| Fan Fiction |
by mango
Raymond set himself down on the back porch; he was somewhat trying to calm down. Or at least rid the scene that was constantly bugging him. An image of Tavia popped up as the corner of his lips twitched into a smile. He shook his head vigorously, she had been occupying his mind too much lately. His head lifted up when he heard the noise of the door slide open. Linda stood there, smiling back at him. Inviting herself down beside him, she tried to start a conversation. “Hey.”
“Hey.” he mumbled back, facing ahead and not her.
“What are you doing?” she asked softly, she wanted him to say more than one word to her. Linda wanted to have a decent conversation and most of all – for his forgiveness. Raymond shrugged. “Ray..” she cried almost desperately. Raymond turned to face Linda. Their gazes met as Linda felt her heart pumping rapidly. When looking into her eyes, he had expected to feel pain and the love they shared from the past – he felt none of that. He was quite surprised. What he felt 3 years ago, where was the feeling? He searched for it, but he failed to find it.
“Ray, are you listening to me?” Linda asked, waving her hand in front of his face. “Ray? Ray!” Linda raised her voice a notch and washed away all the thoughts that was running through Raymond’s mind.
“What did you say?” he asked.
“I..” she started, glancing about, avoiding his eyes. “Will you forgive me?” she repeated her previous question nervously.
When he did not answer, Linda’s eyes moistened. She couldn’t take it anymore and finally exploded. “I understand that you’re mad at me, but please, it’s already been 3 years. Why can’t you let it go? We can’t even be friends? How many times do I need to apologize? And even if I do, would you accept? No, you wouldn’t. Honestly Ray, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do now. What else do you want me to do? I was really happy to have met you again, but...they way you’ve treated me..” she trailed off. “...I just don’t know...”
Raymond stared intensely at Linda as he his mind lingered on the words that she had spoken. He had been too stubborn. Should he forgive her? Linda was right, it had been 3 years ago. The past was the past. Or was it that he had already forgiven her but was unwilling to face the truth? Looking at her tear-streaked face, he felt guilty. Maybe forgive and forget was the best solution.
“Sorry, I–“
“I forgive you.” he said with a bit of hesitance.
Linda’s eyes widened at his answer; that was something she least expected. “Y-you will?” she croaked. He nodded his head to confirm her question. His confirmation brought her beyond happiness. A small smile crept onto her face. If he had forgiven her, that must mean there was another chance at their relationship, right? Linda wanted another try.
“We can be friends.”
His respond had cut down all of the hopes she had built up inside. Selfishly, she wanted to be more than that.
Sucking in a deep breath, she smiled weakly.
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Tavia’s eyes wandered over to the glass door where it separated her from Raymond and Linda. She tried hard not to glance there every now and then, but her eyes would always failed her. Not to mention, a frown was present on her face. The sun was setting yet they were still outside, chatting happily with one another. She sighed and focused her attention on the stalk of vegetable in her hands. She was supposed to wash it. Th girls were cooking dinner together, well, except Bernice and Linda.
“Tavia?” Leila asked, taking a hold of the vegetable from the girl.
“Huh?” Tavia asked, looking at Leila, confusion written all over her face.
“You were supposed to wash this.” Leila slightly frowned.
“Oh! Sorry! Sorry!” she repeatedly apologized, retrieving the green stalk from Leila and opened up the tap.
“Leila, can you pass me a clean spoon?” Ella asked as she set a huge pot of water onto the stove.
“Okay.” replied Leila as she slid open a drawer to look for a metal spoon.
“IS DINNER READY?” Kenneth asked, poking his head into the kitchen.
“Not yet, but it’ll be ready in half an hour.” Ella answered, accepting the utensil from Leila. Kenneth nodded his head and headed back out.
“Ummm. Should I chop this up?” asked Tavia with Leila beside her.
Leila pursed her lips and then said. “How about this, you go outside. Ella and I will handle this, alright?” Tavia weakly nodded her head. Leila probably didn’t want her to burn the food again. Tavia wasn’t mad at all. In fact, she was more than glad to not have cooked.
“Aw I lost again?” Bosco frowned while Ron, Bernice and Kenneth was smiling. They were playing cards on the floor. A huge container of water was placed in the middle with four cups surrounding it.
“TOO BAD! Drink up!” Bernice cried, refilling Bosco’s cup with water.
He groaned, clutching onto his stomach. “Do I have to? I’m full from...water.”
