Chapter Seven

“How did you get my number?”

Then he laughed. In Claire’s memory, the familiar laughter brought warmth, but ten years later, it almost sounded frightening. She felt herself starting to shiver at the thought of being near her father— she grew to hate him more as each day passes, and she didn’t realize that until this moment.

“It didn’t take long to convince your mother”

She didn’t think that she could get even angrier than she already was, but she did, much to her surprise. She watched her father beat her mother senseless, but despite all that, her mother still loved him and a few buttered-up words from him can make her forget where her bruises and her scars came from.

Claire hated that, too. She hated how much power a man has over her mother just because she loved him.

“You…” she mumbled, embracing the anger bubbling up inside her, threatening to burst. “If I ever see you near my mother again, I swear—“

“I know”, he cut her off. “I won’t. I just… want to see my daughter. And perhaps…”

“Perhaps what?”

“Visit my son’s grave, too”

“You dare?!” she finally burst, screaming into the mic of her phone. She didn’t want to wake her mother up who was currently sleeping in the room on the other end of the hall nor worry her best friend but she couldn’t help it. “You killed him!”

“I’m sorry. Look… I know there’s nothing I can do now but…”

Claire wanted to say more. She wanted to let him know how much hatred she had developed for him over the years, but she figured that she would be more at a loss if she wasted any second more of her time trying to do so.

She, undoubtedly, had imagined of this day— when her father would reach out to them— and even made up a script in her head of the things that she wanted to say. Everything was mentally written in bullets, tables, and charts. If she wanted to give him even a piece of her mind, it would take her more than a night.

“Don’t ever call me or my mother again”

And with that, she dropped the call, without even waiting for her father’s reply.

Before going back to her bedroom, she wiped her tears with her pajama sleeve, cleared her throat, and forced herself to wipe the frown off her face. The last thing she wanted was to worry Jessica.

“Claire?”

She closed the door and when she turned around to face her best friend, she met her brown eyes filled with concern. And that moment, she felt vulnerable. Jess knew that she was suffering at one glance and wordlessly raised her arms for a hug.

Claire ran to her and buried her face on her chest. A dam broke inside her and ten years’ worth of anguish tears ran down her cheeks.

“I’m here”, Jess softly mumbled in her hair as she patted her shoulder and rocked her back and forth like a baby in a cradle. “I’m here for you, Claire”

She continued to cry until her throat hurt and her eyes felt dry.

---

The school bell rang.

As usual, the classroom was then filled by the hustling of the students a split second later. The week of continuous tests was over and Claire could hear students either comparing grades, planning to celebrate, or sighing in relief. She personally liked taking tests since she would feel like she was being challenged to do better. But of course, she would never verbally admit to such.

“It’s over”

Claire looked up from arranging her books in her backpack to look at Jess standing in front of her desk, her usual goofy smile dancing on her lips.

“Did you do well?”

“I wouldn’t say I didn’t”, she replied, shrugging. “But I don’t think I did either”

Claire smiled. Standing up, she linked her arms with Jess’s before starting to head towards the door. “Where should we go today?”

“Oh”, Jess’s eyes widened in pleasant surprise and she craned her neck to look at her. “It’s Friday. You don’t have a tutorial session with Ethan today?”

“Nope”, she shook her head. “There isn’t really anything that we can go over today. We had exams all week after all”

Jess pumped a celebratory fist in the air. She read out her mental list of some cafés and restaurants that they could go to, which unfortunately wasn’t that long, as they walked with linked arms towards the building’s exit. Claire felt like Jess was trying to cheer her up as much as she could by being more energetic than usual. She hated herself a little for making her worry but was grateful for the sentiment anyway.

When they got to the bus stop, Claire spotted a familiar figure leaning against one of the posts. Although he tried to keep a low profile, only wearing a simple jacket and jeans combo, he still stood out among the crowd. Claire wasn’t sure if it was because of his aura or his designer brands-clad self that caught her eye so quickly.

“Oh, isn’t that Ethan?”

“Yeah”, she mumbled. “I don’t know why he’s here, though, when he has a car”

Claire wasn’t in the mood to interact with him. Having to spend a couple of hours alone with Ethan once a week was enough for her, so she looked away, hoping that he wouldn’t notice her.

But it was a futile attempt.

“Hey, Claire!”

She stopped in her tracks. Jess seemed to sense that she didn’t want to be noticed so she chuckled softly when they heard him call for her.

“He saw you”, she whispered. Jess then let go of her arm before pointing at the bench in the waiting shed. “I’ll be waiting for you there”

Claire hastily made up a plan in her head to use Jess as an escape route but now that she left without waiting for her reply, she was empty-handed. It would seem pathetic to call her friend back and then use her as an excuse to leave, later on, so having left with no choice, she turned around to face Ethan and sighed.

“Hey”, she greeted when Ethan approached her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jess staring at them with a huge smile on her face.

“Claire”, Ethan started to say, his smile growing wider by the second. She looked down at his hand and noticed that he was clutching a roll of papers. “Guess what?”

She hummed in response and looked up at him to meet his eyes. “What?”

“Ta-dah!”

Ethan raised his hand and suddenly she found herself face to face with his test papers. At such close proximity, she couldn’t read anything, so she took the papers and started to go through them. Her look of amusement must’ve been evident since she heard him mumble a few compliments to himself.

Ethan did a good job in every single test. He scored no lower than 75%, which was pretty impressive if one knew how he did during the mock tests that Claire would give him during their tutorial sessions every Friday.

“Impressive”, she said afterward, reaching out to hand the test papers back to him. “You did way better than I expected”

“That’s kinda mean”, Ethan replied before taking the test papers back and stuffing them into his back jean pocket. “But thank you. You helped me a lot”

“Yeah, sure I did”

“So…” Ethan started to say, yet again, showing off his dimpled smile that made her heart race. “Do you have plans? I was thinking that maybe I could treat you for a meal as a thank you”

“Umm actually”, she replied and glanced at Jess who was patiently waiting for her, sitting on the bench. “I have plans with Jess, my best friend”

Ethan followed her line of vision and true enough, he saw Jess happily waving at them. “Oh”

“I’m sorry, Ethan”

Claire felt bad since she saw how Ethan slowly dropped his smile. His oh sounded too disappointed in her ears as well. She figured that ever since receiving his first test result, he must’ve been looking forward to celebrating with her.

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise”

“Really?” Ethan asked, turning to face her again. His face lit up with expectation— eyes wide, brows raised, silly smile, and all. “You promise?”

“Yes yes”, she chuckled softly at his reaction and nodded in assurance. “I promise”

“Great!”

His smile widened again. He then placed his hand on her head and leaned down to her eye level. His face was so close that Claire could feel his breath on the tip of her nose. As if on cue, her pulse quickened and pounded against her ribcage, and her face started to get warmer as blood rushed to her cheeks. He held her gaze so she was left frozen on the spot, drowning in Ethan’s green eyes.

She attempted to protest but when she opened her mouth, her throat felt dry that all she could muster was a quiet incoherent mumble. They were at a bus stop and she could feel the onlookers’ stares burning right through her. The thought made her feel self-conscious, causing her to blush more.

The fact that Ethan could casually do these things and not feel flustered nor embarrassed irritated her.

“Tomorrow, I’ll pick you up”, he whispered. “It’s a date”

With that, he dropped his hand and left, waving his roll of papers casually over his shoulder.