Hand to Hold

Chapter 4

Fool for pushing away the people who care for me, for living in the past and not moving on. I am sorry, I can’t.

.

.

Closing the poetry collection by Miss Shelly, I glanced at the table clock showing it was only five in the evening.

Sigh.

I woke up earlier around one in the afternoon, then after changing out of crinkled school uniform, studied Geography until recalling about English’s paper on Monday.

Jaded from the revision of notes, I got up from the study table to make my way to bed but knocks changed it to answer the door.

Opening the door, a girl my age with shiny brunette curls reaching to her diaphragm and a middle-aged woman with streaks of white in black hairs were standing outside.

I gave them the room to enter and Aunt May guided Ruby inside. Turning about my attention went to the well endowed young woman since she entered my room for the first time and was busy inspecting her surroundings.

I glanced around to recollect my ideas over this room. Entering here, the first thing a person would take in would be his/her reflection on vanity’s oval-shaped mirror which was almost always devoid dust particles.

Dressing table's compartments’ contained all sort of new cosmetics even though I don’t use them. The single bed with a cream-coloured sheet and the peach cover was on the right with side table on its either side.

In front of the bed was a door attached to the bathroom, though Ruby wouldn’t be going there, it was enormously luxurious and contained all necessary things.

Left from vanity was study table on a corner of the room and one won’t be able to tell I spent more than half a day sitting there with no regards of table clock present on it since only a single book was present there.

Between the dressing table and study table laid a huge window, currently closed and covered with untied peach curtains.

Opposite vanity was a cupboard filled with clothes, footwears, purses and I don’t remember what else accessories.

Whereas inverse to study table was a cupboard holding books of both sorts, academic and non-academic. I liked living in other worlds or the places where books took me although it also held a huge amount of non-fiction in there.

The credit of the whole white painted room, my closet contents, vanity table’s contents, bathroom’s content and all the other decorations hanging on the wall or placed around the room goes to Aunt May, being an interior designer it was all done by her.

The curtains of the window and covers of bed stayed colour coordinated thanks to Aunt May’s stress bursting shopping sprees and curt instructions to those working in the bungalow.

My room sure matched the standards of what one considered classy, Aunt May made sure of it while designing this room.

The room was so epicurean that it could easily match the standards of the upper-level Hotel Suite. Aunt sure was a great designer... And the interior of the whole Bungalow screamed this because of Aunt May’s thorough furnishing.

Aunt May and Mom indeed were a complementing duo.

Professionally, Mom was an event organizer who was informed about interior designing though not as deep as Aunt May whereas, Aunt was an interior designer who could organize events, not as elegantly as Mom but somewhere near there.

Aunt was an enthusiastic starter and Mom was a patient finisher. Mom tended to speak from silence and Aunt May turned silences awkward rather she was a great talker.

Mom was mild, soft-spoken and dangerous with a cool mind, type to play mind games. Aunt May was anything but soft-spoken, quite hot-blooded, not the one to hide her any sort of emotions, and the one with physical strength.

Mom was the older one and even though two were quite different their basics were same thus they resembled each other a lot.

Just like how Aunt May’s eyes were gleaming right now to whatever Ruby said. Aunt might be giving a full blossomed smile opposite to Mom who used to give half-smiles but the basics were same; the glint in her eyes was the same as Mom.

Insofar as if she was standing right in front of my eyes... Mom!

Aunt May spoke breaking my daze, “See Belle, Ruby likes how your room is done.”

Breathing voluntarily I calmed myself down.

Mom wasn’t here.

She died protecting me... She couldn’t possibly be here.

Stopping the tears from rolling down my cheek I concentrated on what she said and forced a smile nodding.

Different from earlier I turned attentive, so when Ruby verbalized her actual motive of reaching me it left me somewhere between anger and frustration.

“Aunt May I want to borrow your niece for tonight, Pri-Sorry, Crown Prince is giving a birthday party to his badge mates in the royal mansion.”

Aunt May cast a glance in my direction and then turned back to Ruby, “A party... It is perfect for Belle right now. She will go with you but where are Nat and Lara?”

Ruby’s earlier tense face broke into a grin, “Actually I am here to take Belle whereas Lara went after Nat as these two never agree to co-.”

