Nine Ways How

Chapter 34| together

E L A R A

I turn around and realise Ara and Darla were standing behind me. Darla's expression screams how stunned she is, whereas Ara has her fists tightened on her sides, lips pressed together as if she's about to bite out.

"How could you fucking do that?" Ara asks with gritted teeth.

"Ara-" Neville tries to say something but Ara cuts him off by saying "You better keep your mouth shut"

"Why didn't you tell me earlier, why did you hide it from me?" she snaps at Neville.

"Ara, please hear me out---" I try to say something but she doesn't listen to me.

"Don't you dare say anything now. I've heard enough. What did you think? When he has a great name in the music industry you'll come back out of blue and trap him in your innocence? How could you fake all of that?" she shouts, and I'm more startled than I already was.

The things she said made my heart drop.

"No, it's not like that" I try to defend myself.

"What that? You sexually assaulted my brother!" she yells at me, "And one thing I make clear to you, he's more than a family to me, I love him more than anything and I can do fucking anything for him. Don't make me come at my worst for him and stay away from him! I fucking hate you and I don't ever want to see your face again!"

"Ara I'm not--"

"Fucking gold digger bitch" she interrupts and walks off.

"--that girl anymore..."

I couldn't stop myself anymore and burst into tears, I look at Darla and she jerks her face away too, picking up the bag Ara forgot here. "Darla, please listen to me, I can explain" I whimper.

"I never thought you could do this, Elara. You shouldn't have done that" she says and walks away too.

"Please give me a chance to explain" my voice still cracked and caught in my throat, but none of them stops. They kept walking away.

How I'm going to face them now? They know the half-truth. Will they understand my situation? Will they understand I'm shocked too and hate myself for that as much as they do?

"You deserve every bit of it" Neville's voice starts off sharp and hard, "But you've changed... and this change is forcing me to trust you again" he sighs.

"I know how it feels when somebody doesn't listen to you," he says, "I've faced it too"

He gets up and starts to walk inside. Is it a cue for me to leave? I wipe my tears away and pick up my bag. I turn around but stop hearing his voice, "Come in. It's going to rain outside"

So he wanted me to follow him behind? I think I'll have to call a cab later as it will be late. "Sit here," he says collecting his document worksheets shattered on the table, and keeping them on the other seat in front of us, "Cara was here and I forgot to collect them together"

He picks up a pair of socks kept on the floor and instantly throws them in the laundry "My dad..." he says.

I smile softly, he looks cute. He really doesn't need to make everything perfect. "Neville?" I say in order to have his attention from his run from here to there.

"Yeah?"

"You're not going to leave me too, are you?" I ask.

"If I wanted to leave you, I wouldn't have brought you to my apartment in the very first place. I hated you so much at first, but... it has changed" he says and I feel relief.