"Diego?" Lillian called."Look, I never told Anna too, she came to my home yesterday and made me vomit the truth."
"It doesn"t mean that I never wanted to tell you guys. It was not the right time, and you know what"s going on with Giselle and her life."
"I am involved indirectly in it too, perhaps."
"Giselle confessed to me her feelings, and I rejected her. Using that as a threat, she was bullied, made to do all kinds of s.h.i.tty works for those girls. Despite all of her efforts to satisfy them, it got failed. One of them had chosen to expose her secret out loud to everyone at school. Do you think that I would have truly stayed calm after knowing the truth?"
"You are my best friend. You should know me more than Giselle. All I"m doing is to help her out of this issue. She doesn"t deserve all of this, Diego. Don"t you agree?"
Lillian expressed her emotions and cried her heart out to her friend. Diego listened without interrupting. His guilt only intensified from every word Lillian spat out, making her right, and him wrong.
"I"m sorry, Lilly," Diego only said those words and Lillian already felt relieved.
She went on to give a hug and patted him gently.
"I get it. I"m sorry too, for not mentioning it to you guys. I didn"t know how to handle this for the first time, and I certainly didn"t want you both to worry about me."
She apologized and released her hug. Diego almost didn"t want to let her go, but seeing her getting all worked up his heart ached a bit.
"So-"
"You are not in love with her, right?"
Diego asked shyly.
"What?"
"I"m not."
"I told you I"m doing this as a friend. She needed someone right now. Plus, it wasn"t her fault at first. I feel like I"m obliged to be there for her as it is partially my fault too. One way or other-"
"You know what I mean, right?" Lillian stammered.
"Yeah, kind of," Diego replied.
"I, just feel like I behaved coldly towards her."
Diego peeked a glance at Lillian to find her eyebrows raised.
"Look-"
"I didn"t know anything."
"You tell me this girl confessed to you and you got all worked up from the broadcast. I thought-"
Diego paused, unable to complete his sentence.
"You thought I was doing it out of love?"
Unable to respond to her, Diego frowned.
"Diego, I don"t care about the s.e.xuality thing. You guys know me, relationships never happened to me and I"m not into them too."
"Giselle-"
"You can say that I got worked up for her, but it is because- I only think it is unfair to treat her like that."
"It is not her fault if she loves me. Honestly, that part, I don"t get it all."
"What did I do to make her like me?"
"We"ve never interacted before too. It is only us hanging out all the time."
All of her statements made Lillian think deep about it.
"Why did the girl fall in love with me?"
"When did she fall for me?"
"What does she think of me?"
The more she thought about it, the more curious her mind went.
"Lilly?"
"Lilly?"
Lillian Grey snapped out of her thinking zone,
"Ah, yes-"
"What happened?" Lillian appeared dazed.
"You were possibly night-daydreaming in my room!"
"Sorry-"
Seeing Diego"s intriguing look, Lillian sought out for an excuse that will help her ASAP.
"I guess, Gumbo"s ready, dude you"re mom"s gumbo is the best, do you know that?"
"I know, right?"
"Why don"t you stay for dinner?" Diego went along.
"Nice catch, Diego." – Lillian smirked internally.
"Nah- next time, Dad"s probably waiting for me to come back."
As the two reconciled with each other, Diego vowed to apologize to Giselle the next day and promised to treat her same as her other friends.
Hearing those words moved Lillian, she quickly took him into another hug.
"Thanks, Diego. It means a lot to me," she said.
"Why are you acting so weird now, I"m getting freaked out Lilly," Diego expressed sarcasm.
"It is YOU, who"s been weird from yesterday; Donna told me that you were all gloomy. You have to stop locking yourself away and alone, Diego."
"Yes, Madam,"
Both giggled from their conversation, while Donna"s voice reached the two to join for the Dinner.
"Alright, mom will kill us if we don"t move right away. Remember, that one time you and Anna ignored her calls despite me warning you?"
"Dear lord, how can we forget it?"
"That"s the first time we got yelled by Donna for not respecting to her words. And, history will not repeat, not today."
Lillian replied while hurrying downstairs to join Donna.
"She will never change," Diego murmured, giving out his brightest smile watching Lillian sprinting her way out.
Soon, Diego came out of his room. He removed the sign and threw it in the corner and then went down to join the rest.
…
"You"re already leaving?" Diego appeared shocked.
"I told you right; dad will be waiting for me."
When Lillian Grey packed her things to leave, Donna appeared with a bag.
"Here, I packed some Gumbo for you both. Enjoy together."
Lillian received the bag and peeked inside to see gumbo neatly packed in food containers and homemade biscuits wrapped in paper bags.
"Woah, that"s heavy," Lillian groaned.
"Do you want me to carry it? I"ll walk you back home, Mom-"
Before Diego could complete, Lillian declined his request.
"Diego, sit with your family and eat now. Your mom was worried about our little fight."
"Donna, we"re now back being weird buddies, so don"t you worry about your son. He will remove that stupid sign tonight."
Lillian said and greeted the family before leaving.
Clemente Eberto, Diego"s father, appeared bright after his shower.
"Mr. Eberto, looking good as always," Lillian greeted the newly appeared inmate.
"Hey Lilly, where are you going?"
"Stay for dinner, Donna is making gumbo," Clemente requested.
"Next time, Clemente, dad already called me twice, I"ll take leave now. Bye people. Thanks, Donna for the gumbo, I"ll make sure to tease dad with this," Lillian replied while leaving the house.
"Tell Edwin I said "Hi" Lilly!" Clemente yelled from inside.
"You old people have phones, Mr. Eberto."
"Just kidding, I"ll tell him, Love you bye-"
Lillian giggled.
Just like that, Lillian Grey returned home and shared the delicious Gumbo with her father. She did make sure to tease him for Donna"s skills. Edwin challenged his daughter vowing to make the gumbo tastier than Donna"s one day.