“So, there aren’t any monsters or ghosts or anything freaky of any kind in this place?” Yuri asked the girl continuously as they walked on a pathway which led to the façade of the school.

“Take a look around you,” Jessica answered. “Does it look like a place that anything out of the ordinary would live in?”

Jessica was right. The school’s extensive and vast yard wasn’t a place that anyone would be afraid of. It was like any other ordinary park. It had tall lamp posts which were lit up and there were some wooden benches here and there. It was true that the trees would seem frightening at first because of the leaves that weren’t present on their branches, but besides that, there was nothing else that would be bloodcurdling.

The two girls continued to walk as they were on their way home. The forest area of the school was quite huge as compared to the school itself. The girls had been walking for more than ten minutes but they have only made it halfway. The path that they were following was curvy and it zigzagged towards all directions. The moon, along with the lamp posts on the sides of the pathway, lit up the dirt road ahead of them. No one has been in the place for quite some time probably because of the effort it takes to get there and back. But without any other options, the two girls continued walking.

“You’re right. This place really isn’t scary at all,” Yuri admitted.

“See. I told you there was nothing to be afraid about.”

“But you really scared me back there,” Yuri declared as she continued to walk while looking at the ground.

“Are you still mad?” Jessica asked, worried.

Yuri smiled as she continued to look at the ground.

“No,” Yuri denied as she lifted her head up and looked at Jessica. “I wasn’t even mad to start with.”

“That’s good to know,” Jessica uttered as she released a sigh of relief. “Good to know.”

“Why are you so relieved?” Yuri curiously asked.

“Well… I can’t have more than one person getting mad at me.”

“Someone else is mad at you?”

“Well… there is,” Jessica admitted. “There’s this girl…”

Jessica found herself talking about something that she should’ve kept to herself. She unintentionally revealed the existence of a girl she fictitiously created. Luckily, Yuri saw nothing out of the ordinary. She thought that Tiffany was just a real, normal girl that was friends with Jessica.

“How did she get mad?”

“Well… it’s sort of… somehow similar to what I did to you.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I pulled a prank on you right?” Jessica confirmed.

“Yes. How can I forget?”

“I did the same thing to her… just a little bit harsher.”

“This is getting quite interesting. Can we take a seat first before you continue?” Yuri suggested.

Jessica nodded her head in agreement and the two walked towards the nearest bench. They sat beside each other and leaned on their lap with their arms. Then, they continued conversing with each other.

“You were saying?”

“Yes. Let me continue,” Jessica continued to narrate. “We were at this place, Tiffany and I.”

“Tiffany?”

“Yes. That was her name,” Jessica said as the mood suddenly became gloomy. “We were at this place, and as I said before, I pulled a prank on her.”

“How mad was she?”

“Well… to start… she slapped my face… hard. Then, she cried, wept actually, and ran away.”

“What did you do for her to react like that?”

“We were at a waterfall, and the view was really beautiful. But she was really afraid of water. She couldn’t swim. I tried to get her to jump into the water below the cliff we were on, but she wouldn’t. Then, tried to force her to do so by pulling her, but my grip loosened and I ended up falling in the water on my own.”

“She was mad at you for falling in the water?”

“No, that wasn’t it,” Jessica muttered as she sighed, reminiscing what happened in that fateful dream. “I played dead so that she would come after me. She did. And it probably took a lot of courage for her to do so. But when she found out that I was just fooling with her, she got extremely mad. She said that I shouldn’t be playing with my life and with her fear. Then she left.”

“Well, she was right about one thing: that you shouldn’t play with your life. But it wasn’t right for her to slap you in the face and leave like you did such a bad thing. What you did wasn’t that bad. I mean come on, when I found out that it was you who was scaring me a while ago, I just cried. I didn’t hit you in the face… well… I did… but it was an accident. There shouldn’t b–”

Yuri stopped talking as a weird sound suddenly ringed in her ears. It was crying. She looked around to see from whom the tears were coming from, then she realized that it was Jessica.

“Why are you crying?” Yuri asked the girl as she put one of her arms around her, embracing her.

“It was my fault. It was my fault,” Jessica, filled with guilt, blamed herself repeatedly. “I shouldn’t have done that. Now she’s gone,” Jessica uttered as she covered her face with her hands.

