Chapter 19
Jasmine's POV
The entire dinner table was tense and even when Hardin ate with us, things were never as silent or as tense as this and I knew the reason. I was sure everyone on this table including Lisa knew the reason why.
It was because Lisa Morales was here.
I wondered how my mother was feeling, seeing the identical twin of Russo's first love and mother of his child sitting across from her beside Hardin, her smile bright and carefree as if she did not have a bother in the world because I knew that it worried me to look at her.
For all intents and purposes, Lily was the template from which Hardin was cast. He might have inherited his father's dark hair but those blue eyes that turned glassy or looked like the sky when they weren't darkening in rage, had come from Lily, his mother. And Lisa had those exact glassy blue eyes.
And that smirk when they raised the side of their mouths or bit their lips were also the same.
I wondered how Hardin was handling seeing someone that looked like his mother but was not in fact his mother.
I guess he was handling it well, considering that it was because he had called her that she had come all the way to stay with us. For how long? We had no idea.
"Oh come on, why is everyone so quiet? No stories to tell? Or is everyone just like this because I'm here? And I don't mean Russo or Hardin. I'm talking to the two of you." She said, looking at my mother and me.
When my mother merely replied with a smile and a shrug, Lisa laughed, throwing her head back like she was in a melodrama before she gently touched Russo's arm.
The action was quick but I caught the way her nails softly ran over Russo's forearm before she picked her glass of wine and took a sip.
My eyes moved away from her to Hardin and I was surprised to see that he didn't have a smirk on his lips or anything lewd to say.
Instead, there was a frown on his lips and he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here at the dining table.
Well, that made two of us.
"As I was saying, you don't need to be uncomfortable around me. I'm not a stranger. Or am I?" She looked in Russo's direction and he nodded, taking my mother's hand and squeezing gently in a way that told me that this wasn't the first time he had done that.
I saw my mother's mood lighten instantly and was glad that she didn't look so out of place or upset anymore.
"No, you're not a stranger" Russo answered finally and she grinned.
"I mean, when did we meet? It was freshman year high school, wasn't it? Remember when you were dared by me to kiss someone and you kissed Lily? Or when you were asked the kiss, kill or marry question and you said that you would only ever marry Lily? Do you remember that?" Lisa said excitedly as she touched Russo's hand again and I had to fight the urge to be blunt and tell her that I wished she never came.
Especially when everything she had just said made me and my mother feel like outsiders that were intruding in a family that didn't want or belong to us.
"Stop it, Lisa" Russo growled and Lisa raised her hands in mock surrender, feigning a smile.
"Oh, Camila, Jasmine. I didn't mean to hurt you, did I?" Lisa said dramatically, covering her mouth with both hands in faux shock.
My mother shook her head in response. But somehow, Lisa reached out to take my mother's hand
"Don't mind me, dear Cami. It's just that this man and I used to be in the same school with Hardin's mother and they were high school sweethearts..." She trailed off immediately Russo glared at her in annoyance and cleared her throat with a smile that was exaggerated.
My mother on the other hand looked ashen, like she wanted the ground to open and swallow her even though she did nothing wrong.
Lisa's words had made her feel out of place and like she didn't belong. Like she was an outsider. I guessed that this was what Hardin had wanted. Someone with the guts to do what he had been unable to do after all these weeks.
Someone with the power and motive to actually make life miserable for my mother the way he had succeeded in doing the same for me.
I was so glad when dinner was finally over and headed upstairs to my room while Russo escorted my mother into the kitchen.
Hardin was the fastest of all of us, leaving the table first like the house was on fire and I wondered why he looked so distasteful throughout the dinner when he was finally getting what he wanted.
It didn't take me long to sleep considering how tired I was after school, finding Hardin and helping out during dinner.
As I stifled a yawn in my class before lunch break the next day, I looked at the seat adjacent from me to see Hardin staring outside school, with little or no interest in the class.
My pen fell to the ground and before I could bend down to pick it, a girl beside me reached for it and handed it back to me with a smile.
"Jasmine, right? Stepsister of Hardin? I heard about the Dahlia news and I'm so glad that it got rectified, didn't it?" She said all at once without missing a breath and I blinked slowly, not understanding why she was suddenly speaking to me.
I knew who she was. Jennifer Bullock. One of the popular girls that happened to be the leader of the cheerleading group and she extended a hand toward me for a handshake.
"Yeah, it did" I answered cautiously, still eyeing her warily while she merely shrugged her shoulders and smiled.
"Well, if you're interested in joining the cheerleading team, I'm sure I can find you a spot. Just text me, okay?" She scribbled her number on a piece of paper and handed it to me and I took it. Still very surprised but I continued the class, spending most of the time wondering why Jennifer, who was one of the girls who never spoke to other girls that she didn't consider the conventional beautifies and one of the most popular girls in school had personally invited me to become a part of the cheer team.
"So, what did you say? You said you were going, right? Tell me you said!" Nadia screamed excitedly as we sat down in the cafeteria during lunch and when I glared at her to keep her voice low, she grinned and whispered the question again, this time she was painstakingly stone.
"I told her that I would think about it?" I answered and she rolled her eyes.
"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. An opportunity to become one of the popular girls, Jasmine. Don't you want that?" Nadia asked with a frown on her face and I chuckled at her analogy, even though I had to catch myself from really thinking that deeply into it.
I nodded at her.
"I'll think about it." I answered and she gave me a satisfactory smile, appeased by the fact that I had not said no.
Just as I was about to round off eating, Nadia gasped, looking at something on her phone and showing me her screen
"Did you know that your followers on Instagram have increased since what's her name tried and failed to make those fake ass rumours about you?"
My eyes widened in surprise and I looked towards the table where Hardin sat as I remembered how Dahlia had begged me to ask for Hardin's forgiveness. Did he have something to do with any of these? Or was this another card up his sleeve that he had orchestrated?
As I was about to answer Nadia, another girl and boy walked up to our table, holding different colored envelopes.
"Hi, I'm Brent and this is my sister Ash. We are having a birthday party"
"Two actually" Ash interjected and handed me the envelope.
"And you are invited." Brent added.
"To the two of them. You can come with any of your friends too if you need to. We hope you can make it, Jasmine." Ash said with a smile and when the two of them left, I looked at Nadia with wide eyes, wondering what was going on.
First, Jennifer had all but invited me to join the cheer team that I had tried and failed to get into my entire freshman year because of their strict body regulations.
And now people were inviting me to parties?
"Do you have any idea what is going on right now?" Nadia said, her eyes wide with excitement and when I shook my head, she raised both of the envelopes in her hand and grinned.
"You, my dear best friend are now popular."