel my blood boiling. She had no right to say that! And Alice was a very wonderful girl.
Alice seemed unperturbed. In fact, she was smiling now. "Okay. Let me ask you, is that dress from Dolce and Gabbana?"
Laura seemed surprised but nevertheless answered. "Er… yeah…"
Alice smiled and scooped a plate of spaghetti.
Oh no. Was she really about to do it?
"It's about to be trash now", she said and hurled the spaghetti at her dress.
Laura screamed as the tomato sauce began spreading on her dress, totally ruining it.
"How… How dare you?!?" she demanded, outraged. She was starting to wipe away the tomato sauce but she only managed to make it look worse.
Alice smiled and spoke with a falsely sweet tone. "That's what you get for going after guys who are obviously out of your reach."
Laura stormed off, stamping her foot. She snapped her fingers and her bodyguard came to her, wiping the mess on her dress.
She haughtily got into a limousine parked out of the place and slammed the door with so much force.
We all laughed as her limousine drove away. Until now, I couldn't believe Alice could do it.
Jacob was laughing hard too as he placed his arm over her shoulder. "Wow. I never knew you could do that."
She was still huffing a bit. "Well, I couldn't let her get away with it! Honestly, who does she think she is? She's so thick-headed! I cannot believe she'd be so stupidly bold!"
"Aw… Come on. It's okay now. I would never replace you with someone like her."
Alice began to calm down a bit, her breathing returned to normal. After relaxing, her face showed no sign of stress and she looked picture-perfect once more.
"Really Jacob?" she smiled.
He chuckled and held her chin, moving her face closer to his. "Of course Alice. I love you."
After that, he kissed her.
Aw… That was so sweet! My brother's made a major breakthrough!
I winked at Jacob as he broke off his kiss with Alice. He grinned back at me.
We all went back to chatting, especially about Alice's stunt. We were all impressed that she had the guts to do it.
She was right. You do have to stand up for yourself.
After a wonderful time of exchanging talks, we all decided to head home. We parted ways. I winked at Jacob and Alice as they decided to spend more time together at a coffee shop.
Brucie was, surprisingly, in Danny's bag. Apparently, he snuck out. I was surprised when I found him in the bag instead of Danny's notes on Chemistry.
Danny and I decided to walk around the park a bit. I cradled Brucie in my arms, scratching his ears.
Danny and I had a great time chatting. All of a sudden, his smile disappeared and his hands clenched as he saw a short blond-haired girl approached us.
I put Brucie down, since he was beginning to snarl. I decided to hold onto his leash, in case he might go wild.
Danny looked angry, as if hate had taken possession of his body.
The girl spotted us and I saw a sneer from her face, though I wasn't sure that she was sneering at us.
I had an unpleasant feeling that she was though.
She was pretty, I had to admit. But she radiated this kind of snobby and shallow aura.
She was snickering as she approached us, much to my surprise.
Danny was not moving at all, too angry to speak.
The girl sneered at me and turned to Danny. "So Danny, you replaced me with this piece of trash?"
My eyes widened.
What did she say? Did she just call me trash?
I was about to protest when Danny replied "Shut up. She's not like you."
The girl looked angry, though she tossed her hair back in a cocky manner.
Danny sighed and turned to me with a pained expression on his face. "Anthea, this is my lying skank of an ex-girlfriend, Cassie."