Chased by Bad Boys

Chapter 5: Welcomed Distraction

Fifteen minutes in the ride, I reached for the back lying in the backseat. Aziel mentioned that they packed my things in there including my phone which at some point died since it kept ringing. As neither of them had a charger and there were no electronic shop around, there was nothing they could do except for informing the school administration about my situation at the hospital.

I grabbed my phone and tried my luck in switching it on and as expected, I kept staring at the black screen. Seeing my disappointed look, Aziel tried to take my mind off it, “How about you rest until we get to the campus? The administration has been informed so I am sure they kept your family informed of the situation”, he suggested.

“You are right, I will try to close my eyes for few,” I replied. I turned my head the other direction and after some attempts I finally found the lever to recline my chair. As we sat there in silence with the radio playing in the background, I started drifting away until my eyelids were to heavy to keep opened.

I woke up feeling my body being moved to the left while my head rested against something cold on the right side. I opened one eye to realise that I was in the car with Aziel and we were making a left turn to enter the compound of the campus. I sat up straight and started repositioning the chair and fixing myself up. As soon as Aziel parked the car, he told me to wait a moment. Confused, I did not catch on until he was on my side, opened the door and held his hand out to help me get off. I hesitantly placed my hand in his and allowed him to guide me down. I was so shy and unused to such treatment that I could not look up to face him. After grabbing the bag with my things and locking the doors, we started walking to my dorm, the Nightingale Residence. As we passed other students, some nodded their heads while others tried to smile with a sad expression on their face.   

Realizing what had me confused, Aziel explained that the administration looked for me everywhere such that by now most students were aware of my situation. Not one to care about what others thought of me, I just shrugged and we kept walking in the direction of Nightingale until we reached my room on the first floor. I turned to face Aziel who had continued to follow me. “Thank you for everything,” I genuinely stated. Without giving him a chance to say anything, I continued, “I should get going. I have a lot to do before I leave.”

His eyebrows shot up as his eyes grew wide slightly showing that he now realized that I had to head back home. So, in between clearing his throat and balancing on his feet he suggested, “Nefi… If it is okay with you, I would like to accompany you back home. I would not intrude and just be around if you need anything.” He looked up expectantly waiting for my answer. In that moment, I was so exhausted and drained that I did not have it in me to think about his offer. Just as I was about to reply, I heard two other familiar voices join in, “I wanna be there for you too,” said Casimir as he came up the stairs. Alistair followed, “Yeah, me too I would like to join. I mean if it is okay with you,” I just looked at all three and remembered my promise to myself. ‘No distraction’ were the only words that were on repeat in my mind and yet my heart did not allow me to be mean to these guys who had gone at such lengths to help me so I just told them that I would think about it. After taking my things from them and placing them in my room, I faced them to say goodbye.

Casimir was the first to come forward and hugged me as we would usually do and told me he would be waiting for my calls before walking away. My mind just raced at the thought that the other two would expect the same treatment so I just splurted, “I will let you guys know my decision when I figure it out.” They both seemed to understand my actions so Alistair was the first to goofily say, “ I gotcha! Text me what you decide. You should have my number.” With a wink he ran down the stairs and headed out leaving me alone with Aziel again. He looked hurt from my previous statement but tried hard not to show it. But his slightly frowned forehead gave it away.

“So… uhmmm… I know there was a lot I said at the hospital and I know you are going through a difficult time so please don’t think about what happened. I just want to be there for you Nefi, close to you. Please think about it. I will send you a text so you can save my phone number. I will be waiting,” he pleaded as he left, not giving me a chance to say anything.

After a couple of minutes of just staring at the wall in front of me, I went back inside my room. I picked up my phone that was charging and switched it on. As I started going around fixing my room and finding more comfortable clothes, I heard my phone’s continuously ding tone indicating that I received a lot of messages. Sighing I just picked it up and started going through them, might as well get it over with I thought. Most of them were from my cousins and distant relatives expressing their sympathies, some from my house worrying about me and asking for instructions, then some from Aziel, Casimir and Alistair, and a last person who tried calling me and sending numerous messages was Zosar. Looking at this name beside the 25 missed calls and 50 unread messages, I felt my stomach churn. Maybe a little distraction would not be such a bad idea after all.