Chapter 75 | Everyone knows something Isabella doesn't

Isabella:

"Mija wake up!"

I roll over and throw the covers over my head, nestling deeper into my pillow and ignoring whoever it is trying to wake me up. They continue to relentlessly shove me and prod me and yell my name but I groan and refuse to open up my eyes, inwardly cursing them for breaking my sleep and my dream that had been about Henry Cavill gloriously making out with me.

"Despierta! This is important!"

"Mfghfm." Is my response as I will myself to block out their frankly irritating voice and try and go back to sleep.

If you can't tell already; I've conditioned my alarm clock and 'time to wake up' to be the shrill sound of my phone ringing, this therefore means that any other way used to try and get me to awaken instantly fails.

So no matter how much shouting or stripping me of my covers or shaking that you'll do, I'll probably continue to refuse to wake up.

"Carino!" They sigh exasperatedly, before I hear shuffling and something being picked up from my bedside table. "I've got your phone. I'm unlocking it and am about to read your text messages-"

"I'm up! I'm up!"

Okay, maybe there is one other instance that'll get me to wake up.

I groan exasperatedly and very dramatically prise my eyes open, blinking a couple of times to clear my vision from the bright light streaming through the window that has taken over my sight momentarily.

My grandmother drops my phone back down onto the bedside table and stares down at me, a gleeful expression drawing its way onto her face.

"Why are you waking me up?" I lean up against the headboard and continue rubbing my eyes before running a hand through my knotty hair. "What time is it?" I ask groggily.

"10 o'clock."

"What?" My eyebrows draw together in confusion and I glance at the clock in my room for confirmation of the time. "10'o'clock?" I repeat. "Are you sure? Why is it not 6? Is Lucas okay?"

My mention of Lucas immediately causes a girly giggle to elicit from my grandma. "Ha!" She says, slapping my arm playfully, her grin widening and threatening to split her face into two. "Lucas is more than okay! Look what he hand delivered to you today!"

I glance down at her outstretched hand. "You got a looove note," abuela teases before pulling the little slip of paper out of reach when I try to grab it out of her hands.

"Did you read it?" I say with a raise of my eyebrow, my tone coming out a little more stern and defensive than intended.

"No," my grandmother shakes her head, her eccentric earing jingling as she does this motion. "Because Lucas gave me my own note if I promised not to snoop!"

My lips twitch in amusement. "He did?"

"Yeah!" Abeula nods her head excitedly. "Look let me read it!"

She reaches into the sleeve of her dress and pulls out a slip of white paper identical to mine and with a clear of her throat, begins reading out loud. "Abuela," my grandma begins, speaking in a voice that I think is her trying to sound like Lucas (she makes her voice several octaves lower and puts on a horrendous, thick American accent). "Your cooking is so delicious, I would eat a dead corpse if you seasoned it. You're also very funny and make me smile a lot...also I love your granddaughter so so so so so much, thank you for making Valeria who made Isabella. I will give Isabella lots of babies after I am a rich doctor so you can have many great grandbabies-"

"Give me that!" I snort, cutting her off. "He can't have said that!"

"Hey!" Abuela cries, dropping the weird voice and pulling the note to her chest protectively. "He...he wrote the last bit about you in invisible ink but it's still there!"

I throw her a flat look.

"It's true!" Abuela waves the note in the air for emphasis.

"Mhm sure," I return in a dead voice. "I so believe you."

"Whatever. I don't care if you believe me or not. It's the truth." With a dismissive wave of her hand, my bed dips as abuela takes a seat beside me before dropping the other note into my lap. "Here," she grumbles, swiftly but not slyly changing the subject. "You can read yours now!"

I snicker slightly at the dejected look crossing my grandmothers face as I refuse to believe her lie and don't hesitate in prying my note open. As I do so however, a weird feeling immediately shoots through me as I open the slip of paper without Lucas doing his little ritual. It feels wrong. He always puts the note in my hand and kissing the pulse on my wrist before I read. He himself refuses to let me read the note before he's done that little custom so why is it different today?

Questions of why Lucas isn't the one delivering the note today or why he didn't wake me up at 6am begin flurrying through my mind but I briskly put them on pause for a second. I should read the note first. With that, I drop my eyes to the scrawly handwriting that I've become oh so familiar with.

Letting you wake up late is a compliment in its self. Hope you have fun sleeping in, I'll see you at 2pm :)

The questions floating around in my mind un-pause in an instant. My eyebrows furrow together as I re read the note again. Huh, that's it?

I'll see you at 2PM.

What's happening at 2PM? Do we have plans?

"What's happening at 2pm?" I voice my thoughts out loud to abuela. Lucas might have told her something regarding the note when he had come to drop it off.

