After Midnight

Chapter 16

I COULDN’t ignore school. A part of me just wanted to get away from Harry because his presence was just a reminded of his dreadful words said to me last night.

As I sat in front of the mirror putting on some makeup to hide my swollen crying, red face, Harry spent the time on his laptop, doing his best to ignore me and pretend as if I wasn’t there.

Fine. He wanted to fight with me? He can. But if he wants to pretend I am not in the room, then I can’t stomach that. I will move into Aaila’s apartment.

I casted a glance over my shoulder, gauging his reaction. “What’s the matter with you? Why are you acting this way with me, as if all of this is my fault.”

He spoke without looking up from his laptop. “Fine it’s not your fault. But lets not pretend you haven’t been looking after yourself like you should be doing. It’s not the time to talk about this right now.”

I could only gape at him.

When he sensed me staring at him, his eyes finally met mine. Cold. Distant. I almost wished he hadn’t looked at me at all.

“What?”

I stared for a heartbeat longer, yet his eyes didn’t soften or anything. A thousand needles pierced my heart as I turned away from him, mostly to hide the tears that gathered in my eyes. Then, I swung my bag over my shoulder and left the room, slamming the door shut behind me.

At school, I didn’t see Aaila until it was break time. She waved at me from across the lunch area and I managed a small smile as I walked over to our usual table with my food tray clutched tightly in my hands. My hands kept shaking for some reason, and I already broke a glass in Biology lab in the first period, and really didn’t feel like snapping all the attention to myself right now.

“Hey!” she smiled as I sat down across from her.

“Hi. How are you? Didn’t see you in the morning,” I said, taking a bite from the cold pasta. It made me gag.

“Woah, is it that bad?” Aaila raised a worrying brow at me.

I tried to pry my hand off from my mouth while managing not to puke all over the place. What was wrong with me?

“It’s not that bad, considering you are eating it as well. It’s just. . .I haven’t been able to eat properly for some reason.” I sighed. “My taste buds aren’t cooperating with me.”

“That’s totally normal in pregnancy. You should try eating ginger biscuits in the mornings.”

“Ginger biscuits? Where’s this pregnancy book of yours?” I joked, trying to lighten my mood because thanks to what Harry did.

She rolled her eyes. “I read it in a book, okay? Thank me later after you start taking them.”

I chuckled softly, twirling the plastic cup of coke in my hand, wondering whether I should actually be drinking this. “Okay, I will make sure to get them today. . .” I was about to say ‘with Harry’, but then I remembered I had to ask if I could live with Aaila with some time. “Hey Aaila?”

She looked at me expectantly. “Hmm?”

Here we go. “Can I live with you for a few days?”

Worry etched on her beautiful features, and she put the spoon down, focusing clearly on me. “Why is that?” she asked. “I mean, of course you can stay over, but is everything alright with you and Haaris?”

Ah, I wished.

“No. It’s not.” I sucked in a sharp breath. She wanted me to elaborate—I could see it in her eyes, but I didn’t have the energy to explain everything. A part of me knew I was just using it as an excuse because my heart ached whenever I reminded myself of what blame Harry had put over me.

“Okay. I know you’re not in the mood to talk about it right now, clearly, so we will put on a movie tonight with hot chocolate and pour our hearts out.”

“Movie on a school night?” I questioned.

She smiled. “Yes.” The smile was gone the next second. “Does he know you’ll be living with me? Why do I get this feeling he doesn’t know?”

“Because he doesn’t. Anyway, tell me something good. When are you getting married?” I attempted to change the subject. I don’t think I could handle talking about Harry anymore. I was already stressed enough. Didn’t need to add more to my plate.

“Probably never?”

“Don’t say that when you know you can’t keep up that promise for longer.”

“I can, if the groom is your brother.”

There was a long silence before I breathed in deeply and narrowed my eyes at her. What was that she still couldn’t stop obsessing over a guy whose mother would clearly ruin her life? “I can never understand why you are still fantasizing about what can never ever happen.”

“It can happen,” she countered.

“I won’t let that happen.” And that was true. “Have you not seen what that woman has done to me? What she is capable of?” I let my eyes soften, wanting her to see how much I really cared about her. Perhaps if not for herself, she will let go of this idea for me. “I love you, and your happiness matters a lot to me,” I added further.

Aaila’s expression was unreadable. I wanted to know what she felt; whether it was anger or understanding, I really couldn’t tell. I had this bad feeling that Aaila didn’t really like me when I stopped her from marrying my step-brother, and was afraid it might affect our friendship.

“Okay. I will take your word and command my heart to fall in love with some other man. You’re gonna help me, though. It’s really unlikely that I will find someone good enough like Haaris.”

While relief flooded through me for knowing she wasn’t mad at me, at the same time Harry’s name made my chest constrict and tears to burn my eyes. I swallowed my emotions and smiled at Aaila. The bell rang and we continued the day as if everyone was having the best days of their lives.

I waited by Aaila’s car in the parking lot parked where she does every day. My patience was rather running out as fifteen minutes passed and Aaila still didn’t return from the bathroom. What was that woman taking so long for?

Just when I was about to cry in frustration, Aaila blessed me with her face.

“Sorry!” she cried, unlocking the car door as we both sat in the car.

“I though you drowned or something.”

The car roared to life. Why did she have to buy a jeep?

“Tell me why you got this monster again?”

Aaila scoffed. “If you call this a monster, then clearly you know very little about jeeps.”

“Clearly.”

My phone rang in my hands, Harry’s name flashed on the screen. I gritted my teeth in fury and declined the incoming call. I was in no mood to talk to him.

“Haaris?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you not going to talk to him. . .does he even know you are coming over at my place?” she deadpans.

“No, and if he calls you, you aren’t going to tell him where I am.”

She muttered some curses. “He’s going to go crazy if he won’t know your whereabouts. He’ll probably gather the whole FBI and start hunting for you from today. Which would obviously bring him to my house the very first place to hunt for.”

“Actually, he would know I wouldn’t go to your place because that would be too easy for him. Chances are he will go to the nearest hotels because he saw me grabbing my credit cards from the drawer.”

“Whatever it is, I hope I make it out alive.”

I couldn’t control my laughter that vibrated through me. “He would never hurt you, and you know it. there’s no need to be dramatic.” I sighed, looking out of the window, watching the buildings pass by us in a blur of events. “All I want is for to have a lesson for what he did. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

From my peripheral, I saw Aaila nod her head in agreement.