“Oh shit!” I exclaimed, I could not let my mom see me otherwise I knew she’d get suspicious. All my bull shit wouldn’t work in front of her, she was a keen shit detector. She’d know something was up the moment I would look into her eyes and then I knew that it would be game over for me.
I turned around immediately, I could either fight or fly. Right now, I didn’t know what to do. If I faced her now, I was sure she’d tell Hellenia and Hellenia wasn’t a person to be reckoned with, she’d be here in a heartbeat. Hellenia was an even keener shit detector than my mom. She’d know immediately.
But that can’t be bad right? Maybe she could help? My conscience nagged at me. Rationality would tell me to go up to my mom and escape with her. Fear of what Adrian would do to Alex made me turn around and run to the checkout counter.
“Can you speed it up please?” I begged the cashier as I watched my mom approach the counter from the corner of my eye. I could see my mum do a double take in possible recognition but I didn’t want to take my chances. The cashier, an eighteen year old blond bimbo by the name of Clara, just looked up at me annoyed. “Will you have patience ma’am?” She rudely snapped.
“If you weren’t so hell bent on not ruining your manicure, maybe I wouldn’t be so snappy!” I retorted clearly frustrated with the lack of manners Clara had. She snorted under her breath and began to pack my things. A slight brush of wind gave me clear confirmation that my mom was behind me. I flinched as I heard her speaking, “No, Hellenia, she hasn’t spoken to me. I don’t know darling. I am worried too. How’s Caleb?”
Oh, she was talking to Hellenia, I knew this was my chance to flip around and ask my mom to help me out, but unless I knew Alex was going to be fine without me, I couldn’t do anything. Clara handed me my bags, I was still eavesdropping on my mother’s conversation
“You are coming here? Well, I guess it will help. Come soon, Hellenia, we need to find her. My little diamond, oh God! I don’t know where she is. I wish your father hadn’t had that altercation with Milla’s boyfriend, she seemed quite disturbed after that and just ran off…oh mio dio. What should we do?” My mom trailed off, her voice full of sorrow. I sniffed and went outside the store pulling the bags along with me.
I hailed a cab and told the cabbie, to take me to Alex’s hospital. I had to go meet him otherwise I wouldn’t be able to think, much less do anything worthy of anybody’s time including mine. I felt the tears that were threatening to fall.
“Do you love him?” The old cabbie asked with a disconcerting smile, briefly looking at me via the rear view mirror and then shifting his sight back to the road. I smiled at him and nodded, “Yes, yes sir, I do.” I choked, my voice was so….broken. It surprised me. I wiped my tears away with my t-shirt. I gulped.
“Then what’s keeping you back?” The cabbie said, I shook my head, “My past, he’s back. And he’s taking it all away from me. The one I love….he’s….he’s comatose.” I cried out into the suede seats of the cab, my body was shivering from the air conditioning. The cabbie chuckled, “Darling, don’t worry. True love succeeds everything. When I met my ‘now’ wife, it was just one look and I was like ‘that’s my girl.’ Trust me, love, you’ll find the same happening to you, any day.”
“But he’s in a coma. My baby…oh God!It’s okay you won’t understand…but thank you, sir.” I replied saddened by his true words but the utter failure of its application to my situation.
The cabbie laughed heartily, “Don’t let stumbles or falls get you down. You have to rise higher. Prove your love. Give it all or give it up. There’s no in between, darling. You either have to give it your body, breath, soul, heart…everything, or you don’t do anything at all….leave now and reminiscence with a ‘what if’ ten…hell…fifty years from now.”
“Wow. Thank you so much, sir.” I genuinely thanked him. His words meant a lot to me. And he was right. If I gave up on Alex now, I would never be happy. We reached the hospital, I paid the old man extra and exited the cab. I steadied my breath and walked in, the antiseptic smell hit my nose, and I flinched. I quickly walked towards the room but stopped when I heard two voice shouting, “I can’t believe you would send Alex’s girlfriend away like that!” I peeped over the corner and saw a lady with brown hair that cascaded down her back. She was shouting at Zara, who sat glowering at that lady.
