Chapter Forty-eight

Chapter Forty-eight

My mom and dad looked at each other with an amused look on their face before bursting into laughter.

“What’s funny?” I asked instead with a pissed off look on my face. Did these two take me for a joke now? Does it sound funny that I hate someone?

“Waffle never told me we got a new waffle,” my dad said sarcastically, laughing. “Who’s the guy that is teasing my waffle’s heart?”

“You have no idea, Derrick. Someone ate your waffle while you were away.” my mom said sardonically, demonstrating with her hands and laughing.

“Mom!” I chided angrily and she had a surrendered look on her face. How could she be making such nasty jokes about me, right in front of me?

“I’m sorry.” she said with a weird grin on her face as she rolled her eyes at me, and soon these two annoying people were back at it again, laughing at me.

“Jeez! Can you two just stop?” I asked angrily as I stamped my feet at them.

“Sure we will,” my dad said laughing, “but your face looks so epic” My mom added exaggeratedly, expressively showing me with her face how mine might be looking.

“What did I say wrong? Is it wrong of me to hate him?” I asked confusedly as I glared at them both.

“There you go again!” my dad said laughing.

What seemed to be funny about this anyway? And when I say laughing, they were both laughing like their lives depended on it, and it made me feel awful, like a trashy laughing stock.

“You don’t - you don’t say it like you mean it all” my mom said choking with laughter, “it’s just like you saying; I hate that I love him…”

“And I hate that it’s obvious and everyone knows it!” my dad interrupted, as his back arched in laughter. These two had ganged up against me, and they were not gonna let me go anytime soon until I admitted it.

“That’s not funny… I don’t love him.” I said but my words seemed to be unsure of my reality.

“Yeah. we’re very sure of that.” My mom said sarcastically as she tried to maintain a serious look on her face.

“Seriously, you two are gonna gang up and annoy me now?” I asked seriously with a pissed off look on my face.

“We dare not waff…” my dad was saying but I cut him off angrily.

“You both just suit yourselves, now you gang up and annoy me together. God, I hate this place!” I spit frustratedly, and with that, I stalk off the room, leaving them both staring after my back with an almost regretful look.

* * * * *

I sat by my room’s window thinking - how wonderful and quiet my life had been when I was much younger, I guess in my egg stage of metamorphosis. Truly, I had no idea where I was or where I was going, but I knew where I wanted to be.

Certainly not here.

I was fearful, confused and lonesome, trying to find myself. Maybe I was only a caterpillar, still learning the world with everything seeming immune to me. And that was why I was finding it hard to take it all in at once, but to be a butterfly, one must first be a butter before he flies right?

I would certainly fly above my circumstances, that I know.

But how did I get here? It all seemed peaceful until, boom, one night changed everything. Or maybe, it was brewing to get sour since the time of Gin and I didn’t just know it. Maybe, I was simply a part of the cause of all my problems, I made it happen, and now, I had to find a way to unhappen it, or maybe not undo it, but… learn from it, get nuggets and act better subsequently.

Maybe if I had listened to my mom back then, all of these wouldn’t have happened. Maybe, just maybe. Who knows? But like I said, she was always right, but I hated her tone, so much. Why did she have to tell me the truth in a hard, bitter, way? Just like now - I mean umm… she might not be right about Brandon anyway. She doesn’t even know him. But wait, that was the same way she hated Ethan without even knowing him, and I thought she was just being paranoid… could her instincts be right this time? Or would her instincts turn out wrong when I decide to believe her for the first time?

If her instincts were right in this case, how come Brandon had shady deals behind my back? And it was obvious he had been the person blackmailing me all along! At least, I could clearly see that from the photos right? It’s either he is partnering with Mia to silently kill me or maybe, just maybe, he’s another serial maniac. ‘Cause I have no idea why he had photos of me printed and kept in his drawer, and these were not just random photos, he had been taking photos of me everywhere I went for the past week. He’s been stalking me, and I know he has seen me here, otherwise, he can’t just show up at my front porch with some gifts right?

I wonder why I have to be involved with maniacs everytime. This guy is really a maniac. Why does he want me? Why is he after me? ‘Cause, now that I think of it, after our night together, he just found a way to knock me off with his car on the street, so he could have a chance to save me, and make my life revolve all around him, and he was really proud of it when Ethan asked him at the hospital. What a monster! Is he not a monster!

Come to think of it, he somehow found a way to my doorstep after I got discharged from the hospital without me even giving him my address. Not only that, he seemed to know that I’ll be under attack from the hooded men and appeared like a knight in shiny armour, waiting there for me at the clubhouse to save me. Then what about those guys that appeared from the darkness and dragged away the body of the man he casually killed!?

Oh God! What more sign do I need to know that he can never be the one for me and he is just another maniac that wants me dead? What more sign do I need when everything about him spells danger and dark mystery?

As I was caught up in the chaotic rumblings of my thoughts, wondering what might be and what might not be, I heard a voice which I believed to be from my reality ask me in a soft voice;

“Are you okay?”