Elaine.
Two days, it's been two full days since I saw Alex. My thoughts kept diving back to him and that day when he lost his control. It was not fear that consumed me, but curiosity.
Who was he? Where did he come from? And why was he so nice to me?
All were unanswered, from both sides.
Obvious was that he has questions regarding me too, but those were still contained in barriers. Like we have a silent understanding of what to be expected and what not.
The day I pushed him away, not once but twice. He ignored me for weeks, we ran into each other at therapy, we harbored trials after trials to repel each other but eventually came back. Square one, no judgment or questions asked.
We know we both are not perfect, flawed, and broken. But we chose to ignore it. If not seen, it's not there.
If not spoken. Not known.
But in the cafeteria, we both saw and witnessed the part of us which we tried to hide.
My fingers knotted themselves on the chain as I played unconsciously with the pendant. At times when I saw the plain rectangle bluestone, it used to remind me of mom, emotionally. But now it only did the job of increasing curiosity to another level. A trait passed by my parents.
"Here" Noah handed me the warm cup of coffee that prickled my fingers before I slide it into its handle.
He sat on my bed facing me, with his cup of black coffee. No sooner than a sip is taken, my face contorts into a frown at the absence of sugar.
"Less s-sugar?"
I nod. The corner of my lips wrinkling.
"Well, at least it d-did change your face from d-dead cold to something else," he says taking his sip of the most bitter thing in the world with his friendly eyes on me through the rip of his mug.
"Whatever" I shrug changing the subject and diverting it into his interest "Now you tell me why are you here? From two days. Not that I have a problem but your snoring from the next room wakes me up in the middle of the night" his coffee stops on midway towards his lips.
"As if I d-don't hear your screams because of nightmares, I k-know you don't sleep" My traitorous blush was prove of my surrender, but he answered anyway.
"Nathan is h-home for a month" He sighs, quizzical I frown.
"And?"
"There's B-Been lots of fight between Dad and him, he says he doesn't want to pursue M-Medical anymore" He clears his throat and shifts on a cushion to his lap.
"Then what does he wants to do?" It came off as a surprise to me, Nathan was a prodigy who was the same age as me. But he finished school earlier than any of us and completed his graduation based on a scholarship in some reputed private school. He was capable of many things that even a professional cannot, but his interest always had lied in medical, or so I thought.
"Other than w-w-watching grey's Anatomy in his free time and quoting medical terms, what else his i-i-interest relied on Elaine?" Noah raised a brow at me.
It took me a while to get it, but it was right there since he knew how to hack onto the newest episodes of his favorite shows before it was on the air, it was so obvious "Computers" I declare not much enthusiastic.
It was one of the many reasons why I kept him around, he had something I needed to learn. I know it was mean and selfish to use him, I was not irritated or uncomfortable with him. I just couldn't bring myself to trust him. He was goofy and outgoing, spoke his heart, and never feared what others thought. If anything I envied him.
He was a boy who always made his presence known, whenever in town the circulation of his loud Lan parties traveled miles. But when he left, he was missed. Even by me.
"W-what else?" he rolled his eyes. His shoulders eased but then as an afterthought his gaze challengingly snaps back to me.
At that moment I know there was no escape or diversion.
"Enough about Nate, Now w-what's going on in that little head of y-yours?"
I placed the empty mug on the night table with a clink and took a deep breath facing Noah.
"It's Alex" I sigh. Not believing my confession. No one ever bothered me. And now a boy who I barely been vocal with for a couple of weeks was my concern. "He's so mysterious and closed and It's bugging me more than it should. You know what I mean?"
My expectant look meets a blank face.
He doesn't understand.
But yet-
-He simply nods, taking in whatever I had to say. He approved of Alex even though I never asked for approval. According to him, he was down to earth, and at the loss of melanin, he researched the reason behind Alex's white hair.
Noah still believes that it's Alex's natural color. Its not. Its bleached and taken care of like none mans I have ever seen.
"He doesn't have an Instagram, Twitter, or facebook. I checked. Heck, even I have a Facebook. It's like I don't know anything about him" I slouched in defeat.
After a brief pause, Noah slowly got up, walked towards my reading desk, took my laptop, and faced me with an evil smirk. He then came back and dropped it on my bed, it bounced few times.
