Love Maze

Chapter 21

The sky outside the window was pitch black as Anya lay flat on her stomach, surrounded by pillows. She bit her lip and furrowed her eyebrows in concentration as she struggled to play the game on the cellphone clutched in her hand.

It was past dinner time, but she had waved her mom off earlier, saying she wasn't hungry and would probably eat once her appetite returned.

After Zayan had gone back downstairs, she had been left alone with her thoughts. Her confused, jumbled thoughts. So she had simply taken out her phone and started to play a game that her favourite boy group had recently released, hoping it would distract her.

It worked- a little too well. She'd been so immersed in it that she hadn't noticed the sky darkening. She finally looked up after clearing the last round, her face glowing with pride. The emotion quickly changed to one of horror when she realized what time it was.

"I'm dead," she groaned out loud.

"Why?" The sullen voice made her jump. She scrambled to sit up in panic, simultaneously turning around to locate the owner of the voice. She sighed in relief when she spotted Nikki. That's right, she realized. Nikki had mentioned she was going to stay over today.

Great. The one night that they could've spent having loads of fun, was now ruined by the fact that things between them were awkward after Anya had interrupted their argument. Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she managed to speak. "Oh, it's just you."

The other girl only nodded, her expression slightly sour. Anya tensed; was her friend still mad at her?

"Nikki-"

"I'm tired. See you in the morning."

She stared in disbelief as Nikki crawled under the covers at the far end of the bed and promptly shut her eyes. Rolling her own eyes, Anya swung her legs off the bed and began plodding to the door. She knew her friend was only pretending, but she couldn't exactly force her to talk about what was bothering her.

When she was out the door, she headed straight for her parents' room. It was late, but not late enough for them to have already fallen asleep. Besides, she had told her mother she would eat once her appetite returned, and her stomach was grumbling.

She raised her hand in a fist about to knock, but the loud voices on the other side of the door made her pause. Were her parents arguing?

How wonderful. She just couldn't stop walking in on arguments she wasn't supposed to hear today, could she?

She turned to go, but before she could take another step, she hesitated. After a moment of indecision, her curiosity won and she quickly pressed her ear to the door. Snippets of conversation floated towards her, but it wasn't easy to understand everything they said.

"-know what you mean. But we can't spend the amount of money you're asking us to. We've already splurged for this trip, all our savings-"

"It's not as bad as you're making it out to be! We'll just work overtime once we go back-"

Anya drew back, her head pounding. This was serious stuff. The fact that her parents almost never argued- with their 'arguments' centering around who would cook that day or who would eat the last slice of pizza- made it even scarier for her.

She silently made her way to the room, lost in her thoughts. The lights had been turned off by Nikki, so she let her other senses guide her to the edge of the bed where she grabbed a pillow before settling down. All of a sudden, her huge appetite had deserted her.

She pondered over whether to ask her parents about what she had heard, but she felt her eyelids getting heavier. Drowsiness washed over her, the events of the day catching up with her body. In a couple of minutes she had drifted off to a light, uncomfortable sleep.