3.55 p.m There was no sign of a soul around. The building was extremely silent; so silent that I could make out the ticking of Mr. Decarlo's watch. I was seated on a bench by the pool and he was leaning onto a wall nearby. He had his arms crossed over his chest and one foot on the wall behind him. He was clearly deep in thought. Right now, neither of us had a plan for busting ourselves out. But well, one of us has got to come up with something! I'd rather die than be trapped in here with this unpleasant soul. "Mr. Decarlo," I broke the dead silence. He turned his head to face me. Raising his eyebrows, he shot a questioning look at me without a single word. "How exactly did you find me here?" His flat facial expression barely altered. "Is that important right now?" Bringing his right hand to his face, he rubbed his temples, clearly trying to keep me quiet. "Yes," I replied, unaffected by his gloomy aura. "Well, it's a good thing that you haven't hidden the contents of your noti
"Nothing happened in that building today, you hear me?" Mr. Decarlo said as he opened the wall cabinet in his office. "You telling me that... I should keep it a secret?" "No," he said as he shut the cabinet. Turning towards me, he simply said, "I'm telling you to forget everything that just happened. You didn't go to the pool. You didn't meet me there. We weren't trapped in a building. We didn't climb down a rope and I didn't get blood stains on my shirt. Is that clear?" With that he approached me and looked directly into my eyes as he handed a bandage to me. I took a deep breath, slightly intimidated by his ghastly stare. "Yes. Crystal clear," But why? "Good," he nodded. "Now what was that... thing about me treating you better?" F***. "What!?" I blurted out. "Nothing! Nothing!" I chuckled nervously. "Nothing at all," "Mm hmm," he narrowed his eyes at me. "Now go home before anyone gets suspicious," He's right! It's 10 minutes past 5 already! Thank god, I'm returning to my apa
"I say, there's someone behind all this," "Yeah, man," Leah strongly agreed. "There'ssomeonebehind all these rumors and stalking; someone who holds a bitter grudge against ya," "Well," I sighed
"Hey, peaches! Did you get the popcorn?" Yeah yeah, I know. I was supposed to answer. But at that moment, I didn't wanna say anything.I walked straight up to Adrian and bumped my head on his chest.He knows that I did it whenever I was too embarrassed to look at him.
"Tell me, sir!" I demanded. "I'm dying to know!" Gritting his teeth, he was looking away. His face showed guilt mixed with frustration. He didn't meet my eyes even for a split second. "Sir!" "Winslow," he said as he stood up from his seat. He walked upto me and snapped, "Get out of here," Ugh! Excuse me! "No," I said, casually. His head snapped in my direction and he stared at me, his grey eyes wide. "I thought I told you to get out!" "Not until I get an answer!" Damn, that cost me a lot of guts. Letting out a deep breath, he grabbed my upper arm and yelled, "Get out!" He started pulling me towards the door, in order to push me out. "Let go! You can't do this to me!" I yelled, as I punched his chest repeatedly. Scrunching his shirt in my hands, I tugged on it violently as the bittermemories from last night replayed in my head like a movie. "Tell me!" I screamed as I felt warm drops of tears stream down my face. "Tell me, what the hell I did to deserve this from you!" His fir
The downpour was quite heavy. I'm not sure if I understood how Mr. Decarlo managed to drive without even slowing down. The only thing that managed to make the silence less awkward, was the sound of raindrops continuously crashing on the hood of the car. Oh god, this is so awkward... what am I supposed to say!? Wait a minute, why did I even get in his car in the first place!? I don't even know where he's headed to. Where is he taking me!? Obviously not home! He doesn't know where I live! Why isn't he asking me!? S***! Holy s***! This is bad!!! Slowly, I turned to take a glimpse of him. He had his eyes fixed on the road, one hand on the wheel. His head rested against the seat. He looked peaceful, but it was evident that there was a lot running through his mind. "What are you looking at, Winslow?" He groaned. Almost immediately, I averted my gaze back onto the road. Gulping, I braced myself to raise a question. "Mr. Decarlo?" I muttered, followed by a gulp. Silence. Curious about
"Um... thank you," I said, trying my level best to sound sincere. "... Mr. Decarlo," "Yeah okay, now get out," A**hole...
Despite the day light pouring in through the translucent curtains of the high windows, the lighting in the hall was noticeably dim. The temperature of the air was perceptibly lower than that of the outside. Chilly air... dim lighting... these are tips used in interrogations...
