Her Verdict (Part 1)

A Story by x0void

What if you were just "the other girl" in his story? and to leave means to make him happy? Would you fight destiny? or would you just let him be free?

“You’re so lucky,” Lauren mumbled as she was laying on my bed, looking up on facebook some “cute” guy’s pictures, who she met at the Homecoming party last night. “Your life’s perfect. You got a happy family, you have zero problems on academics, and you’ve got a hot boyfriend who’s totally into you.”

“Come on Lauren. Nobody can have a perfect life,” I answered. She was true though, on some aspects, but still I don’t call what I have as a “perfect life”. Maybe I’m just scared that something is bound to happen that could wipe out all the traces of this “perfect life” that I have.

“Okay fine. But yours is close to perfect and don’t get started on me. I mean not all girls have the chance to meet their soul mate who would love them for like, four years. It’s like you picked the jackpot prize on a pick-the-life-you-wanna-have game.” She sat up and began straightening her crinkled shirt.

I just rolled my eyes. I couldn’t really argue. Life’s really been kind to me these days.

“So, do you wanna go to the mall today or something? School’s back tomorrow,” she murmured then shrugged. Let’s just say that Lauren is not the type of girl who gets excited over school- or any kind of work at all.

“Would you pretend you’ve forgotten if I ask you about our school homework which was the reason you came over here? Or would you not deny and admit that you just really wanted to go shopping today?”

“I’d rather not deny. You know me, Xyriel. No use in hiding.” She smirked.

“That’s right. I haven’t been your best friend for seven years just for nothing.” I grinned.

“Xyriel! Cole’s here! Hurry down stairs, you still haven’t eaten your breakfast!” Mom shouted from below.

“Coming mom!” I shouted back and ran down stairs. I overslept. Lauren got me doing most of our homework last night. Now, I’m excited to see Cole. I haven’t seen him for the weekend.

“Where’s Cole?” I asked when I finally reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Out in the porch, eat your breakfast first.” Mom answered. She is a petite woman with big brown eyes and choppy black hair. Most people don’t see any resemblance between me and my mom. I’m two millimeters taller than her and have ash-grey eyes and a long, silken blonde hair. I got my eyes and my hair from my dad who’s now isn’t with us anymore. He passed away from an accident when I was four years old.

“Eat your breakfast first.” Mom insisted when she saw me on my way towards the front door.

“I’m running late. Can you please pack that up for me mom?” I flashed a wide innocent beam to her, hoping she wouldn’t proceed to being all high-and-mighty to me now.

She sighed. “Fine.”

I turned the knob and felt the cool, autumnal breeze rush through the doors. A few seconds after just standing there and feeling the fresh fall wind seep through my skin, only did I become aware that I was already shivering. I turned around, planning to go back inside the house and get a jacket, when I felt a warm hand pressed against mine. I turned around and saw him.

For the last four years, he has never failed to take my breath away every time I see him.

Everything about him just feels so familiar. Those dazzling green eyes that looked at me with so much love and caring, that sleek copper hair which is already familiar to my skin as my own is, those full lips which touched mine every time he tells me that he loves me, and that warmth in his touch which always sends a tingling sensation inside of me. He’s Cole Johnson, the man I’ve been in love with for the last four years of my life till forever.

He lets go of my hand, unzips his jacket and takes it off. He placed it on my shoulders and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Good morning there beautiful,” he smiled, showing two sets of perfect teeth. “You’re looking a little cold there.”

“Not anymore, thanks to your jacket, and well, you,” I smiled back.

“I missed you,” he said, “every minute of every day that I didn’t get to see you.”

I scoffed, “Really now?”

“Yes. Really,” he said with eagerness in his voice. He cupped my face with his hand and stared at me for what feels like forever.

“Xyriel! I thought you were running late. Come get your breakfast,” mom called from the kitchen.

Cole loosened his wrap around my waist and finally let go. I caressed his cheek with my right hand and headed back inside the house. I thanked mom for my “take-out” breakfast and together with Cole, began walking towards school.

