Page 62 of Chasing Mr. Prefect
He tried to arrange his features with a smile but ended up with a grimace. “Nah, just hungry.”
“Great, I brought food,” I just answered, taking his hand.
While Cholo was driving hometo retrieve the standees, Miss Mikayla assigned me with the tech guys and our Logistics Team to check the system and projectors. Once that was set up, I was supposed to do a test run of the montage featuring Miss Mikayla’s brand.
By 2 p.m., the projectors were fixed and the venue personnel had called for a lunch break. I was near the control booth and fixing the Ephemere logo tarp in front of the DJ station when Summer appeared, holding a cup of yoghurt.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” she asked. “I saw Cholo going somewhere else.”
“What do you want?” I asked directly. I was doing a good job of not letting her get to me. I better not break that now.
“I’m just worried about you guys,” she replied, shrugging. “I don’t want Cholo or you to get hurt.”
“Sure,” I said, mocking her. I suddenly remembered how Miss Mikayla brought her up before this so I tried to use that to my advantage. “Look, we don’t need your concern. If he got rid of you and you want him back, talk to him, not me.”
That looked like it hit a chord as Summer stopped smiling. She went up to the DJ booth and from that vantage point, she was looking down on me.
“Haven’t you figured him out yet? Cholo is obsessed with fixing things. What he can’t fix for himself, he tries to fix in others. Surely you’d have understood that by now?”
“Damn, girl, you must have been hopeless,” I replied. That was a low blow but I needed to get back at her for attacking Cholo behind his back for his parentage.
“I let him go because he’s a control freak and I wouldn’t change for him,” she replied. “I wouldn’t expect you to see it from my point of view but it’s a close parallel. In your case, he insists he wants to help you with your grades. It’s only a matter of time before he starts making decisions on your behalf. Tomorrow it will be for an internship or a job you wish to get and after that, it will be for his family. Clothes, attitude—there will always be something he’ll want to change. Is that something you can put up with?”
“If Cholo never grew to like you for what you were, that’s not my fault nor my problem. Telling me all this doesn’t change anything.”
“Are you sure he likesyouand not the image of you in his head that he’s hoping you could be?”
“Summer!” Miss Mikayla yelled from the next room, saving me from having to reply. It was a good thing as the last statement had hit a nerve and I would not have had time to come up with a suitable retort as what she said had sent my mind reeling.
I tried to stop myself but my thoughts had started spiraling out of control.
All hell broke loosewhen it was time to play the montage I had lost countless hours of sleep for.
“Where is it?” I was screaming as I flipped every bag in sight. “I brought it! I’m sure I brought it!”
“Vinnie, it’s just here somewhere, we’ll find it,” Seth told me but I could see cracks in his calm demeanor as well. I was not the only one who got bossed around the whole day and our team especially was on edge because we were the ones who came here early.
“I saw it here, just beside your laptop. Or was that Seth’s?” asked Cholo, looking again in the DJ booth.
While Seth, Erika, and Cholo went around looking for my hard drive containing the video, I sat down and tried to think straight. The panic was clouding my thoughts and I could think of nothing but the worst scenarios possible.
Of course, Miss Mikayla had to come in at that exact moment and open Pandora’s Box.
“Um, hello? The laser light cue’s long done!” she demanded and I looked at her blankly. Her frown went deeper. “Okay. What’s happening?”
“We’re just looking for the hard drive,” Cholo answered, back to his polite tone. “Can you give us five more minutes?”
“Hard drive?” she repeated. “Goodness, we came up to this moment only to get impeded by a hard drive? Who had it last? Don’t you have a backup, Lavinia?”
“We’re looking for it already, Ate,” Cholo pleaded.
“Looking for it! Working on it! Empty words all fucking day!” Miss Mikayla cursed. “Wala ka na bang gagawing maganda? Well, what can I expect, seeing as your mere existence was a mis?—”
“Hoy!” I now shouted, my hot temper back in place as I marched towards her with fists clenched. “You’re going way too far!”
“You dare talk to a sponsor like this?” Miss Mikayla demanded, rounding on me.
“No, I’m talking to you as a person, as Miss Mikayla, asAteMikayla,” I snarled, making quotation marks in the air. “Is it normal for you to treat people from your family like this?”