The time passed by fast, so did the weather too.  Autumn reached by pretty fast and everyone started to wear more clothing and hided themselves behind it. But the tree didn't. The tree started to change and everyone noticed it clearly. Every day, when the Parents of that little girl brought her to school, she always looked back to that tree.

'When everyone starts to wear more and more, why does the tree gets lighter and lighter? Why does the strong and stable tree, gets vulnerable by the time?'  His leaves were his purpose, his actual beauty. With them he's able to work hard. But... at the end there was just a tree. Without any leaves, looking sad and lonely, without any strength. The more coldness arrived, the more the tree started to look naked, hurt and somehow broken. But still, after all these leaves fell, I was able to see the true self of the tree. I was able to see what we all can't see most of the time: The reality. He let those heavy leaves be taken from the wind... the Wind.

"Mom, why is no one taking notice of these trees?"

"Because they're ugly. And they're making the whole streets dirty!"  Ugly?, Dirty?

"But now you're able to see the tree by it's real side. Isn't that beauty enough?"

"Be quiet Holly!" Ugly... why is it Ugly? Why is everything that's different from others Ugly? Will I end up ugly too, if I end up giving up my purpose and show my true self? What if I do the same too? What if I let all those heavy burdens and feelings fall? Will everyone ignore me and see me as an attention seeking burden maker?

                                                 _____________________________________

He still didn't let me go. His strong grip around me didn't loosened even for a bit. He rested his head peacefully on my chest and didn't said anything. It felt like he needed this. Like he needed a long silent hug with someone he had a relation with. I was still standing on my bed with my pajama on. Caressing his head, I slowly let go of him and stepped out of the bed. What is he hiding in this facade that he is playing for 24/7?. The second he hugged me, I felt it clearly. There is something big, something emotionally huge which he is carrying every day and night with him.

Why didn't I noticed it before? Why am I noticing it only now? I started to get confused and overwhelmed, with everything that this hug had given me to know about him. I couldn't held it back anymore. I had to ask him that.

"Why?-" I trailed off. "Who are you?"

Silence. Long Silence.

"Dwayne Nicholas Hammond a 28 year old billionaire and a soldier in his past. An icon for everyone who wants to get a business going on. Your pictures are everywhere to be seen, especially in England. You have everything! But still... But still you're drowning in your own problems!"

'If you're the one that's swimming through it..., I'm the one who drowned a long time ago'

"Magazines write down things which aren't even true! Things like: He's going on a lot of Dates with Supermodels-, oh and he has a lot of scandals too!" I trailed off and turned my back to him. "Saves me from those Mafipinos. Acts like a cold stone ass and finds out everything my private life has to offer and doesn't even tells barely anything how he feels like and what he things off! And I don't even know why I'm so desperately stressed out right know!"

Silence.

I took the food which Dwayne left me on the night stand and walked my way past him to the desk. From the corner of my eyes, I saw him watching me silently, what I was doing right now.

"I'm not interested in dating." He finally spoke out.

"Then why bother buying me food?" I answered sharply, while eating.

Silence.

Sighing, I looked over to his side and then back at the food in front of me. His words kinda hurted me for a bit. But I gave my best to not show any emotions atall. The Silence between us had no ending. I've started to hear things, which I didn't even noticed as noises in this room. Had I passed the limit? Even if..., what is he doing all the time with me, if he's not interested in dating.

"Sarah, that girl from the Camp. She offered you a really obvious offer for having something with her." I trailed off. "That night you didn't came back. You were standing in front of her house talking about god knows what. All the time she called you for things she wanted to discuss with you. You came back to eat something with her and then vanished somewhere else again. And now you want to tell me you're not interested in Dating? I'm not a fool Dwayne."

"I wouldn't spend my time trying to venerate a woman like her. That would've been a total waste of time, which I didn't needed at that time."

................

The next morning a knock woke me off from a very short sleep. Opening the door, I didn't wanted to hide my tiredness and stretched myself in front of-

"Michael?!" I let my arms fell back down.

"Hey, nice to see you again!" He smiled widely.

