THREE A.M.

-10-

~THREE A.M.~
★♥◆♣
....
*unedited*

NINA'S P.O.V

At three a.m. a week ago
"Nina, you have to start looking for a job. You barely have money." came Esther's voice.
I sighed. "I have been thinking about it. "
"Don't worry. You'll manage. Remember, you are a strong girl."
....
6 DAYS AGO...

"Sure. I'll do it. The salary is good. So when do I start?"
I was in a cafe. I was looking for a job, and on enquiring here, I got one as a waitress. My salary wasn't so good that it would cover up all my expenses, including my college fees, but I had got a scholarship, so my first year was free. I also needed a small apartment which I could stay in during term breaks. God! There was so much to do. I was completely independent now. I had sold my old house, as I didn't want to stay there with all my childhood memories as my parents were no longer there. I had got a quite good price for that, but my college fees was way more. I needed to earn as much as I could, and buy an apartment as our term break was almost here. I only had a couple of months.
"You start tomorrow." said the manager, Jack.
"Okay. Thank you." I said, as I left the cafe and walked to my campus. It wasn't far. Just around a fifteen minute walk.
...
That night at three a.m.
"Yes Esther. I found a job at the small cafe."
"I know. I know everything. They are giving you good salary too, aren't they?"
"Yes." I don't know why, but I had grown quite comfortable with the calls I received every night at three a.m.
They helped me. Talking to Esther, though was terrifying at first, is now my day to day routine. But it still seems weird. How could she know everything about me?
"How is Anna?"
"Fine." I said.
"Remember one thing, Nina. Do not mention my existence to anyone. If you do it, people will make your life a living hell. Everyone will think you are crazy. And if you ever disobey me or reveal my existence, I assure you this, that before people act against you, I will. If I can make you happy, I can make you cry too. You know this very well that I know everything about you. Your bank details, your feelings, your past." I gulped.
"I won't tell anyone."
I saw Anna shuffling on her bed. I quickly told Esther, and cut the call. Yes, Anna was back, finally. I was pretty happy that she had finally returned. Her family member had been seriously ill, but was better now. I was seriously thankful to her and to Nic. Nic. I shouldn't have yelled at him in the cafeteria that day. What got over me? Surely, I couldn't be jealous of that girl for Nic, could I? I shook my head and laid down on my bed waiting for sleep, which I did get nowadays, without nightmares. Esther had really helped me. Finally, sleep came over me, and I lay on my bed till morning, dreaming of unique mocha eyes.

...PRESENT DAY...

I rushed out of the showers. I was late for my class. I grabbed my bag from my room and headed for the class. As I took a sharp right, I bumped into someone and almost tripped over my feet, but the person caught me.
"I'm sorry-" I began, but was cut off as soon as my eyes travelled up to the person's face and my heart dropped a million fathoms. Once again I found myself looking at the unique set of eyes I had grown so familiar with. Any guesses for who the person was? .
.
.
That's right. It was Nic. I groaned inwardly. I had been avoiding him since the little 'incident' in the cafeteria, where I had yelled at him and had sounded like a jealous girl yelling at her boyfriend. I had managed the whole 'avoiding act' for about a couple of weeks, but I had rushed into him now.
We kept looking at each other, not saying a word. Finally, I broke the eye contact and looked down at my feet that seemed to be the most interesting thing in the whole wide world.
I heard him sigh. "Nina, I don't know what happened at the cafeteria that day, and why you said that. Which girl were you talking about? And you can't question me. I was and will be there for you. I never do this type of shit for a girl, you know, but I'm actually doing this for you."
"I don't need sympathy, Woods."
He shook his head. "This is not sympathy, Nina. I have seen you in a broken mess. And I would not like to see you like that, ever."
I just kept looking at him.
"I'm always there for you. You know that, don't you? Lately, I feel something is wrong with you. We haven't met in a week. You seem so distant. Always stressed. Tired. Is something wrong? Is something happening to you?"
I looked into his searching mocha swirls. They always had this effect on me that I couldn't even express through elocution, which was my area of expertise. I was amazing at elocution, as I had said before.
His eyes bore into me. I recalled Esther words.
"Remember one thing, Nina. Do not mention my existence to anyone. If you do it, people will make your life a living hell. Everyone will think you are crazy. And if you ever disobey me or reveal my existence, I assure you this, that before people act against you, I will. If I can make you happy, I can make you cry too. You know this very well that I know everything about you. Your bank details, your feelings, your past."
I couldn't tell Nic. I sighed and looked away. "It's nothing." I said, refusing to meet his irises.
He sighed. "Okay then. I guess you are getting late for class."
"Yes." I said in a small voice.
"So I'll see you later."
"Yeah."I said. I turned and began walking away, when he suddenly spoke up.
"Hey Nina? I turned. He walked up to me, and leaned down, and my eyes immediately widened. His lips almost brushed against my ears as he said, "That girl you yelled at me for? She is my cousin."
My eyes shot up to look at him. Unknowingly, my lips had pulled into a smile and he just winked and walked away.
I think I had fallen for him and he knew that because as soon as he had said that she was his cousin, my heavy heart had immediately become as light as clouds. I shook my head and ran to my class, remembering I was late, but the smile stayed plastered to my face the whole day.
...
As I returned to my room, I saw a very happy Anna sitting on her bed. As soon as she saw me, she jumped out of bed and ran to me.
"Woah! What is it?" I asked.
"You know Daniel?"
"Um. Daniel? As in Radcliffe?"
"No stupid! Daniel. Daniel Cummins. Nicholas' best friend?"
"Oh. The tall guy who hangs around with Nic? "
"Yes!"
"Okay, what about him?"
"Well, he just asked me out. To dinner!"
"Wow. You like him?"
"Um. Maybe." she blushed.
"I'm happy for you" I said.
"You need to help me get ready."
My eyes widened. "No. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not very good at all this."
She ignored whatever I said and danced to the wardrobe, pulling out two dresses and held them in front of me for me to choose.
One was a salmon pink satin dress ending above her knees with elegant lace work and a white belt. The other was a plain elegant sleeveless white.
I looked at her. "These are amazing. So, I don't know which one to choose as they both are really pretty."
She looked at me with a blank face. Finally, she said," I think I'll wear the pink one."
"Yeah." I smiled.
I say with my book as she changed and got ready.
"Done." she said.
I looked up from my book to see her looking really pretty. The dress fitted her perfectly and she had pulled up her hair into an elegant bun. I noticed she had applied some eye makeup too, making those jade irises of hers pop up. In short, she looked amazing.
"Wow. You sure have all the skills a girl should."
She laughed.
....
I was sitting on my bed, completing my assignments. Anna was long gone. She was going to stay the night out. Suddenly, the intercom rang. My eyes shot up to look at the digital clock. 10:47.
It wasn't Esther. Then who was calling me now? My legs took long strides on the freezing floor as I walked up to the intercom.
"Hello?" I spoke.
"Um. Nina?" came the husky, deep voice.
"Nic? Is something wrong?" I asked, felling concerned because he was calling me so late at night. Maybe something was wrong.
"No. I just called you, um, you know. Just like that."
"Oh." I frowned.
"Anna is out isn't she?"
"Yes. With your roommate, Daniel."
"Yeah. Can I come over? I mean, to your room? I am used to staying up late, doing stupid stuff with Cummins."
"Oh. Yeah can over. I was just doing my assignments."
"Thanks. I'll be there in ten minutes."
"Okay." I cut the call.