“Zara, I can’t believe this!” The lady said again and Zara hissed, “Milla, didn’t deserve Alex. That bitch doesn’t deserve shit.” The lady swiped Zara’s cheek with her left hand, “Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare say that Zara! It had hardly been a week and he couldn’t shut up about how beautiful and wise that girl was. You should be happy your father Adam isn’t here otherwise you’d have gotten it from him!” The lady quickly turned around and caught me eavesdropping. Her frown dropped and a smile came upon her lips, “Do you need something?”
I took it as my cue to walk and I did. On coming closer I realized how beautiful Alex’s mom was. No wonder he was a masterpiece! She had long brown hair that flew down her back with bright natural highlights in them. She had gorgeous brown eyes that were bigger and more beautiful than Alex’s and surprisingly I felt myself smile at her. She had smooth skin, untouched by the passing of age. She could easily pass for a twenty five year old.
“Hi,” I timidly said, I bit my lower lip and waited for his mother to begin. His mother arched her eyebrow, “Hi, I saw you listening in on my ‘interesting’ conversation with my daughter…was there something you’d like to…” But Zara rudely cut Alex’s mom off, “Oh shut your trap, mum. This minx is Milania Harper Devonian, girlfriend of Alex Sorja and causer of the accident that resulted in him being here today.” She growled ferociously, I involuntarily took a step back due to her aggressiveness. I gasped as Alex’s mom backhanded Zara again, “You will not speak to her like this again Zara Arendelle Sorja, and do you understand me?” Zara nodded, cupping her cheeks. She began to cry.
“I am sorry for her…utter lack of indiscipline, trust me, it’s not hereditary. So, you are Milla? Am I right?” Alex’s mom said and I walked closer to her, she grabbed my hands and kissed them softly, “You are the pure happiness my son is having in his life. Do not take Zara’s words to heart. She…she loves him fiercely…she doesn’t know how to deal with this. I am Ellen Sorja, but you already know that.” She smiled and pulled me in for a hug, the moment she wrapped her arms around me, I broke down.
“Shush! Be a strong girl, come on. There’s a good laddie!” She smiled as she gently stroked my hair, I was crying into her t-shirt but I didn’t care. I stuttered, “I-I d-d-didn’t mean for that to h-h-happen, especially…not Alex. Never to him! Never would I do this to him…mom.” I watched Ellen’s eyes go wide with surprise at the way I called her. She smiled, “Oh little one, I know you didn’t mean for that to happen but it has. The doctors have said that they are going to start to remove him from the coma as his brain has healed now, it’s just the coma that needs to go. He’s alright.”
“But what about him playing for Madrid?” I asked her as she wiped my tears away with her hands. Ellen smiled at me, “He begins in a week. He’ll be out of the coma by then. One week and he’ll be off to Spain. I am assuming that you will be going with him?”
“Of course but I had to ask you about few things, and I wondered if it would be alright…?” I looked into her eyes for permission. When I received it, I began to tell her about my plan and I briefly told her about Adrian.
“Oh my, we do have a problem, now don’t we?” She whispered glumly. I nodded. The plan was new in my head and I knew it would work, I just had to be extra careful.
“So will you help me?” I asked her, Ellen looked at me and nodded, “I’ll be off to India tomorrow, call me when you get there with him. I’ll come to receive you.”
“Can I…umm…can I use your phone?” I asked her. Ellen arched her eyebrows, “Why? Don’t your parents know…?” I shook my head and said, “Hellenia, my sister is the only one who can save me from him, I can’t do anything if she’s not here with me. Please? She’s my only hope.”
YOU ARE READING
Repressed (Wattys 2014 Winner)
ChickLitMilania Harper Devonian, thought that she had left it all, when she ran away from her abusive boyfriend in the middle of the night. One year has passed and she has recovered. Coming back stronger and harder as a Victoria's Secret model. An assignmen...