“No! No exceptions and no excuses!” Ron objected, shaking his head and placed the cup of water into Bosco’s hand. Tavia took a seat on the sofa, behind Ron, as she watched them play. Defeated, Bosco gulped the whole cup down; he had never felt so sick of water until now.
Kenneth swept all of the cards closer to him as he swiftly aligned them to face the same direction. Like a professional card dealer, he shuffled it and started to deal them. “Bosco, you are going down AGAIN.”
“Not playing anymore!” Bosco shouted, got up from his seat and instantly ran to the bathroom; nature was calling him. Bernice, Ron and Kenneth bursted into laughters.
“Now we’re missing one person.” realized Ron, pointing at the spot where Bosco once sat.
Bernice and Kenneth whipped their head toward Tavia and stared intensely at her. Tavia notices this and pointed to herself. “Me?” she croaked and quickly shook her head. “I don’t know how to play.”
“But we need another player.” Kenneth stated the obvious.
All of a sudden Bernice let out a small shriek.
“What’s wrong?” asked Ron, curious as to why she did just that.
“The rice!!” she yelped. “We totally forgot about it while running away from the bees! We could use it! It’s such a waste!” Bernice narrowed her eyes. “Who’s going back?”
“NOT ME!” Kenneth was the first to decline the offer.
“I am never going back there. Look at what happened to me!” Ron shook his head.
Bernice pointed to her sprained ankle. “Well that person sure isn’t going to be with this kind of ankle.” They turned to look at Tavia once again but then shook their head. “No, she won’t be able to carry it back.” declared Bernice. Tavia was not at all offended because she knew it was the truth.
“Then who?” Tavia wondered, staring at the trio.
Just then Bosco entered the room, a huge grin on his face after finishing his business. In the background, Raymond and Linda had just came back from their conversation. Ron, Bernice and Kenneth exchanged a knowing look. Raymond, Linda and Bosco stopped, looked at each other, perplexed. A sinister smile was pasted on all of their faces. The innocent souls did not know what was going through Bernice, Ron and Kenneth’s mind. Linda wondered what evil deeds they had up their sleeves. “YOU’RE GOING!” With 3 index fingers pointing at them, they were speechless.
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“I can not believe we are forced to do this!”Bosco exclaimed as he began stuffing rice into the plastic bag that he had brought along. It had taken Bosco, Raymond and Linda nearly 15 minutes to get to the ‘treasure’ spot and now they were stuffing the bag with rice like crazy.
Linda tied knots to all the bag as she spoke. “It’s world war 4 when Bernice and Kenneth argues, but they’re even more powerful when they combine forces.” she laughed, shaking her head, remembering how Bernice and Kenneth had teamed up to force the 3 into leaving the house. They had practically thrown Linda, Raymond and Bosco out of the house.
“World war 4..” Raymond laughed.
“I wonder how long we will have to stay here.” Bosco cried, he was homesick. “I want to go back.”
“Me too.” Linda replied. “But you know, this trip was quite fun.” Raymond and Bosco nodded their heads. As much as they all missed their Hong Kong, they would definitely be sad to leave this place.
“We’re done. Let’s head back now. I want to get back in time for dinner.” Bosco’s stomach growled. Linda giggled while he patted his stomach. Hearing Bosco’s angry stomach, Raymond was also beginning to feel hungry. They scooped up the last bit of it as Raymond and Bosco carried most of it while they handed Linda the lightest one.
“We look like Santa Claus.” Linda said with a light laugh. Bosco laughed along. With the bag over his shoulder, he fastened his pace. He could already hear dinner pleading him to devour it.
“There’s so much rice, do you think we’ll finish it?” Linda asked Raymond and he nodded his head.
“There are 9 mouths to feed. This is not enough.”
“Yeah. Kenneth eats quite a lot.”
“He does.” agreed Raymond. Although he only spoke a few words to her, Linda thought it was a big advancement. They were interrupted when Bosco shouted for them to hurry up.
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“WE’RE BACK!!!” Bosco shouted happily and instantly drop the bag onto the ground. His shoulder was aching. Raymond did the same as Linda tried to pull the rice bags into the kitchen. Kenneth came out with a toothpick in his mouth.
“Sorry, Bos. We ate all the food.” Kenneth teased, patting his full stomach.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Bosco groaned loudly.
Ella came out to witness their return. “Don’t listen to him. There’s still food left. We saved some for you guys.” The minute Ella finished her sentence, Bosco had already dashed to the dining table.