Standstill

Chapter 8 - "You gotta be kidding."

"After the accident , you used to come to our class to check on Alex"

"Yea", I say while resting my chin on my palm.

Alex blamed himself for the accident . Didn't willingly eat or drink for a few days . The old couple next door had to get involved to convince him, to take care of himself .

That was a dark phase. But it's all over now.

I shake myself out of all the bad memories and continue to listen to Dylen.

"And do you remember the guy, who used to follow you around school at that time ", he asks

Oh,

I had completely forgotten about it at this point .

The guy we are talking about here is a senior Dave. He used to follow me around the school after the accident. He used to stick notes with weird creepy messages on my locker.

In fact I was so frightened that he would follow me to our home that I always left the school with Anne or Alex.

I didn't tell Alex about it because he already was going through a lot. But he got to know from somebody in the school I guess and beat that guy up.

"Are u ok? Hello?" Dylen asks and I realize that I had been silent for the past five minutes.

I respond quickly..

"Yea .....yea and Alex beat him up. The guy didn't even dare to look me in the eye after that.", I say proudly.

"Did you ask your brother about it later ?", he asks

"Yea...but when I went and thanked Alex later for it he acted as if he didn't even know about it .", I say while smiling and then eat the last piece of the sandwich, " Probably didn't want me to get worried , he is unpredictable at times.", I say before swallowing .

"Hmmm...probably he didn't" , Dylen says while dusting his hands after finishing his sandwich.

"what do you mean?" I ask him ,while absolutely being confused.

He shrugs

"Probably he didn't beat up the guy.", he says

That's when it strikes me.....

"You gotta be kidding."

"Depends on what you are thinking.", he says

"OMG, don't tell me that you were the one who beat that guy into a pulp??", I say while staring at him wide eyed.

He gives a big awkward smile.

"You are kidding right?", I asked, expecting a yes for an answer but ...

"Nope not at all ", he says while shaking his head side to side.

What the hell...

that's all I can process right now...

Why would he do that?

But now that i think about it.... it makes complete sense that Alex didn't know anything about the stalking situation.

He was totally lost after the accident !

Why couldn't I figure it out before !

He continues, " Now I know you might be confused , but i can explain."

"First time that I saw you was when your brother shifted into our class and you started coming to our classroom during the lunch break to meet him ."

"The way you weren't scared to enter a senior class and only cared about him, reminded me of someone who was very close to me. That's why when I saw the guy bothering you, I couldn't keep quiet."

At this point I am still in shock and haven't uttered a word.

He continued, "After the football practice, I asked the guy to meet me near the canteen and ...hmm and...you know the rest. Also when I asked him about why he was following you around , he said that he had been doing all that for time pass."

"Hmm...oh ..ohk ...", I say while trying to digest all the shocking info that was thrown at me suddenly.

"Yea and the fact that your brother didn't do anything , just bothered me and that's the reason i started feeling this sense of anger towards him.", he explains.

"What? Was that the reason?", I ask making a weird face, "he was clearly in trauma from the accident and everyone knew that .", I say while throwing my hands in the air.

"Yeah I know, but he wasn't the only one who lost his parents in the accident, you did too. But you stood up for him and yourself and not did crumble .", he says while banging his palm on the table.

"Everyone has their own way of coping up with trauma ", I say while frowning.

"I know. But that incident just made a bad image about him in my head . That's why I started bothering him.". He says before picking up his bag and then starts to search for something.

"BUT....there was a rumour that you did all that to get my attention." I say while trying to see what he is searching for.

"What???", he asks while looking disgusted.

"Nothing ,doesn't matter.", I say while being equally disgusted.

"But what you did is not reasonable in any way. He was already going through a lot.", i say.

I continue my rant ,not noticing what he is trying to find...

"I know....I know", he says while still looking for something in his huge bag.

And then the search finally ends ...

He takes out a huge box of chocolates from his bag.

It's a big brown box of chocolates that I love, with a card and a ribbon.

For a moment I look at the box and then stare at him in confusion.

"And this is my apology for everything i have ever done to you guys.", he says while placing the box on the table.

"By everything I mean bothering you and your brother and also the coffee incident that took place. My bad .I didn't mean to startle you people by throwing the cup towards you, it was a slip of hand. But fortunately it didn't hit you people , it hit me, and I still have no idea how ", he says and starts laughing.

"And yeah....I promise not to do anything stupid again to bother you guys" he says while pushing the box towards me, "Please accept it."

He continued to look at my face expecting an answer...

I think about it for a while..

I mean everyone deserves a second chance and also I have to find out if he knows something about my powers ...so...

I give a small smile and say, " accepted"

To be continued...