Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Sophia's pov;

At the school, I poked Bella in her shoulder and signalled to check the phone. I sent her a message that I'm going to a friend's house party tonight and asked her to join me. After some time she replied to me that she has work to do and cannot come with me.

It's not the first time because she had work to do but she's been ignoring me recently which is odd. What's going with her?

Noah went to her place and talked with her about the music event and Evelyn joined them too. I didn't join them and remained in my place while thinking about why she was ignoring me. She never left me even when she got occupied with jobs, but what happened now. Even on weekends, she stopped jumping into my room through the window.

Bella called me, "What's with you? Why are you being silent? Is it because I rejected the offer?"

"It's not the first time you're rejecting me because of work, so it's fine. But I'm worried about the assignment given by Mr Brown."

"If it's about an assignment, then I'm the one who has to get worried. Not you."

I smiled at what she said and thought, of course, I'm thinking about what you're doing here.

After the class ended, she rushed to run out of the class so I asked her, "Where are you rushing to?" Asked while seeing her putting books back into her bag.

"I was the reason for Harry going out of the class. I have to run away before he sees me."

"When will you stop teasing him?"

She didn't answer and left the class.

After school ended, out of curiosity I followed her. I want to find where she's rushing to. I saw her sneaking through the small gate of the school. Why is she acting suspiciously? While I was watching her, she started walking on the street and looked here and there. It looked like she was checking if anyone was following her. I walked behind her in a distance where she couldn't see me.

After a few steps, she stopped in front of the candy shop and opened the door of the car which was standing opposite the candy shop. And got into that car. Why is she getting into a stranger's car? Does she know about the person inside the car? Why was she boarding it? What's happening here?

The car left while I was standing with a doubtful mind.

On the next day, after school got over, I sneaked behind Bella and followed her. Today, she didn't act suspicious. She walked casually down the street and she didn't stop in front of the coffee shop, instead, she walked past it and went to the bus terminal. Will the car pick her up from the bus terminal today? No car came and she got on the bus and left.

The next day, I followed her like I did yesterday. I want to know what she's been up to. She sneaked out of the school through the small gate and started walking in the street looking suspicious. Today, she stopped in front of the candy shop and there was also a car. She got in and the car left. I'm not going to stand and see the car leaving. I came prepared today with my bicycle. I followed the car carefully. The car got away from the busy streets and went into a deserted place. The place around me had a lesser number of houses and every house looked big and rich.

The car went through the gate of a big mansion. I stopped someplace away from the mansion and parked my bicycle and peeked through the wooden fence. I saw Bella getting out of the car and entering the house and the door was closed.

I took my bicycle and came to the entrance. Two guards are standing in front of the gate.

I walked to them and asked one of them, "Who's that girl who went inside the house just now?"

He asked me back, "Are you a paparazzi?"

"No."

"Then who are you?"

Another guy showed up and said to him, "Can't you see the uniform of this girl? It's the same as Ms Garcia. I think they're friends."

The guy answered, "But she asked me who Ms Garcia is?"

Ms Garcia. They're talking about Bella. So they know about Bella, but how?

"I think she asked because of the uniform. Aren't you?" Another guy answered him.

"Ah! Yes. The uniform looked familiar."

While they were talking to each other, I left the place. Paparazzi? Is the person living there popular? Who's living there?

I'm tired of thinking about it. I'll ask her in person in school tomorrow.

Isabella's pov;

"Big brother, can you help me with this assignment?"

"Teachers held tests for the whole class providing the same questions. Why?"

"Why are you asking me questions while I'm asking for your help?"

"Answer the question first. Why?"

"Maybe they wanted to find out who's bad at studying."

"You are twenty-five per cent correct but the reason is they want to test the knowledge, to know both strengths and weaknesses, to check the learning process, to check vocabulary and your logical thinking. But why are they giving different topics for assignments? Why not give the same topic to every student?"

I shrug my shoulders saying, "Maybe they don't want us to copy?"

"No. It's to increase the learning capabilities of students. The more you use your brain, the more it'll develop. Do you understand?"

"You could have said 'no' when I asked for your help, Big brother."

I heard someone's laugh in the room so I turned to see who it was.

"Mr Martinez?"

From when he was standing there? I didn't notice him at all. Was he listening to our conversation? And that was the first time I heard his laugh. Since the study was big, his laugh was pretty loud. I smiled to myself.

"What's going on here?"

"I asked for his help for my assignment instead he gave a big lecture to me."

Mr Martinez smiled at me.

Big brother said, "Don't ask for help from anyone. Do the assignment on your own."

"Did you hear that? He's scolding me a lot nowadays. Big brother turned bad after becoming my tutor."

"That means he likes you. He only gets mad when he cares for them."

"Really?"

Mr Martinez gave a nod at me.

I walked to Big brother and asked, "Is it true? Do you like me, Big brother?"

He let out a sigh and said, "It's time for Mr Martinez to sleep so go with him."

"My mom said people change topics when they get caught. Is it true, Big brother?"

Big brother gave me warm milk and left the study room. I laughed at Big Brother's behaviour.

"So cute."

"Big brother is cute?" Mr Martinez asked me.

Did I say that out loud? I let out a nervous chuckle and asked, "Shall we go, Mr Martinez?"

He gave a nod and walked in front and I followed him back.

After a while, I came out of the house and got into the car to get to my home. I was stopped by the guards. What do they want now?

"Mam, a girl from your school asked about you. I don't know if you two are friends but it looked like she followed you here from school. Thought this might help you, mam."

I gave a nod and the car started.

