Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

“Ugh!” I groan in frustration at the throbbing pain in my lower abdomen. I roll over on the bed and lie flat on my tummy, but the pain only seems to increase. I grumpily get up with a sour expression plastered on my face. I feel a throbbing headache too and everything just feels so terrible. I am suddenly very irritated by almost everything I see or think, as I stutter to the bathroom.

Why do I feel this way? I wonder.

I pull down my panties to urinate, and I find out that it’s stained with red, hot, tomato sauce! Gosh! I’m on my period. That explains it better, my sudden mood swing. It’s indeed gonna be a long, hard night if I don’t take my painkillers.

“God why now!?” I cry, but I suddenly realise something and instead coo; “Oh, thank God, I’m not pregnant!”

Ahh, that indeed was a relief, but a sudden gush of sadness immediately waded through me and my initial excitement soon dissipated.

I stroll jaggedly to my bedside table and scramble for my pain killers, but there is none left.

“Ugh! What do I do now?” I breathe, “I don’t even wanna go out!” I pull out the drawers to retrieve a pad, but my sanitary pads are also exhausted.

“Oh no, This can’t be happening!” I sulk bitterly.

I grunt angrily and take my credit card from the next drawer, stuff it into my pyjamas pockets and walk out to the main street. I glance over my phone to check the time and it’s 9:30 PM. Quite late.

I walk into a well lit, organised shop down the street and request for my usual painkillers and sanitary pad. I hand over my card to the cashier for the payment of the drugs, but she swipes it and looks back at me weirdly.

“What?” I ask irritatedly.

“This card is empty ma’am.” She stutters in a calm voice.

I gaped at her in shock, “What!?”

Ethan Spikes! It can’t be anyone else but him. How could he do this to me?

The tears threatened to pour from my eyes as I stood there in total confusion on what to do next. I had never been this embarrassed, ever in my life.

“What do I do now?” I think painfully. Obviously, nothing but to go home. Jeez… this is crazy!

I walk back home in despair, thinking of how my life had suddenly turned into a mess, because of a simple “Hi”. Yes. A hi from years back that has now turned into empty credit cards, empty cupboards and boggling threats from the one person I thought I loved. If I had known that his “Hi” would be the beginning of my misery, I would’ve ignored him totally that day.

He looked cool. He was sweet. He was nurturing, but what happened to him now? Why did he change so much? Was I really the reason behind this? My selfishness, My negligence, my trauma…?

I remember four years ago when we first met;

FLASHBACK

“Hi.” A young guy who was about three years older than me appeared before me, smiling shyly at me with a tray of food and smoothie in his hands. He was tall, with fine black eyes and straight black hair tinted gold at the tips that fell slightly over his shoulders and face. He looked brusque and a bit rough, but still cute.

“Hi,” I smiled back at him warmly.

“Can I join you here?” he asks kindly.

It was a table for four, and I was expecting Mia and Gin to join me in a short while.

“Yeah, sure, you may.” I beam at him and he takes his seat beside me with a smile.

“I’m Ethan, Ethan Spikes.” He introduces himself while maintaining full eye contact with me. Mia used to call it the “Galena effect”, but I’ve seen myself to be that cute.

“Galena Fields, pleased to meet you.” I reply and take a spoonful of food into my mouth, and chew, and when I look up, he’s staring intently at me. He looks away quickly as he is embarrassed that I catch him staring. Of course, the Galena effect was already taking its course.

Soon after, Gin, Mia’s brother, joined us on the table. He sat on the other side beside me, totally ignoring Ethan. That was very unlike him, as he was a very sociable person. I could denote that he didn’t like Ethan, but I didn’t seem to see anything wrong with him. I just thought he was a cool student like everyone of us, and he just wanted to be friends, right?


Noticing the awkwardness and the building tension between Gin and Ethan, I decide to lighten the mood, in the best way I can. Gin of course was focused only on his phone, not minding even me. He seemed to be pissed off by Ethan’s presence. He must just have been his usual overreacting and over protective self over me. I didn’t care if they liked each other or not, but as far as I was there, they had to at least be courteous, acknowledging each other’s presence, right?

“Hey Gin, meet my friend Ethan Spikes.” I smile warmly towards him, but Gin looks at me, then at Ethan, and goes back to tapping away at his phone, acting like no one was even there with me. At that point, I couldn’t help but smile apologetically at Ethan, and he smiled back at me.

“You’re so pretty.” He, that is, Ethan whispers in my ear and I instantly flush pink. Just then, Mia takes her place on the last empty seat on the table. She looked suspiciously at me, then at Ethan, demanding an explanation with her eyes. You could easily call her the mother hen, ‘cause yeah, she always had a way of protecting me from these hawks - the boys.

Ethan passed me a note from beneath the table that read:

“Can I see you tonight? Cos I think I’ve found a goddess that glows better than the moon.

Could you be my moon for tonight? Cos, I’d really appreciate you following me around. (With a smiley face effect)”

I blush at the contents of his letter, glancing at him shyly.

“Why are you all flushed up Lena?” Mia questions with raised eyebrows, as she glared suspiciously at Ethan, with that territorial look in her face.

“I… err” I try to explain but choke on my words….

End of Flashback.

A text message breaks me away from my time travel. I peer into my phone and what I see freaks me out. I look around in confusion with a tear stained face.

The blackmailer sent a photo of me in my pyjamas right inside the shop from before, with the inscription: “We know you’re in there!”

We!? Who!???