The Girl At The Last

Chapter 16

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.