"You said what?" Flora yelled at Margo the next day as they walked towards the school building.
Allison was looking at her compact and applying lip gloss. "I said the same thing to her last night," she said, staring at her reflection. Flora shook her head and looked at Margo. "When I said 'Go talk to Antonio,' I didn't meant for you go and demolish him verbally! Who does that?" Flora asked incredulously. Margo smiled and walked up the steps to the school. "A smart person. Someone who doesn't want to get hurt again." Flora rolled her eyes and walked into the school building, heading to her lockers. Fortunately, the girls' lockers were night next to each others, and they had most of their classes together, except sixth period. Allison stopped applying make up on herself and looked at Margo.
"You know, Margo. There could be a logical explanation for all this. Maybe that was his sister he was dancing with," Allison suggested. "I mean, come on. Did you even meet his family? Besides his dad?"
Margo was going to reply, but didn't come up with an answer. Now that she thought about it, she has not met any one of Antonio's family (excluding his father, of course). It then dawned upon the girl that Antonio mer all of her family, but not once ever bother to ask Antonio about his. He did, as she recalled, mention about a girl named Maria Camilia once, but that was about it. Margo opened her locker door and absentmindedly withdrew her math textbook.
"No," she finally answered.
Allison looked at Flora and smiled. "So there you have it! It could have been someone from his family that he forgot to introduce you to!" Allison said. "Or it could have been a good friend of his!"
Margo closed her locker and leaned on it. "Even if it's so, he would have told me that he was going to dance with someone else. I would have been cool with it. But he went out and danced with some other girl. Obviously, I'm going to assume that he's cheating on me." Allison smiled and shook Margo's shoulders.
"Stop jumping into conclusion!" she bellowed into her face.
"I can hear you just fine!" Margo yelled back.
Allison stopped shaking Margo and opened her own locker. Flora's phone vibrated in her pocket and she took it out and read it, a smile pulling at her lips. She quickly took her books and notebook, shoved them into her bag then ran off down the hall. "Sorry, girls! Nathanial's waiting for me in the band room! I gotta run!" Flora yelled over her shoulder. Margo smiled and was about to holler something back at him, when someone caught her eye. Down the hall was a girl with long black hair with a pink who wore a denim jacket, white lace shirt, a hot pink skirt and white converse. The girl was too busy texting someone to realize Margo intently staring at her. Margo knew from an instant that she has seen that girl somewhere. And if memory served her correct, that girl was the same girl Antonio was sharing a dance with.
"Margo, it's not polite to stare," Allison scolded.
Margo ignored her and continued to watch. "Ally, you know that girl?" Margo asked. Allison followed her gaze and shook her head. "No, not really. I see her around but never engage in a conversation with her. Why?" Margo quickly looked away and turned to her friend. "Uh, nothing. Forget about it. Anyways, we should probably get to-"
"Hi, Margo."
Margo turned to see Greg Stevens, a guy who has a majorly crush on Margo, and smiled. "Hey, Greg. What's up?" Greg smiled nervously and began to rub the back of his neck. "Well, I was wondering if you'd like to… you know… hang out? At the park sometime?" he asked. Margo was about to answer when she noticed that his shirt was extremely damp. And not just his shirt-his arms and forehead were drenched with heavy droplets of perspiration as well.
"Are you… sweating?" Margo asked slowly.
Greg looked down at his shirt and moaned. "Oh, why does this always happen to me?" he groaned, running away. Allison cringed at glanced down to the ground. "Ew! He made a puddle with his sweat. Come on, Mar," she said, leading Margo around the puddle, but then pushed her friend out of the way when one of the baseball players came by.
"Hey, Allison. Want me to walk you to class?" he asked.
"Yes!" she giggled, taking the crook of his arms and walked off. "I'll see you in English, Margo!"
Margo watched Allison walk off and sighed. She walked down the hall down to her English class, when a voice made her stop in her tracks. "What? You're just going to walk past me without saying 'hello'?" Antonio's voice asked. Margo clenched her teeth and turned to look at him. "I have nothing to say to you. I don't want anything to do with you. So I think it's clear that I don't have to say hello to you," she said harshly. Antonio smirked and flipped his hair. Though Margo had no interest in him at all, she could still feel her heart banging like a bongo.