When I'm met with no answer, I glance up to see Abuela hurriedly getting off my bed and rushing out of my room like she is trying to get away from me.

What?...

"Abuela!" I call out in exclamation, which only causes her to scurry away faster. What the heck?

"Kitchen...burn...um...food!" She returns in the distance when she's far out of my room and already midway down the stairs.

I stare blankly at the doorway for a moment before I wave my hands up in the air defeatedly, feeling even more confused as I throw the covers off my body. What on earth is going on?

***

The whole morning passes and I still have not received any answers. I initially didn't think that whatever is happening at 2PM was going to be that big of a deal but the way my entire family seems to be withholding something from me has piqued my curiosity.

I struggle on trying to pry information out of abuela, she merely continues to dismiss me or makes up random excuses before running away. I also try asking my mom if she knows anything but I'm greeted with the same shrug of the shoulders and lame excuses or if I'm lucky the 'you'll see' answer that my grandmother unhelpfully provided me with prior.

Lucas doesn't respond to my messages or calls and when Mia and Grace promptly stroll into my kitchen at 1:30PM and hint they they too know what is happening, frustration begins to overwhelm me and I try to bug them into giving me answers too (and fail miserably.)

I'm in the middle of texting Aidan and Dylan hoping for their input when my phone is swiftly yanked out my grasp by Mia who throws me a scolding look before taking a seat beside me on the island stool.

"Why can't you tell me?" I whine, kicking my legs childishly and trying to grab my phone from Mia.

I'm a pretty patient person but knowing that everyone around me knows something (very evidently got to do with me by the way!) that I don't is getting on my nerves. All that I've managed to put together, about what secret that is floating around is something to do with me, Lucas and 2PM. It's the explanation to do with the miracle that is Lucas letting me sleep in and why he hadn't given me his note personally today.

Mia shoves my phone into her bra. "I texted you and told you to be dressed and ready by 1:35!" She reprimands, ignoring my whines. "It's 1:35! So why are you not dressed?"

"I'm not getting dressed until one of tell me what's going on!" I return indignantly, crossing my arms across my chest and flitting my eyes across my two friends, mom, abuela and even Sofia who sits on her high chair and stares at me knowingly.

When I'm met with silence again I let out another groan and run my hands down my face frustratedly.

"Abuela!" I then exclaim, directing my attention onto my grandmother who shrinks under my gaze. "How have you managed to keep this secret for more than an hour? You never do that!"

"I know, I think I deserve an award." Abuela nods her head almost proudly as everyone turns to look at her. "Also because I've actually been keeping this a secret for more than a week now..." she then swiftly adds as an afterthought.

"A week?" My mouth falls open as my mom claps my abuela on the back in congratulations.

"Mia managed to keep the secret for a month and a half," my grandmother then points out, before leaning over and high-fiving my friend out of pure pride. My mouth drops open even further at the revelation. "She deserves a freaking nobles peace prize for that!"

"I do," Mia whispers wistfully to herself as Grace snickers.

I take a deep inhale of breath and force my mouth to close before it clicks and my jaw stays that way from how far it had dropped open.

"That's it," I grumble stubbornly. "I'm never budging from this seat."

"Bella go upstairs please."

"No."

"You'll literally find out what is happening in 20 minutes!" My mom adds.

"No."

"The faster you get dressed, the faster you'll figure out what is going on at 2PM."

"No. Tell me now."

"Bella! Just get dressed!"

"No!"

Everyone in the room shares a look, a mixture of annoyance, humour and 'we know something Isabella doesn't.'

"I'm not budging until one of you tell me what's going on!" I splutter out in fury at the silent conversation going on between everyone.

My obstinate protest however, doesn't last long.

With one last glance at my mom and grandma, Grace simply straightens up from where she had been leaning against the door and strolls over to me. Mia gives her a curt nod of encouragement and before I know it: Grace picks me up with ease, throws me over her shoulder and proceeds to walk out of the kitchen and ascends up the stairs leading into my bedroom.

"It's for your own good that we're keeping this a secret!" My mom calls out as I begin yelling and throwing daggers at everyone watching this manhandle happen. Mia follows us up the stairs behind and I try to make a  grab for her but she simply steps back and chuckles like this is the funniest thing in the world.

Grace goes unscathed from my pounding on her back and slapping of her ass and plops me down onto my bed as we reach my room. My eyes immediately narrow and I shoot the two of them daggers, rubbing my neck, my voice feeling hoarse from all the screaming.

"This is a form of abuse and mental torture! You know how I hate being kept out of the loop of things."

The two girls ignore me. Grace stands to the side, a safe distance away from me, wincing as she rubs her ass where I had been hitting as Mia heads into my closet and a moment later emerges out with a pair of black jeans, a checked jacket and a black turtle neck top.