I cut her off, “nor am I agreeing now. If it is why you are here then I am sorry Ruby I can’t come with you.” Sighing I add, “At least not today.”

Ruby’s eyes dimmed and corners of her lips turned towards the ground she sighed thwarted, then opens her mouth to speak but was beaten by Aunt.

“It is not your decision to make Belle. She asked for my permission and I am giving her that along with ordering you to join her.”

Her eyes showered fierce instructions and I retorted in the same tone, “No!”

Ruby’ eyes widened and she panicked, “I guess, it is fine if she doesn’t want to go.”

Aunt May sighed, “I need to do this Ruby. She is being such because today is her parents’ death anniversary, I don’t want her to celebrate it but she is not ready to move on.”

Continuing her gaze flickered to me, “Think it for yourself, Belle, will Flora or Blaze will ever be able to rest in peace if they see you like this. I am not forcing you to fete what happened a year ago, I know it from firsthand experience this isn't easy. So, I know that hanging out with friends, meeting new people, enjoying small things is what helps in getting over such traumas.”

She convinced me in her last attempt, “It all ended today. We are not mourning so let this day serve as a fresh start... Flora was a firm believer of the saying that every end, in reality, is a new start.”

Sigh.

I nodded, “Okay... But because I don’t want to argue with you anymore.”

Fireworks took place in Ruby’s eyes as she called Lara to inform it.

Aunt May went through my closet to choose outfits for two of us, according to her it would be rather a time savvy for Ruby to get ready with me since she was only a few centimetres shorter than me.

Sitting on the bed beside me Ruby became busy sharing her plans of bumping into her crush, Will.

William Ross aka Will, son of the leading music label of the country with worldwide recognition. From what I gathered Ruby first noticed him in the freshman year and were paired for a survey, they were merely acquainted but ‘it was the charming mannerism of that person which got Ruby’ to quote Lara.

Though I was troubled by another thing... Will, Nim and Ash were always together and I wanted to avoid this trio, not because of the spiders crawling over my body rather for the butterflies fluttering in my stomach because of a certain someone.

Nim Frost aka Nim, in the simplest terms I knew him as a genius which, by the way, he was. That person with white hairs and the last name of Frost’s was considered to be cold-hearted because of his unwelcoming aura.

Then there was him.

His Majesty, Ash Royale, Prince- sorry, my mistake he was officially laurelled as Crown Prince this morning, so- Crown Prince of Salovia, son of His Highness David Royale the Second and Her Highness Julianne Connors Royale.

Um, he was raised to be a gentleman and act like royalty though with the conception deeply rooted in his mind that he was to-be-heir to someone’s legacy who served the peasants, something he embraced.

When I say that it was because of him that I wanted to avoid everyone else it wasn’t even his fault that I couldn’t remain normal around him.

A glance over at Ruby’s dreamy eyes and Aunt May’s twinkling eyes and I reluctantly accepted they weren’t going to leave me alone for this event.

Exactly an hour later Lara stood before the main door to receive Ruby and me; her car was parked outside the main gate as her hand clutched Nat’s which raised many brows. The young lady with reddish-brown locks falling over her shoulder smiled at Aunt’s creased brows, “Nat will run away and I will have to spend another fifteen minutes trying to get her back in the car. This way is easier.”

Ruby shook her head, “No, it would have been even easier if you would have just called me.”

Lara shrugged, “My phone is in Nat’s purse, she wanted to blackmail me to ditch this party but it is our group’s first official hanging out as Belle is here. Can’t exactly let Nat miss it, can I?”

The girl with black strands falling over her bosom, twin of my hairs, threw me a pleading look, “Please Belle, save me from Lara she will hear you for sure.”

Aunt May responded to her plea, “Sorry Natalie, she couldn’t even save herself she can’t save you for sure.” Her gaze turned to Ruby, “Take care of my little niece and complain if she troubles you or Lara.”

My eyes automatically turned to Aunt May with a blank expression as she added ‘little niece’ line, “I am not of Blake’s age.”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“Worse than anyone Blake’s age.”

At the command of the elder helping in her mission, Ruby clutched my hand and started dragging me to the car.

“Lara get Nat, Belle and Aunt May can go on forever like this.”