Another City Of Lights.

Chapter 40.

                                                                         December, Karachi.

Songs for the chapter:

This Town - Niall Horan.

Don't wanna know - Maroon 5.

Aaron's POV:-

Dash and I had been hiding out here in plain sight for twenty fucking minutes now. Twenty fucking minutes and not even a glimpse of Sam. Not even a glimpse of her hair, or hand, or even a foot. I had lost hope after the first ten minutes, I wasn't exactly known for my patience, but Dash insisted that we wait a while longer.

We weren't exactly hiding. Nobody here would even recognize us anyway, so we were just seated in my car, glancing out the windows towards her house, hoping we'll get to see her.

I had wanted to see her, obviously I had. But this plan hadn't been mine. I had planned to just go to that party Hailey was setting up, and see her there. Not camp in front of her house and wait til she comes out. It was a bit childish, stupid, incredibly lame, and it was all Dash's fault.

He had showed up at my house unannounced about two hours ago, and asked me if I wanted to go out. I could see it on his face that he was up to something, but I didn't predict this. Not that I was complaining now. Now, I was even more anxious to see her. Being this close, my mind wasn't even working right anymore. It felt surreal to think that I was in the same city as her again. And I could see her any moment now. It felt like one of my weird dreams, only this time Dash was in it with me, smoking and littering in my car and doing his crazy dance moves to every song that came on the radio.

Half an hour passed, with me staring alternatively between the house and the watch in my car. Dash finished his coke, sang a few old hippie songs, made a few predictions about how she would look, considered telling Hailey what we were up to, smoked some more, and even took a power nap. And then burst out laughing when my stomach grumbled loudly.

"I'm leaving in the next five minutes. You can camp out here all you want", I told him, considering this plan halfheartedly.

"No, wait, look you have got to see her", He said, looking at me.

"Can we at least just go eat first?", I groaned. I was literally starving.

"Here, eat this, and shut up", He threw one of his chocolate bars at me, and turned around to focus on the house again. As if he was going to make her come out just by staring over there with such intensity.

"You know, this is a waste of time-", I began to say, biting in to that overly sweet, melted chocolate, but he cut me off.

"Shut up, Aaron", He hit me on the head, motioning towards the door.

"No, I'm serious-", I began again, removing his hand from my face.

"No, you fucker, look!", He moved my head so that my line of vision was directly towards the house, where the front door was open now.

That shut me up instantly, and I followed his eyes to see the few people standing out on the porch now. All of the hunger I had been feeling was long gone now, and Dash and I focused out in to the distance, trying to see and find the person we were so eager to see. We were almost standing up now, peering out, but trying not to look too obvious. It would be downright creepy if anyone caught us here, and we wouldn't have any excuse.

It was dark, and only one of the street lamps was working, casting a dim orange glow out on to the road. So we couldn't exactly see much since we were parked a good distance away. The light on their porch was pretty useless too. You couldn't make out anyone's face unless they were standing right underneath that useless light.

Dash hadn't said anything so far, which meant he couldn't see much either. That was good. We were on the same page. My nerves were getting the best of me, it was killing me not to just walk out over there and see her myself, instead of waiting out here. But I had already made one too many mistakes in my lifetime, I didn't want to make another extreme one.

Dash and I both went still when the people we could see began to move back instead the house. They were definitely her parents, I had seen them enough to recognize them even from a distance. They went back inside, shutting the door behind them, leaving the other two standing outside. I had no idea what was going on.

"Is that Sam?", Dash whispered, but I wasn't even sure if he was asking me or himself.

"Should we go see?", He asked me, and I opened my mouth to reply him, but nothing came out.

Because when I looked back towards that house again, there she was. And I didn't have any words to speak, and I had already forgotten what Dash had asked me.

It had taken me a couple of years to admit to myself that I did actually like her as more than a friend sometimes, but all of these feelings that I had now were something else altogether. Looking at her now didn't feel like it probably should have. It didn't feel real, how could it have been so easy to have her back home now? I had been convincing my mind that the possibility of seeing her again was close to none, and yet here she was. And I couldn't look away.

She looked just the same, I could recognize her in a crowd full of strangers, but she also looked so different. Her hair was shorter, it had always been long, and now it wasn't even past her shoulders. She seemed taller somehow, thinner? I couldn't tell. I couldn't even tell if her hair was the same color as it had been before. Lighter than most, almost straw-colored in the right light. From here, she looked as if she was in her pajamas. And she didn't seem bothered by that. That was new. Suddenly I had this urge inside me, suddenly I wanted to see her better, I wanted to hear her voice again. I wanted to know everything she had to say, and I wanted to be surrounded in that extensively girly perfume she loved to wear.

It felt exactly like the dream I used to have all the time. Where she was right in front of me, standing, laughing, and then she was with someone else.

And that's exactly what happened. I had been too dumbfounded to focus on anything except for her, and I only noticed that guy standing with her when she buried her face in his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her.

"Fuck", I heard Dash say under his breath, and that's when I understood that this was guy was him-the one she said she was going to bring along with her.

My confusion was short lived, and soon replaced by something that I naturally assumed to be anger. I had a very powerful urge to detach that guy from Sam. It made me want to throw up seeing him like that with her. And what was she thinking? That was her parents house, for fuck's sake. Did that mean her parents were okay with him? With the idea of him? Seriously? What kind of a world was this now?

I had no control over my mind, and I was getting a splitting headache just by looking at them now. I was trying not to see, but it was hard not to. I had been trying to convince myself that I would act civilized and not create a scene, but watching her throw herself at that guy like that wasn't exactly helping the situation.

"I think we can go now", Dash suggested, and I nodded, still trying to keep my raging emotions in control.

I put the car in reverse, and started to move it away from that cramped parking space, when I saw Dash still watching them, and I regretted glancing over there too. Because if it was bad before, it got a whole lot worse when I saw her pull away from him, and he reached over to kiss her forehead. And I tore my eyes away from them, and I swallowed loudly. My throat was burning, and my head was spinning, and I just wanted to get away. I just needed to get away from here.

"Fuck, Aaron, just drive", Dash mumbled, after seeing my distressed state.

And I did, I got out of there as fast as I could.