Like a dream

Chapter-3. THEN

     Sipping from the soda bottle, I glance at Dian who is dozing off peacefully. Oh! She's so drunk that her legs can't even carry her. I'm in such a bad situation now and I've no clue how I'll be getting home tonight. I sit by her side and gently shake her. 'Dian, wake up baby. Wake up and drink this' I say. A moan escapes from her lips as she rolls on the bed.  I support her head, helping her rise up and support her back against the bed's board. I pass her the soda bottle and she takes small sips from it. 'Once you finish, we are leaving' I tell her as I dig into my pocket to get my phone. My hand comes in contact with some cold metal piece. 'I almost forgot this!' I mumble. I need to find Kayla and hand over the locket to her. 'Dian, stay here. I'll be back in a minute' I say. She nods her head like a bobble head doll.
  
       I walk down to the living room, but I find it empty. Everyone is gone. The living room is strewn from end to end with dirty plates, cups, empty beer cans and spilt food. This is one of the reasons I hate hosting parties. Post party clean up- oh my God! It is gonna be back-breaking. The last time I hosted a party at my house, I was up all night cleaning the mess. But as Ms.Kayla is well-heeled, she can very well afford an after party cleaning service. I walk across the living room and find Kayla in her bedroom. I see her talking to someone in the faintly lit room. I stop by the doorway and knock on the door. Both the faces turn towards me. 'Hey Leila!' she says. I look at the man beside her and recognise who it is. He's the Adonis from the kitchen. Those hazel green piercing eyes make my heart patter.  I stare at him blankly before smiling back at Kayla. 'How is Dian doing?' she asks me. 'Oh! She has got sloshed. And I need to be leaving soon' I say. 'Mmm.....I came to see if this belongs to someone.' I put my hand into my coat pocket, get the crystal locket out and hold it in front of her. Her eyes gleam at the sight of it. 'Nick' says her feeble tone. The guy beside her moves closer and stops just inches away. His gaze is fixed to the shining little object on my hand as he runs his fingers over some sort of thin rose gold chain on his neck. It has got a similar locket hanging from it, but it seems like the other half of the heart locket that I'm holding in my hand- more like couple lockets. He quickly pulls up his shirt sleeve on the left side and checks his wrist. I spot a very similar chain. He takes the locket from my hand and examines it, before dropping it into his pocket.
    'Thank you for the locket' he says softly as his eyes gaze elsewhere.
           'It's no bother!' I reply and turn to Kayla. 'It's already late. We are leaving.'
     'So how are you going?'
'It'll be hard to take the metro with Dian, so I need to take a cab.'
    'I think Nick can drop you' she says and glares at him. 'Oh! I almost forgot to give you the proper introductions. This is Nick, my little brother' she tells me, 'and this is Leila, my designer's assistant', she tells him. I smile at him and he returns back a small smile.
    'So, can you drop them off on your way?' she asks him and he nods his head.
     'Thank you for the offer, but we can get back home. We don't want to cause him too much of an inconvenience' I say, knowing the not-too-friendly nature of his.
    'I don't mind giving you a ride' he says indifferently as he leaves the room.
      'It's too late and it's better if you leave with Nick' Kayla tells me. And considering my unfortunate situation, I think it'll be better to get his help rather than carry my drunk friend to the cab and then back home.
  Somehow we manage to settle Diana in the car. I get inside, near her in the backseat and position her comfortably. Meanwhile, Nick goes back to say Kayla a final good-bye. I plug in my earphones and play my favourite music from my iPod as their goodbye is taking a bit longer than expected. Wondering how these siblings were in their childhood days, my thoughts slowly drift to Nick. He seems to be a well-reserved guy, far from the shitty attitude of young filthy rich men. I personally have come across quite a number of rich guys and my first impression of Nick is far better from theirs. Immediately, my heart quietly whispers 'far better from any other man you’ve met'. I smile at the thought. Our first encounter starts to play in my mind, with those haunting hazy green eyes occupying most of my thoughts. With ease, my eyes slowly drift to sleep………with my thoughts all painted hazy green….
I slowly wake up from my slumber. Squeezing my eyes, I open them to an unfamiliar surrounding with a very familiar pair of hazy green eyes staring at me through the mirror. My mind slowly grabs my present situation. 'Oh!
I hear him say, ‘Sorry for keeping you waiting.’
I quickly reply ‘No, it’s ok.’ And then an awkward silence fills in.
I hear some music playing in low volume. 'You can raise the volume if you want to. Dian is not going to wake up.’
Nick turns the volume knob. I start to nod my head to the music which was some sort of mixtape.
‘Who’s the artist?' I ask him, just to get off with the awkwardness.
‘It’s my mix’ he says hesitantly looking at me in the mirror.
     'So what do you do?' I ask him. Finally, I have got something to start up a conversation. I sigh a breath of relief.
    'I'm into DJing.'
   'Oh! That sounds like a glamorous thing! You've got a DJ name or something?'
    'Nah, it's simply DJ Nick. I just do some shitty DJing at the local bars. It's not anything big' he says.
'I like it. The music is full of energy and it's so lively.' That is all I can manage to come up with. And being honest, hardcore rock is really not my thing!
'I didn’t expect it to come from a classical music freak' he says. I'm just surprised.
' Eh….How did you know?'
He hands over some sort of silver box to me. It’s my iPod.
' When did you……. '
' It fell down while you were asleep. '
' Oh...Thank you ' I mumble.
' How did you get into this classical thing?'
I raise my eyebrows and look at him in surprise. I didn’t imagine him to be the kind of person to initiate a chat.
Turning to the back, he says ' I’m just curious as it's hard to find young chics who are classical music aficionados.'
I smile at his sudden retort and say 'Well….that's because my mom loves Mozart and Brahms, she plays them all the time and I took interest in it' I reply. 'But it's not just classical, I'd listen to any genre as long as it affects me.'
     An upbeat tempo with a catchy tune is playing now. 'I like this better' I say.
His lips form a beautiful grin which makes my heart leap. The beautiful moment did not last long. Soon we arrive at my house and he helps me to get Diana into my flat. We lay her on the sofa in the living room. He scans the entire room and says, 'It's warm and cosy.' I give him a smile.
    'I'll be leaving' he says and waves at me. I accompany him to the gate to send him off.  ‘Thanks for the ride. It would have been difficult without your help. '
He walks a few steps ahead and slowly turns back with his hands stuffed into his coat pockets,' It’s just a little token of gratitude for your help. Thank you once again for finding the locket.’ He then walks to his car and without looking in my direction, he says 'I would have cursed myself if I had lost it...’
'Did it belong to somebody?' I ask inquisitively without realizing myself.
While I am cursing myself for asking such a sensitive question, he opens the car's door, slowly lost in painful thoughts, that even penetrated his mask-like face.
Before getting inside, he turns to say ' It belonged to someone special… '
I don’t say anything, even a goodbye or a good night, just watch him get inside the car and go away while replaying in my mind, the storm that ravaged the hazel green forest.