Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Isabella's pov;

I submitted my assignment on the front table and tried to go to my desk but Mr Davis stopped me by calling out my name and said, "I hope you submit every other assignment like this in future, Ms Garcia."

I nodded and said, "Yes, Sir."

When I returned back to my place, Mike turned to me and asked, "Did you really finish it?" With a doubtful expression.

"Yeah. I had time so I finished."

He gave a surprised nod and turned to the front.

My phone vibrated. I took my phone to check what it was. Jose sent me a message.

I turned and looked at Jose who was sitting beside me. Why did he send messages if he's not even two desks away. When I saw him, he signalled me to look into the phone.

I opened the chatbox.

"Are you alright?"

What does he mean by that? Was my face that obvious?

I replied, "Yes." And put my phone into the bag instead of my bag.

Tracy took the seat beside me after submitting her assignment to the teacher. I placed the locker keys on her desk and whispered, "Thank you for yesterday. I washed and kept your shirt back in your locker."

She nodded and took the keys.

After classes got over,

Tracy, "Shall we go to hotpot today since the assignments are over?"

"Nah, I have something to do at home so I'll head back first. See ya guys tomorrow." And walked out of the class.

While I was walking to the entrance, I saw Harry waiting near Mateo's car. What does he want now?

As I walked closer, he noticed me and waved his hands in the air like he's greeting me.

I asked him when I went closer to him, "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you. I saw a new cafe nearby. Shall we go and check it out together?"

"I'm not in the mood." And tried to get into the car.

Harry held my hand and said, "Why? Don't you like going out with me?"

I gotta tell him not to grab my hand whenever he wants. I removed his hand and got into the car and said with a fake smile, "Let's do that when I'm free." And asked Mateo to start the car.

My phone vibrated. It's been vibrating for a while but I didn't bother to check it. I leaned back on the seat and looked out through the window.

Mateo asked, "Is something wrong?"

"No."

"You've been silent since you got inside the car. Did you get into a fight with your friends?"

"No."

"Did you get bad grades?"

"No."

"Did someone confess to you?"

"What?! No."

He let out a chuckle and said, "Okay, okay."

Mateo woke me up by tapping on my shoulder and said, "We arrived at the house, Bella." When did I fall asleep?

I got out of the car while rubbing my eyes using my finger and started walking to the house.

Mateo said, "You forgot your bag." And gave my bag to me.

"Thank you." I received the bag and continued walking to the house.

When I entered the house, I saw Mr Martinez and Big brother talking to each other in the centre of the hall. I greeted both of them and headed to my room.

I placed my bag on the study table and dropped on the bed.

I heard a knock on the door.

I got up from the bed and opened the door. Rose.

"Why are you still in these clothes? Didn't you change?"

"I slept."

"Okay. Come down for lunch."

"Um... I don't feel like eating. If you don't mind, can you tell the cook not to cook for me?"

"Okay. Did you eat in college?"

"Yeah." I lied. If I don't, it'll only lead to another question.

She nodded and asked, "Will you come for dinner or..."

I nodded and said, "I'll come."

After she moved away from the door, I closed it behind her and walked back into the room. The only light is the lamp that's illuminating the room. My hand was laying on the blanket, lazily holding the pillow.

I sat on the couch and looked at the purple flowers in the vase. I moved my couch towards them and sat near the vase. My flowers never wilted since they get changed with the new one everyday. I sprinkled some water on it and got lost in my thoughts. It took me back to the days, i picked up purple flowers in middle school for my mom. I got caught red handed in the middle of plucking the flowers in the school garden from a physical education teacher. I ran five laps around the school grounds, but at the end of the day, I still managed to give the purple flowers to my mom. The moment she let out a smile when she held the flowers in her hands, made me pluck more flowers for her.

I got a call which brought me back to reality, it had rung about 5 times in as many seconds.

I stood up from the couch and walked to the study table and took my bag. The call ended. When I tried to keep my bag back on the table, my phone rang again.

I opened the bag and took the phone out. Jose's name was on the display. Why was he calling me many times?"

I answered, "What?"

He hurriedly said something quickly.

"I didn't get it."

"Look out the window."

"What?"

I walked to the window and pushed the curtains to one side and looked through it.

I saw Jose in the backyard. He jumped and waved his hand to get my attention.

I lifted the window and asked through the phone, "What are you doing here?"

"Came to see you."

"What? Are you crazy? How did you even get in here?"

"There were guards in the front gate so I walked around and jumped across the wall and landed in the backyard."

"Get inside the garden. I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay."

"And stay hidden. Don't get caught."

