Elaine
It was heavenly, the seducing trace of food danced on air, as I inhaled a deep whiff of its aroma. The smell of cheese, spices and roasted meat squeezed in between the freshly baked, inhumanely round buns excites my taste buds. Licking my lips like a trained savage animal, I grab the burger with both the hands and took a large, desperate and much required bite.
"The burgers are not in good hands" I don't pause as I shard another chunk out, immediately after I had the initial one down. Not even Nathan's crucial remark was able to tame me. I was starving.
"I never imagined a day when I would feel such emotional consistency towards food. But I pity them, especially the one that goes into the hands of ruthless people like you" thinning my lips at the subtle cause of disturbance I peep at him as he sat in front of me with his right hand supporting his chin upon the black- bronze café table amid us.
"Nathan" as soon as I gulped, I cleared my throat. He watches me intently wiggling his brows.
"Yes El"
"Will you do me a favor?"
"Of course, you just have to ask"
"Are you sure? it's a really hard task. Especially for you" he looks skeptical but nods when I provide him a small smile.
"I'll do my best, now stop beating around the bush and tell me"
"Do you think you can keep that mouth of yours shut till I am done with this?"
The looks of curiosity on his face falls faster than the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. neutrally pouting his lips he slouches back, grumbling something under his breath about seeing me after a month and me still being the ass. But my sole concentration was diverted towards the lifeline clutched on my hands.
When I was done, that would be a good twenty minutes later as I gave my undivided attention to each ingredient of the bite I took, each sip of milkshake I chugged and each second I tried to ignore the cynical gaze of Nathan on me.
Since he was my best friend, he was better at analyzing me, better than anyone else. And right now he gave me the time and space that I might require to collect my thoughts before he gets to a point.
And the point being the one chance encounter of the image I saw four days back.
And it was safe to say that the event followed some depressingly sleepless nights and tasteless days. I was confused, sad, clueless but mostly angry. But with who?
Everyone sensed the three sixty degree flip of my spirit and resolve. Like a plague I made sure to avoid people as much as possible.
Cooped up in my dorm I prepared for the quiz, and by day classes were the only thing I attended.I made sure to act upon on showcasing that I was at the zenith of busy being busy, in an attempt to isolate myself.
And it worked just fair until today, the day of championship.
We won.
Though it didn't resulted in much of surprise among the clique and the few close friends that knew me and Clarissa, they were all happy for us. The final phase was held at the broadcasting hub that was in the outskirts of the city. An hour long drive by the school's chauffer later and numerous brain screwing questions apart, we were announced as the winners.
The smile at Clarissa's face was worth it as she held the object of merit. But me, I was far too afraid to face the crowd and occasional blinding light's that recorded our every move and breath we took.
The gaze of the audience were like a balm of poison upon my skin as most of the time I ducked my face lower and stoically focused on the questions.
"So, now you're going to tell me what happened? Or is there any more obvious strategies to procrastinate whatever the reason is that you texted me to meet you here?" wiping my fingers with the paper tissue I sighed looking at him. It was when we returned did I abruptly decided that it was time I let it out. Before I explode or crumble under the pressure like a molten wax.
I asked the driver to drop me by the café that was mere a street down the school, texting Nathan to join me there. Clarissa was doubtful but understood once I told her that I wanted to get a coffee for myself, spontaneously declining her offer to come with me.
When I saw the shadow of sadness wash over her, before she composed it into a smile of farewell. I felt terrible.
"I found something" finally breaking the ice I look at him as he frowns grimly. Blinking away the onset of second thoughts I pull out my mobile from the schools uniform blazer. When it lights up with the image that I had clicked in through the glass case, the very one I make sure I pass through every day since it's undoing. Glaring at it with sheer force, in a hope of burning them with it.
"Look at this" I lay the phone flat on table and push it towards him. he leans, his head inclining down to see it. he takes his desired time squinting at the content.
"That's Ianny, with your father?" he lifts his head up, his lips pursed in question as I nod, amused.
"Seriously? Ianny?"
He shakes his head smiling slightly, the chocolate brown eyes lightening up with humor " After all the drilling and delving I am in more than on a first name basis with this dude. I could only imagine what he'll do to me if he ever finds out that there's an unknown guy who has hacked the files even involving his root canals and tooth extractions" he shudders as I scowl hard, probably taming my mouth to stop asking him more questions and scaring my brain for life.