Nic was coming over. So late at night. Wouldn't it be awkward, keeping today's 'incident' with Nic in mind?
I sighed.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see Nic standing there.
"Hi."he greeted.
"Hi."
He came in and sat on my bed. Not knowing what to do, I sat at the desk.
"So..." he began, trying to stir up a conversation.
"Um..." I said.
"Okay. This is getting us nowhere. Let's do something." he said. I nodded. Talking was awkward. We had no topic, and I didn't want him to tease me about his cousin.
"I have some movies, if you wanna watch." I said.
"Which ones?"
I gave him options, and finally, we settled for 'Omen'. Nic suggested it and I didn't really have a problem, so I inserted it in my laptop and the screen turned bright as the movie started.
...
As it ended, I looked over to see Nic hiding his face in one of my cushions. I almost burst out laughing! He was supposed to be the 'manly' one. Instead, I was the one laughing and he was cowering under a cushion. Finally, I couldn't resist myself. I burst out laughing, which made him realise I had seen the state he was in. Immediately, like a reflex action, he threw away the cushion and looked at me.
"You are scared, aren't you" I managed to say, between laughs.
"No." He said, trying to maintain a straight face.
"Aww. Sweet Nic is afraid of a horror movie. Sho shweet!" I said.
He threw a cushion at me and I kept on mocking him.
"No! I'm not scared!" he yelled as I mocked him more, successfully ducking all the cushions he was firing at me.
When I didn't stop, he ran after me, and now, he too, was in a fit of laughter.
I ran around the room, jumping from my bed to Anna's and running around the chair.
Finally, he caught hold of my hand, but I tripped, resulting in him falling on top of me on the hard marble floor.
"Ow!"we exclaimed, still laughing.
"God!" I exclaimed. After a while we stopped laughing like maniacs. It was only then that I realised how close we were.
"Woah! You are damn heavy! Get off!" I said, trying to make light of the situation.
Instead, he didn't'. Our eyes were locked and we both were dead silent. I hated awkward silences.
"Um Nic?"
"Yeah?" came his husky voice.
"What are we doing?" I said in a small voice.
His eyes flickered from my eyes to my lips. No! My heart was threatening to jump out of my chest.
He was going to kiss me! Was I ready for it?
He leaned down, making our noses brush. His hot breath fanned over my face. Somewhere in me, I wanted him to do it.
Just then, he spoke. "Nina Granger?"
"Yeah?" I whispered. I couldn't even speak. I was breathing so heavily.
"I think I'm falling for you." and he leaned in closer.
My heart was literally hammering. His lips almost touched mine, but just then-
'Trriinnggg! Trriinnggg!' we jumped apart, breathing heavily. Nooo! I as very disappointed. The call just had to come.
Nic was scratching the back of his head, looking embarrassed. Who could call now? It was so late.
I looked at the digital clock. 0My heart stopped. It read 03:00.
It was three a.m.

***
Hey guys!!!
Sorry for not updating in ages. I think this chapter pretty much makes up for the delay, doesn't it?
For those who don't know, Omen is an old English horror movie which might be considered the ultimate horror film.
>>Pic to the side is of the cafe Nina is working in.
And thanks a ton for the 1k + reads. We are crying!

Hugs,
-t&n:):)