Journey into love

Chapter Fifteen

Song of the chapter: Idol by BTS feat. Nicki Minaj.

I was totally tired this morning. Waking up twice last night was having its effect on me. I thought to sleep in today but Chloe would be here soon. Yesterday was pretty eventful. All the events of last night played in my head and I realized that I was going to give Chloe a summary. For the past few days, she'd been cool about me delaying the explanation of what was going on with dad. Yeah, and Jace.

I was so glad that Jace and I were on talking terms now. Another person back on the list of people I could talk with if anything was bugging me. Chloe was going to hear about Natasha and I couldn't wait to see the look on her face. I was also finally going to tell her about my neighbor. He was up to something and I knew it. I guess handsome bad guys really did exist and I didn't mean the bad guys with golden hearts. I meant real bad guys, like how the word entailed. Yesterday, he'd climbed up the ladder hurriedly and then cleared any sign that he left the house. Before, he occasionally left the ladder down and didn't even close the windows but last night, he'd shut every space as though someone was after him. Well, he was after me in my nightmares.

Dad was home today. He deserved all the rest he could get after the busy week. When I heard the doorbell ring, I went to get it. Chloe was behind the door and her mom was already reversing her car out of the driveway. I gave her a wave and she blew me a kiss.

"With what we heard on the news yesterday, mom wouldn't let me drive here by myself." Chloe said, heading into the living room. Since dad wasn't in there anymore, I thought he had either gone to his room or the study. We'd both watched the news this morning. A fight broke between a woman and her son who lived on the next street. She was a retired military officer. She'd tried to threaten her son to be quiet and she'd aimed the gun behind him, in the process, mistakenly hitting their fifteen year old golden retriever.

"I didn't see anything on the news to make her scared of letting you drive here alone."

"So, how was your meeting yesterday?" She ignored my statement, hopping on the couch.

"I have a lot to tell you, so we'd better go up to my room."

She was the first to get into my room, pull my curtains apart, slide open the windows and jump into my bed. I gave her a stink eye and proceeded to close the curtains. "I'm so not sharing the story of my life with the whole world."

"Whatever." She replied, crossing her legs on my bed, Indian style and I pulled the director's chair over to the bed. I told her all about yesterday's dinner and as predicted, Chloe was not a fan of Natasha. She muttered obscenities and called her names and when I told her how I was surprised that she knew about my mom's leaving, Chloe concluded that my dad could've told Miranda. She almost didn't like Miranda any little than she liked Natasha but I convinced her that she was a nice person- at least, as I'd seen so far.

I told her about my neighbor being Natasha's ride home and thanks to my dumb way of mentioning him at the middle of the conversation, I got so many statements from Chloe ending with millions of question marks, leading me to finally revealing all I knew about him.

"OMG! I should've known!" She exclaimed for the millionth time that day. She was referring to the day she saw him at her neighbor's when I visited that day. Then she frowned. "But he isn't such a friendly neighbor." I nodded in agreement. To put it bluntly, he was an asshole whose latest hobby was to inflict fear into people. I was glad that Chloe was on my side on this one.

"He could be fixed, though." She said, contradicting my current thought. "No." I disagreed.

"Come on. He can. You can't go on being enemies. He's your neighbor for chrissakes. He can be fixed!" She concluded and it sounded like she was talking about a broken toy. "And he's hot." She added, coyly. You see, if Chloe said it that way, that was her only reason for telling me he could be fixed.

Disapproving, not about the part that he was hot -coughs-, I changed the subject, telling her about Jace. She laughed too when I told her his reason for avoiding me. She didn't commend him for doing that rather, she complained that she was hurt because she didn't find out about my dad's relationship first. In response, I threw a pillow at her. Jace and Chloe were always bickering like annoying younger siblings while I stood, like I was to watch over them like an older sister. Of course, when I told them this once, Jace argued that if that were to be the case, he'd be the older of my 'younger siblings' which Chloe wasn't quite pleased with.

Though, I told Chloe about yesterday's events, I didn't know why but I excluded the part of seeing him later that night after he left with Natasha. I only told her that his mom had invited me to dinner tonight.

"Now, it'd be so rude of you to decline especially when she probably feels guilty that she made you babysit her younger son on a school night." I'd told her about that too and she'd laughed hard about Nicholas' blackmail.

When I heard my stomach growl was when we realized that we'd spent a lot of time talking. It was already noon. Chloe ordered pizza and we both went down to watch TV. I heard dad's soft laughter coming from the study and I knew he was on the phone. Probably with Miranda? When pizza was delivered, we both ate to our fill. Chloe picked up her phone when it rang.

"Hey, Mickey." She said into the phone, a can of soda in her right hand. She laughed and glanced at me, a mischievous smile playing at her lips. "There's someone I'd love you to meet. We'll be over in thirty minutes." I frowned at her. I'd had a lot of introductions recently to last me a lifetime. She had barely got off the phone when I spoke.

"I can't. I won't. I shalln't." She laughed at me but I wasn't ready to give in.

"Come on, Annie. I already told him we were coming."

"You could've asked me. I was sitting right in front of you." I whined. "I didn't get enough sleep. I need to catch up on lost sleep. I'll meet the mouse some other time." I pouted.

"Fine." She groaned, surprisingly letting me off the hook. "Only because you're tired and it's actually obvious." It was obvious? I sighed. She got up to give me a hug.

"You don't have to meet Miranda's other kid if you don't want to." She said quietly. I hadn't thought of that but now that she'd said it, I'll avoid it at all cost. Even she thought Natasha's brother would be horrible too.

"I have to go. Don't wanna keep the mouse waiting." As she said that, she opened her eyes wide in realization as I burst into laughter. She looked like she was about to cry.

"Oh, tell me I didn't just call my Mickey honey 'the mouse'. Being the cruel friend that I was, I replied.

"Oh, yes you did."

A/N:

The video above is on my list of favorite MVs to watch before going to bed. It's awesome. Nikki, my favorite female rapper alongside Cardi. BTS, one of my numerous favorite kpop bands.

It's after midnight again. I just had to post this now. This chapter is a day late. Thanks for your patience.

Your thoughts about this chapter?

Lots of love,

Hanie.

Ps: Can you spare me just a second of your time to click on that little star below this page? Thanks. 😘