"So you see the other guy?" I continue as he takes a glimpse at him and nods backs.
"What about him? This looks like a high school picture. Where did you find it anyways?" his relaxed posture gradually stiffens as I give him a little insight of past week's events.
"That's Leonardo white, Alexander's father" mechanically I blurt out as his eyes widens a fraction, ducking down his neck he looks at it then back at me. "I found it on the achievement section of Stuart"
He opens his mouth and closes them back, his brown orbs losing it's contemplations and theories by second contrasting to his black leather jacket and rough bearded look he had going on, he resembled a child who looked like he was being scolded for failing his math test.
"So what now?" he breaths ultimately, running a hand across his head.
"We wait"
"For what?"
"For Ian Blakewall to come back, To answer me every single thing about my parents. To explain me the reason why they betrayed me so bad." As the sentence trailed off, my words were a shiver of frustrated whispers. The creases on his forehead smoothens as he blows air out pouting in agreement with a nod.
"Stop pitying me" I add as he rolls his eyes.
"I am not pitying you. What made you think so?" raising a brow his lips twitches and this time it's me who uses the circular eye motion to portray a message of satire.
"Your face" I huff, hooking my index into the knot i tug at the darn tie, loosing it a bit.
"I am not pitying you El, I am just worried about you" I stop short as i stare distantly at the plastic fork, ignoring the concern from his part which made me wish to unveil just how vulnerable I feel. "when was the last time you ate?"
Last night? Yesterday evening? I don't know. I don't remember.
My silence was enough answer for him as he sighs.
"Punishing yourself won't help El, you need to think rationally. I can't understand what you're going through because no one can, any form of grief could only be understood by the one who goes through it. But I am trying to help you so please stop being so stubborn and share things with me. I am your friend El, I will understand" his words calms me down a notch, though he has no idea and since I was terrible at expressing what I feel, he'll never realize just what his support means to me.
"Thank you" I breath smiling faintly as he grins toothily, but soon the optimistic emotion switches off my features to give a home to, deadly, evil and edgy glare. Nathan scowls titling his face, as his teeth vanishes leaving behind a questioning twitch of his lips.
"Mike Stuart? Heard that name before?" I growl as he visibly pales. Gulping and distancing his body from the table he leans back.
"i-I can explain" he clears his throat unsure as to what his next move should be as I got up from my seat, landing both the heels of my palms upon the table as I bent slightly, angling as I leaned on his direction. He squirmed sliding down his seat until he was half way down under the table, hanging in there in really uncomfortable position.
"You asked him to keep an eye on me?" I enquire him as I recall back my investigation with Mike during yesterday's class. He was more than fine sharing the fact that he had been sharing my life in academy with his best friend upon his request.
"It was for your safety" he tried sitting up straighter, but crouched once I grabbed the fork and pointed it at his throat like a knife.
"Safety huh?, now you listen to me Nathan Cameron Ross, if you keep this up or I find any whiff of you stalking my life or let alone fool me with that Eiffel tower of a friend, I will personally break into your apartment and burn all of your under wears" It was the inner self esteem and a domineering girl in me who spoke regardless of the little speck of audience I sensed.
I narrowed my eyes at his anxious form, nodding to myself in satisfaction I stood to my full height, dusting my hands but pausing the thug act in mid shock as I watched two pair of stunned eyes on me.
"I- I what are â" I stuttered as Nathans question on why I would opt to specifically ignite his underwear drowns in background until he too realizes a presence behind him as he follows my line of vision till it halts at them.
Lee and Edmund traded their gaze between me and Nathan, their eyes held uncanny sentiment while one watches an animal in a zoo, or more like they just found an oration delivery by ape on teenage pregnancy.
"Elaine" Edmund was the first one to sober up as he skillfully tries to shake away the fact that he witnessed me threating someone by their undies.
"Edmund? Lee?" chirping unnaturally I finally found my voice.
"Elaine" Lee adds, smiling as his eyes lights up to compete the glow of a sun.
"Though I agree that these names are quite marvelous for the ears to absorb, but I think we should move on from this" a really bored yet the only sane appearing Nathan gets up from his seat. As I look at him slightly pleading to do something. He mere rolls his eyes chuckling.
