Gabby thinks her life could rival even the cheesiest of soap operas. Her brother just proposed to Tara, a certified primo bitch. Worst of all, Tara’s brother happens to be Jace, the school’s resident Ice Prince and the biggest mistake she ever made.

IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THIS FIRST…

Most of my characters are high school seniors who are only sixteen-years-old, so you might be confused about that. In the Philippines, we don’t have junior high school. We graduate from high school when we’re sixteen or seventeen at the most. I hope that clears a few things up. If you have any other questions about the story or the setting, feel free to ask me through the reviews.

Chapter 1: The Dinner Party

I’ll be your number one with a bullet, a loaded god complex.

Cock it and pull it.

- Sugar We’re Going Down, Fall Out Boy

Something big was gonna go down. I knew it the second Marcus said we were having dinner with Tara’s family. Marcus was my brother and Tara was his girlfriend. As far as I knew, she was girlfriend number eight for the year. Just to make sure you don’t get the wrong impression, my brother doesn’t treat girls like dirt. It’s just that he doesn’t stick with them for too long. Marcus had dispatched girlfriends number one to seven so fast that I barely remembered their names. So, having dinner with Tara’s family was definitely major.

Marcus tried to look nonchalant as I glared at him from across the table. He kept on pulling at his tie, like it was suffocating him. The fact that he was even wearing a tie was another blaring alarm. I chose to ignore it and focused on trying to meet his eye instead. He kept on picking at his food, not eating or anything. Just picking at it. I guess he couldn’t bear my stink eye anymore since he finally looked up at me. Our eyes met. He knew I knew. How could I not know? I was his sister after all.

Gabby Ramirez here. I’m a sixteen-year-old girl whose greatest fears are about to come true. My brother was going to propose to Tara, the Ice Queen. Shit. Out of all the girls who’d fallen for him, why did he have to choose the one who’d been carved out of glaciers? God forbid he’d even bought her a ring. He hadn’t really said it out loud, and I doubt if he’d even told our parents yet. But I just knew. Plus, Marcus looked guilty as hell which was probably because he knew I loathed Tara.

Lotus Pond was brimming with people. The black marble floors shone, and the red paper lanterns hanging above us were very still. The aroma of delectable Chinese food drifted from the kitchen, making my mouth water. People were chatting about their day, their families, their neighbors, whatever came up. Streams of conversations flitted from one table to another.

I stared at the food in front of me, and realized that I’d lost my appetite. Groaning inwardly, I glared at my brother again from across the table. My family rarely ate at the Lotus Pond since you had to shell out a lot of cash every time you ate there. Most of the time, we just ate at McDonald’s or some other fast food. This occasion was supposed to be a treat, a nice little experience to be stored and savored later on. I kept on glaring at Marcus. The look on my face clearly said, “Thanks for ruining this for me.” Marcus glared back, trying to exercise his authority over me. It wasn’t gonna work.

“Gabby, why are you so quiet?” my mother said, forcing me to look at both my parents.

My father was sampling the pork chao fan from my mother’s plate without her knowing. He really wasn’t supposed to be doing that since his blood pressure had gone up the week before. My mother was still looking at me with a worried expression on her face. She had no idea that Pa hadn’t touched the seafood chao fan with bits of vegetables that she’d ordered for him.

“I’m fine, Ma,” I said, shoving a spoonful of food into my mouth just to prove it. “Really, I’m okay.”

Marcus looked at the door, glancing at his watch once in a while. He shifted in his chair again and tried to eat his food. Tried was the keyword. He looked like he was stabbing his food repeatedly. Just looking at him annoyed the hell out of me.

I sighed and forced myself to eat. All that food had seemed so delicious only a few minutes before. However, the thought of my brother marrying the Ice Queen made my stomach lurch. Marcus was older than me by eleven years, but that didn’t stop us from being close. He was almost a perfect son, so perfect that I suspected that he’d been artificially manufactured by a robotics company.

