too much to live with~Arwen

Chapter 9

Evil was a word that confused Arwen the most. Was being bad to people equivalent to being evil? Arwen didn’t think so. Arwen had been too bad for many people in her life. But evilness wasn’t a trait she would count while thinking about herself. Simply because she had sane reasons behind her act. How strange it was that she would gladly call a person evil if he/she was bad to her. Irony, she called it.

“Well Arwen will forever stay happy if friends like you are there for her.” Rebecca, Arwen’s aunt, said in her high pitch, pinching voice. She beamed at Ryan.

“Arwen’s capable of making life better.” Ryan smiled in return. He felt awkward while talking to her, yet amused.

Arwen, standing beside Ryan, was hearing their conversation without interest. She looked around at anything visible with a glum expression. Her aunt visiting her at the college was the last thing Arwen had wanted.

“Of course! Arwen’s talented.” Her aunt winked. Arwen restrained the urge to grimace. “And very busy too.” Her aunt added with narrow eyes, still smiling. “Forever busy, that I had to catch her in the college.”

“I am never really free in the college either…” Arwen said. Ryan stared at her.

“Yes, who is not busy?” Rebecca said, waving her hands wildly. “But I needed to check on you, it’s been weeks I was worrying about you. I was here since last week to meet you. But of course you have been busier than me.” Rebecca said with a huge fake smile.

“Nobody asked you to worry.” Arwen said without any emotion.

“Sweetheart people do not worry after being asked to do so. You are yet to grow up. Well maybe I should contact Ryan every time, he wouldn’t mind updating me.” She smiled at Ryan again.

Ryan smiled in return but didn’t say anything. Rebecca’s fakeness was too obvious.

“We have a class to attend.” Arwen said abruptly. She couldn’t stand her anymore.

“Oh yes of course!” Rebecca said in an obvious manner. “I have wasted enough time too. I will try to catch up with you if I get time next. Contact me if-“

“I wish you wouldn’t try.” Arwen mumbled and turned to walk off. She grabbed Ryan’s arm and dragged him away too.

“She might feel bad because of your behavior.” Ryan said while walking along side Arwen. He seemed a little embarrassed.

“You think I care?” Arwen retorted.

“Don’t be so evil.”

Arwen stopped walking. Ryan realized late that she wasn’t on his side. For a moment he thought that Arwen got annihilated, his heart had skipped a beat over there.  Coming out of the scary imagination, he turned to see where she was. He walked back two steps and stood in front of her. He looked like a child with disheveled hair, yet manly with his newly growing beard. His green eyes held Arwen’s with great intensity.

“She, faking all the time, is not evil. I, just being honest, am evil?” Arwen challenged Ryan.

“No. There is nobody on this earth who doesn’t have an evil part. The only difference is that your aunt at least makes the effort to abolish her evilness…in front of others.”

“You’re wrong.” Arwen replied quietly to Ryan only for his first sentence. Can’t you see that you don’t have an evil part?

Ryan didn’t reply. Not because he didn’t have a reply but because for the first time he saw tenderness in her eyes. He felt something stuck in his throat. He had not known that display of any emotion by Arwen regarding him would overwhelm him so much. He felt like a teenager again with all the butterflies in his stomach.