"There is no reason to act like this, bonita. I know you want me," he said flirtatiously.
"Trust me, Antonio. The only I want is for you to get out of my way and to leave me alone for good," Margo snapped.
She stormed past Antonio, trying to remain calm and collected. "Margo, why are you ignoring me? You were never like this the moment I laid my eyes on you!" he yelled after her. "Why is it so different?" Margo froze for a moment, not saying anything for a while. She turned around and stared at him dead in the eye.
"Because I met a guy who led me to believe that love was the most powerful feeling in the world, only to have my heart ripped out of my chest and destroyed right in front of me," she said. "I thought you were different, Antonio. Turns out I was wrong. All you ever care about is manipulating a girl's heart. For once, can't you be sincere for something without causing emotional damage? Can't you tell a girl you love her without hurting her so?"
Before Antonio could say anything, Margo turned and scurried down the hall. Antonio stood in the middle of the hall, staring at the spot Margo was at earlier. A true look of sincerity was written all over his face as he watched his classmates file into their respective classes. He was the only one in the hallway. "But," he mumbled. "I do love you."
Later school day, Allison was sitting at one of the tables in the courtyard, eating her lunch. She munched on her snack wrap while she read Fruits Basket "Kiss her, Kyo-kun. Kiss Tohru like there's no tomorrow!" she exclaimed. A few of her classmates stared at her as if she lost her marbles. "My emotions! I can't control them! I activated my feels!" she bawled. Antonio slowly walked up to Allison and raised an eyebrow. He eyed her weirdly as he sat down across from her.
"Uh… you okay?" Antonio asked.
Allison quickly wiped her eyes and smiled at him. "Uh… yeah. This book just gets to me," she said nervously. "So how can I help you today?" Antonio flashed his all famous smirk and winked at her. "I love the way your eyes sparkle like a shimmering ocean-"
"What do you want, Antonio?" Allison interrupted.
Antonio stared at Allison for a moment before digging into his backpack and took out an envelope. He slid it across the table and stared at her. "I need some answers. Tell me why Margo wants nothing to do with me," he demanded. Allison scoffed and continued to read. "And why would I tell you Margo's personal business?" she asked.
"Because I really do like Margo. And I need to know how I messed things up with her," Antonio explained. "I want to make things right with her."
Allison looked up and stared at Antonio for a while, not saying anything. She bookmarked the page she was reading and looked at Antonio dead in the eye. "You were the first boy to ever talk to Margo, let along flirt. Her dad doesn't want her to interact with guys, but she fell in love with you anyways. But when she saw you dancing with that girl at your Cinco de Mayo party, she felt her heart withering inside her chest. It was even worse than the time she lost her parents," Allison said.
"Lost her parents? What are you talking about?" Antonio asked, now interested.
Allison looked around to see if anyone was around, and dropped her voice into a whisper. "It all started three years ago. Margo was Edith's age. Edith was three, and Agnes was a baby, so she doesn't remember. Anyways, there was a huge storm, and their parents were on a drive. When Margo got the call from a police officer, she went to the hospital with her babysitter. But by the time she came to the hospital… it was too late."
Antonio stared at Allison in disbelief. "Margo's… an orphan?" he cried out. Allison shushed him harshly and looked around. "You want the whole school to know?" she scolded. "But yeah, she's an orphan. After the funeral, she and her sisters were sent to Miss Hattie's Orphanage for Girls. That day, she promised her late mother that she would find someone that would find someone who'll love her for her, like the way her dad fell in love with her mom."
Antonio looked at his hands for a while, shaking his head and running his hand through his hair. "But… why didn't Margo tell me?" he asked. Allison opened up the envelope and smirked. "You think it's easy to bring up the death of a family member? Two, to be precise?" she asked. She pulled out one direction tickets with a backstage pass. She broke out into a scream and jumped out of her seat.
"Yes! One Direction, here I come!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. She looked at Antonio and stared at him pointedly. "Antonio, don't tell anybody about what I just told you!"
Collecting her things and shoving them into her backpack, she took the tickets and ran back into the building, leaving Antonio sitting alone. The more the information sank into his skull, the guiltier he felt. He was starting to regret breaking Margo's fault, even though he doesn't exactly know what he did.
"I promise that I will win Margo's heart back," he declared. "Whatever it takes."