CHAPTER FIVE

"Walking down the hall, she looked around to see if she would see any of the girls, but she could see no one. She moved towards the hall Mary had pointed to earlier and made her way in that direction.

She prayed that she was not too early, so as not to appear too eager, but she did not have a problem with being late; at least it was far better than arriving later.

As she got close to the room, she could hear sounds of laughter coming from inside. She paused at the door, already having second thoughts about attending the meeting.

She was about to turn and make her way back to her room when she bumped into something, or more specifically, someone who was as hard as a rock.

She looked up to utter words of apology, but they died in her throat when she saw who she had bumped into. It was the annoying guy from before.

"Hey, princess, how have you been?" he asked.

His eyes trailed down her body, and he let out a loud whistle in appreciation. He slowly trailed his eyes back up to her face, with a wide grin etched on his face.

Meanwhile, Gabby had a murderous expression on her face; she was so creeped out by this guy. He just kept popping up wherever she went, and it really disturbed her a lot.

Looking at him, he looked responsible and not like someone who was out to harm her. But with how the world was these days, you never can tell who is the foe or the friend.

She glared up at him and asked queerly, "Are you stalking me, or do you just coincidentally pop up anywhere I'm around?"

"The world does revolve around you, sweetheart. I should be the one asking you that question, you know," the idiot said, smiling smugly.

"You see, girls can't seem to resist all this handsomeness; they just keep stalking me. I'm sure you know what I mean," he said, winking at her.

This damn bastard. Her face hardened all the more in anger. Oh, her God, his darn arrogance was just too much. She felt the need to scratch the smile off his pretty face to reduce his rotten pride.

She was about to give him a piece of her mind when all of a sudden she heard a loud squealing and saw Mary approaching them with speed.

Gabby's eyes widened in panic; she did not know what to do. She immediately side-stepped out of the way to prevent the head-on collision that was about to take place.

But to her utter surprise and total confusion, Mary threw herself into the awaiting arms of the annoying dude. Oh well, that was unexpected, she thought.

She stood beside them awkwardly, not knowing what to do while they laughed, hugged, talked, and laughed again.

She was about to walk away from the cringy couple and step into the supposed room indicated to be their meeting place when she was stopped by the pretty boy's voice.

"Where are you running off to, princess?" he asked.

"Don't tell me you have given up on stalking me, 'cause I will really be disappointed," he said, while pouting his darn rosy lips, which, for God knows why, looked so inviting to her at the moment.

And the idiot seemed to catch on to her staring at his lips because his stupid smile just doubled. Gabby sighed and turned to leave; she thought it was best to ignore him rather than feed his already large ego. But she was once again stopped by another voice.

She had actually forgotten that Mary was still standing with them while the idiot had been yapping all that nonsense. She turned to look at Mary and gave her a small smile.

"Wait a minute, you guys know each other?" she asked.

"Hell no," Gabby replied immediately, while the pretty boy had a different idea because his answer was a yes, which kind of annoyed her.

She just turned to Mary and plainly told her that she did not know the guy, that they had just bumped into each other on several occasions and that was all. She did not want to be the one to stand between Mary and the pretty boy, in case they had something going on between them, which it sure as hell looked like.

She did not want to be the one to cause problems between Mary and the guy she liked, because she felt Mary was a good person, and she would not like to destroy the girl's happiness, someone who had tried to befriend her and all.

She might be a lot of things, but she was not a relationship wrecker, and she definitely was not about to be labeled one. But the foolish guy thought it was just funny and kept on making things worse.

"Princess, why are you doing this to me?" he said on a gasp, with his hand dramatically placed on his chest.

"I thought what we had was special. Why do you keep on denying me so?"

" Oh, I know," he suddenly said, standing up straight.

In Gabby's head, she was like, "What was this clown about to do again?"

She looked at him with a bored expression on her face because she was just not in the mood for any more of his nonsense. If he says any more nonsense, she was going to lash out at him really bad.

She looked at him, and the idiot had a mischievous expression on his face. Gabby just knew that whatever he was going to say next was going to be bad. Before she could open her mouth to prevent that from happening, it was already too late.

He looked at her and smirked; he then turned to Mary and said, "I think she is jealous that you hugged me and kissed my cheeks."

Mary's face twisted, and Gabby felt her heart sink. She turned to him in anger and cut him off before he could do more damage.

"You bastard, can you just shut your annoying mouth?

"You dingbat, don't you have common sense? Can't you see the mess you are creating, you fucking bonehead?"

" I don't know why you are trying to create problems when clearly it's not needed".

"You have a beautiful lady standing next to you, one who clearly likes you, and here you are behaving like a deranged idiot".

"Now, if you have any working brain stem left in that skull of yours, you would try to fix this shit you created," Gabby stated, looking at him with a murderous look in her eyes.

She turned to look at Mary to see her mouth opened wide in shock, while the dickhead had a smile on his face. Gabby could understand why Mary would be shocked; she must feel confused and short of words.