We arrived there just before the bell rang. We entered the classroom, sitting separately from each other, me on the leftmost seat at the front row with Lauren and Cole at the back, alone in his table. When Mr. Harisson arrived, I rummaged my backpack for my notebook and my pen.

“A pleasant morning to you, class,” Mr. Harisson greeted. “Today, I have a surprise for you. Actually, I was surprised myself just this morning,” he fixed his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “Kyla? Come in.”

The wooden door creaked opened and a slender figure appeared.

“Class, this is Kyla Gabe, and she will be joining our class from now on.” Mr. Harisson announced with an obvious glee on his round face. “Kyla, introduce yourself to your classmates.”

The girl with honey-brown eyes and long, silky brown hair with curls near the end turned to us and smiled when she reached the center.

“Hi. I’m Kyla Gabe. I just arrived here in Manhattan yesterday from Canada. I hope to be in your good graces,” she said in a melodic voice.

“Uhm, Kyla, you may sit down on that empty seat at the back,” Mr. Harisson cleared his throat, “Mr. Johnson, please clear up the seat beside you.”

I turned around to look at Cole who was fumbling through his things in the seat beside him. He placed them all muddled in his backpack. The girl, Kyla, seated herself beside Cole and faced him. I couldn’t really hear what she was saying and I’d rather not know. I always see to it that I’m giving Cole enough space. I believe that respecting each other’s privacy is the reason why our relationship lasted for four years.

The whole morning went by in a flash. At lunch, just like every day, I sat with Cole, Lauren and Daniel, Cole’s friend. After the last period, I went by my locker to put there my Calculus book which I won’t be using for tonight. I was shutting my locker when I felt warm smooth hands cover my eyes. I placed my hand over his and smiled.

“Uhm, let me see. Are you boyfriend number one or number two? Is that you Mark? or are you Rafael? ooh, wait, maybe your Gabby.” I said in a high giggly voice.

He laughed. “You need to do so much better than that if you wanna make me jealous,” he took my Burberry leather shoulder bag, which he gave me last Christmas, and caught my hand in his. “So, I’ll walk you home?”

“Don’t you have band practice?” I asked. As much as I don’t want to brag, my boyfriend is the lead singer of a band here in school. He also plays the guitar and the piano. He’s definitely the kind of guy a girl could easily fall head-over-heels with.

“No. Paul got sick with fever and Grey is out of town with his mom.” Paul was the band’s lead guitarist while Grey was on the drums.

“Oh. Okay then, walk me home, Mr. Johnson.” I stifled a smile. “So, the transfer student’s your new seatmate right? So how is she?”

Cole stopped on his tracks. “Oh,” he mouthed.

“What ‘oh’?” I asked.

“I forgot. I was supposed to tour Kyla around the campus this afternoon. Mr. Harisson asked me to. And, well, I can’t say no to him, he might fail me in his subject,” he muttered.

I shrugged. “Oh.”

“I could tell her that I’ll tour her tomorrow,” he said almost sounding guilty.

“No. It’s okay,” I smiled. “Duty calls. I’ll just call you later,” I kissed him on the cheeks and waved him goodbye.

“So? Did you manage to be a not-boring tour guide?” I said playfully.

“I think so,” he answered on the other line.

“How’s Kyla?”

“She’s…” he trailed off.

“She’s what?” I insisted.

He hesitated. But when he sensed that I was still waiting for an answer, he murmured, “different.”

A slight tinge of pain stabbed me in my chest. Then I felt guilty afterwards. I shouldn’t be jealous of Kyla. Cole was just instructed to help her. And besides, maybe he just found her a little peculiar because she’s from another place. “What do you mean by ‘different’?” was all I managed to say.

“I don’t know. I don’t get it either,” he said sounding curious; there was a five-second pause before he spoke up again. “Enough with me, so how was your Writing class?”

