Flicker | ✔️

Chapter 13: Cale

Edited

"I'm sorry you had to deal with her. She's sometimes a little wild." Says the beautiful older women before me.

I can tell her face has pounds of makeup on it but it doesn't make her look bad, in fact, it graces her features rather well. She does look very similar to Maya, with a thin heart-shaped face, glowing amber eyes and full lips. Even the shape of her nose, not too upturned that it sticks out and neither particularly thin nor fat, just simple.

"It's fine, she clearly needed the help."

I don't mention the fact that she has been drinking for very obvious reasons and hopefully, Maya gets back to her senses by the time she wakes up. Maya's mother narrows her eyes at her very slightly and discreetly that I almost don't catch it.

"Oh! How could I forget to introduce myself!" She cries out, appalled as she clasps her hand over her mouth. "Please call me, Mary." She gives me a sweet smile and I try to return it but I find it hard to.

"I'll bring Maya to her room."

"Sure, it's the first door on the right up the stairs."

Maya lives in a very big and expensive house. It's no mystery that she's rich but the question is why she tries so desperately to hide that. Being rich is a privilege and yet she acts as if it's a curse. Even when I stated that I was rich she simply flinched and preferred to keep quiet about it.

I arrive at her door. I turn my face slightly and I feel her cheek against mine, I feel chills go down my spine. I don't like contact too much and even less when it's with women altogether... Then there's a different kind of contact: sports, and that's the sort that helps me get rid of all my never-ending frustrations. I open her bedroom door, revealing her big and spacious room yet it seems so empty. Only a desk, a computer and her wardrobe are present aside from her bed and nightstand and she doesn't seem to have many pictures too. She must not be very materialistic. One picture, however, is a family picture and it's one of the very few that she has. There she is, tiny 5-year-old Maya, with the biggest smile on her face, propped on her father's shoulders and holding her mother's hand as Darren grins eagerly, standing in front of Mary. 

I prop her down on her white queen-sized bed and she softly grumbles as I place the bed sheets over her small body. She looks so fragile and her silvered hair gives her an angelic look. I turn away quickly before my mind starts to roam to places it shouldn't. As I am about to get back up and leave, she grabs hold of my shirt, her soft eyes seeming to carry a hidden message in them.

"Don't leave me alone." She mumbles, half awake, half asleep.

"You're not alone." I tell her but she shakes her head in dismay.

She stays silent for a while as she thinks, her face seeming perturbed by her thoughts, her eyes looking down.

"I feel lonely." She finally mutters under her breath as her eyelashes slowly close.

As I try to think of ways to help her, her bedroom door flings open. I snap my head to the door and I see Darren coming in. He gives me a menacing glare before rushing to Maya's side.

"Are you okay?" He asks her as I move away to make space for him.

She turns away from him and ignores him. After 5 minutes, she's asleep. Darren looks back up at me again.

"What did you do to her?" He hisses.

"What do you mean?" I frown. "I helped her get home."

He silently narrows his eyes at me.

"You never even look at a girl straight in the eyes and yet this is the second time you're helping Maya. What are your intentions? Why her?"

"Listen. I only helped her because it was the honourable thing to do and my intentions you ask? I have none. The matter-of-fact is that she's the one trying to get to know me better so if you don't want us to have any contact it's not me you should be talking to, it's her."

"Well I'm telling you, don't have any contact with her. Or else-"

"Or else what?"

"I'll come to beat you up myself."

"Terrifying," I reply sarcastically. "And ultimately shouldn't it be her choice who she chooses  to hang out with?"

"She can be friends with girls, I choose the guys she hangs with."

"It's her life."

"I'm her brother."

"So? You're in no position to be giving advice since you're the one always sleeping with a new girl every night."

"I'm a player, she's an innocent girl, and you're a cold-hearted rock."

"You seem proud of your status."

"Well, you wouldn't know for someone who's never gotten laid."

"I've had sex before. I just don't flaunt it to the world."

"What changed? You never approach girls."

"Doesn't concern you. We're not friends, remember?"

Darren looks at me with rage before giving in.

"Whatever, you're not getting Maya. So don't get anywhere near her."

"Is that a challenge?" I say a smirk once again plastered on my face.

"It's a warning." He replies defiantly.

"I don't go by anybody's laws but my own. If you want Maya away from me you'll have to do that yourself."

With that, I turn around and leave.

Time to go back to hell.

Mary salutes me in a gracefully and mannerly way before closing the door.

Shit, I should've taken the car to drive her here. So stupid.

I jog to my car to get rid of some of the tension in me. I see a ticket on my car window and I quickly snatch it before shoving it in my pocket. Fines are annoying, rich or not.

I drive home, not sure whether I want to go fast and see Jack faster or go slowly to avoid meeting the devil, if she's home.

As I open my front door I see Jack's head turn towards me and his eyes light up.

"Cale!" He exclaims, jumping off the couch to run to me.

He gives me a massive hug before looking up at me.

"You're home late today. What happened?"

"I had to help someone get home."

"Why?"

"She was really tired."

"A girl?"

"Yea."

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"No."

"So you won't abandon me for her, right? Like when you were with Ivy, right?"

Memories of Ivy flash but I quickly get rid of them before giving him my best smile.

~~~

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