She turned to look at Michael and shook her head in disgust. What a shameless pig, she thought. She had really given it to him hot; it was not every day that she dished out a layered insult.

She took great pride in the way she spoke and conducted herself. So having to insult anyone happened on rare occasions and moments when she was very pissed off.

She turned and stormed into the room; she only paused halfway when she saw the number of people seated there. She thought she had entered the wrong room until she saw Alessi and Kim sitting in one corner.

She had thought it was just the girls and herself who would be present for the gathering; that was clearly what she had understood from the arrangement they had made in the early hours of the day.

But clearly, she had been very wrong because the number of girls in the room far exceeded the number she had sat with in the morning. To top it off, there were also guys present in the room.

Alright, this was not what she had in mind when she had dressed for the night. She turned and was already on her way out of the room when she ran into Alexander, who was making her way in.

She saw Gabby and smiled, proceeding to walk towards her.

"Hello," she greeted before she leaned in to give Gabby a hug. Gabby was kind of startled because in all her days of meeting people, they had only greeted with a handshake or even a nod when needed; never had she been hugged by anyone besides her parents.

So, it kind of made her confused at the free show of affection and how to react to it. She was lost in her head, and she had not heard most of the things Alexander had said to her.

So when she finally came around and saw her smiling at her, she did not know what to make of that or how to respond. She was sure she had a weird look on her face because Alexander just busted into laughter.

She looked at her, further confused at her action; she did not know what she had done that had promoted a cause for laughter.

So she just stood there, waiting for her to be done before she would break the news to her that she was leaving because she was not sure she wanted to stay anymore.

Alex pulled Gabby's hands in hers. "The way you are staring at me tells me that you did not hear a single word I had said, right?" Gabby nodded her head, offering her a smile.

Alex just shook her head in amusement. "You are so cute," she stated, pinching Gabby's cheek, who scrunched her face in disagreement. Alex could not help but laugh at such a cute gesture.

"You just look so pretty that I had to compliment you."

"Where did you get the gown from?

"Oh my God, it's fucking beautiful; the designs are so amazing," she gushed.

Gabby smiled, feeling proud of herself. "It's one of my designs," she said.

Alex's brows furrowed first in confusion, then in astonishment. She stood there gaping at Gabby with her mouth open wide in amazement.

Suddenly, she turned and loudly called out to Alessi and Kim, beckoning them to come closer. By then, she had gotten the attention of everyone in the room.

When the girls got to where they were standing, she loudly told them that the dress Gabby was wearing was designed and made by Gabby herself.

Gabby was not one for attention, but then everyone liked it when his or her work was being admired and praised for its elegance and uniqueness.

She could hear different kinds of positive comments coming from different people, and she just felt really elated at that.

Gabby was so proud when her efforts were appreciated with such enthusiastic and realistic compliments and recognition. It was worth it; it was really worth it. It just made her happy, confident, and contented.

Often times, compliments she had received concerning her work were often half-felt comments by people, mostly out of obligation, sometimes out of envy and hatred.

She had never had or witnessed anyone react in such an enthusiastic manner to her work. She felt really honored and touched.

Alexander, Alessi, and Kim came flanking beside me wearing wide grins on their faces. They raised their thumbs in a good job gesture, as if to say well done, and that sent a warm feeling down her body, and even if she tried, she could not stop the smile that appeared on her face.

All of a sudden, Gabby heard laughter at the entrance of the room and saw Mary, the pretty boy, and a girl attached, more like glued to his side. They were all making their way into the room, with the girl laughing loudly while Mary had a weird look on her face.

Everyone's attention was directed to the newcomers, and when people noticed who had just entered, the atmosphere took a new turn; it was as if a celebrity had entered the room.

They all rushed towards the entrance to hug or shake the pretty boy, who was laughing and smiling happily. Gabby was sure he was enjoying the attention, with the way he was showing his thirty-two. She rolled her eyes at that and made her way to an empty seat to rest her legs.

After some time, the laughter died down, and they all made their way to the center of the room, with the pretty boy obviously in the lead."

"Now, when it got to her turn, the girls all recited her mantra, making her embarrassed as hell. The way they worded it made it sound so wrong, and that got everyone laughing, even leachy leech.

Gabby was blushing in mortification; they made her look so bad, and she was not having a bit of it.

She opened her mouth to give them a piece of her mind but was cut off by the pretty boy's hand, which he placed on hers. She turned to glance at him, wondering what the hell he was doing.

Then he leaned towards her and said, "They are not doing it to provoke you; they just think it's unique the way you introduce yourself. Not many take pride in what they do; many are just too proud of themselves, but I think you are simply great." He smiled at her after those words before turning to laugh with the crowd, taking his hand along with him.

She was left confused by his words and actions. The way he had acted showed that he had been paying attention to her. She was not sure what to make of his action; she knew she must have stared at him for a while before she regained her composure and joined in the conversation still going on.

