The Girl Hiding In The Shadows

Chapter 35

Rachel's POV

"Nothing else?" The friendly store owner in her mid fifties asked me.

"Yeah!" The store owner's pleasant and cheerful disposition brightened up my day.

I was running an errand for my mum. My dad invited his college friends over for a dinner. Therefore, my mum decided to cook up her specialities. The thing was, she had forgotten that we've run out of cooking oil. So, here I am. The lady boss passed me the bag of cooking oil after I paid for it.

I beamed at her and nodded politely. There was a jingle of bells which means someone came into the convenience store. My mouth dropped open as I saw who was the new customer. The new customer froze in her tracks and we are both staring at each other.

"Um.. Do you both know each other?" The lady boss's question made us jump and blinked at her with blank expressions.

"Y-yeah." Ella replied, quickly moved backwards and ran out of the store.

I immediately chase after Ella and saw her running into a park. Determined to have a talk with Ella, I pushed myself to run even faster.
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Zachary's POV

I was having my jogging session when I noticed someone running frantically. As I took a closer look, I realised that's Ella. The first thought that came across was Ella's being chased after. In my panic mode, I just dashed over to pull Ella into another direction.

"Hey! Oh my God. Zach? Let go of me!" Ella shrieked but I didn't listen to her demands.

"Are you in trouble?" I asked while dragging Ella into a shady spot.

"What? No, I am not!"

"Then who are you running away from?"

Ella gave me a look of distaste before replying, "Your girlfriend."

"Why are you even avoiding her?"

Ella refused to answer and glare at me with a sulky expression.

"Okay fine. Ella, why did you change? I heard that you're friends with people who are bad influences."

"They are not bad influences. Mind your words Zachary! At least, they know what it is like to be in my shoes!" Ella retorted back and crossed her arms.

I laughed aloud with zero humor in my laughter. What the hell do they know?

"Don't you dare laugh at my friends." Ella warned and shook her forefinger to emphasise her point.

"I wasn't. I was laughing at the irony of this. They don't even know the whole situation."

"No, they don't. But, they know how it feels to have your long time crush to be taken away by your childhood best friend!"

I heaved a loud sigh and put my hands on Ella's shoulder.

"What can I do to turn you back into your old self?"

"You can do so by breaking up with Rachel." Ella suggested and looked straight into my eyes.

"You think I'll be with you after breaking up with Rachel?"

"Maybe not now. But, it's clear that you care about me more than any other girls."

"Ella... My care for you isn't the way you think it is." I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair.

Ella's face visibly paled as the truth finally dawned on her. She mentally and physically shook herself.

"Zachary. No.. The way I saw, it's certainly not just a concern from a brother!" Ella argued even though her eyes are not as certain as before.

You know the feeling when someone is watching you? I looked around and found Rachel standing behind us. I immediately dropped my hands on Ella's shoulders and backed away. Rachel slowly approached us and I knew that she'd heard everything that we've said.

"Ella, what you requested is absolutely absurd. Do you really think doing all these is worth it?" Rachel asked and slipped her hands into mine.

Ella tilted her chin and responded, "Zachary is worth it."

Rachel chuckled softly. "Of course. Zachary is."

"Hey Ella!" The three of us naturally turned our heads to the person looking for Ella.

It's not a person. It's a group of people.

"Oooh who have we got here? This chick is harassing you again?" The guy with red hair was obviously giving Rachel a once over. I curled up my fists and shielded Rachel with my body.

"What a protective boyfriend. How cute." The annoying red head sneered at me as he took another step closer.

"You're Zachary! The one Ella likes!" A girl with short blonde hair pointed her perfectly manicured fingers at me. The whole group faked a gasp and rolled their eyes.

"Such an idiot. Choosing this ugly duckling here over our gorgeous Ella."

"Hey! Didn't you brush your teeth this morning?! All your words doesn't seem to be polished when they came out of your dirty mouth!" I defended Rachel as she doesn't have to hear all these crap.

The red hair guy connected his hard fist to my jaw as he punched me.

"You bastard! What the hell are you doing?!" Rachel repeatedly hit him in the chest, because she's way too short.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and saw blood on it. Ella stared at the scene in disbelief and dragged the red hair guy away when he wanted to hit Rachel. However, she's too late. I aimed at that little piece of shit's face and punched him right in the face. Blood sputtered out his nostrils and all hell break loose.

The other guys charged forward as they too, wanted to beat the hell out of me. The girls quickly grabbed and pulled them away from me.

"Enough! Let's go!" Ella screamed and tried to get all the people to follow her.

The shouting of profanities and violent scenes attracted the attention of many passerby. The mothers are covering the ears and eyes of their child. With my current mood, I don't even care if they are going to scold us for being a public nuisance.

"Zach, hey. I'm so sorry!" Rachel took out a piece of tissue and gently dabbed away the blood.

I smirked at Rachel because I couldn't exactly grinned widely now.

"What did you say about not apologising to each other?" I reminded her and stroked her cheeks as tears trailed down her pretty face.

Rachel dried off her tears with another tissue and giggled. Both of us gazed at each other with the same thought. We hope Ella would come to her senses asap.

Author's note :
Hiii :) I hope you liked the action scene xD I'm pretty excited to show you guys hahaha! Do you think Ella will come to her senses? :) Thanks for reading! Remember to vote/comment/share this story, if you liked it! ❤