"What are you doing here- wait come in"

"Oh no no, I just wanted to inform you, that we're heading up in a few hours. I have a lot of things to finish before we head up. Pack your things,  Dwayne will be picking you up later on." And with that, he turned his back to me and walked off. While packing my things, I thought about the things that Dwayne and I talked of, yesterday night. Actually we didn't talked much because he left the room shortly after I was finished with my food. I mean, I could've been nicer to him, but something deep inside me exploded after some of his emotions came over me right after he hugged me. I could've been nice, but it wasn't the right way to say something  couraging to a man like him. Somehow, I had to make him clear what the reality he was living in was and what exactly others were trying to know about him or even thought about him.

A couple of hours later, a phone message arrived.

--------------------------

Come down in five minutes

-Dwayne

--------------------------

Five minutes later down at the hallway a man waved at me, signalling me to step into the car. Dwayne was already sitting comfortably in it and didn't even bothered to look at me or say anything in between 'hello' or 'nice seeing you again'. Which I didn't actually expected after yesterday nights conversation. Not much time passed by after we arrived back in England. Michael asked Dwayne to drive me back to the house, after Dwayne told us, that he had some business matters to finish. Dwayne nodded and Michael happily approached me with a huge smile on, wiggling with his eyebrows and calling the driver. In the car, Michael sighed loudly and looked back at me.

"Have you eaten?"

"No... why?"

"I have a surprise for you!"

stopping at an Italian restaurant Michael started to look more often at his surroundings and walked with me inside to an reserved table with four seats. The restaurant was decorated in red, green and white and was representing Italia in any way possible. Michael sat right next to me and didn't said anything from that time on. The only thing he did every 30 seconds later was looking at his phone and smiling widely, while making sure, that I don't look into his phone.

"What is going on Michael?"

"Patience Holly, patience!" and right after Michael said these words, the main door flew open.

"Ciao, senza cervello!" Hans screamed from the other side of the room and approached us with Dereck right behind him signalizing the traditional Italian 'bellissimo' gesture. "We're back from Germany!"

Sudden happiness engulfed me and we all happily began to hug each other and ask random questions about us being seperated and what we had done while we were absent. Hours passed by then and we talked and laughed much together.

"Holly" Michael slowly said. "Sorry that Dwayne and I tricked you in Palawan to kidnap the both of you. I mean, you know... For God's sake, It was actually Dwayne's idea to do it after you told him, that you wouldn't go anywhere without Hans next to you!" Michael finally spoke out, the guilt was seen clearly.

"You really said that?!" Hans asked shocked. I nodded in response and became a 'you got my respect' face expression from the three of them.  The food we had ordered was finished a long time ago and it didn't took the waitress long to ask us if we wanted to pay the food now or later.

"I pay for the pizza of this guy too!" I pointed out, while pointing at Hans, who was looking at me in confusion until he realized something we had talked of in the past.

___________

"I really hate you! and if you ever think, I would go on a food date with you, screw that! I'm going nowhere with you. How dare you taking a piece of my pizza? I NEVER share my food. NEVER" 

___________

"I never thought you would think of that" Hans told me on our way back to the house.

"Well" I sighed "I'm pretty cool am I?"

"Maybe if you start properly dating" Dereck pointed out in the front of the car and we all began to laugh hardly over that. The whole night and everything we have going on just felt perfectly mixed together. Dereck, Hans, Michael and I. Dwayne would fit in perfectly into our little family too, if he could've stop being an cold stone that he is. (Well, maybe there will be hopefully a change tomorrow... Or maybe not.)

I feel happy inside. Even if everything's not going the right way. The way we live now is just perfect the way it is. It's actually the best thing that happen to be a part of my life.
While thinking of family...where's my real family and what exactly are they doing right now?

Will I ever be able to get to know the both of you?

Are you two even thinking about me?

________________________________________________________________________________

Hey Lovelies,

How have you been? I hope you're all doing fine! The year is about to come to an end and Christmas is ready to make us into overeated little mosters. Merry Christmas to y'all and enjoy the last few days of 2018!

Have a lovely day

Hati.