Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Janet pulls the door open and ushers in Tabby. She walks in with a beautiful familiar smile. I open my arms and she walks into them directly.

‘’You okay, babe?’’ she asks moving closer to me.

‘’I am how about you?’’ I ask her jovially.

‘’I am good. Uncle called and wanted to know if you were here already. I told him not to worry because you arrived safely.’’ I pull away and look at her face.

‘’Thank you, darling. Did you even see Janet?’’ I ask her because I didn’t see her saying ‘hi’ to her. She sneers secretly before turning to her with a smile.

‘’Hi there, Janet.’’ She says convivially to her.

‘’Hi,’’ she replies carelessly and she turns on her heels to walk away as I pull Tabby to our bedroom. ‘’You two enjoy yourselves.’’ She says over her shoulder as she heads to the kitchen.

‘’Thank you.’’ Tabby and I respond in unison. She is so excited and I wouldn’t mind knowing why.

‘’You look … so happy, darling. Anything I should know?’’ she gives me that smile that I love yet again, so genuine, sweet and lovely. A smile that the only other person who has is her mum.

My godmother.

‘’Luke asked me to go on a date with him.’’ She says without mincing her words. ‘’Don’t you think that’s cool?’’ she blushes a little when she says that and I smile at how cute she looks when she reddens and goes crimson.

This girl is crazy.

‘’I don’t think that’s cool, Tabby, I have never been asked for a date before. So, how would I know if it is cool or not?’’ a smile, the sweet and frank one covers her lips.

Tabby and I have been one of those persons you wouldn’t wanna keep for friends. We are boring and never ready to go out with a boy. I wonder why we have done this to us.

I remember there is this guy who really loved and wanted to marry her, she said a very big no and at the end of it all, the guy went to the city. He came back a few months later and she felt so bad about it. The guy had a beautiful lady beside him. She was glittering and all and I thought that that was not reason enough for Tabby to feel bad.

She came to me crying that Caleb has decided to get a girl to make her feel jealous. I had to convince her that those were city whores who will never manage to survive in the village. A few weeks later, the lady told Caleb that the hostility of the village wasn’t good for her health. She gave him the option of either going back to the city or letting her go back all alone.

Caleb couldn’t go back to the city at the moment so, the lady did and we’ve never seen her. I don’t know about Luke or what his intentions are, but I am sure he has good intentions for my friend.

She is so fragile and I hope that he will not be breaking her heart soon. That’s just an assumption. I may be jumping into conclusions that may turn out to be false at the end of all these.’

‘’Hey, why would you say that it’s not cool?’’ she asks her eyes wide open. ‘’You look lost by the way, are you okay?’’

I nod at her. I was just thinking about past events. Anyway, I don’t have to remind her about Caleb, maybe it could bring her sad memories.

‘’I am okay. Actually, just go watch a movie my dear, it’s good for you.’’ I say trying to dismiss the whole thing. ‘’How is Luke doing?’’

‘’He’s handsome.’’ She says casually with a shrug. She looks like she is in love. I think this is actually the very first time I have ever heard her mention that a guy is handsome.

‘’Are you in love or something?’’

‘’Something.’’ She blushes before responding to me. I hope she won’t be getting a broken heart anytime soon.

‘’Let’s go to Janet, I wanna see what she is doing. I shouldn’t be telling stories here when I should be learning some house chores. I don’t think I am really going to enjoy this house help job.’’

‘’Why would you say that, babe?’’

‘’Because I have never done it before,’’ I say pulling the door open and stepping aside to let her out first.

‘’Nothing different from what you usually do at home. A few machines to handle but that’s about it,’’ she says when we walk along the corridor. We are headed to the kitchen where Janet should be.

Janet is busy folding some clothes and I feel guilty for not being there to learn or assist her where necessary. I didn’t come here to be locked in a bedroom. I have to work and I have to do it well.

‘’Can we go get some items from the market?’’ she says once she sees us. The mention of the market excites me so much so I will not miss this one for anything in the world.

Tabby opts to come with us, she says that she is done with her work and wouldn’t mind a walk. I put on the old sandals that I wore from the village. One of the only surviving pair and a very long dress with patches all over. I believe in decency. And in this case, a long dress to me is decent.

Tabby is in a tiny dress, red in colour she looks really cute in it but I think she is showing too much skin. Well, Janet looks beautiful too but her dress is really exposing herself much she’s in a checked uniform, pink in colour and was told to get me one like hers. I don’t ask them about their dresses though, I am practicing to keep my village decency thing to myself.

When we get to the market, we buy different types of vegetables and cereals. I like the way Janet has the list on the top of her head and I wonder if I am ever going to do that one day.

‘’Clara!’’ someone calls and I turn to look at the direction of the sound. Guess who I find! The handsome guy. Harry in his glorious and acclaimed image. He is standing there looking like a Greek god.

