Chasing Freedom

A dirty Laundry's Christmas carrol

           

Camila POV:

The awkwardness between us all still remained when we seated ourselves by the dinner table. Luckily for us all Dinah was there to clear some of the tension away with her loud way of telling the most amusing jokes and stories. She filled the silence with those stories when no one knew what to respond after Drew's snarl. She really was a master in steering the conversation away from sensitive topics.

Although conversations were easily flowing between the most of us across the table, the communication was mostly strained between Drew, Lauren and I. The communication between us solely consisted out of uncertain glances or glares between Lauren and Drew. Well Lauren didn't really send him glares, that was mostly done by him.

Each and every time that Lauren and I would show affection with a little kiss or a little squeeze of our constantly intertwined hands, he would send daggers in Lauren's direction.

The menacing aura coming from him in waves, was different from what I've known of him. He was always gentle and caring with me, making it look like he didn't have a bad bone in his body. He went away for year to build house for a charity that build houses for the poor for God's sake. He was no saint or anything, but still he had always been kind and not this jealous type holding grudges.

His jealous behaviour was even more atypical, because this man literally slept with any willing woman out there. He never cared for there feelings, saying it were only one night stands with no deeper connections. He had always explained it to me, that they were only nights of pleasure and not for love or commitment. He didn't do the strings attached, so I couldn't understand his reasoning for acting like there were between us.

We had one night between us, and after that never again. For god's sake, both of our inhibitions were blurred with the too many drinks that night. It was nothing more then a drunken mistake, so why was he acting like this? Why was he so weird about this?

I snuck a few glances his way, and noticed that not only his usual friendly demeaner had changed, but his appearance was different since the last time I saw him.

He was more bulky then I remembered. Even when we were younger he was muscular, but it seemed as if those muscles had gained muscles with they way he was nearly hulking out of his white shirt that seemed to be a size or two too small.

His hair had also grown a little bit longer, and he had a scruffy looking beard which was also something that had changed in his appearance. The only thing that had remained the same about him were his baby blue eyes, resembling the colour of a tropical clear ocean near the coastline.

"The silent ones are always the wild ones," Drew sneered in response to one of the childhood stories Dinah was sharing about the trouble we would used to get into, intensely staring in my direction to make it obvious to everyone what he was referring to.

"Well wise people know when to stay silent," I retaliated bitterly, tired of his continuous string of jabs that referred to that drunken mistake. Seriously, just let it go already.

"Funny that you say that, because I recall you not being silent that night," He fumingly spitted, crossing a line that I never expected him to do, not to me. He had been humiliating me the entire evening, spoiling my quality time with my family and girlfriend, but I didn't care because those always missed my heart. This time however his words cut deeper than a knife, using his words as a weapon that my armour could not deflect. His shots aimed at me this evening ricocheted, but these words hit and sunk my heart to the bottom of my ocean.

Whatever would happen, I would not give him the satisfaction to see me cry, so without another glance his way I excused myself from the table. I didn't even wait for approval, and quickly scrambled out of his vicinity to head towards my room. I ignored the pleas of my parents and Dinah, and did not even look back when I heard them call after me.