THE COMPLEXITY IN HER CHARACTER

THE DINNER II

AJ'S POV

I wanted to prepare something delicious for Audrey so I left the front door opened.

Initially I planned on picking her up but she said that Rosa would bring here so I would drop her back.

The moment I was done cooking I noticed she just entered the kitchen but she was shy cause I wasn't wearing a shirt so she turned her back. How cute, She wore a very beautiful sun dress and packed her hair up in a ponytail with a scrunchie. I almost lost myself as I walked towards her holding her waist and I whispered in her ear “if beauty was a crime, you would have been sentenced to life imprisoned”. Only God knows what I would have done if not that I heard her stomach rubbling. So I asked her to come and eat she still didn't want to look at me so she begged me to put on a shirt but I refused so she had no choice.

As expected she didn't want to believe that I was the one who cooked the food. She asked if it was my mom but I told her about my mom's death which made her react without thinking.

she came down from the counter where I had put her on and hugged me. In years I hadn't received a hug from anyone. She seized the opportunity to ask about my dad or possibly any siblings.

I knew I'll have to tell her someday so I just said that I needed to grab a shirt so we could go outside. I noticed she wasn't looking happy and it was like she just recalled something so I asked what the matter was and what she said make me confused.

It turned out to be that Evans told her that Rosa and Leo's date resulted from a dare with was not true. It was actually ours that resulted from a dare I really wanted to tell Audrey about the dare today but seeing her reaction. I instantly decided to lock up because she said she would never be in support of a relationship that started from a dare.

what to do? what should I do?

I went to my room to put on a shirt and when I came out I couldn't find Audrey in the kitchen so I called out her name and there she was in the garden.

seems like she enjoyed being around things that reminded her of nature so before I knew it we were both lying back down on the green grasses staring at the sky. At first I didn't understand why she wanted to do it but I felt comfort while looking at the stars and the cool night breeze was so refreshing.

Audrey told me about how she and Rosa plans on going the cheerleading group but wasn't sure if she would be able to join since Shasha was the cheer leader and no one needed to tell her that Shasha has strong hatred for her.

Time went so fast that we didn't notice that it was already 8pm so when we finally realized I offered to drop her home but she declined saying she came here to know more about me and apart from me being a great cook she can't say much about me.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I had been holding for a long while and then sighed. Of course what was I thinking I would definitely need to explain things to her sooner or later so why don't I just say the truth now and did that imply the dare part or should I just brush that away.

I was so lost in thought that I didn't hear her calling me.

look Audrey I'll tell you everything but please promise me that you would not hate me afterwards.

she scoffed, hate you that's technically impossible. You've done nothing wrong for me to hate you so why would I even think of budding hatred for you.

She's so innocent I shouldn't have dragged her into this. I was almost certain that when I spill the beans she would walk out of my life so I asked her to please go first in the sense that she should tell me about her life story and I'll use the time to think about how to come clean.

She found what I was saying funny even though I didn't know why but she was holding a laugh. AJ it's really not that deep. I just want you to tell me about yourself, your family, your goals, likes and dislikes and also want to know my place in your life or if this is actually just part of our pretend dating you know but no pressure if you what to know about me so badly I'll have to start first right.

So what do you want me to tell you about.

Everything, everything Audrey. why you came to East High, your relationship with Rosa, your family, your likes, your hobbies, your deal breaker and everything.

***

well, I'm Audrey Sinclair the only surviving child of the Sinclairs, well that was what I thought till I clocked seven and few days after my birthday, Rosa and her uncle walked into my house. That moment changed alot of things, my friendship with Evans Hayes slowly withered and my dad was almost never around since then. My two brothers died on my big day leaving my parents to bear the entire weight of the family business. I really dont know if Rosa is the reason behind the sudden division between Evans and my family or if something else transpired. My mom always cut me off whenever I ask and I later found out after some years that Rosa's parents death wasn't entirely true.

Elizabeth and my late brother Drake were in a relationship when Elizabeth became pregnant for her. She wanted to abort the pregnancy but when my mom found she rebuked her because that period I was only but few months old so she didn't want a child being killed because of her child's mistake so she begged Elizabeth to conceive the child and afterwards Rosa was catered for by someone she considered her uncle.

The big plan was for the whole family to reunite after Elizabeth was done with her studies which coincidentally was my birth month but after hearing of Drake's death she could no longer get a hold of herself so she drank to stupor and started taking drugs until her demise.

when Rosa came to leave with us my dad was against it and I didn't know why till when I did. I didn't hate her for any reason because we had grown up to be close friends and hearing that I was her aunty was weird very weird. My dad was bent on making her leave the house but I and my mom stood against it.

Father could not stay angry for to long so he took it all on me. Reminding me how mu two brothers died on my birthday which he felt was the beginning of our problems, for weird reasons he even said I couldn't keep my friendship with Evans which I still find confusing and worst of it he wants me to continue to family business even when he knows I have other plans.

I keep telling myself that I have forgiven him but every time I see him or remember his words I immediately fill hatred for him. I'm grateful to him for bringing me to this world but if I'm to choose a father in my next life I'll rather pick a caring and loving truck driver than a multi billionaire father like mine.