Wasn’t it enough stabbing me in the back once that they decided to backstab me twice?
A knock on my bedroom door snaps me out of my thoughts. My eyes divert from the ceiling of my room to the room itself, examining it in panic to make sure nothing that may cause me mortification is visible. Letting out a breath I didn’t realise I was holding, I loudly call out to the person on the other side of the door. “Come in.”
The door knob turns, and the door lets out a small creak as it’s slowly pushed open. In a pair of black boots, white skinny jeans, a plain neon red hoodie, a white scarf wrapped around her neck, a black beanie on her head and a dry dark grey umbrella in her right hand, Lexi walks in.
“Hey.” She offers me a full smile, showing off her spotless set of teeth.
“Hi.” I smile back at her, pleased that she is here.
She leaves her umbrella next to the door, resting it on the wall before she makes her way to my bed as she gently lies down next to me. Taking off her boots followed by her beanie and scarf, she pushes her way next to me and points to the stack of messily crumpled white papers with messy hand writings that were lying right on top of the blankets.
“How’s your plan going?”
My shoulders weakly sag down as I frown at the papers. “It sucks.”
“Does that mean we still have to wait a while before setting mission ‘Confrontation’ in motion?” Lexi’s expression reflects mine when I nod.
“Oh come on! When are we going to confront the parents? It’s been a week, if not more, ever since you found out the truth. What is there to plan? You just go there, tell them their dirty little secret is not a secret anymore, yell at them for a little bit, get it all out of your chest, order me to punch Trevor because Oh God I want to and marry Adam. It’s a win-win situation. What is there to not know?” She pouts, crossing her arms over her chest in frustration.
A deep blush finds its way to my cheeks at how blatantly she just told me to marry Adam before I nudge her right shoulder playfully, in an attempt to avert her attention from my teenage-like emotional reactions, as I ask, “So are you so excited for this plan to turn into reality just because you want to watch some dramatic reality show right in front of you, or is it just to cross out one of your wishes from your bucket list?”
“Oh come on!” The blood rushes to her cheeks as she defends herself by blurting, “You know how much I want to try it in real life. I’m so sick of just watching all those Prison Break episodes without trying it out for myself. It’s the best method to release all of your stress, and an experience, I believe, all people should experience.”
“What an amazingly violent experience really! Why don’t you just get a punching bag?”
“I have your brother for that.” She gives me an innocent smile.
I give her an amused look as I continue with a smirk, “Just make sure you watch some beginner videos on how to really throw a punch otherwise my brother’s face is going to end up breaking your thumb.”
“Okay, stop it with making fun of me already.” She eyes me with her confident hazel irises as she says adamantly, “I know how to throw a perfect punch.”
“Oh really, and how is that?”
Trying to contain my laughter as I watch her struggling to shape her right hand, I fail. I burst out into a fit of giggles at the sight of all her four fingers wrapped around her thumb. Her cheeks redden even more, but she slowly starts laughing once she sees tears rolling down my cheeks.
“What? What did I do wrong?” She asks.
“That, my dear, is a one free ticket to a hospital.”
“Ha-ha very funny.” Her smile diminishes a little as she reverts the topic back to my parents. “Seriously, though, when are you going to end this conflict, Evangeline? You cannot hide from them forever.”
“I’m not hiding. I’m just trying to think thoroughly about what exactly I want to tell them. I want to know if I have it in me to forgive them if they truly make things right this time.” I pass an irritated hand through my soft hair.
“Will you…” She eyes me worriedly before she continues, “Ever forgive them?”
“I don’t know, Lex. It depends on them, and it depends on Evelyn,” I explain.
“Evelyn?” She furrows her eyebrows, not fully understanding what I mean.
“Yes. I finished reading her diary today. After she figured out about the contract, she wrote about her feelings and her thoughts, including what she thought about her parents and how ‘she thinks she’ll never have it in her to forgive them’. As much as I despise my parents for what they did and as much as I wish I can disown them for taking advantage of my accident like that, I can never truly feel what Evelyn felt. I may feel worse, knowing how they brainwashed me into thinking I’m ‘Evangeline’ after I regained my conscious from the incident and knowing that they kept a lot of secrets from me- secrets that weren’t theirs’ to keep, but one thing I know for sure