“No… no… don’t cry,” Yuri comforted the crying girl as she rubbed the girl’s shoulder gently. “It wasn’t your fault. She was wrong for leaving and hurting you like that.”

“It’s my fault,” Jessica continued to tell herself.

Suddenly, Yuri stood up from where she was sitting. Then, she kneeled in front of the girl who was shedding her tears. Yuri grabbed the wrists of Jessica and removed her from her tear-soaked face. After she let go of her arms, Yuri placed her palms on Jessica’s cheeks.

“Look at me,” Yuri ordered the girl as she tilted the girl’s face towards her direction. “Look at me!” Yuri yelled out once more.

Frightened by the loud shout, Jessica impeded her tears. She was still sobbing, but she tried hard to stop her tears from flowing. Her wet eyes met those of Yuri and she looked deeply in them, waiting for the words that would come out next from .

“Don’t say that it’s your fault. It’s not,” Yuri softly spoke. “You’re a great girl. I… I’ve… I’ve learned from experience.”

The atmosphere suddenly turned awkward as Yuri said those words. The girl removed her hands from Jessica’s cheeks and she sat back down on the bench beside her.

“What are you crying about?” Yuri started to ask. “D… don’t… don’t tell me… that there’s something between you.”

“Well…”

“I knew it!” Yuri exclaimed as she got up from her seat once again. “You’re in a relationship with that girl aren’t you?”

“After what I did,” Jessica replied as tears started to form in her eyes once more. “I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”

“I… I… I… I’m here… I… I’m here for you,” Yuri said gently as she looked into Jessica’s eyes. “Don’t think about her. Forget about her. You deserve better.”

The ambiance went silent in a flash after those sentences escaped from their mouths. Suddenly, the light from the lamp post beside the bench they were sitting on started to get dimmer. In mere seconds, their faces were only lit up by a weak glow from the lamp post and the bright beams of the moonlight. The two girls continued to stare into each other’s eyes and it seemed as if the two of them entered a trance.

All of a sudden, Yuri lifted her hand and it made its way towards Jessica’s face. Her index and middle finger clamped a few strands of Jessica’s blonde hair and tucked it behind the girl’s ear. Then, her fingers slowly crept towards the back of Jessica’s head. At this point, Jessica was still dazed as she was still looking into Yuri’s deep stare, oblivious to what was happening around her. Yuri slowly pulled Jessica’s face towards her with her hand and she closed her eyes. Jessica, seemingly brainwashed at the moment, closed her eyes as well as Yuri tilted her head to the side and prepared to kiss the dry lips of Jessica.

Their lips were edging closer towards each other. Inch by inch and second after second, their faces slowly came closer. Then, without warning, the light from the lamp post started to flicker wildly. Startled by the sudden radiant glimmering of the light, Jessica became conscious and she opened her eyes, not remembering what just happened the past few seconds. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness as the light bulb from the post finally died. She shocked at what met her gaze. Yuri’s eyes were closed, her lips were puckered, and her hand was still on the back of Jessica’s neck.

“What are you doing?” Jessica firmly said in a low tone as she grabbed Yuri’s wrist and removed the girl’s hand from her neck. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Before her lips reached those of Jessica’s, Yuri opened her eyes and an ice-cold face met her vision. Jessica had a raised eyebrow and a puzzled look on her face. Whatever was going to happen next, Yuri knew it wasn’t going to be good.

“I…” Yuri uttered as she backed off of Jessica. “I… need to go.”

Scared of what was going to happen next after attempting to kiss Jessica, Yuri quickly scampered away from the girl, discombobulated and frantically.

“It’s getting dark… I’ll see you tomorrow,” Yuri awkwardly yelled out as she recklessly ran along the remaining path that was in front of her.

“Why is she acting that way?” Jessica asked herself as she was stunned at the weird actions of the girl. “Does she even know if she’s heading the right way?”

Jessica finally stood up from the bench and continued to walk.

“Well, she’s a big girl. She can find her way.”

Then, Jessica stopped in her tracks. A question suddenly passed through her head.

“Why DID she act that way? What was she trying to do?”

