Behind Their World

Chapter 17: Cheated Death or Directed Life

P.O.V Cathia

"Dad, I'm going upstairs, and please don't stop me. I can't leave her alone tonight after what happened in the morning." I heard a muffled voice of Leo who must be downstairs, talking to Sir Liam. I was standing at the door, leaning my head against the door frame.

"Leo, what do you think? How do you belong to her?" I felt a bit of aggressiveness in Sir Liam's tone. My heart started its abnormal high pumping, waiting for Leo's reply.

"We... We are good friends, and I'm going, that's final." It was like a stern reply. I couldn't help guessing if it made me feel good or even worst.

Then I heard footsteps. Leo was coming, but I didn't bother to go inside and lay down on the bed, the way I spent my whole day. I stood there and he finally came. He was holding two mugs of coffee in his hands.

There were dark circles around his eyes. He looked thinner as if he also fell ill with me. Depression was always like that.

I smiled at him, forgetting that I heard his conversation with his dad. He, giving me a tired smile, came inside and placed the mugs on the coffee table. He checked the fire in the fireplace and then looked at me.

"You shouldn't be standing there. Come, sit here." He gestured me to sit on the bed, but I was tired of it. I looked at him and then went towards the windows which opened to the balcony. I sat down on the rug in front of the windows and hugged my knees, pulling them closer to my chest.

"Cathia..." Leo said softly, but in a pressurizing tone, "You have just cheated death, but you're still not good enough to sit on that cold floor."

I looked at him. "It's not cold here. I'm fine. Come sit with me." 'Why did I say the last line? I don't know.' I don't care. I guess I've stopped regretting a lot of things since morning, or maybe, I've gained courage after losing a lot of strength. Cheating death slaps you hard so that you start doing what is right from the very next moment. I wonder why we don't realize it before that what if we actually died at that moment, and life didn't give us a second chance?

He looked at me, pondering over the request. Sighing deeply, he grabbed the coffee mugs and sat beside me. He gave me one, and I took it smiling at him.

There was silence. Pure silence between us. But not that previous awkward one, it was relaxing, as we missed it for a long time. I was too tired to speak anything, and maybe he was too relaxed to do so. We were not even arguing.

Our lives suddenly bumped into some things which we called, maturity, responsibility, and sensibility. Losing someone isn't easy, and losing ourselves is way worse. We were silent, although there was a lot to discuss and share.

Moments passed until Leo finally asked, "Can I... Ask you something?" He showed a slight nervousness. I nodded.

He looked back at his hands resting in his lap and said, "We are... I mean, are we good friends?" 'Is that a question?' I wanted to smack something on his head, but I was too tired to even move. I was drinking coffee, that was enough.

But when I looked at his face, it showed something. It showed me the face of a kid, scared to lose his most favorite toy, but was trying not to show his emotions because he was scared of getting bullied. He had always presented himself as a strong man, but maybe not anymore. Maybe today I broke him, and now I'm trying to mend him again.

I slowly nodded my head, and his face lightened up, but he just smiled. I guess I've understood him a lot to tell that he doesn't show his extreme and beautiful emotions easily. "Sure, we are best friends, Leo."

Then, there was again silence. Beautiful one. But again Leo broke its strings. "Cathia, I never wanted to ask, but I'm quite tensed about it..."

"About what happened outside today?" I interrupted because I knew he was depressed. They all were. They were not asking me because of my severe condition. He slowly nodded.