章 27: Do You Miss Her?
Kiara was at the counter, placing the order for their coffee. She had asked Ayden to wait at the table because it was the last one that was not occupied.
Meanwhile, Ayden was trying to contact Ashton. He had to apologize to him in advance before Irene lashed out at him but his phone was switched off.
Ayden did not ponder over it because he remembered Ashton telling him that he might have to shut his phone because it was low on battery.
His chain of thoughts broke when Kiara returned and placed the mugs on the table. She forwarded one toward him before she comfortably sat down. Her back still hurt but with pain-killers, the pain was manageable.
"I know this might sound weird but I can sense that something is not right with you and I really want to help if I can. Can I?" Kiara smoothly blurted out, for the first time without caring about what he would think.
She had always been apprehensive about interacting with him informally. She liked him from the very moment she laid her eyes upon him. Knowing that he was already committed, she knew that she needed to keep away from him to stop her liking from growing into something more that would end up hurting her in the future.
But the distance that she deliberately maintained did not help as much as she had expected it to. The delicate feelings, rather than dying, increased by multiple folds.
Ayden grew nervous. The last thing he wanted was the news of his and Irene's breakup to get out. He was not ready for all the gossip and mocking that was going to follow the news.
Plastering a fake smile on his face, he did his best to assure her that he was alright.
Kiara's eyes momentarily closed as she smiled to herself. "It's fine, Ayden. I get it. I am sorry. I have been interfering a bit too much and I know, I don't have a right to. It's cool. Let's finish the coffee and leave."
Ayden certainly felt bad at that. He did not like making her feel that she was being intrusive but he had no idea how else he could respond to her.
None of them broke the silence that consumed the surrounding after Kiara's last words.
<>
Irene's gaze traveled from the particular nothing she was staring at for the last couple of minutes to her gloomy reflection in the dressing table mirror. She could not help but feel an insane urge to cry.
Being lonely sucked.
She had a sense of comfort and companionship when Ayden was her companion. He had never let her feel lonely.
There had been not a single night when they would not be chatting. There had not been a single morning when they would not be conversing on phone calls. All the time. They were together all the time even when they were physically apart.
And suddenly when all of that stopped… it was bound to unsettle her.
It was quite similar to asking a chocolate-addict who ate chocolates every single day, to stop eating them altogether. The relationship, the attachment was no less than an addiction. Or perhaps, it had become a habit. The habit for three long years.
"Do something. Divert your mind." She left the bed and paced around looking for what to do.
She looked at her wardrobe and contemplated for a moment if she should clean it up but scrapped the plan remembering that she had properly arranged it just the previous week.
So instead, she decided to go for her bookshelf. It had been quite a while since she had cleaned it up anyway.
Her bookshelf had a lot of books, and most of them were her school and college notebooks that she had treasured. She loved doing that. She had an attachment to them.
She sat on the floor, taking all the books with her, reminiscing the memories every book brought back.
Nostalgia hit her hard when she found her old chemistry book. She recognized the book and quickly pushed aside the other books that were covering it.
As she flipped its pages, agony filled her upon finding a dried rose inside. The first rose Ayden had given her.
Her fingers gently picked it up as if it was her prized possession… as if she did not want to take any chance of losing it.
Why was closing Ayden's chapter so hard?
Why did it have to be so hard for her to just stop thinking about him?
If she was not being able to get the person out of her mind with whom she had been for a mere three years… then how did her mother manage to forget her who had been with her for more than seven long years?
Why was it so easy for her to just leave everything behind and go?
"Did you never love me?" Irene found herself asking her mother who had run away with someone, abandoning her family.
"Was I a mistake that you regretted? Was I not good enough to be loved? Was I not?"
"Irene."
She was startled and out of her daze with Melissa's voice.
Melissa's face gave away that she had heard everything.
Melissa was near Irene in two long strides. "Do you miss her?"
Irene looked away.
"Do you miss her, Irene?" Melissa asked again, this time kneeling in front of her.
"No. I have lost everything because of her. I can't miss her. I don't miss her," Irene replied in a stern tone but deep inside, somewhere in some corners in her heart, she was desperate to meet her mother. Just once. Just to ask her why she did what she did.
Just to ask if she never cared about her.
Just to ask if she never loved her.
Just to ask why she ruined her happy family.
Just once.
To know what she did to deserve what she had to go through because of her.
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LostInFictions
LostInFictions My apologies for the delay in updating. I don't have a stockpile. I update as I write and unfortunately, I have some serious health concerns that do not let me write even if I want to. Thank you for being patient.
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