My heart leaps a little when he winks with a smile. I smile back slightly and I don’t know how fast he does it but the next thing is I feel him close to me.

‘’How are you, Clara?’’ I raise my eyebrows at him. He has a sweet smile on his lips and I can’t help but smile back. ‘’You look beautiful.’’ I flush putting my face away from him. My stupid village legs are drawing funny maps on the ground.

‘’Focus Clara! This is not good for you. Remember why you are here.’’ My bitchy but very caring subconscious tells me and I know how caring she is and I appreciate it.

‘’Thank you,’’ I respond internally.

‘’How do you even know my name?’’ I ask him quietly and his eyes widen like I just messed up.

‘’I know many things.’’ He says proudly. I wonder why he would be proud of something as simple as knowing my name.

‘’And what does that mean?’’ I ask fidgeting with my fingers. I don’t know why despite the leaping in my heart, I feel like he is following me or something and that hurts.

I already hate him.

‘’Calm down, Clara. I heard someone call you in the morning and that’s the reason I know your name. Nothing personal.’’ I give him a death glare.

‘’Are you following me around or something?’’ he shakes his head even before I finish asking my question.

‘’Why would I even follow you around? What makes you think you are that important?’’ I sense the arrogance in his voice. He sounds like he owns everything around here and that’s boring. I hate it when people feel important and superior to others when they walk around with an aura of importance. I normally feel belittled and demeaned by such people and that shouldn’t be the case.

I turn on my heels to walk away but he holds my hand. ‘’Let me go!’’ I shout at him my eyes wide open in surprise. I don’t get why he just did that.

‘’It is fate.’’ He says quietly. Almost whispering to my ear.

‘’Fate! What does that mean?’’

‘’Yes, you heard me. I couldn’t follow you around no matter what. And forget what that means.’’

‘’Whatever,’’ I say casually assuming that I don’t care what he means.

‘’Can I buy you coffee, Clara?’’

‘’Do I look like I want to drink coffee? Or rather that I want to be bought coffee by a stranger?’’ I ask firmly

‘’You don’t have to look like you want to drink coffee. Besides, how do people who want to drink coffee look like? Do they have any specific looks?’’

‘’If you don’t let me go, I will shout and make sure everyone knows that you are harassing me.’’ He shakes his big head.

‘’You wouldn’t dare!’’

‘’And what makes you think I wouldn’t!’’

‘’Are you blind or something? Can’t you see how people here are busy and will not hear anything that you do.'' He smirks slightly. ''You will not be able to attract attention.’’ He says with a proud smile and I wonder what could be wrong with

I think the fear in me at this point is crazy. I turn to look at Janet and Tabby and I realize that the two are no longer here. They probably left without noticing that I wasn’t with them.

‘’What’s your point?’’

‘’Stop being horrified. You should see you and the way you look right now.’’ I feel embarrassed when he says that. I know I am not beautiful but he doesn’t have to rub that to my face.

‘’What exactly do you want with me?’’ I ask seriously. This guy has stinking guts and they make me wanna puke. Who does what he is doing right now. His grip is so strong that I am feeling the pain

‘’You are hurting me!’’ I say pilling my hand away.

‘’Let her go!’’ I hear a voice almost so familiar and when I turn, Luke is standing there looking like he can beat someone to death right now.

The guy tenses and I can see clearly that he doesn’t want to do this. He’s letting me go against his will. I rush towards Luke and give him a tight hug.

‘’Are you okay, Clara?’’ he asks apprehension showing all over his face. I nod at the same time that I see Janet and Tabby coming back from wherever they had gone to.

‘’You guys went away and left Clara here all alone? Who even does that for God’s sake?’’

‘’The two us, apparently,’’ Janet responds jokingly. She is smiling and I wonder why on earth she finds what she just said funny.

I pull away from Luke and move closer to Tabby. I am really scared and trust me, even though I do not want to do this, the tears are threatening to come out and there is nothing I can do. I am biting my lips to keep them at bay, but that’s not working even a little bit.

Tabby notices my trauma and she rubs my back gently. That makes a tear fall. I rub it off quickly to prevent the guys from noticing but that comes a bit too late because Harry is looking at me with a sad face.

‘’You don’t have to cry. Sorry, I caused this. Not my intention at all.’’ I nod gently.

‘’Don’t you ever do that um …’’

‘’Harry.’’ He says his name gently.

‘’I don’t care what you call your stupid self! Don’t you grip a girl’s hand against her will okay? If you ever do that …’’

‘’What will you do, Mr.?’’ he cuts off Luke.

‘’Nothing! Let’s go guys.’’ Luke says taking my hand in his. I want to protest it but I remember the Harry guy has to know that someone can pay attention to me.

I turn to look at him briefly and I am surprised when he actually looks horrified. He sounded so confident and I didn’t expect him to be tensed at all.

I smile proudly at him then I walk away, Luke and I catching up with the rest.