Jessica tried hard to recall what happened in the past few minutes. Yuri’s actions were really strange and she knew that the girl might’ve done something that would anger her.

She decided to sit down on the ground and think first before resuming her walk home. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what happened with much effort.

Finally, everything flashed before her eyes. She remembered how Yuri stopped her crying and how the girl comforted her. She remembered that she narrated her story with Tiffany to the girl. Then, she finally recalled what she was trying hard to search for. She remembered feeling something on the back of her head. It was Yuri’s hand. She remembered her face being pulled towards Yuri’s in an attempt to kiss her. She remembered how Yuri closed her eyes and tilted her head. That was the reason why Yuri acted the way she did.

“She tried to kiss me?” Jessica wondered as she stood up from the ground. “She tried to kiss me?”

Jessica tried to shake the thought off her mind as she went on with walking. She kicked the stones on the ground as her feet moved on the ground one after the other. She couldn’t seem to get rid of the thought that the Yuri tried to kiss her. For the second time in a row, she stopped walking.

“But… why… why didn’t I reject right away?” Jessica questioned herself as she recalled how she tilted her head and closed her eyes the way Yuri did. “Was I ready to kiss her too?”

Jessica scratched her head in frustration as she was irritated at the thought that she nearly kissed someone whom she had a past with.

“Aish! Why is this happening to me?!” Jessica yelled out as she kicked the air stressfully. “When did things start to get confusing?”

The confused girl just shook her head and sighed, knowing that her life was once again full of disorder. For the last time, she started to walk and she took long strides as the only thing on her mind was to get home early. Despite all the trouble that she had within the day, she wanted to end it by making up with the only person who makes her life less troubled than it is. The only thing she wanted to do at that moment was to get home, sleep, and talk with Tiffany.

“It’s gotten really dark,” Jessica exclaimed as she looked at the starless, pitch black sky that was above her. At last, after hours in the school’s vast outdoors, she was finally at its frontage.

Jessica looked back at the building that was behind her and she sighed at the thought that she would have to come back at the dreadful place the next day.

Jessica tucked the loose strands of hair behind her ears, put her hands in her pocket, and started to take the path to her home. She walked hurriedly as she didn’t want to waste any more time. Then, after a few more minutes, she turned the last corner to her house. She walked a couple more steps, and she was finally at her house’s gates. She opened it and went inside her territory. She walked towards her front door and reached for the doorknob. She turned it clockwise, but apparently. It was locked.

“It’s locked?” Jessica, surprised, exclaimed as she tried to open the door multiple times. “Mom never locks the door until I’m home.”

Jessica still kept on trying to open the door, but she finally gave up. Jessica knocks on the sealed door with her knuckles as she yells to her mom.

“Mom! I’m home!” Jessica screams out as she knocks on the door loudly. “Please open the door!”

Even though Jessica was screaming at the top of her lungs, no answer came from the indoors of her house. Jessica stepped back first and looked through the windows of the house. The lights were off and it seemed like no one was really home.

“Oh right. We have a key,” Jessica told herself as she hit her head in ridicule. She bent over in front of the doormat and lifted it up with her hand. Under the mat, something glimmered; it was the key. She took it with her other hand and immediately stuck it into the keyhole after standing back up. The lock clicked open after she turned the key and she was finally to enter her house.

After swinging the door open, Jessica reached for the light switches which were on the wall adjacent to the doorway. She flicked them all up, and the whole first floor lit up immediately. She was on her way to her room when something from the dining table caught her attention. She walked towards it and found a piece of paper stuck to its surface. It was a note from her mom. It read:

“Jessi, it’s mom. I wanted to wait for you to come home before heading out, but it seems like you’re going to stay out late. I’m just going to buy dinner. Wait for me. I’ll be back soon.”

“So she really isn’t home,” Jessuca uttered. “But I can’t wait for her. I need to go back to sleep.”

Jessica grabbed the piece of paper off the table and put it in her pocket. Then, she headed up the stairs towards her room. She jumped on her bed as soon as she opened her bedroom door. Not bothering to close it, or even wash up first, Jessica closed her eyes and hypnotized herself to sleep. Soon enough she was slumbering.