He was good in practically everything, whether it be academics or sports. My mother had had all his report cards from elementary school to college laminated. She showed them off to every unsuspecting visitor who ever set foot in our house. His medals—from basketball and soccer—held their place of prominence in our father’s office.

I couldn’t deny it. I was proud as hell of my brother. However, his taste in women wasn’t one of the things I could be proud of. I preferred to think of most of his girlfriends as temporary lapses in judgment, but Tara was an entirely different story. He was actually serious about her. I just couldn’t understand what he saw in her. Sure, she was pretty in a law-firm-ish sort of way, but I didn’t think there was anything else that could entice him. Her personality was as appetizing as stale milk.

At that moment, Tara Ongpauco walked through the door. She just stood there for a couple of seconds, looking around. A couple who looked about my parent’s age followed after her. They were most likely her parents. She waved when she saw us and smiled, a tight-lipped one that didn’t show her teeth.

I didn’t want to admit it, but the girl had taste. She was wearing a simple yet elegant black dress with a string of pearls on her neck. Not many people could pull off that I-just-walked-out-of-an-Audrey-Hepburn-movie look. She gestured at her parents and they walked towards our table.

“We’re so sorry for being late,” Tara said, when they were finally seated.

“Puh-lease,” I muttered under my breath.

“There’s no need to apologize,” Marcus said, shooting a warning look at me.

Everyone started talking, yet not breaching the very reason why we were there, the impending—or perhaps already established—engagement.

While the adults talked, I watched Tara while pretending to eat. Her impending union with my brother wasn’t the only reason why I disliked her. It was the little things about her, like the way she looked while listening to other people talk or even the way she poured soy sauce on her food. Her little quirks reminded me of a certain person I’d rather forget.

I guess we all have something to be ashamed of, something we did when were too stupid to know any better. Everything happened more than a year ago when I was still a junior, my first and hopefully last act of rebellion. I doubt if you could really consider it an act of rebellion since my parents didn’t even know about it.

At school, I wasn’t exactly a total loser but I wasn’t one of the most popular kids either. I hung out with semi-okay people, got invited to parties, and did better than most when it came to academics. However, I differed from most of the girls in my grade in one significant way. I didn’t giggle over the varsity players like the rest of them did.

Sure, I knew they were good-looking or hot—as Veronica, a friend of mine, might say—but I didn’t see their appeal beyond that. For me, they were just a bunch of testosterone-filled children who got more attention than they deserved. Jace Hernandez was one of them.

He was your typical jock, with all the looks and money any normal teenage boy could ever want. The girls all liked him for the obvious reasons, but the guys at our school worshipped him since it was rumored that he’d lost his virginity around the time they were still figuring out how to make use of their you-know-what. Nonetheless, there was something that set him apart from his other friends. He didn’t emanate the same brainless vibe that I got from them.

Instead, I felt like I was standing in front of an open refrigerator every time I looked at him. He radiated the same aura I got from Tara, an unforgiving arctic one. Jace also differed from his friends in another way. Instead of going out with the pretty yet brainless girl who’d been selected and approved by his friends, he noticed me.

He never would’ve if Lance Ordonez, his best friend, hadn’t spread it around school that I wasn’t a virgin anymore, a by-product of a one-night stand we supposedly had. When I found out about the rumor and the person spreading it, I promptly made my way to the gym and hit Lance in the head with a basketball. I would’ve slapped him too if the coach hadn’t dragged me off to the principal’s office. All the other players stopped practicing and laughed at him. Jace happened to be there too, and I guess he saw something he liked about my little display of brazenness.

It was just after our first exams in junior year when he started asking about me. I couldn’t believe it at first. I mean, I wasn’t butt-ugly or anything but it just wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to ignore me until we graduated, and then we could conveniently forget about each other’s existence until alumni homecoming rolled around. That was the way things were supposed to go.

