Chapter 16
[Vision of Aya Millenis]
I feel my eyes heavy and a bitter taste in my mouth, my head hurts, my whole body hurts too. I take a deep breath, what happened?
Without opening my eyes I sit up in bed, I keep breathing deeply, the air is so cold and dry, what time is it? My sister hasn’t come to call me for coffee yet… Wait… I was…
“I am glad you are awake,” I immediately open my eyes, hearing this voice that brings back memories.
I look at her and she is sitting in an armchair near the bedroom door, the image of the last events are clear in my mind making my head throb. Mrs. Carmen gets up and takes a tray that was on the nightstand.
“Eat, you’ll feel better,” she places the tray beside me on the bed.
I look at her and she turns her back on me and leaves the room, I turn my attention to the contents of the tray and there is a lot of food here. Bread and cheese, apples cut into a little pot, juice and chocolate cake. Just the sight of this makes my stomach rumble, my mouth sputter and I don’t even think much about it, I just attack the bread rolls, they are still very warm. In less than five minutes I take the last sip of the orange juice. I couldn’t help burping, I can’t even remember the last time I ate so much.
“Was it tasty?” Mrs. Carmen enters the room again. I feel bad, I create courage and get out of bed, the contact of my feet on the floor send small shocks to my spine.
“Look…” I close my eyes, I regret the things I said to her, “I’m sorry for saying those things to you, I… I had no right to offend you.”
“I’m sorry too, a lot of things happened to you and I just kept making light of it, no one deserves to go through what you went through.”
I feel the tears burning my eyes, I can’t control myself, I have never been so alone in all my life, there, in my parents’ house, I at least had my sister, even with the fights, it was her and me, now it’s me and only me, I don’t know what to do. The tears run hot with a salty taste, my nose starts to run, I lower my head, this is so Comfortable!Material © of NôvelDrama.Org.
Warm arms surround me and squeeze me in a welcoming way, I can’t even remember the last time someone hugged me in such a loving way. The tears stop at the same instant, without even thinking I raise my arms and reciprocate, resting my head on Mrs. Carmen’s shoulder, we stay like this for a few minutes.
“Let’s talk,” she says, undoing the hug.
She sits on the bed and I do the same, she takes a deep breath and takes a few seconds to start talking.
“Iuri told me about the things that happened to you,” she looks into my eyes, “My husband and I made the decision to take care of you.”
“Wha… What do you mean by this?”
“You from now on, you will be like… like… You will be like my goddaughter, I won’t leave you on the street, you will live here and go to some university, when you graduate you are guaranteed a position in the company, in the sector in which you choose to work.”
I feel my heart skip a beat, I insulted her so much yesterday. Not only her, but Iuri too, and yet… She is being generous with me, I can’t accept it.
“I… I’m very grateful, but I can’t accept it,” I speak with a hurting heart, I have nowhere else to go.
“Why can’t you?”
“I hurled terrible insults at you and your son, no matter what happened to me, I never had the right to say what I said, especially since I don’t even know you,” I have never felt this bad, this is the first time I raised my voice, too bad it was to the wrong people.
“I want you to study and become a great professional, I want you to help the company grow, and I want you to show your mom and dad that you don’t need their money for anything!”
Again I feel my eyes burning with tears, how could I have said that I hated people like her? She is not even remotely like my mother, you can see that she loves and does everything to see her son happy, very different from mine, for my mother, the one who has to do everything is me to make her happy.
“I… I don’t know what to say,” I hold my breath, I don’t want to cry again.
“I have known your mother for many years, we always got along well, she was always strict and very perfectionist, very different from me, however, she always seemed to have a good heart,” she sighs heavily, “I never imagined that she was capable of doing what she did to her own daughter, I also heard that she was forcing you to accept Iuri, the idea of the dinner was mine, I thought you two were close since you studied at the same school, but Iuri told me you like someone else, I feel very bad, it never crossed my mind to force you to accept my son.”
“I…”
“I always wanted my son to date a girl, I was so happy when he mentioned your name, I always thought you were very polite. He has liked you since he was six years old, I was so happy…”
“I… I have to apologize to him,” I interrupted her and she looked at me attentively, “He… he… He was the only one to help me… Even though I said so many horrible things to him.”
“I won’t lie, I also think you should apologize to him, even though he already apologized to you the second after you insulted him, I am very proud of my son, but you can’t do that now.”
“Why not?” I feel my heart squeeze.
“He’s gone, and he won’t be back anytime soon, he left early this morning.”
“How long is it so soon?” I ask, guilt eating away at me, I need to see him and ask for forgiveness in a proper way.
“Many years, I just know it will take years for him to come back, more than five years.”
My mouth goes dry, he’s gone…. My fault? Probably, I said horrible things to him, I regret it bitterly, he was not the one who planned that dinner, he never even forced a conversation with me… He must have left so that I could stay here…
I feel like the worst person in the world, at this moment, I feel like apologizing with my forehead on the floor, just like I see in anime. My heart squeezes, he really liked me, and even after everything, he was the only one to reach out to me. I really am a horrible person!
“Don’t cry over spilled milk, take my advice and accept my help, time will tell what surprises await us,” he speaks kindly.
“You are right, I do accept your help and I hope one day to be able to repay all the good that you and your family are doing to me,” I say sincerely, I need to change myself.
“So it’s all right, now it’s time to go shopping, you need clothes and a computer, as you are already graduated you need to think about the course you want to follow and in which college.”
“Yes,” my voice came out shy.
[ Leandro Silva’s Vision]
“Who is that?” I look in the direction Marcos points and see Luana behind the glass of the exit door.
“A friend, man,” I take off my apron and hang it up with the others.
“She is very cute, how about introducing me?”
“Get real, she’s not for you,” I turn away and walk towards the exit, where Luana waits for me.
Luana has always been close to Suzana, and despite the regrets, I could not kill the love I feel for her, however, I will never forgive what she did. I was never close to Luana, if I ever spoke to her it was only once or twice. But on the day of the prom incident, we exchanged our numbers and talked a lot. She told me about her situation and how she has to work hard to get a better life for her mother, I identified with her, we are similar.
“I thought I was never going to get out of there,” she says smiling, she actually has a very nice smile.
“My co-worker likes you,” I say and notice her cheeks blush, she turns her face and I find it kind of cute.
I hold back my smile, her face now looks like a very red pepper. But she really does look beautiful, the light blue dress looks great on her dark skin.
“Thank you, you look…” she looks down at me, “You look presentable.”
I had to laugh, I’m smelling like pizza, with messy hair and wearing a beat-up shirt and shorts, and she still says I’m presentable.
“Of… What are you laughing at?” she asks.
“Are you sure you won’t feel embarrassed to go to the movies with me?”
“Of course not! You are a hard working man, a straight man, I would be ashamed if you were a drug addict bum.”
“I am happy that someone can see me in such a positive way,” I say, smiling, and she smiles too.
We agreed to go to the cinema to watch the movie Matrix, I saved up the money for two nights so that I could take her, she told me that she had never been to the cinema, I thought it was a pity, it is very good to go to the cinema, I have been four times, and I recommend it very much, it is money well spent.