A girl from my school. Followed me from school to Mr Martinez's house. Friend or not friend. Who followed me till here? Who might that be? Why did they follow me? Did I get caught? I couldn't think straight. All I could think was 'Who was that?'

On the next day in school, I looked at everyone's faces as soon as I entered the school's premises. I looked behind me if anyone was following me but I couldn't find anyone suspicious.

I came to my class. I looked at my classmates' faces. They were doing their businesses.

I took my seat and thought 'I couldn't find a single person to be suspicious. Who might be that person?'

I looked at Liam, he turned away from me. Woah! That was faster than yesterday. I smiled at him. Will it be him? But the guards mentioned a girl.

I turned and looked at Evelyn, she greeted me and went back to studying. I looked at Sophia. She was looking at me or should I say staring at me. She didn't flinch a little and still looked at me. So it's you. I gave an 'i don't care look at her.

The teacher came so I diverted the look from her to the teacher.

After school ended, I walked out of the school and came to the street. While I was walking, I felt someone's hand on me. I turned to take a look at that person. It's Sophia.

"What?"

"Where are you going?"

"To my house of course."

"I know you're lying. Why are you lying to me? Where are you going?"

"Why do you want to know where I'm going?"

"You're going to that mansion, am I right?"

"Mansion? What mansion are you talking about?"

"Don't behave like you don't know. I know that you're going to that mansion every day."

"And? What else do you know about me going to the mansion?"

"What do you do there?"

"What do you mean like that? Are you saying that I'm doing something bad in that house?"

"Who knows? I didn't see what you're doing in that house."

I got mad when she talked like that but I calmed myself and said, "The owner of the house and I agreed so I'm doing my part. That's it."

"Agreement for what?"

"The owner has some kind of phobia but it doesn't work with me so we hold hands for some hours. Like therapy."

"Holding hands? Why... Leave it. How old is he?"

"Twenty-three or twenty-four I guess."

She let out a sigh and asked, "So he's old. What if he harasses you?"

"What? No! Mr Martinez would never do that to me. How could you say that?"

"Are you stupid? You just said that guy's phobia doesn't work on you. What if he suddenly jumps on you? What will you do then?"

"Stop talking about Mr Martinez like that. He's a good guy. He's not like how said."

"Why are you taking his side, Bella? I'm your friend. You're fighting with me for some guy who's older than you?"

"I'm not fighting with you. You're the one fighting with me and talking bad about Mr Martinez."

"Why are you speaking for him, Bella? Is it because of money?"

"What? What did you just say?"

"I don't know how it became like this. Will you do anything for money? Would you hug him if he offered you money? Would you sleep with him if he offered you the money?"

Tears started welling up in my eyes. I couldn't utter another word in front of her so I ran away from her.

I came to Mr Martinez's house. I looked for Big brother. When I caught him talking to Mr Martinez and some maid. I ran to him by calling his name and hugged him suddenly. He hugged me back. I started sobbing in his embrace and started crying so badly. I couldn't stop the tears rolling down my cheeks.

"What happened, Ms Garcia?" I heard Rose's voice.

I continued crying in Big Brother's embrace. He didn't ask any questions, instead, he patted me on my shoulder while saying, "It's fine. Everything will be okay. Don't cry" repeated this again and again inside my ears.

Big brother made me sit on the couch and gave me water to drink. I drank it while having hiccups which you get after crying hard. He patted my back and said, "Don't hurry. Drink slowly."

After I drank the water, I could somewhat stop crying but there were still tears that rolled down my cheeks.

I raised my head and took a look around me and found everyone was looking at me. I felt embarrassed and hugged Big brother while saying, "I'm embarrassed."

"Can you talk now?"

I wiped my tears and nodded my head.

"What happened? Want to tell?"

I nodded while sneezing my running nose because of crying.

"My friend. Sophia. She's my best friend. We have been friends since middle school. We are so close together to the point where we will share everything. I had fights with my other friends but we never had fights throughout these years. But today, we fought. She got mad at me and scolded me so badly."

"What did you fight for? Like to talk?"

I looked at Mr Martinez and returned my look to Big brother and shook my head.

"Okay. Drink water." He offered me another glass of water to drink.

Maid's and Butler's who were watching me left and Big brother left too. Mr Martinez sat beside me and asked, "Why did you look at me like that when he asked you?"

"We fought because she found out about the agreement."

"Your crying didn't look like just finding out about the agreement. What happened after that?"

"She talked bad about you."

"Like what?"

I shook my head refusing to say to him.

"It's fine. I've heard so many things from my employees. People talk sh*t about me so don't care about that. Go on."

It's like people spoke badly to his face. How did he take it?

"She said what if apart from holding my hands, you jump on me and..." Told what happened back then to Mr Martinez.

"You got mad because she talked bad about me?"

"Yeah, I never talked to you a lot like any other person I did in this house. Take this moment too, this is the first time we're having a proper conversation since I came here. Even though I didn't have many conversations or moments with you, I felt so comfortable and safe around you. I mean I'm in your house, in your room, with the door closed, you could have taken your chances but you never did for once. You haven't even looked at me properly since I came here. You don't even talk much to me but I know you. You're a good person."

Mr Martinez looked at me without taking his eyes off me.

"Mr Martinez?"

"Huh? Sorry. That was the first time since I heard something nice about myself. Do you know why you cried hard? It's because you didn't expect it from her. Would you cry if others bolted out on you like how your friend did? Instead of crying, You would have fought with them, right? Understand that both of you like each other so don't fight with your friend. You said she's the only closest friend to you, right? so forgive her. Maybe she got mad cause she doesn't want you to get into trouble so don't let her go because of this."

I smiled at him and said, "Thank you, Mr Martinez."

He gave a nod and left.