Chapter 9: Cannibalism

"She's a woman of wonder, a mystery that will forever remain unsolved, with simple needs and deep desires. You will never fully unravel her, therefore you should take the time in getting to know each of the layers that run wildly beneath her wings." - J.Iron Word

“Calm down Jake, you found me,” I told him in a soft voice while making sure he was okay.

“I have been calling your cell for the past 15 minutes Aur, dammit. Couldn’t you have just picked up my call? You got me worried sick!”

“I am sorry I guess I forgot it at home. Shit, Ty must have messaged me too.” I spoke as I checked all my pockets for my phone. But no luck there.

“Do not scare me next time and would you please give us a minute?” he told me as he ran his hand through his hair while aiming the second part towards Chris.

“Sorry man, but we just got to talk. Mind giving us a minute first?”

“I have somewhere else to be like right now and its really important to talk to her. So please just excuse us.” Jake said the last part so angrily it made the hair on my arms rise literally.

“What if I say no?” Chris challenged him. Are you crazy Chris? I mentally face palmed myself.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Jake said as he started taking slow steps towards Chris. No Jake, stop. Have I now lost the ability to speak as well? Wow. Just what I needed at the moment.

I really should get in between them before something happens but somehow my feet were just stuck to the ground and I was completely unable to move as I watched the scene unfold in front of my eyes.

“Oh, then let me make this clear to you again Jake, I am going to talk to her first. So either you wait for sometime or you can back trace the path you came from.” Say something Aur, say something, anything. Stop them from going further.

“Back down before I do something I will not regret Chris. I make no promises.”

“Oh really, I would love to see you try.”

And with that Jake launched himself at Chris, both of them falling on the ground while in the process of restructuring each other’s faces. Seeing both of them fight like crazy was something I hope I never see again ever in my life. I literally had goosebumps all over my body.

Somehow, my feet got their life back and I was finally able to collect myself and walk up to them.

“Both of you get off each other right now!” I yelled as loud as I could. Let's just hope I don't get any complaints from the neighbors later.

None of them stopped and all they did was shout cuss words at each other more than they were actually punching. Okay I don’t want them to punch, but, whatever. Why couldn’t they just talk like adults? Do boys always have to get physical? Like seriously. Now I was beyond mad.

“For the love of god will you please stop!? Please! I am begging you!” I said as my eyes welled up with tears. I tugged on their collars and they finally pulled apart.

“You know what guys? Thank you so much for making my day so special by seeing two of my closest friend fight each other like this. I swear I don’t feel like seeing any of your faces at the moment, and you know what, I am going to do the exact same. Fight all you want and never talk to me again. Or at least till the time I would want to.” I said the last part as I began walking to the exit of the park with Tuck.

I could hear both of them throwing their apologies my way but I was too numb to give a damn and so I just walked away.

My house from the park was just a mile away and so I happily walked the path with Tuck constantly pulling me with him.

I opened the door with the spare key under the flower pot at the side, don’t worry, the key was in my pocket. Everybody knows the flower pot trick by now. And with that I entered to see another angry human being, oh wait, two human beings who could just eat me right there. Oh I so don’t approve of  cannibalism.

“Are you crazy?” Saph said as I just took one breath, trust me, she didn’t even wait for me to take a complete one.

“Why was your phone not with you? Are you serious?” and with that Ty came second to Saph in scolding me.

I removed the leash from Tuck’s neck and set him free from all the cannibals here. Ah lucky guy right there. So jealous of him right now, but well, I am jealous of him all the time.

“Are you gonna answer us anytime soon?” Saph asked as I had completely ignored, or wait, tried to ignore their first remarks on my well being.

“I was out to walk Tuck in the park. And as you would’ve already figured out, I had forgotten my phone at home by mistake,” I replied as I emphasized on the 'mistake' part.

“You shouldn’t really be out alone without your phone Aur.” Ty said as his voice was full of concern.

I would have started an argument on how its completely safe for a girl to walk out even when she doesn’t have her phone but I decided against it and just nodded my head along with what he just spoke.

“Uhm can I be excused for sometime? I will come down for dinner in an hour.”

“Wait I will come with you, I wanted to talk to you anyways.” Saph smiled as she walked towards me.

“Saph, just give me an hour. I would like to be alone. Please understand. I will call you. Just sometime.”

I could see worry written all over her face but I know she would understand and she did. She nodded her head and started talking to Ty about what they should watch on TV. I sighed and began walking to my room not before asking Ty to feed Tuck which he agreed to do.

I plopped down on my bed and just looked at the moons and stars on the ceiling. There was a time when I wanted to touch and feel them, but then, well I grew up. But they still fascinated me. How they could be so far away and still glow so bright, sometimes, showing you things could be achieved.

All the events that took place just a few minutes ago kept replaying in my head, making me think just how much would change if I actually confess to him. I think I should reconsider the idea of telling him because I don’t know, its not like I am supposed to know everything now, is it? It just feels like the right thing to do. To wait till I know where my feelings for him actually stand. If he urges on asking what it was, I will just tell him truth with a minor editing which involves me not mentioning any of this to him. Yeah, that does feel right.

The more I think about him, the more I get scared as to what our future holds for us? And after today, I think I am gonna take zero chances. But then where's the fun without risks? Ugh I really need to stop with this two faced character of mine.

What if we get together and then things happen and we decide to break up? Like things could always go wrong, its life after all. If life doesn’t play games with you, are you even human?