"Aren't you going to introduce me to them? By the looks of it they are waiting for you to" he bats his lashes at me as I stop the urge to kick him on his shin or even on a part that is quite disturbingly scary. But I compose, I hold my head up and take a step towards them.
"This is Nathan, my best friend. And Nathan meet Edmund and Lee, they are a good friend of mine" by the end I croaked as Nathan pats my back hard, causing me to stumble.
"Nice to meet you Nathan and for some reason you look really familiar" Nathan coughs while accepting his outstretched hand for a manly shake. The act was reciprocated by Edmund who was much less welcoming when he did it as Nathan winced softly bringing back his hand to his chest.
"What are you two doing here?" I calmly interrupt them, but inside I was banging my head against the walls that was engraved with greatest histories of embarrassments.
"We were here to get you?" The way he said it, it hung our the air in more of a questionly manner.
"Actually we were here to get some food for the show, but Clarissa told us you were here too so we thought we could pick you back up if you were done" Lee grins, he has been doing that a lot since he returned from England especially when the end entity was my face.
Not just him, even the others have leniently counterfeited their past behavior towards me to something different. Though I can't entirely figure out if they are positive or not. It's skepticism a second and admiration the next.
They try to balance what they think of me, but how can they when I can't figure the kind I myself am at times.
"That's a lot of food" I say motioning at the two large paper bags that they had in their grasps that I noticed only recently.
"I know right" Lee grins again as Edmund had his gaze Fixed on Nathan, who in turn smiled at him. it was creepy. It was Nathan thing to do. But Edmund? He wasn't the same. He was distant and drowned himself more with work than usual. And above all he never once texted me or tried to lure me into a conversation like before. And surprisingly I missed it.
"We should get going, it's late, almost seven" Edmund detaches his interest from Nathan's skull as he checks his watch then looks up at me. I hadn't realized that it was dark already, when we came back it was five thirty, and the fact that I was only one still in uniform sums it all.
"I will pay the bill, you go with them" thankfully Nathan this time implies his mouth to a sensible norm as I agree. He hugs me as he lowly whispers how he enjoyed this. I returned his gesture by discreetly pinching his arm as he hissed.
The ride to school was silent that is until.
"Are we randomly going to ignore the fact that you threatened to burn your best friends underwear?" Lee cracks as he drove, since he was a race car driver, the car he drove was something that had sleek angles and each dent and vent screamed money.
Groaning i bring both my hands to face. Hiding it.
"That was epic though, a short girl scaring of a rugged man and You just ruined the image of the golden good girl I had of you " He laughs as I feel even Edmund curve a smile. But I snort, mere by the mention of Nathan as man.
"Nathan is anything but man. He's more of a precaution : I can nag you till death kind of boy" I offer as Lee turns to look back at me, with a push to his shoulder I cause him to focus on road ahead.
"You have weird friends, but interesting. But then again you are weird too. In a really good way." He lazily smiles as the car rolls inside the academy. The lights were brightly lit across the lawn as we drove my vision latches on to the delicate detailing the structure of this school adorned.
It was enticing, it was beautiful no matter how much I see it everyday. It takes my breath away.
Once in Elite I tried strolling in the direction of my room.
"Where are you off to?" Edmund asks causualy.
"To my room?"
He sighs shaking his head as I frown. Beside him lee looks at me as if I was crazy.
"We are going up. To the lounge. To watch the show you got featured in air on television. And you want to go to your dorm?" Edmund explains me as if I were a patient who had just woken up from a year long come.
I made an oh noise from the back of my throat. They were talking about the very show that has resulted in Diana throwing a mini community tea party for all of her friends, she was so elated when I told her I won. She asked me to hang the call so that she could boast about me to Mrs. Wren who often never shut up about her son Tyler at workplace.
I wonder what he's upto these days. He seems so long ago though. A bad memory, but a period of my life nevertheless.
I was dragged over the stairs by Lee and he left his hold on my wrist only when we stopped right in front of a flat out crowd of eager watchers.
When Hailey spotted me rooted to the ground she smiled congratulating me. riley threw herself at me, knocking the air out of my lungs.
The couch was filled with the clique and a lone cherry red seat was occupied by Alex who without an ounce of contribution or emotion watched the exchanged take place.
