US (me&you)

Part -6

                               Donovan

"Pearl." I call her name and she freezes right there. She turns back after taking a huge breath. Her eyes shine as a coat of tears covers them.

"Didn't you say that you don't want me to call you and treat you as a stranger? Then, why are you doing the same to me?" She says, her voice, firm and cold.

"I-I came to apologise for how I talked to you that night.... It was not the best way to talk to a person who I met after so many years." She rubs her eyes with her hand and comes close to me, ten steps apart.

"I...get why you behaved like that there. I, too, wouldn't want to meet the person who ruined my life." Her nose and cheeks turn pink as tears fall down from her eyes.

'Ruin?' Is she saying that she has ruined my life? No, she has not. It was my choice and it did not ruin me, instead, it made me feel as if I've gotten my revenge too. I felt relieved because I felt like I did something for her which I couldn't do for myself.

"I'm so sorry, Dono-"
"Chase."

And she turns the other direction and starts walking.

"Pearl, I want to talk to you. I want to ask how you are. I want to know why your eyes still look like they have lost something. I want to know why you were looking for me. I want to know to talk to you. I want to know the Pearl who is 20 now. I didn't mean to send you off so rudely that night. I was just so scared what would you think of me? I'm.... a murder-"

"Don't you dare to say that word. You are a lifesaver. Not any less or more than that." She stands right opposite to me, her eyes red and a hint of hurt in them.

..........................

Next day.

                                Pearl

Not any less or more than that.

I parted ways with Donovan soon after I said that. Ran straight towards my apartment after saying that he's not more than a lifesaver. That's a lie and I don't know why I said that. He was a friend, the person who felt like home for the first time in my life. He was my everything at one point in my life.

"Pearl? Pearl?" Sam pats my shoulders and gets me out of my thoughts.

"Y-yes?" I stutter.

"The class has ended and we are free for today. Let's go eat something?" Sam says and I nod my head and we both get out of the class.

Sam is the first and the only college friend I've made. He's blond, eyes brown with a hint of ash and is super bubbly as a person.

"Iced Americano with 2 shots of espresso." I say as Sam and me pass a Starbucks.

"C'mon, I said we're going to eat real food not drinking iced cold water only." Sam and his obsession with not making me drink from starbucks. He says the 'coffee' they sell there is just sugar mixed with ice and milk. He's vowed to make a trip with me to Japan to make me taste what real coffee is one day.

Sam is an American- Japanese and always goes to his mother's home in Japan on  summer vacations as his parents are divorced but he seems pretty much chill about it. No hard feelings. Easygoing and friendly.

This time, he has been really adamant about taking me to Japan with him this summer and honestly I do want to go now. If someone would have asked me this question a month or two ago if I want to go to Japan,I would have had denied at all cost but the situations are changed now, I'm trying to runaway from the person I desperately wanted to meet. Oh, how time and feelings change. Feelings. I wonder what kind of feelings I have for him now. I can't understand because last night, I just wanted to hug him and tell him that it's alright. I know it's been hard on him but I couldn't do it. Maybe the inner child in me still thinks he left me there all alone but the adult me knows that it was the best decision he could take, for me, him and everybody else.