The Veiled Love {Wattys 2016}

CHAPTER 8 - A PIECE OF ADVISE

CHAPTER 8

A PIECE OF ADVISE

MIA COLLINS

He looks straight in my eyes and I look at his. His perfect brown eyes had its beauty restored; his hazelnut brown hairs covered a part of his forehead. His looks were perfectly perfect and all I could do was stare at him. He examines my face and curls his lips slightly. His lips! I immediately stop looking at his lips and look into his eyes. He is still gazing at me without blinking. My heart pounds and beats faster and I'm breathing like I've forgotten how to breathe. My mind is a maze and I can't decipher the things happening around me and my stomach is filled with butterflies.

Suddenly all his expressions change. He beams at me and widens his eyes. I stand there expressionless and I just wonder if his gazing at me was a dream.

"Mia! How are you?" he asks and I smile at him broadly. I guess I was supposed to ask you that question.
"I'm fine. How –"before I could complete my words, he pulled me closer to him and gave me a warm hug. Now, my heart skipped a beat and it's is beating faster and harder. I return a hug weirdly. He leaves me from his arms and I look flushed.

There are people looking at us. But now, most of them are moving away from the table. They're just looking at us weirdly and I wonder what's wrong with them. Everyone hugs, isn't? Sometimes people are just weirder than you think they are.

"Mia, sit here." James gestures and I sit on a chair next to him. I search for Adam and Emma but they are nowhere around.

"Thank you." James says in a feeble voice and I understand that he's thanking me for helping him reach the hospital that day.

"That's okay. So, what did the doctors say about your condition now?" I ask him curiously.

"They said that I'm alright." He says in a sad tone. His smile fades and he looks depressed.

"Is everything alright?" I ask him and he looks at me passionately.

"Mia, everyone is treating me like a patient. I don't like to be pitied." He says with a sad and annoyed expression. I feel guilty. My question has saddened him. I guess I shouldn't have asked him about it. This sickens me.

"I'm –" I was about to apologize but he interrupted me.

"Sometimes I feel like I am a great burden to my parents. They sit awake all night to make sure I had all the necessities. They worry so much for me. Ever since my accident, they haven't smiled and talked to each other like they used to before. It would've been better if I had died in the accident" he says with his moistened eyes. I freeze looking at his worried face. This gives me a strange feeling. I try to calm myself before I speak.

"James, it's not that you're a burden to your parents. They worry for you every day and night because they love you and they can't see you suffer. How could you expect them to be normal when you were lying sick with pain? Wanting to die is not a choice or an option for you. "I look at his eyes and he is looking at me so focused. I look down and wonder why my heart feels heavy. I look back at him and he's still waiting for me to complete my words.

"It's something which will happen one day. Wanting to die is a sin by itself. Sometimes life leaves you wondering about the miseries happening to you and you'll never get the answer if you die. You need to live to figure out. You're not a burden to your parents but you're creating a burden to yourself with these thoughts."