I opened the door and took a peek outside the hallway to see if there were people outside. After making sure it's empty, I came out of the room and walked in the hallway quietly. When I came to the end of the hallway, I squatted down to see if there were people down there. I couldn't see properly so started stepping down the stairs after taking every glance of the hall.

I stopped when I saw Mr Martinez and Big brother in the hall. How am I supposed to walk out of the house without being seen by them? Is it even possible? Ha! Let's just say I'm taking a walk outside for a minute.

I came to the hall and walked casually to the door. When I was about to open it, I heard Big Brother's voice calling out my name.

He asked me, "Where are you going?"

I let out a nervous chuckle and said, "Just taking a walk in the garden."

He nodded.

When I tried to leave, he asked again, "Why are you still in this outfit? Didn't you take a shower?"

"I slept when I came to the house. I'll take shower before going to sleep."

He gave a nod.

"Shall I go now?"

"Yeah."

I opened the door and came out of the house and let out a relief sigh. I walked around the house and headed to the garden.

"Jose!" ,called my friend quietly when I entered the garden.

He waved his hand to direct me towards him.

"What are you doing here?"

Suddenly, he hugged me all of a sudden.

I said, "Don't tell me that you have a fling on me."

He broke the hug and gave a flick on my forehead and said, "Someone was pouty all day in the college so I came to pay a visit."

"Who's pouty?"

"You."

"I didn't."

"You're so bad at lying. You gotta work on that."

"Okay, leave quickly before anyone else sees you."

"Why? What will they do to me? Are they going to put me in the dungeon?"

I smiled and said, "Worse. They're going to feed you to the dogs."

He asked, "Tell me what happened then, I'll leave."

"What do you want to know?"

"The thing you were upset about."

"It's nothing. You can leave."

"I'm not leaving without knowing the answer."

"Then stay here."

When I tried to leave the garden, he grabbed my hand and took me to the end of the garden.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"We're going out."

"What! No, I'm not coming with you."

"You have to."

"No."

Suddenly, he lifted me and made me sit on the wall. I pushed him away and jumped into the backyard again.

He gave me a death stare.

"Okay, fine. I'll come with you. But we have to take another way. And not this one. I got scratches on my hand when I tried to jump over this wall once."And started walking towards the wooden door.

He asked me while following behind, "There's another way here?"

"Yup."

I came to the wooden door and said, "Here it is. Tada!"

"Where's it?" He looked around the place.

"Wait, I forgot to take it out."

I removed the vines which were hiding the door before and showed him the door again.

"There's a door here?"

I nodded and opened the door for him.

After we came out of the door, he asked me, "Is this how to sneak out of the house?"

I nodded and closed the door.

"Did anyone in the house know about this?"

"About the door?"

"About you sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night."

I shrugged my shoulders and started walking with him.

"Won't they check your room?"

I smacked his head and said, "Check my room? What are you speaking? I'm not living in a prison, Jose. And, when I don't open the door when they knock, they just leave. No one comes into my room until I ask them to come in."

"Who are all in the house?"

"Why are you so interested?"

"Just wanted to know more about my friend. Is that wrong?"

"It's only me, Mr Martinez and Chuck. Big brother and other workers leave the house at 6."

"Chuck?"

"He's one of the guards who watches the front gate. You must have seen him in the front. He's the coolest one among the guards."

"It looks like you know every worker that works here."

"Duh! I've been living here for three years. Do you expect me to talk to the wall?"

"Did you get better now?"

"What?"

"Someone's been upset all day."

I let out a sigh and asked him, "Where are we going now?"

"A Nightclub i know."

I stopped taking another step and said, "No, I don't want to get drunk."

"We're not going to get drunk tonight. Believe me." He grabbed my hand and made me walk where I wasn't interested in going.

We went to a nearby club. It was pretty silent to my surprise. Not many people around us. Old songs were playing in the background. Is there a nightclub like this?

Jose ordered club soda for both of us.

"Aren't we drinking wine?"

"You said you don't want to get drunk."

"A glass won't get me drunk."

"It's fine. You'll drink soda today. I can't take you back after you get wasted and don't want to get in trouble." He poured me a club soda and asked, "Go on. What's the deal?"

"Why do you want to know it so much?"

"Because you're my friend."

I leaned on the table and asked, "Really, am I just your friend? Or do you have feelings for me?"

He gave another flick on my forehead and said, "Tell me why were you upset in the morning?"

"I was sad about something which happened last night."

"What happened last night?"

"The day before yesterday, I went out with Harry. He talked about so many things. I always share things with my friends. You know, right?"

He nodded at me.

I continued, "So I shared it with Mr Martinez. But he made me get upset."

"What exactly did you tell him? I want details."