I guess I should’ve known from the start that Jace was never one to be content with the way things were supposed to be. He surprised me by deigning to say hi to my friends, and by always being there when I needed someone. Plus, the chocolates and humungous teddy bear he gave me added some plus points too. I wasn’t sure if I was falling for him until he ate lunch with me and my friends one day. The entire canteen was speechless when he chose to eat with us, instead of with his usual cohorts. It might not sound like such a big deal, but it was. You see, it meant that Jace was willing to step down from his pedestal just because of me.

We became an official couple two months later. Even though we had a few fights, I was pretty sure that we made each other happy. I thought I had no reason to doubt him until the night of Isabella Chavez’s party. Figuratively speaking, you could say that was when the shit hit the fan. I feel so stupid every time I remember it. I mean, I should’ve known Jace and I would end in disaster.

Isabella’s party was on a Saturday night. By Monday, practically everyone at school knew Jace and I were over. Everybody wondered how the school’s cliché-come-to-life ended. There were a lot of speculations like who dumped who and why. Some people even asked me point blank. I’d just stare at them, unable to answer. How could I tell them when I didn’t even know why?

We didn’t really have a proper break up, but you don’t really need a billboard to tell you that a relationship’s over. You just know, by a single look in the eye or sometimes even by just a fake smile. Jace went back up on his pedestal and I… I don’t really know what I did.

I didn’t want to go to school during those first few weeks, but I knew I had to tough it out. I had to show everyone at school how strong I was. I pretended nothing was wrong, ignoring the gaping hole that had suddenly appeared. I went on with my life and, I guess, somewhere along the way I became okay again.

“Gabby, dear, how come you’re not eating?” my mother’s voice brought me back to reality. “Are you sure you’re feeling well?”

“I’m fine,” I said, trying to get a hold of myself. “I just need to go to the bathroom.”

Looking around, I saw that everyone in our table was looking at me with concerned looks on their faces, even Tara looked puzzled. I stood up before any of them could ask questions and went straight to the bathroom. Since all three stalls were empty, I locked the door. I didn’t care if anybody else had to use the bathroom. I needed to be alone, even for just a few minutes.

I stared at myself in the mirror. I turned on the faucet and cupped my hands under it. Splashing some water on my face, I hoped that my sanity would return in a few seconds. I stared at myself again. Thinking about Jace always had this effect on me, the sudden rush of anger, regret, and sympathy all mixed together. I groaned at my reflection. Not again. I was starting to feel stupid for believing that someone like him could ever fall for me for about the gazillionth time.

“That was more than a year ago,” I said to my reflection. “Get over it.”

I decided to brave it out. I was going to get through this dinner without hyperventilating. Sure, Tara might piss me off again but I could handle that. Marcus might be making a colossal mistake, but it was his problem. Finally in control, I stepped out of the bathroom and started walking towards our table.

From afar, I could see that someone had taken the seat next to mine. I couldn’t see that person’s face since he had his back turned to me, but I was pretty sure it was Tara’s younger brother. She was lecturing him at the moment with a stern look on her face, probably for being late.

I took my seat, not even bothering to look at the person who was sitting next to me. If Tara and Marcus were really going to get married, then I had a lot of time to get to know Tara’s younger brother, not that I’d ever want to. I immediately assumed that he’d be as insipid as his sister.

“Gabby, let me introduce you to Tara’s kid brother,” Marcus said, motioning to the person who was sitting next to me.

I let out a bored sigh and forced myself to look. Tara’s brother was gorgeous in a poster-boy kind of way, with eyes that could make any groupie melt. He was wearing a navy blue polo shirt and jeans. Looking at him, I felt like I was standing in front of an open refrigerator. No, that wasn’t it. I felt like I was standing naked somewhere in the North Pole.

If it was any consolation, he looked as stunned as I was. His usually empty eyes were wide with shock, and his mouth was partly open like he was about to say something. My mind went black. It took me about ten seconds to realize that we didn’t need to be introduced.

Oh, shit.

Jace Hernandez was sitting next to me, my ex-boyfriend and the biggest mistake of my life.