Our Second Life

Chapter- 26

Winter's POV

While a part of me was still pretty sad about the fact that Ian had almost bailed out on me regarding today's date, the other part couldn't really blame him. I couldnot help but consider that his profession calls for emergencies. So, it wasn't really his fault that he suddenly got caught up in his work atleast from what I know.

When we reached downstairs, a strong chilly wind blew over all my hair making them fly like stray pieces. Although I was completely covered from top to bottom but I had forgotten to bring my scarf. So, I quickly patted down my unruly  messed up hairs from all the cry sessions prior tonight and put them in front of my ears to stop the cool wind from making my ears go red.
Ian clicked the car keys and signalled me to get inside and I wasted no time in doing so. I instantly got settled in and pulled up the glass doors.
As I was putting on my seat belt, Ian looked towards me and gave me a soft smile. It was a short smile but something was gravely off about it, something was wrong...
Lately, I have noticed Ian looking uneasy at times. Though something seems really off about him but I never dared to ask him what it's about.
In fact, since Ryan's death, I have seen Ian going through phases of emotions and hence I can't really figure out if it's the outcome of something similar or something different that is bothering him lately.

But finding myself in no place to scrutinize this situation, finally I decided to brush off this topic entirely from my head and concentrate on our ice-cream date tonight.

The town still seemed pretty new to me inspite of spending almost more than two months here. The roads, the sideways and even the houses were so unknown to me even after all this while. But partially I am to be blamed for this because barely I went out to hangout or even explore the place other than just going to school and coming back. Even mostly I did my groceries from the Target next to our appartment complex and didn't really have to travel much. But now I realise that since the past two months I have barely gone out for a dinner or a movie or even for shopping. My life here mainly revolved around working as a teacher in the Kindergarten and mostly staying with Aiden.

Yes Aiden...!!!

Shitt I forgot to ask Ian about him!! Did he have his dinner and went to bed by now?! Infact he should have gotten to bed cause it's around midnight and he just recovered from that viral fever last week. So, his body is still weak and he needs to have some good sleep!! But Ian has sent him to his cousin's place. God know's what Aiden is doing there... I have never heard Aiden talk much about his Aunt and hence I have zero to no idea about how she is. I wish I could have brought Aiden with me... infact he loves to have ice cream specially the cookies n cream one which he always gets whenever we go to Target....

I took a quick glance at Ian whose eyes were fixed on the road. His eyebrows twitched as he looked at the rear view mirror once and focused back on the road. His light blue shirt was neatly folded to his elbows and a button was open at the top revealing his perfect chest. His grip on the steering wheel was so firm that the nerves on his hands were clearly visible. Noticing the tense expression on his face as he sped across the tall buildings in the neighbourhood, I decided to not ask him anything at that moment.

It was a long car ride and Ian turned on some soft music on the way. It was probably his favourite and only playlist because all the times I have been in his car even while going to the school he plays the same thing. Well in my opinion that's boring but consistent!
But what bothered me during this entire time was that Ian stayed dead ass silent, a word didn't leave from his mouth and he didn't even look at me. Sometimes he slightly swayed his head to the beat but all the other times he was completely silent. It seemed like he was in some deep thought and was thinking about something serious.
And not gonna lie but this whole silent thing was really making me uncomfortable and unwanted at the same time.

So after procrastinating all the possible things that could probably go wrong about this date, I finally mustered up the courage and asked Ian if he was thinking about something. But to my astonishment he just looked at me blankly only to give a proper 'fake' smile and a vague "No" for his answer.
Like what the hell !!!!
He literally said nothing else and looked back at the road.
That was the exact moment I literally felt like crying and wanted to run back home. I wanted to go back and sleep in my mickey mouse pajamas and think that this was a bad dream.

This date was clearly turning out to be a bad idea and I shouldn't have agreed to it in the first place itself. We were supposed to get ice cream but now I don't know were the hell are we going anymore. And even if I wanna know, I just don't have it in me to ask Ian anything anymore.

I turned back towards the window knowing that there was no way I could go back home now and had to face this through. I looked out at the dark sceneries from the clear glass and tried my best at holding back my tears.

That's when I heard Ian's phone ringing loudly. I straightened up and  sniffled quietly before looking back at him. His phone was on the front holder and someone named 'Margot' was calling him. A pang of unknown insecurity hit me and an instant realisation dawned that may be something was really going on with him all this while. He immediately took the phone out of the holder and cut the call once murmuring something under his breath. Though, I could not understand the first part, from what I could make out roughly  from the rest was that he was cursing someone for being a brat. No sooner than he had cut the call, the person called back again. He roughly expressed a face of irritation and received the call with a quick swipe. He didn't even give the other person to speak up and blurted out in one go, "What's up Margot? I literally gave you one task to look after Aiden for a night and why are you keeping on calling me. I told you that I would be busy tonight. In fact, while I came back from your house I had already tucked Aiden to bed and he was already asleep. Then why the hell are you calling me constantly?!"

Ian was almost shouting by the end and for the first time in these months I saw him speaking so rudely to somebody and I was beyond shocked. Something was clearly bothering him, and whoever this Margot is her call just ticked something off in him. He just lost his temper as something broke his thoughts and literally bashed out.

Guess I have a lot to know about Ian yet!!

The person on the other end of the call said something in a hurried voice and Ian's expression on his face changed from irritated to an angry one in a flash of a second. He immediately pulled the brakes and halted the car to the side of the road.
"What the hell Margot? How could Aiden fall down from the stairs in the middle of the night?! I told you to look after him?! For once can't you behave like a proper adult Margot?! How long are you going to keep on being irresponsible like this?!"
So, apparently Margot must be his cousin I figured out.
While Ian kept blurting out more words at Margot simultaneously banging on the steering wheel angrily, my fears rose if Aiden was okay there. My panic grew worse when I remembered that Aiden had told me in the afternoon that he didn't want to go to Ian's cousin's place and wished that he could come with me. But I had to send him because I was really excited about this date with Ian. But now that I know everything was wrong from the first place itself, I felt extremely guilty about leaving Aiden alone for my own selfish interests.

Instantly, I turned towards Ian and said in a calm but serious voice with a pause, "Ian, I have no clue about what has happened to Aiden. But I want you to keep that damn phone down and stop screaming at your cousin RIGHT NOW!!". Ian turned towards me and immediately put the phone down from his ear. Finally for the first time during this whole whatever fucking date thing was, he bestowed his attention fully upon me. He was opening his mouth to say something when I cut him off, "...Let's take an U-turn and go back immediately to your cousin's place NOW!!!"
Ian looked down for a second, I don't know out of guilt or anger or whatever and then put a hand through his hairs. Tears were almost brinking at the corners of my eyes and I don't really care if he had noticed it or not. At this moment all I wanted was to make sure that Aiden was okay. Ian looked forward gripping the steering wheel and made a sharp U-turn almost like in a hurry while speeding the car twice as we headed to his cousin's place.

This day was altogether a major trash day. From an entirely failed date to an almost heartbreak to Aiden getting hurt, it just kept on getting worse.
I guess nothing good can ever happen to me anyways!!!!