Nelson's POV:

The next morning, Ella asked me to drop her at her parent's house.

I dropped her there and left for my own home.

It's been a day since I dropped her there and she is still staying there, uncle told me.

I wanted to meet her, we had to talk about that kiss so I drove to uncle's house.

I found uncle and aunty in the living room where I greeted them and kissed aunty's cheek.

She is like my mother.

"Where is Ella?", I asked them.

The smile disappeared from their faces and I internally started to panic.

"What happened?", I asked when none of them spoke.

"She has locked herself in her room since last night", aunty told me, "she is not even talking to anyone and even refused to eat."

"I guess everything effected her a lot", uncle added with a sigh.

"Did you try to talk to her somehow?"

"She is not ready to talk, she locked the room from inside and is not opening it", uncle said.

This is not right.

"Aunty, do you have something to eat for her?"

"I made sandwiches this morning."

"Can you please pack it?"

She nodded and left, next I turned to uncle.

"Mind if I break the door?"

He gave me a weird look. "Go on but don't hurt yourself."

I gave him a thumbs up and ran upstairs to her room.

I knocked first.

"Go away!", she shouted.

"Ella?"

There was a pause. "Nelson, go away..."

"I won't until and unless you open this door."

"I don't want to meet anyone, I don't want to answer any questions."

"I am not asking you anything, baby. Just open this door."

"No."

"Then this door is gonna break."

"And I have uncle's permission", I added.

I waited for a minute incase she decided to open the door but when she didn't...I kicked the door at the side of the keyhole and barged in.

There she was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. Her eyes were puffy and red and so was her face.

She looked at me through her tears.

"Look what you have made of yourself, baby", I said walking towards her.

Sniffing, she wiped away her tears and turned her head sideways.

"Get up, Ella", I said extending my hand to her.

"Baby, get up. Please."

When she didn't get up, I grabbed her bicep and forcefully made her stand up.

"Go away, idiot!" She shoved my shoulder.

"Ella...", I said softly.

"Go away!" She started pounding on my chest as tears fell from her eyes.

With one hand, I grabbed her wrist and I wrapped the other one around her waist pulling her closer.

I placed her head in my chest and wrapped both of my hands around her body securely.

"You are safe, baby... don't cry", I whispered trying to sooth her.

She gradually wrapped her hands around my torso as I placed my chin on top of her head.

With one arm wrapped around her waist, I stroked her hair with the other one.

She sobbed in my embrace.

"How can he do this to me...", she sobbed.

"Don't think about him anymore, he can't get to you now", I assured her.

We stood like that for a few minutes until her sobs gradually subsided.

Slowly, she pulled apart and cupping both her cheeks, I kissed her forehead lingeringly.

I wiped away her tears and taking her hand in mine, took her to the bathroom.

Standing infront of the wash basin, I wetted my hands and then wiped her face with my hands.

Next, I grabbed the towel hanging on the wall and wiped her face with it too.

I took her back to the room and taking some of her face cream applied it on her face with my hand.

And then I went inside the walk in closet that had some of her clothes and picked out a loose summer dress.

I gave it to her and said, "Go, change quickly."

When she didn't move, I said, "Or do you want me to do it too?"

"Idiot", she muttered under her breath and went inside the washroom.

She came outside a minute later and I brushed her hair and tied it into a ponytail and I took her hand in mine, intertwining our fingers.

"Where are we going?", she asked when we walked down the stairs.

"You will see..."

When we reached down, aunty and uncle both smiled at us and aunty handed me the sandwiches wrapped in the aluminium foil.

I thanked her and dragged Ella outside with me to my car.

"Will you tell me where are we going?", she asked again when I made her sit in the passenger's seat and buckled her seatbelt.

"Somewhere..."

I revved the engine and drove away...

I then gave her the sandwiches aunty packed and ordered her to eat to which she refused at first but then I gave her a deathly glare and she ate it quietly.

"Are you going to murder me here?", she asked as she started to panic.

We were driving through a lonely road with woods on either side of it.

I stopped the car at the side of the road and got out and told her to get out too.

"Come on." I grabbed her hand and dragged her with me inside the woods.

"What is this place?"

I didn't reply and kept walking dragging her along with me.

After walking for five minutes, we reached an opening and she gasped looking at the small, crystal clear pond there.

"Welcome to Matt's and my secret place", I said.

"Secret place?"

"No one knows about this. We discovered it when we were kids and it's actually a very refreshing place. We used to run off here whenever something used to go wrong; this place calms you down."

