Come Closer

Chapter 17

James woke up with a heavy headache. He stayed on the bed and stared at the ceiling. For a minute, he had no idea about what had happened to him. Then it slowly came to his mind. He sat upright as the memory of him kissing Lyena came to him. He massaged his temples. “Oh no! What have I done?” asked himself. He stayed like that for some minutes, and then got up and went to get freshen up. As he came downstairs, he saw Lyena having her breakfast.

He sat in front of her. Lyena looked sideways at him. A pink tint covered her cheeks as she noticed that he was staring at her. “Aren’t you going to eat your breakfast?” She asked.

“Oh yes! Yes, I was going to” James said nervously. No one dared to utter a word for the next few minutes. They ate their breakfast in silence. The silence was uncomfortable for both of them. But they both remained silent- Lyena, too shy to bring yesterday’s matter up, and James, too scared.

“Umm….I’ll go to my room, I’ve got something to do” Lyena said, wanting to escape from this uncomfortable situation. James just nodded at her and went to the living room.

“Ugh! Why is he behaving like that?” Lyena asked herself as she walked to her room. “Can’t he say one word about yesterday?” She lay on the bed. “Aaarrgh! This is so frustrating!” She kicked her feet in the air. “He is being all calm and quiet and I am going crazy here. What a jerk!” She said as she messed up her hair. She stopped her complaining as she heard a knock on the door. She quickly got up and said, “Come in!”

James entered the room. “Were you busy?” He asked.

“No, there’s nothing here to keep me busy” Lyena said.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” James asked nervously.

“Of course!”

She was so sure that James was going to talk about yesterday. She felt excited and nervous and happy at the same time. She thought that he was going to confess his feelings for her. But, that thought quickly faded away as she saw James’s eyes. James took a deep breath, and spoke.

“Lyena, I’m very sorry about yesterday. I was drunk and was out of my senses. What I did yesterday doesn’t mean anything. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m sorry” He said all these staring right into Lyena’s eyes. He could see the sadness and disappointment in her eyes. He felt heavy hearted but he had to do this. So he chose not to notice the tears welled up in Lyena’s eyes. Lyena quickly looked away as she felt that her eyes were getting teary. “You don’t have to say anything further. Just forget what happened yesterday” she said. James wanted to hug her and console her, and to tell her that what he said was a lie. He took a step towards her, but stopped as he heard a loud voice.

“James! Lyena! Ryan! Where are you all? We are back!”