Chapter 369
Tamika chuckled. “If you don’t like him, why were you so eager to take him to the hospital? And coming home so late? Are you just shy? I’m your mother–no need for that. You can tell me anything. About the exam, I know you’ll do brilliantly. So if you want to date, date. It’s fine. I won’t stop you.”
Alarieka groaned weakly. “Why are you talking nonsense like everyone else? Really, it’s nothing. It’s complicated–hard to explain quickly. Bottom line: I have zero interest in him.”
Tamika pressed, “Truly?”
“Truly,” Alarieka insisted. “Stop guessing.”
Unconvinced, Tamika eyed her skeptically. “Then why did you bang your head against the wall after he rejected you?”
Alarieka’s mouth opened, her expression tangled. The situation felt messy, relationships suddenly unclear. After a pause, she began, “I-”
“It’s alright,” Tamika cut in gently. “Liking someone is fine. I don’t mind you dating him. But I won’t watch you hurt yourself over him, understand? Don’t bang your head anymore. That brain’s too clever for that.”
Alarieka: ..
Truly hopeless. The more she explained, the worse it sounded. To Tamika, Reyna, and Aunt Lin, she genuinely seemed to harbor feelings for Reyna. No way to clear her name now.
As Tamika started to speak again, Alarieka stood abruptly, heading for her room. “Mom, enough. Let me be alone.”
Tamika called after her. “Hungry? Want a midnight snack?”
Alarieka rubbed her stomach. She had been slightly hungry earlier, but now she was too upset to be hungry. Locking herself in her room, she lifted the covers and immediately burrowed into the bed, pulling them over her head. Silence filled the darkness beneath the quilt. Then she threw off the covers, releasing a long, slow breath.
Reyna was just a distraction. She had more important things to do–no time for this chaos. Grabbing her phone, she tapped the screen and habitually opened WhatsApp to check messages and Instagram. Since moving to the capital, she’d changed her number and created a new WhatsApp account. Most old contacts weren’t added, only Ms. Wyatt, Ms. Wright, and a few others had her new details. After a month here, her WhatsApp contacts remained sparse, messages even scarcer–easily countable at a glance.
Her chats with Ms. Wyatt and Ms. Wright weren’t frequent but consistent, mostly discussing academics and piano lately. Ms. Wyatt passionately urged her to attend a prestigious music academy in France. But Alarieka had her own goals and rejected the idea repeatedly. Ms. Wyatt expressed regret each time, repeatedly extolling the academy’s advantages.
At school, no more parents came to complain, the students returned to their normal class routines, and Reyna taught steadily without worrying about her matters anymore. Everything settled down.
On her end, she kept doing what she wanted: learning computer science and entrepreneurship. A few days ago, she went to school for the second-to-last mock exam before the National College Entrance Examination. Yesterday the results came out–she was still top at school, even first in the entire joint mock exam. The school’s stance on her skipping classes was “whatever, let her be.”
This was what Alarieka wanted, what she’d always craved.
After over a month, Alarieka logged into the social platform again to check the online buzz about her. The moment she entered, the platform pushed her a trending hashtag.
Coincidentally, it was Kieran and Rose’s entry.
“Kieran and Rose Dining with Family”
This topic didn’t make trending topics, but still gained significant traction. Numerous fans flooded the comments with congratulations. Alarieka clicked in and saw exactly what she expected: paparazzi shots of Kieran, Rose, and both the Argent and Whitaker families during a dinner gathering. The photos had sparked countless jubilant posts online.