"Hack i-i-information about him t-then" he said with his arms open and thick voice, like that of fictional evil characters in Marvel.
"I refrain from doing anything as such, it's illegal, and if he ever got a breath of this or about this it'll ruin his trust in me"I gulp in saliva, trying to soothe in my dry throat. I know deep inside this was the thing I was avoiding doing for so long.
I am a human, a restless one at that who can make mistakes, had made many of them. But was this mistake even worth it?
"He doesn't trust y-you either now to tell you about him, s-so why not just the basics? Like where he lived, or a little bio data or s-some thing, it's not even prying" Like the evil friend he is, he encouraged.
"It's stalking" I pointed out. Like the responsible girl I am.
"Which g-g-girl doesn't" He stated a fact.
I glared at him, he smiled goofily.
"After all the knowledge you gained from my brother, m-must be profitable for s-something" His grin widened, the melting stoicism of my cheekbone was the evidence that I was giving.
Soon I found my fingers hovering upon the keys of my worn-down board.
Since I was a newbie and extremely terrible even for the beginner stage, it took me two hours to get the codes right, half more to find the right man, and two mugs more of Noah's awful bitter coffee, and by now I sat with a page filled with his information, pictures of the school and many things that weren't even a necessity, to be honest, but it was all there in a platter.
I refused to see it.
I threw a pleading look in the direction of Noah who sat behind the screen, he wiggled his brows. I assume it was excitement. Sort of.
It was creepy.
This was wrong, so wrong. But I was human.
With a strangled noise erupting from the back of my throat I stared blankly at the monitor.
Getting his information was not a piece of cake, it was as if there was no existence of a Thomas Alexander White or his family. Like something highly classified.
But the difficult it got the more cat was curious, and I did manage some basics. I believe.
His full name was mentioned and his birth date as well, his birthday was three months away and he was born and brought up in Orlando, Florida.
All known.
There was minus information about Mrs. Bryson. Maybe because his parents got divorced. But his father was present, Mr. Leonard Michael white. Surprisingly Nothing else about him.
The three picture column included one of his school yearbook, the other in front of an extremely expensive sports car, and the other in front of White House?
My breath came in cold rapid huffs. I don't know whether it was because of the stupidity I was up to or the new revelations that left me with more questions than answers I was seeking.
His previous school could fit in the whole town of Summersville in its prayer hall alone, but the name of the school sounded familiar.
It was peculiar even to assume of ever breathing the same air as such place. It was extravagant.
"Hey, Noah. Ever heard of Stuart Academy in Orlando?" I asked him with a frown.
He stopped typing at his phone, slowly looking up with his brows furrowed and lips quirked. His gaze then traveled down to the head of my laptop.
The next second he was in front of the screen, with his nose close to the monitor.
"Why?" he asks scanning while he held the side frame with his fingers.
"That was his previous school before he joined summers high" I pointed out with my index finger.
After a dramatic squint of his lids as he reads the texts, He angles to look at me in the eye "That's where N-Nathan studied"
A moment of deserving silence passes between us. Then we both look back at the Title.
"Wow" I whispered "The world really is a small place"
Then- it was more of scrolls with each page defining just how different he was from us. His world was not the kind ever nearer to what we live in.
I entered the last page, it held some of his financial information, I was about to back off since it felt like crossing the limit. But Noah slapped my hands away.
His eyes were glued to the page still, it widened and squirmed as his lips parted to speak
"T-t-that son of a bi-"
"Noah, no cursing in my room" I warned.
"See for y-yourself" his lips are in thin line, like he swallowed something sour.
I tucked a strand of my hair behind, yeah I was nervous. My clammy hands still hovered above the sensor as I blinked at the screen.
My gaze absorbing the lines of information. But not believing it. Why would I. It was unbelievable.
It was crazy.
But there it was, the world hosted two kinds of insane riches. One that could afford renting a luxury palace for their wedding. The one I had assumed he was.
The other is who can buy a luxury palace for wedding and still have money to buy ten more of such palace.
The one he is.
An heir.
The ridiculousness of the moment seeps in as I realize what It meant.
He is a freaking son of a multi-billionaire.
***