8 months prior to present time The lemon cream fish wasn’t as delicious as he had expected it to be. He was rather disappointed. But then again, only few times in a million was he ever satisfied with the food that restaurants served. He would naturally gravitate towards stronger, richer flavors. This didn’t exactly hit the spot. Certainly not like his mother’s legendary paella would. “I heard that Oliver got his appointment at the Herendale Medical Center,” the blonde haired man who sat across him, muttered immediately after swallowing a cherry tomato. “Yeah, he works there now,” Antonio replied as he sipped on the red wine. “It’s what he wanted. He didn’t want to deal with the trouble of moving,”“Fair, I would say. Finding a good place isn’t easy,”“I agree,” he said, taking another sip. “Speaking of residences, he lives close by, huh?” he questioned Antonio, as he popped an olive in his mouth. “Floor above mine,” the Spaniard sighed, recalling all the times he would come home
"Hello," an unfamiliar voice spoke."Oh! Um hello," Aeliana replied as she glanced at him, smiling nervously.The man was laying down on a sunchair, dressed in a beige short and printed shirt. He held a book in his hand and had a pair of sunglasses over his eyes until a while ago."Do you live here?" he asked, with a small smile secured on his face as his caramel brown orbs glistened through his narrowed eyes."Oh, no actually. I'm here to visit my brother, he isn't in right now though," Aeliana explained as she noticed how the man was clearly wondering what she was doing there. "I actually came up here out of curiosity. I live in the East Wing and there's no pool there, so...""Right," he said as he let out a small chuckle. "I'm sorry if I took you by surprise, it's just that I feel like I've seen you before,""Oh, is that so?" she was taken ab
"Didn't it occur to you that you were supposed to buy a new one, when the cable in use was hanging by a single wire?" Aeliana looked at her brother in disbelief as she handed him the cable that was safely tucked in her bag until few seconds ago. "Thanks," he said simply, as he gladly wrapped his fingers around the white cable. "I'm leaving," Aeliana said. "I have work to do," "Work?" Adrian questioned as he plugged his phone into a power bank. "Oh, right. Exam," "Yeah," "We're throwing that party as soon as it's over," Adrian announced as he raised his eyebrows. "Don't tell me you forgot about it," "I couldn't care less about that right now," Aeliana rolled her eyes. "Professor challenged us. Half of the class should score an A grade. If not, he's going to schedule summer classes," "Summer classes?" "Mm hmm,"
The seconds passing by, felt like hours. When will Mr. Burke stop scribbling on that board? I've had enough organic chemistry for one day. A little bit of physics would be the cherry on top right now. Aeliana stared at the wall clock, impatiently waiting for the long arm to approach '12'. "Why'd they have to switch slots? It's so annoying," Leah muttered to her. "Tell me about it," Aeliana rolled her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "My brain is only conditioned for dreadful physics early in the morning," "Uh huh," Leah agreed. "I'm a lil' drowsy too," "10 minutes to go," Aeliana mumbled to her friend. "You got this!"***** "Is anyone interested in getting anything from the vending machine?" Leah
"Maybe he was getting his beauty sleep," the blond haired girl rubbed her eyes. "Ew," Aeliana scrunched her nose at how disgustingly cliche her best friend sounded. "You probably checked your phone 438771 times last night, to check if he had replied," Maddie wiggled her eyebrows at her and took a sip of her coffee. "Did not," she snapped in response, embarrassed by how well Maddie knew her. "I wonder what the 'E' stands for," Maddie muttered as she brought the white mug she held, to her lips. "Eric? Ethan?" "Hmm," "Elliot?"
"Evening," Madelyn walked in through the door to their shared apartment. "Hi," Aeliana muttered as she looked up from her textbook. "How was work without me?" “Boring, to be honest,” she replied. “Especially because a familiar hot-ass daddy showed up and didn’t even look around for his little princess,” “Of course he didn’t,” Aeliana rolled her eyes, very well aware as to why he didn’t. “Did you meet him today?” Madelyn questioned eagerly, as she dumped her bag and coat on the sofa. “I thought I already told you, Maddie,” Aeliana rolled her eyes as she clicked her pen. “We have physics lectures daily,” “Ugh! Boring!” she exclaimed. “That isn't what I meant,”
Taking small, cautious steps towards the tall man, Aeliana wondered why he had demanded her to come over to him.
"I believe I said, 'The Feynman Lectures; Volume 2'," Mr. Decarlo growled as he looked down at the grey cover of the book that said 'Vol. 1'. "Isn't that it?" Aeliana asked, not bothering the slightest bit to make a single movement. "You had one job, Winslow," He sighed, waving the thick book in the air.
He said 'no'.... Why did he say 'no'?Normally, he would want me to forget everything unusual that happened between us... but right now, few minutes before, he was... different...