Unravelled

[CHAPTER 33]

CHAPTER 33

Charlotte's POV

It was in the afternoon and rain was pouring down heavily. It was getting closer and closer to Christmas which meant it was also getting windier and colder outside.

I had lunch during my break but after school I still felt a little peckish. Assuming Lara was free, I thought of asking her to join me for tea but unknowingly, she had already left with Cabrera. Usually, I would just let it go and probably end up munching on some leftover snacks but I had this gut feeling at the bottom of my stomach that I should just go over and maybe I might bump into something on the way.

I found myself walking in the direction of where her house was and at that moment when I realised my consciousness, I was already hitting my knuckles on the surface of the wooden door.

Now, after I had got back, I was browsing through my assignments and sorting out my weekly notes while mainly thinking about my conversation with Lara when I was at her place.

My doubt in Daniel had yet again arisen. I had only been at his place and even stayed the night there just a couple of days ago. He did not seem out of place except for Justin's appearance and the bruise he had on his arm. Daniel was not displeased when he saw Justin at that time which made me conclude that I was plainly overreacting and was too critical with my judgement I had for Justin. But then again, should I really continue believing in Daniel?

I just found out that I was being excluded when he invited Lara out. As I thought more about it, he was not very close to her anyway.

Is he trying to gain something from her? Maybe grab some info about Cabrera since she knows him?

As I thought about this, I stopped what I was doing. I opted to head to his place and get this doubt in my head over with. Even with this inkling I had, I sometimes feel like I was overthinking about this situation. I mean, why would Daniel betray me? He was an agent himself and I was pretty sure he had his conscience telling him what was right and what was not. He had told me a number of times to trust him but yet I felt that it had a double meaning to it.

I shook my head then, suddenly having the need to lean against the wall. I let myself lay vertically on the surface of the cement feeling tired. 'Probably tonight,' I told myself. Tonight after dinner, I would get this over with.

After a million of thoughts ran through my head this afternoon, I had to take a nap or I did not think that I would not last through the day. I woke up a couple of hours later already feeling that I had misused my time and wasted the entire day.

It was already close six o' clock. One more hour until I see Lara and Daniel. I swung my legs off to the side of the bed and sat up. I gave myself a long stretch and got up to get ready.

Thankfully, the rain had stopped and even though it was colder than before, at least I did not have to worry about getting soaked and having a chance to fall sick. I put on my scarf, the last piece of clothing I was planning to wear.

I picked up my phone wanting to know the time when I saw that I had received a message. It was from Lara.

'Won't be joining you and Daniel tonight. Got some things I need to do at home. Sorry!' it read.

I took in a deep breath. If she will not be going for dinner then it would only be Daniel and I. Because I had wasted practically most of my day, I think I knew how to make up for it.

"Charlotte," he greeted as I entered the car.

"Daniel," I greeted back.

"Should we just drop by the café?" he asked and I agreed. In my head, I was already assuming that he must have got the message from Lara that she was not joining us.

We gave our orders to the waiter and as soon as the he left, I said to Daniel, "So were you even planning to invite me tonight?" but continued before he could reply, "Not that I was offended that you didn't tell me about it first, but I'm quite curious."

"I was just wanting to hang out since you never want to, I thought I asked Lara instead," he said, the words sliding out of his mouth smoothly.

"You know who Lara is, right? You don't just 'hang out' with her. Also, I did spend time with you just a couple of days ago, so I don't get your point," I said.

He sighed and looked at my straight in the eyes, "Just trust me, alright?"

I gave him an unimpressed look, "There you go with the 'trust me' answer again. It's just so hard to believe what you are saying sometimes."

"What are you talking about?" he asked furrowing his eyebrows.

"Vagabond, Daniel. Ring a bell?"

He must have noticed that I knew about his 'extra activity' so he scowled and muttered something under his breath that I failed to hear. "It was just for fun," he said finally.

"Well, that is a very unpleasant place to take a girl, no, not just any girl but Lara there!" I said, raising my voice loud enough for him to recognise my exasperation.

"I didn't know what kind of place she liked and she seemed to be a happy go lucky type of person so that's the first place I thought," he said extended his arm across the table as if thinking that it would help to get his point across to me.

My eyes caught something familiar and I immediately grabbed hold of his arm as if déjà vu from the day before yesterday. He tugged his hand wanting to retract it but I had a firm grip on his wrist. I slid the cuffs of his sleeve up noticing more fresh wounds this time they looked opened wounds.

"What is this?" I asked him sternly.

He tugged his hand again, this time I let it go. "Nothing," he said pulling the sleeves back down.

"This one is worse than what I saw when I was at your place. Are you getting into fights?" I said, the first thing I assumed.

"What? No," he said but still not trying to explain.

"Daniel, you know you can tell me stuffs right? Has anyone found out about you? Are they threatening you?" I said.

"No, it's really nothing. Just drop it, alright?"

"I will not! This is not some issue where you can just look over it. Now tell me!" I ordered.

"For God's sake, just believe me and trust what I am saying!" he shouted gaining attention from the table around us. Within seconds, silence took over.

I stared that the corner of the table letting my subconscious speak, "You know, now that I think about it, the way you ask me to 'trust' you is very misleading. It's like you're asking me to trust your lies."

"You think too much. And Charlotte, I don't lie, I never do," he assured me.