Old Times

Ana immediately closes the fridge door, her mouth hanging open in utter disbelief at what she's just heard.

"You threw it away? Why did you throw away my cake?"

Her mother retorts:

"I've already made you breakfast, it's more nutritious that way."

Ana is very, very angry, she looks at her mother so angrily and says:

"It was just a cake, I won that cake... you had no right to throw it away! It was mine! I earned that cake!"

Her mother is surprised for a moment, Ana doesn't usually retort, she tells Ana to be quiet and keep her voice down, but Ana picks up her bag furiously and her eyes are watering, as she walks out the door she says:

"Becker gave me that cake, so maybe you'll understand, since it's become the magic word to say the name of the "Beckers" in this house!"

Ana knocks on the living room door as she leaves, she even turns to try to apologize, but gives up and knows that her mother will probably come after her and complain:

"I slammed the door...shit...to hell with knowing..."

She goes out into the street, and follows the path to school, she hears her mother shouting something at the gate, but pretends not to hear, at that moment the Beckers are leaving the house too, and hear something from afar, the dogs then bark too because of the noise, because it's still very early, every noise becomes an echo, the two look at each other's faces trying to understand where the noise is coming from, but without understanding they decide to go on their way and go to school.

Ana has spent the last three lessons still trying to calm down, she's holding in her tears, she usually cries when she's angry, because she feels it somehow relieves that kind of feeling, but she won't do it around anyone, the break bell rings, but she doesn't go down to the cafeteria, she goes to the Terrace, because she knows it's empty and only Luke and Justin usually go there, as she saw them going down to the cafeteria, she goes to the Terrace because she wants to be alone, she sits on the wall on the Terrace and starts crying, she tries to calm down and not go back with her face all red from crying, she gets up and goes near the glass fence, it's very windy, she closes her eyes and stays there enjoying the wind, distracted, someone comes and whispers in her ear:

"I found you, were you hiding here today?"

Ana is startled, but there's no time for her to slip back, because Luke has just the arm to hold her in case she gets scared, he holds her, she looks at Luke, startled, and then looks away and tries to hide her face with her hair, but Luke realizes that she's trying to hide something, so he gently pushes her hair away, and turns Ana's face to look at him and says:

"Are you crying?"

Ana tries to disguise it and nods.

Luke insists:

"How can you not? Your face is all red, your nose is red, why are you crying?

Ana continues to disguise herself and denies it:

"No, I said I'm not crying."

Luke keeps looking at her, and he knows she's lying, he automatically feels guilty about something, he knows his temper isn't good sometimes:

"Who made you cry? Was it me?"

Ana shakes her head saying no, nobody.

Luke continues to insist:

"So it was the cake, was it bad?

Ana hears the word "cake", then tries to hold it in, but starts crying all over again, Luke panics, but tries to calm her down, he makes her sit on the wall, he sits next to her facing her, while stroking her hair, he just says:

"Stay calm, if you don't want to say it's okay."

Ana inhales and pulls in a breath, she wants to tell him why she's crying, but she doesn't have the heart to say that it's because her mother threw away the cake he bought her, she tries to calm down, but she won't tell him the truth:

"No, you didn't do anything wrong...and the cake..."

"The cake was delicious, I was going to bring you a piece, but I ate it all.....sorry..."

to be continued....