The week went by in a flash. In our Chemistry, we had to team up with our seatmate for a study. I was paired with Lauren, which could be translated as working alone. Cole was teamed up with Kyla who turned out to be geeky herself according to what Cole has been telling me about her. He says that she’s the total opposite of him. At lunch on Friday, I decided to tell Lauren about Kyla, when Cole and Daniel was out doing an errand for a teacher.

“So, what do you think of the new transferee so far?” I uttered as I was munching my grilled cheese burger.

“What do you mean?” Lauren looked at me while wiping off the sweat coming from the orange juice bottle she was holding- a hobby I’ve noticed for the last seven years.

“I mean, what’s- what’s your-uhm, impression of her?” I struggled to find the words.

“She seems pretty cool,” she seemed like she just wanted to get the topic over with. “Enough of that, what do you think of Vanessa and Trace? Do you think they’re going out or something? Cause I think that Vanessa’s just using him to"“

“Do you think she’s interesting?” I cut her short. “I mean, do you think she’s the kind of girl who-who"“I hesitated.

“Gets the boys?” she continued. “So, Vanessa could just be using Trace, I mean she just broke up with Henry, right? Maybe he’s"“

“Do you think she already has a boyfriend?” I added, ignoring Lauren, “in Canada, I mean.” Maybe she already has, she’s a pretty girl and a lot of guys could easily fall for her.

“Okay, seriously, what’s with you and the newbie?” Lauren shifted her attention from her orange juice bottle to me.

“Nothing.” I mumbled. I don’t really want to make a big deal on wanting to know my-boyfriend’s-new-girl-friend. Or should I say my-boyfriend’s-new-friend-who-is-a-girl?

“Nothing? Really? I’m trying to make a conversation here about how Vanessa might be using Trace as a rebound but you keep on digging on me about that new transfer girl,” she said.

“I don’t know. Maybe I just want to get to know her.” I said in almost a whisper. I wasn’t that much confident with my own answer.

“Come on, Xy,” she rolled her eyes. “I know you’re just trying to know about the girl who could possibly steal your four-year boyfriend.”

I shot her a glare.

“What?” she said while raising her hands up, acting all innocent.

“It’s not that,” I said lowering my voice into almost a whisper. “It’s just that Cole’s spending more time with her, I-I just wanted to try to get to know her better. She seems to be a pretty interesting girl, at least that’s what Cole told me.”

“Cole said that? Don’t you feel threatened by her?” she took a sip of her orange juice. Lauren restricted herself to only a bottle of orange juice this lunch, she felt guilty after eating two whole slices of caramel cake.

“Threatened? Why would I be?” I said. It seemed like I was trying to ask myself rather than Lauren.

“Well, because your boyfriend just said that he found a girl interesting?”

“He didn’t say that. He just said that she’s pretty interesting. He didn’t say that he was interested on her.”

“Which could translate into the same thing two weeks from now. Come on girl, you need to fight back,” she said, crossing her arms on her chest.

I raised my right brow. “There was never a fight Lauren, why would I fight back?”

“You got it all wrong, girl. Signing up to be someone’s girlfriend means signing up for war. You just got lucky that your boyfriend closed the territory for the last four years.Though right now, he is opening a narrow slit of passageway and someone’s trying to invade. Girl, you better get ready for war,” she bobbed her head.

I just stared at my half-eaten grilled cheese-burger.

“I just want you to remember Xyriel, I’ll always be here for you whenever you need anything. I could stalk Cole if you want me to,” she grinned.

“No thanks Lauren.”

“My offer will forever be available. Just give me a call,” she closed the lid of her bottle. “But seriously,” she added, “if he dare break your heart, I promise you nasty things will happen to him,” she whispered.

I laughed.

© 2011 x0void

Author's Note

Look out for part 2! Coming soon :) Comment and Subscribe! :D

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Reviews

Tai Ryens

Interesting, but it seems like I knew what was gonna happen from the first paragraph. Should I say, predictable? Well, although I can find the same concept on many different other stories, you put it nicely into words. Better than the average writer. Great job.