"I'm not getting dressed." I voice out my objection once again.

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"We have to leave in approximately 5 minutes so yes," Grace says sternly. "You are."

"No. I'm. Not."

"Okay how about this," Mia interjects, sharing one last look with Grace before swiftly throwing me the outfit. It lands half on my lap and half on the floor in a bundle of material. I kick the jacket that had landed in my lap onto the floor in challenge.

With a sigh and a rub of her temples she begins to speak as if this is causing a great deal of pain for her. "If you get ready," Mia mumbles, "and if you're extra quick...maybe we'll give you a hint when we're in the car.

There's a beat of silence as I mull over their suggestion and then: "That's all you had to say puta," I wave my hands in the air and fall flat down onto the bed. "A hint will do!"

+

Lucas:

I check the time on my phone for the umpteenth time since getting here and see that it is almost 2'o'clock.

With a nervous breath, I shove the mobile back into the pocket of my shorts and glance around my surroundings once last time to check that everything is running smoothly and is perfect. Isabella will be arriving soon.

"Dude stop stressing," Aidan comes into view, strolling over to me, grinning, soapy water dripping from his shirtless frame. "Everything looks amazing, she's going to love it." He claps me on the back and I pull my bottom lip between my teeth.

"You think?"

"Yes," he assures me before grabbing a water bottle from the table beside him, un-screwing it before bringing it to his lips and taking a large swig.

"I want everything to be perfect. I hope nothing messes up. God I'm so nervous." I begin to ramble, brushing my clammy hands down the front of my shorts as I scour my surroundings and triple-check everything once again. "Do you think anything is gonna mess up?"

With wide eyes, Aidan promptly drops the bottle back onto the table and grabs my shoulders, stilling me. "Nothing is going to mess up," he tells me slowly and firmly to make sure I understand. "Look around-"

"I have," I deadpan, "like a million times."

"Just look jeez." He rolls his eyes. "Look how many people have stopped by. Look how everything is organised and set up. It's perfect bro...well...maybe except that banner," he grimaces and points in the direction of the huge banner hanging between two lampposts in the distance. "Who painted that it's so ugly."

"I painted that!" I splutter out in exclaimation.

Aidan's grimace shifts into an expression of realisation. "Ah," he nods his head in understanding. "That's why. You have no artistic bone in your body."

I peer up at the large banner. "Is it that bad?"

"Why did you choose light blue and green? Those colours dont match."

"Light blue is Isabella's favourtite colour," I grumble, feeling offended. "And green made it stand out."

I turn back to Aidan and his face is transformed. His mouth is pulled into a grin. "Jesus Christ you're whipped," he states gleefully. "You painted it in her favourite colour?"

I narrow my eyes. "Shut up," I return, already feeling myself flushing pink. "Don't make me regret telling you guys, it was bad enough having Mia on my case but now you and Dylan too?"

"Oh shush," he claps my back once again and snickers. "It's good you opened up about something. Me, you and Dyl need to asap. Our friendship is so unserious. We've been friends for what 14 years and we never speak about anything deep," Aidan points out. "I mean look, Dylan feels too fucking awkward to tell us properly about the guy he's been seeing and you lot didn't even know about my 14 year long crush on Grace...it's a mess."

I nod my head glumly. "True."

A beat of melancholy silence passes between the two of us.

"Okay well, deep talk later," Aidan sighs, breaking the quiet, something catching his attention over my shoulder before turning and levelling me with another look. "Look, Lucas, if you're still stressing, try to...get it all out here. You have like 30 seconds for your nervous breakdown to take place."

"What?" I say in confusion, eyebrows drawing together. "Why only 30 seconds?"

"Because Mia's car just pulled up."

━

AUTHORS NOTE:

EDIT: OH SHOOT HAHAH i said this was going to be a good chapter but the prep scene ended up being too long, so i'm sorry for basically lying omg sorry

guys i have unfortunate news 😩. i'm gonna go awol soon. i think i'll be able to squeeze in another maybe 2 chapters this week because i'm currently on break but when school starts...er i'm gonna disappear. i don't know how long it's gonna be until i next post a chapter but it won't be longer than a couple weeks/a month max so don't worrryyy

i have exams coming up soon and i NEED to prioritise school (which i have not been doing LMFAO) and i've started work experience aswell which is gonna take up a large portion of my time so i'm so sorry guys but there's gonna be a bit of a wait xx

also i need to thoroughly plan the end of wyc cos at this point i keep getting off my initial plan and free styling everything LOL

ALSO OMG i found a song that proper gives me lucas and isabella vibes, like listen to the lyrics omg :o

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

alright bye bye, love you all - mai x

THANK YOU FOR 844K READS :,) IM HONESTLY DEAD THAT IS SO COOL WOW