The only possible self-explanation to the above question is, if we ever do get together and if we ever do break up, I think that would be the end of our friendship as well as whatever we would have. I don’t even think we would want to see the other persons face if we have a fall out ever. Because trust comes before anything.

I have read plenty books everywhere in which the girl falls in love with the guy or it happens the other way round and they encounter a dozen of problems in their way but they toss them out. They break up and patch up and fight their battles together and everything like that, but only if life could be that easy.

I am not saying I haven’t read books with any realistic stuff, there are some which just hit you like a rock, but again, my life isn’t a book, or wait is it?

The thing is that I have got some serious trust issues with people. I love to get to know new people and make friends but I can invest my trust in very few. And if you break it once, I would not think twice to ask you to get the fuck out of my life. Yeah, Aurora Stephens does not give second chances. Ever.

And that’s the thing with this whole situation. Its like I don’t mind giving all of myself to the relationship (a big if ) but when it comes to my self respect, I won’t back down.

Why am I thinking of all this so soon anyways? Yeah don’t hate me so soon, I didn’t realize I spoke so much to myself. I need to get my mind busy with other things like…YouTube? Definitely YouTube.

I started watching Superwoman’s videos and let me tell you it got my mood to  slightly normal again. I love her and specially her parents. They are just baes.

I got so engrossed in this video of hers that I didn’t even realize I heard a knock on my door. I ignored it thinking it must be my imagination but it just got louder second after second and so I decided to move my lazy ass and open the door.

I was instantly greeted by the amazing aroma of cheese pasta coming from the kitchen and a somewhat bored Saph too.

“You weren’t getting your ass downstairs so I just decided to show up.”

“Oh I was supposed to be down, right! I guess I just forgot as I started watching YouTube.”

“You! You were watching YouTube without me? How could you?” And with that Saph barged into my room without my permission. No privacy, I tell you.

“Tell me you weren’t just watching Superwoman’s parents react to Swalla?” she glared at me and I knew I would be dead in two seconds. Please put white lilies on my funeral.

“I am sorry, I just opened it to take my mind off things and then one video let to another and so yeah,” I smiled awkwardly at her while asking for an apology.

“I am forgiving you this time but you better just remember to ask me next time! Got it?”

“Yes ma'am! As you say!”

“Now come downstairs, I have cooked pasta for all of us. And then we’ll come upstairs and watch all the videos.” She clapped her hands as a wide smile made its way on her face.

I smiled at her and we began heading downstairs. Ty was already seated in the kitchen with his plate, fork and ofcourse his bib. He wouldn’t eat without that ever.

I pulled out a chair and sat on it as Saph filled a bowl for me and her. The smell itself was making me swoon, no joke there. The moment she put my bowl on the table, I dug right through it with my weapon. I swear I eat like I haven't been served food for ages.

Just as I was wiping the sauce off my face and was about to get up to take some more, the doorbell rang.

“I will get it,” Saph said and started walking towards the door. I wondered who it was. I picked up the spoon to take some pasta when I heard Jake’s voice.

“Hey Saph, could you please get Aur for me? I wanna talk to her.”

“Sure, she’s in the kitchen, why don’t you join us? I just cooked pasta by the way.”

“You sure you didn’t add poison in there by any chance?” Jake joked as their voices got closer to where I was standing.

I quickly dropped my plate in the sink and rushed towards the stairs. I climbed the stairs successfully and just missed them by two seconds. Phew.

“Aur, weren’t you in the kitchen? Where are you girl? Jake’s come to talk to you.”

“Aur can we please talk? I apologise for what happened earlier. But please? Just please? I'll do anything you want me to. But I really need to talk to you! I have been trying to have this talk with you for quite a while now. Just listen to me please?” Jake's voice resonated in the background.

I know what they did was completely wrong but I guess its about time I spoke to Jake. And he did sound desperate. Should I speak to him? If I do, he will think I forgave him for the little stunt he pulled a while ago.

“Fine Jake. Come upstairs. I am in my room.” I didn’t even realize when I gave in to his request. I could hear his fastened footsteps slowly approaching my door. I ran a hand through my locks, and sat on the bed awaiting for Jake to show up.

The door opened and Jake piped in his head asking for permission. I just motioned for him to come in and he obliged.

He came and sat on the bed not before pulling off those puppy dog eyes in order to please me. Really? Does he seriously think that will work on me?

I just shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

“Before we start Jake, I would want you to know that you haven’t been forgiven yet and you have to work your way to forgiveness. You definitely shouldn’t have jumped on Chris and I very well mean it.”

“I know I am sorry, but he got to me first. Nobody asked him to open his pretty little mouth.”

“Nobody asked you to be impulsive either. Do not and I mean do not play the blame game with me. Both of you are equally at fault here and as much as I would love to throw you out of my room right now, I know we need to talk.”

“Yeah, we never got to finish the conversation. And I am very sorry again.”

“I think I clearly mentioned to not speak to me till I'd like to but whatever. Just continue.”

“Aur, I have been meaning to tell you this since the party at Noah’s place. So just please drop any grudge you have against me right now and listen to me. Please?”

“Okay, I am listening.” I told him in a calm voice and asked him to continue.

“I think you already know it by now, but I want to tell this to you myself Aur. I think…”

I raised my left brow at him asking him to go on.

“I think.. I really like… Sapphire.”

Hey! So how was this chapter? You know suggestions are most welcomed! By the way we finally know who it is! Find out more in the next chapter which I am probably going to put up soon. And thanks for reading this piece again!Happy reading! Vote, share and comment!