I let out a sigh and said, "I started living with Mr Martinez... I mean at his house after my mom passed away. Harry asked me stuff like how long I'm going to stay there. I told Mr Martinez what Harry said to me. Last night, Mr Martinez gave me a key to an apartment and said I can leave whenever I want to. The moment he said that, I got hurt deeply. He says he loves me, but gives me a key to an apartment. He says he doesn't want me to leave his house but asks me to move out. I don't understand him at all. In the beginning, he spoke only three to four words with me. Even at times, I could guess what was on his mind after I got used to him. But now, he speaks like others but i don't understand the meaning behind it. It feels like I don't know him at all."

"Can you tell me the whole story about you two?"

"Huh? You want the entire story?"

"Yes."

I started, "One Night, when me and my high school friends came to a club like this since we attained the legal age to drink, we all got drunk and i came out of the club because i lost in a dare to find a guy to ask him out. Unexpectedly, I got hit by a car and fainted. When I woke up I was in a big house which I was seeing for the first time.... Blah... Blah... Blah..."

After hearing my story, he asked, "You took your friends to rescue him from the kidnappers?"

I let out a nervous chuckle and said, "Yeah, it makes me laugh when I think about that now."

"You're brave."

"Thank you."

He continued, "A hard worker, a music lover, a basketball player, a part-timer, a fighter... What happened to all of that? Why did you become like this?"

"Woah! Did you just insult me? How did I become?"

"A quitter. A quitter who doesn't even try."

"What didn't I try?"

"You like Alexander but don't try to pursue him, instead you're ignoring him."

"Bella? Do you like him?"

I nodded with pain and said, "What do you want me to do? I saw my mother dying in front of me. Did you know how that felt? It broke me. It broke me really hard. It felt like a knife was slowly cutting me apart, and I couldn’t help but to feel so empty without her. I didn't care about the pain in my chest that would only get worse the more time passed. Maybe that was when I started looking down on me. The day after I stopped playing sports was when things got bad. I stopped playing basketball, I stopped playing music, I stopped doing things which brought back memories of my mom. Everything was just gone. Yes, you're right. I'm a quitter. I don't want to try anything. Because I'm scared of getting hurt if I try anything."

"Are you going to be like this forever?"

"Yeah."

"What if some other girl comes and confesses to him? What if he accepts her back? What will you do then? Are you going to stay still and watch them being together?"

"I don't think he'll love another girl in his life."

"How are you so sure about that?"

"He waited for me for 13 years and another two years when I ran away. Do you think he can love another girl?"

"If you know that he won't love another girl other than you then why are you afraid of getting hurt? It sounds like you already know that he'll accept when you confess to him then why are you ignoring it?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out too."

"Bella, don't wait and make him wait. You're not only hurting you but also him. Can't you see that? Maybe he can't love another girl like you said but what if he gives up on you one day? Act quickly before he does that." He stood up and continued, "Come on, let's leave."

I nodded and walked along with him. Will he give up on me?

Mr Martinez's pov;

I drank the wine from the glass. It tasted just like it looked and smelled and felt like any other wine in the world. I knew that it was actually very alcoholic but it tasted as if it came straight out of a bottle. The taste made my mouth water, so I drank more and then stopped because my mouth was burning. When I finished with my wine, I saw Jose standing in front of me.

He sat in front of me saying, "I hope you heard everything."

"How did you find that I'm here?"

"You don't have to know about that. Did you hear what Bella told me?"

I nodded and said, "You look more surprised than me. Did you expect a different response?"

"I can't believe you still think like that. How many times have I had to prove that I don't like Bella in that way? Can't you hear Bella being mad all over you? Even if i tried to hit on her, she won't let me since you're the only guy all she could think about. I wonder why she likes you this much. I can see that you're possessive but don't follow us behind like a creepy guy. What if she finds that the guy she likes the most is following behind her back like a leech?"

I stood from the table and said, "She believes in you since you're a friend. Tell her the truth before she finds out about you. It's the best advice that I can give you for now."

I made my point and walked out of the club.

When I entered the house, I called Chuck, "Did she come back?"

"Yes, Sir. She went to her room, Sir."

"Well, You may leave now."

I climbed the stairs and walked to her room. I didn't knock, instead I tried to open it. I walked into the room and saw her sleeping on the bed covering herself with a blanket up to her neck.

The room is getting colder by the minute so I shut off the overhead heater. I opened her desk drawer. It wasn't there. Where did she keep it? I opened all the desks but they weren't there.

I walked over to the lamp table beside her and opened it quietly.

It's here. I took the keys from the lamp table's drawer and made my way out of the room before Isabella woke up.

I looked at the keys in my hand. The key to the apartment I bought. I let out a relief sigh and put it into my pocket and headed to my room.