Clarissa shifted making a space, patting it for me to sit there. I sat squeezed between her and Edmund as everyone glued their eyes to screen.
It surprised and stabled me to see such fidelity among them. They may be blessed, rich and special. But they sure knew how to extract the natural joy from tiniest of things. Not through pride or power, but the purity from their earnestness towards their friendship.
With each scene I cringe internally, I looked so scared. The enviously merry host appeared, flawlessly weaving out rules. It went on, the large stage illuminated as we answered, the added music and edited version provided a sense of dread when the answer went wrong.
We were in the middle, round two I guess. That's when Clarissa's mobile rang, her face lits up when her eyes scanned the caller ID. In a blink she picks up the call.
"Hey Dad" my heart picks up it rate as I turn to watch her. Or more like stalk her as she spoke to her dad. The man I've been going after for what feels like years.
"You are watching it? right now?" she beams proudly as I lick my dry lips. A sense of uneasiness raking over my nerves as a hunch of variation buzzes in the air. I watch the smile falter a little, I frown.
"Oh, okay. I know she's really good." She lifts her gaze giving me a forced smile.
"Yeah sure. Why not. She's right here" my eyes widens as she removes the phone from her and brings it to me. i look at it as if it'll burn my hands like a hot potato before peeling.
"My Dad's really impressed by you. Said he wants to congratulate you himself" though she says it with a smile her movements are not whole hearted. And as for my heart, it was frenzied, my palms sweated as they took hold of her mobile.
When the cold metal of it touched the soft skin of my ears, I felt hot. As if The heat of the moment seeped in through the phone.
"Hello" I say it. the first common term were easy. But when there was no response of few seconds I tried again.
"Hello Mister Blak-"
"Elzina?"
It stopped. My heart. I swear my heart skipped a beat when I heard the name, my name. the deep yet soft voice must be him. speechless I stared at the ground, the salient eyes of Alex and Clarissa on me did nothing to help with the state of impact I was in. that is till the one who caused it spoke up again.
"I know it's you Elzina, please dear, talk to me" I breath in blinking. Grazing out a reply for the sense of both sides I will my tongue to use.
"Yes"
There was a loud sigh, like he was holding his breath. Like his situation was no better than me.
"Listen carefully, I know there are people round you so I'll just speak and you listen. Okay. Reply me with anything that is apt for the friends by your side I'll understand" frantically he explains, his idea that oozed of an intellectual lawyer who knows how to handle a client and his tone that of a desparate man who found water in the middle of a desert.
"Okay" I nod, inhaling once again.
"I think I have a fair reason to see why you changed your identity, when I saw you tonight beside my daughter, no matter how beautiful you've grown up. I knew it was you" the revelation left me bare as i did my best to play along.
"Thank you sir, I will make sure to work harder"
"Six years Elzi, it has been six whole years of fruitless attempts to find you." I wanted to cry joy and relief to know I had someone who waited for me. to know someone who cared about me like my father. But all I could do was-
"clarissa worked so dedicatedly, she served as my inspiration" to insert the effect I nod at her smiling. But when my eyes locks with Alex, his piercing eyes held more curiosity then I've ever seen anything on him combined.
I wasn't good enough actor for him. He knows me to well.
"I will take the earliest flight to the city" I blink rapidly as he says determined, but I feel the bile rise in me as he ends with a plead "just don't try to disappear like before. And yeah" he pauses, silent ring of a loud advice in air swirls when he talks back
"Trust no one till i get there, You get me?" he sternly adds at the end. And I look up, at the screen to see a scared Elaine with her head lowered as she gazes at the polished glass floor. Afraid to meet the eyes of the world that once deceived and hurt her so bad to the point of self loathing.
And I think back of the man on phone, awaiting my answer upon his instruction. A man who can bring me back the pieces that left me, leaving me broken. He was a hope. And I was ready to go any length to keep it that way. With a final glance at the monitor I answer.
"Yes, I understand"
***
We shall now officially address these two idiots as #Elex.
Alex: Finally a ship. But why does she gets to be on first?
Elaine: *waves the women empowerment flag. That's borderline sexist. Wake up! This is 21st century.
Alex: *frowns at author. Why can't anyone ever agree with me?
Author: *pops a cheerios into her mouth. I think I was thinking about my life's mistakes when I made you. Like literally.