BLADE (√)

●Chapter Thirteen●

A/N
Yo, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and is looking forward to the new year, I know I am. Here's to the next couple of chapters as Amanda's story unfolds. The chapters are a little shorts but that's why I'll give you Three. Enjoy and tell me what you think. Xx

                            
                                ***

The sun only began rising after I was a good couple kilometres away from the hospital. I thought about how long it would be until Jacobs got the news of his father. There weren't many things that that man loved. If anything, Jacobs felt nothing for anyone ever. He only ever spoke of his wife, every now and again. However if she were to ever do wrong by him, it was no secret he’d kill her too. The same applied to his son but his father, his father was different. Everyone at Anthony knew about his father. Anthony Jacobs was a prized possession at Anthony Works for obvious reason. Some spoke fondly of how Jacob’s father had saved his life when he was little. How his mother left them and how it became his father’s obsession to make sure his only son would survive.  I remember asking Jacobs if he was the only child and he replied ‘What makes you say that?’ it had became obvious to me that Grandpa Jacobs that favoured his ‘only son’ and that all the other reasons for having been loved so much were only apparent.

It was clear to me that from this point in my walk I was walking on thin ice. I was no longer an asset to Jacobs and the sooner he found out about his father (which would be in the next hour), the sooner it was someone else’s mission to hang me, and bring home my heart in a clear plastic bag.
As I walked I came near a garage, SHELL. There were loads on trucks and busses and some cars packed in the garages. My legs were now sore from having walked so fast for so long. I found a bench outside the little store that advertised pies being sold at R12. I only had 15 left in my pocket and it was foolish to spend it now. I wasn’t even hungry. What I needed was a ride.
The possibility of me getting on wheels was not very far off. The unknown was how much money would come out of my pocket for it.
After having been seated for a brief ten minutes, a car stopped in front of me and rolled down the windows.

‘Amanda... what are you doing out here dear girl?’

It was Susan, Tanaka’s mother.

‘Well, after you and Gray didn’t return home last night I figured you checked in to some sort of hotel because well, you need your privacy right?’ she giggled. She thought he and I were a couple; my mind instantly started calculating.

‘You too look so good together. Where is he anyway?’ she finally said.

‘Uhm, I left him at the hotel.’ I replied quickly.

She smiled. I had confirmed her theory but I knew what was coming next, she’d want to know why I had been out here, so far away from any hotel Tanaka would ever check into.  I had been far away from any hotel for that matter.
‘So?’ she said while checking her rear view mirror. ‘What are you really doing here?’

‘I was waiting for him... I think he forgot he was supposed to get me. We drove out here early this morning and ate here.’ I grinned. ‘I know it’s not the model place to eat but I like the food here, so I convinced him to take me.’  I took some time breathe so that I would not seem to fibbing.
‘He said he had some things to sort out and will be back when I finish eating. I’ve been waiting for hours.’ I sighed and giggled after.

At this point she was giggling too. ‘That is just like Gray, don’t worry I’ll have a word with him when he gets home. Did you leave my dress with him?’

Oh right she had lent me her dress. ‘Uh no, last night we drive to my place too, I needed a change of clothes for the morning so I left it there.’

‘Oh perfect I was planning to give it to your permanently anyhow.’ She smiled at me.

I wanted to ask what she was doing out here in the early hours of the morning but I bit my tongue. Too many questions about her would lead to too many questions about me and my doings.
I reasoned with myself about how I had made a living on fibbing, what would making a lie here and there ruin with Susan? I felt a slight cutting in my chest. I felt bad. It was different somehow being with Susan. I felt the urge to want to please her so that she’d like me. She had a warm smile and I had seen plenty of those before but hers made me feel warm. It made me smile back, not because I had to but I couldn’t control it, I just would smile back.

A present fact struck forward a memory that created a very interesting question in my mind; Susan was driving. When I met her son, he had a driver. And everywhere we went that driver went with us.
She made a turn to the right.
‘Don’t you have a driver?’ I asked. She giggled like teenager.

‘Yes my dear I do.... but I often sneak off at night and come back in the morning. Gray isn’t the only one who has adventures with his love late at night.’

I remembered the blonde girl.

‘Oh so you do know?’ I said. it had struck me as odd that Gray’s family didn’t know of his girlfriend that he brought home. He claimed not to love her at all, to him she was just a good time. I wondered if Susan knew that part.

‘Of course dear, the way Gray looks at you is too magical to not be noticed.’

Wait, what, me? ‘What do you mean?’
She laughed. ‘Let me not say anything more before I get in trouble. Last time I interfered, it didn’t end too well.’

Being back at Tanaka’s house didn’t change anything in me. It felt like the first time I had been here. I was confused again, I did not know why I was here. Why had I accepted a ride back from Susan. Why had she offered it. The rest of the ride here she hadn’t asked anything else about her son. She blabbered all about how he had to grow up without a father and how tough it was for him. Apparently, Big Tanaka had left for Japan a long time ago; to reunite with his family. He was killed somewhere along that  line, assassinated was the word she used.

‘He had always been rather confused with himself.’ She had said. A little too confused.’

Gin made supper while I sat with Susan in the living room. A couple of hours had passed by and Tanaka still hadn’t returned home. I didn’t say a word and she only noticed after an entire two hours of my non response. She frowned and stood up to shift closer to where I had been sitting. She placed my hand in hers and whispered slowly and quietly in my ear. She asked if I was alright and if I had had a fight with her son. I did not reply. I kept my eyes on her face, my expression the same as it was when she was talking. Her hands abandoned mine and ran to my face. I had started crying. She wiped the warm watery substance of my face and hugged me. She then stood up and left the room. Moments later I heard her on the phone in the next room and my stomach turned.

‘Gray...’