Sometimes she was asked questions to which she had answered to the best of her knowledge. She also participated in some games played at the command of Alessi and the strong-headedness of Alexander.

At some point, one of the guys seated at the far end of the table, who had earlier introduced himself as Marco, kept staring at her.

After she was done answering some questions involving event decorations and so on because loud-mouthed Mary had gone ahead to tell every listening ear of their first meeting and the incident that followed.

Marco turned to Gabby and asked if she was autistic, which she found really weird.

'What part of her looked autistic?'

She never behaved like one, never talked like one, of which she was very sure. What shocked the hell out of her was when people concurred with the question and affirmed that they had also thought so at a point.

She had not even noticed that his voice had been loud enough to get almost everyone's attention.

She had been shocked by his question and had been totally focused on him. She had to raise her brows at him in a questioning manner because she was not sure what she had done to be tagged autistic.

He shrugged and said, "The way you talk is kind of robotic and padded with big words. So what's there not to draw conclusions when all evidence says so?"

"Yeah, I have also observed you for some time now; you seem to like everything placed in order. You placed your bottles, napkin, and glass all in a straight line, and you even did that with Michael's stuff too," a pretty girl, Angel, added.

Gabby, who had been paying attention to what the lady had been saying, wondered who the said Michael was. When they had been introducing themselves, no Michael had been mentioned, which made Gabby wonder who in the world the Michael she was currently talking about was.

"You also avoid having direct contact with people," this one came from the pretty boy sitting beside her, who had the nerves to smile cheekily at her. She snubbed him.

There was no biggie in talking like an educated person, nor was it wrong to be organized or be scared of having skin contact with people who you were not sure of what disease they had to transfer, she thought, and nodded her head in self-affirmation. She sat taller in her seat.

"I will address each point that has been pointed out. Firstly, I'm precise and concise in my speech; that does not make me autistic. That I speak standard English does not in any way give you the effrontery to deem me what I clearly am not. Secondly, Miss Angel, being organized, veracious, or valiant is not a valid reason for one to be tagged what he or she is not."

The moment she was done talking, she proceeded to eating the remaining dessert that was left on her plate. She could feel eyes on her, but that had no effect on her; everyone is entitled to his opinion. But what got her thinking was the fact that they had been quick to draw conclusions about her.

She had never encountered such a situation before; this was a first for her. She could feel the awkward change in the atmosphere. Gabby could not understand why any of these things were happening to her.

She should have known it was not a good idea to mingle; it was not her thing. She had just wanted a change in the scenario but should have known that not all what she wished for would come true, given how life had always treated her.

Gabby pushed her chair back and stood up to leave when a snarky, rude voice cut her off. "Being proud, acting all high and mighty certainly does not make you pretty; learn to accept things for what they are."

Gabby turned to look at who had made the comment and was not too surprised when she found out that it was leachy leech, Sophia.

The bitch had a smug smile on her face; she had been waiting for a moment like this to get to Gabby, once she had noticed Michael's interest in her. Unknowingly to her, she did not know who she was up against.

"I am so going to smack that smile off her ugly mug of a face," thought Gabby, her face void of any emotion.

She turned to face Sophia and smiled widely at her before saying, "If you have something to say, raise your hand and place it over your mouth; I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person."

The room, which had been quiet for a while, thundered with whistles and hoots. Alessi, who had been laughing like a wheezing hyena, walked up to Gabby and air-kissed her.

"Damn girl, you've got a mouth on you; I sure as hell like that a lot," she said, still laughing. "I'm now very sure we would become best of friends because we are certainly meant to be."

"She pulled Gabby towards the area where she was seated with Alessi and Kim and pushed a guy named Elijah out of his seat, placing me in the now vacant seat.

Gabby looked around, to see almost everyone either giving her a thumbs up or smiling at her, which left her confused.

But then Kim saved her from the dilemma. "No one has ever cautioned or confronted Sophia".

"She once had an incident and acts all fragile and pitiful just to gain affection and manipulate people into taking care of her. Those who fall into her traps tend to turn a blind eye to all her mischief, or most times they feign ignorance. So you are the first person to put her in her place since forever."

'Oh,' nodded Gabby in understanding. She was glad to have put Sophia in her rightful position, which was, of course, up the ladder of shame.

Gabby turned to look at Sophia and saw her fuming in her seat while glaring at her. She smiled and gave her a thumbs up in fake consolation, which drew another round of laughter from the people present in the room. She even caught the pretty boy having a share of joy in the whole situation.

After the small scene, everything kind of went pretty well. The air was cleared about her being autistic; even the Marco guy admitted that he was wrong to have presented it that particular way.

He apologized for that, though he said he found autistic persons well-informed and overly smart, and he kind of liked them even though he was yet to see one in person.

The party lasted for a couple more hours before everyone called it a night. Gabby made it to her room a few minutes after 1 a.m., and she was dead tired. She made use of the restroom, took off the makeup she had on, before making her way to the bed for the much-needed rest."