Another City Of Lights.

Chapter 42.

                    December 31st, Karachi.

Aaron's POV:-

I've spent the last year or so partying to my hearts content. There hadn't been a single weekend when I hadn't been out getting high somewhere. I lived for it, although I genuinely had no interest, but I went anyway. It made me feel alive. Somehow, all that alcohol and smoke and all thise dirty places with shit people, made me feel alive. And that's all that we want, isn't it? When your life generally sucks, all you need is a whiff of adventure, and a rush of adrenaline.

So there wasn't really a reason for me to skip out on this party. Everyone I knew and needed to avoid would be there, and there would be good food and probably booze as well, thanks to Dash and his ways. And I needed an excuse to get myself out of this. I knew I had promised Hailey initially, but after that whole 'incident' that Dash and I had witnessed, I really didn't trust myself enough to be on my best behaviour.

It wasn't any of my business. I knew it wasn't. It really wasn't any of my business who she dated or slept with. She wasn't even a friend now, was she? Sam was just somebody I used to know a lifetime ago. But that still didn't mean that I had to put up with her and her clingy-as-fuck boy toy. I didn't see much of him that night, but I could easily tell he wasn't her type. And it made me wonder what she was doing with him.

I had informed Dash of my plans to not show up at the party tonight, and he hadn't tried to convince me otherwise. He had just looked me straight in the eye and told me not to do anything I would regret later. But that could easily be taken as two different things.

It was still five hours to midnight, and I was camped up inside my shoebox of a room, with my computer and my phone switched off, trying to avoid any human being nearby.

Hailey was a pro at the whole planning and organising party thing. I'd seen her do it before, and she doesn't disappoint. And I know she went all out for this one because it was Sam, and she had the upper hand over everyone else.

Since they had set everything up on Dash's roof of all places, I couldn't even go to Dash to vent, and Dash couldn't skip this party like I could. I knew he didn't want to either, so I said nothing to stop him. It wasn't my place, and I knew how much Sam meant to them. To all of us.

But I couldn't convince my mind, and I wasn't ready to go over there. I knew I would somehow ruin it for everyone, so it was better to let it be. It would be fine without me. Not that anyone was desperate to see me trash the place any way.

After spending two hours in my turmoil, I decided that staying held up in this room wasn't going to make things any better. If anything, it made it much worse. Sitting here doing nothing made me think about it, something I was trying very hard not to do.

It had been a hard couple of days. And even though I generally denied everything, I couldn't deny to myself that all I thought about was Sam. It was involuntary, definitely involuntary, but seeing her that night made my mind go in to hyper drive. How could I not think about her? Especially when she was here, in the same city as me, breathing the same air. How could I not think about her when she was so close, and the possibility of seeing her gave me anxiety. Of course I wanted to see her, I was so curious that it was killing me. I had to control my mouth around Hailey, because I wanted to know everything, I needed to know everything. But I didn't want her knowing that, although I think they already did.

I wanted to go, I really did. But I also didn't want to go and see her like this. I didn't want her to see me like this.

I was already halfway done contemplating inside my head when I received a text from Dash, and that made me stomach churn.