This is her. It has to be. That girl from the supermarket... who exactly is she?
Beads of sweat trickled down my forehead, as I sat on my bed, leaning back on the headboard. The lights had been switched off, the moon had sprinkled its delicate light over the silent streets. Everything was quiet in the house; Colton was in his room, probably asleep.
I could not get myself to bat an eyelid. The stupid message was etched in my mind, sending chills up and down my spine.
Of course, I trusted Colton. I loved him. And I could never doubt him. But what made me uncomfortable was the fact that some random girl was warning me about him, as if he was a criminal. She claimed to have been a victim of Colton's true behavior and that creeped me out.
With closed eyes, I could handover my life to Colton. That was how much he meant to me. So my discomfort was a result of my defensive nature. I had developed a protectiveness towards Colton ever since I read the message.
I have to text her back. I need to get to the bottom of this.
I picked up my phone and unlocked the home screen, squinting my eyes at the bright light. Before opening the chat, I diminished the brightness to a minimum level. A migraine was the last thing I needed right now.
Taking in a deep breath, I started typing a message to her.
Hi.
I know who you are. You're the girl from the supermarket, aren't you?
I don't know what your motive is. I appreciate that you took the trouble to warn me. But I assure you that Colton is nothing like you are presuming him to be. Maybe you have been mistaken.
I love Colton. I trust him more than anyone else in this world. He would never harm me. Even the thought of it is so absurd. I don't know how you know him, or what past you both share, but I do know one thing for sure - Colton would never hurt me.
I'm not going to judge you because I don't know your story. But I do not appreciate you trying to defame Colton.
Have a good night.
I hit on send and waited with bated breath as minutes ticked by. There was no reply even after ten minutes. Maybe she had fallen asleep, it was way past midnight.
Sighing, I placed my phone next to me and changed my position to a lying down one.
Go to sleep, Nessie. You have a class in the morning.
I closed my eyes, consciously cutting off all thoughts that arose in my mind one after the other. Minutes soon changed into an hour, but I still could not sleep. My eyelids were heavy and my mind was tired. I wanted to sleep, I felt sleepy, but yet I could not sleep.
There was one little voice that kept nagging me at the back of my mind.
No one believed Nick over you, Nessie. Everyone believed Nick to be a saint. Your accusations were brushed aside as attention seeking behavior. But you were not lying. No one saw through Nick's charming words and sugary sweet actions. He, too, was a demon hiding behind an innocent face.
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The next morning, I was restless even as I just woke up. That thought had disrupted my peace and even though I had fallen asleep several hours later, it had been a disturbed sleep, one that I would have rather not had at all, if given a chance.
As soon as my eyes opened, I checked my phone to see if I had any reply from that girl. I did.
You're foolish. But I don't blame you. As they say, love is blind.
I was only trying to help, but seeing how you're so defensive about the guy who ruined my life, I wish to give you a reality check. You trust him so much, right? Then go and ask him about me. Go on. And we'll see what he says, that is if he says anything in the first place.
My jaw clenched. She seemed so confident.
I decided not to say anything to her. When the time seemed appropriate, I would ask Colton. This was not a matter of privacy anymore.
I got down from the bed and immediately yelped.
What the hell did I step on-
The phone charger.
But how did it get here?
Limping and sitting down on the bed again, I picked up the charger.
"Since last night you're hurting me. What did I even do to you? If for the third time you make me wince in pain, I swear I'll start thinking that you're cursed," I said, glaring at it.
"Stupid." I whispered, and tossing it aside, I carefully navigated my way to the washroom. After coming home from college today, I was going to clean my room. That was going to be my first task, come what may.
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"You do realise that eating so many chocolates is unhealthy, right?" asked Colton, throwing the fifteenth or something dairy milk wrapper in the garbage bag he was holding.
True to my word, as soon as I had come home from college, I had started cleaning my room. Colton, being Colton, was helping me.
"I know," I said, holding up a T-shirt in front of the mirror. Had it grown small or would I still fit in it?
I'll decide later.
I folded it and placed it on top of the pile of clothes that I had finished folding.
"You know," I said, picking up another T-shirt to fold, "today I was complaining during lecture about how repetitive it was and how the time seemed to not pass at all."
"Hmm." Colton was bent down, searching for something under my bed, probably another chocolate wrapper.
I really should stop eating so many sweets.
"And then Veera leaned over to me and whispered," I said, mentioning a classmate who had become a good friend of mine, "that the time seemed still and so slow to pass because the classroom door was closed. Like, you know, the door was closed so time had no space to go out and so it was stuck in class."
I tried my best to explain the joke to him; something that I was awful at.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it the first time," he said, laughing. "It was funny."
I stopped to stare at him. "No, it wasn't even remotely funny."
"It was. I found it funny." He laughed again.
"You don't count, Colton," I said, throwing at him a chocolate wrapper that I found stuck to one of my T-Shirts. "You laugh in the most serious of situations because you remember something you read on instagram."
"You're simply jealous of my happy nature," he said, grinning. "And seriously, Nessie, even a vampire would probably spit out your blood because it's excessively sweet. How many chocolates do you eat in a day?"
"Idiot." I muttered, shaking my head at him. "Sweet blood is a rare finding. Any vampire would be lucky to taste my blood."
"You're an idiot," he said, an amused look in his eyes. "And we're the co-presidents of club idiot!"
I threw the T-shirt I was holding at him. He ducked.
"Get to work, boy. We have assignments to complete, remember?" I said.
He rolled his eyes and continued with his work. As for me, I simply looked on as he started to narrate an incident from the day.
He had finally come out of his cocoon. How was I ever going to disrupt his mood? How and when was I supposed to ask him?
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Next update - Friday
- Kulsum.