"How did you both discover it?"

We both walked towards the pond and sat down on the edge of it and since I was wearing shorts, I dipped my legs in it as usual and Ella copied me.

"We both actually discovered it seperately...I used to come here alone and so did Matt and then one day we just ran into each other here."

She looked at me curiously and shifted closer.

"And what happened then?"

I chuckled softly remembering that incident.

"We both were seven; when we both met each other, we got into an argument regarding whose personal place it would be, Matt's or mine."

When I saw that she was listening carefully, I continued, "We kept arguing; I had a tennis ball in my hand and I threw it at him angrily but instead of hitting him, it went past him and fell into this pond. Although it was just a tennis ball, I wanted to take it out. I was hesitating and then Matt said that you are a coward and I lost it. Without thinking twice jumped into the pond."

"The pond is not that deep, not more than 7-8 feet but at that time I wasn't that tall. I was a poor and slow swimmer. When I dived in, the ball was already at the bottom so by the time I reached the ball, my oxygen ran out. I was about to drown but Matt was quick to jump in and him being an excellent swimmer, he saved me."

"And even retrieved that ball for me, we have been together ever since making this place ours", I added.

When I looked at her, she was smiling widely and then started laughing softly. And I joined her.

When we sobered up she said, "This place is so good."

"I know", I grinned.

She shook her head smiling and I wanted to capture that moment, Ella sitting with her legs in the water and smiling at me.

I guess I need another canvas.

We fell into a comfortable silence and I just secretly kept watching her.

The smile slowly faded from her face and her face grimaced.

"You were right", she said all of sudden looking at the water.

And then looked at me. "He was an asshole."

I wanted to lighten the mood so I leaned closer and said, "Don't you think that I deserve another kiss for that?"

Her eyes widened and she shoved my shoulder. "No!"

Even though I said that just to lighten the mood, I wanted to kiss her.

I felt rejected for nothing and slowly got up and walked a few steps away.

My back was towards her so I couldn't see her reaction.

After I had walked a few steps away, I was suddenly grabbed by my forearm and turned around and she crashed her lips upon mine.

My brain and body both froze as she grabbed my face and her lips moved against mine.

When I didn't kiss her back, she pulled away.

"Now when I am kissing you, you won't kiss me back!", she complained much to my surprise.

Without wasting another second, I pulled her closer and wrapped my arms around her waist, almost lifting her off the ground and planted my lips on hers.

How perfectly ours lips fitted together.

She wrapped her hands around my neck as I kissed her slowly and softly and passionately.

She was the second woman I was ever kissing and now I don't want to kiss anyone else, Ever.

My tongue asked her for entrance to which she gladly parted her mouth and I explored each and every inch of her mouth.

I slowly lowered her down to the ground without breaking the kiss and climbed on top of her.

I kissed her for a few more seconds before we soon ran out of oxygen and pulled apart.

I rested my forehead against her, breathing heavily.

"Now that makes it two kisses that we need to talk about", I said.

"Do we really need to discuss it?"

"I thought...you will be angry that I kissed you that day like that and Matt told me apologise to--"

She silenced me by placing her lips again on mine and kissed me for a few seconds.

"If that's the way you are going to shut me up everytime then I guess I won't stop talking", I whispered when we pulled back.

"It's just your lucky day; don't get your hopes high, idiot."

"But we need to--"

This time she pecked my lips.

"What are--" She again pecked my lips.

"Let me speak atleast!", I finally said making her laugh.

"I don't want to discuss about it, Nelson. And you don't need to apologise for kissing me", she said.

Does she have some feelings for me?

I wanted to ask but kept my mouth shut trying not to make this awkward.

She pushed me away gently and got up and moved back to the pond and again dipped her legs in it.

And I joined her again.

She kissed me! I couldn't stop thinking about it!

Wait till Matt hears all of this. He will go crazy.

And then he will say you are in love.

That you are.

Not again! I don't love her!

Then why did you kiss her that day?

Because... because...it can be lust, right?

Yeah, yeah, of course.

She even kissed me but that doesn't mean that she loves me.

Before I could go mad again, I shut down those thoughts for a while.

And enjoyed her company.

An hour later after making sure she was alright, I dropped her back at uncle's house and warned her about locking herself again.

Before she left the car, she leaned in and kissed my cheeks and thankfully left before she could see me blushing.

What are you doing to me, Ella?

I really like this chapter 😭💞💗.

~Ahlam