CHAPTER SIX

The hairs on her neck and arms stood high on hearing Alexia's squeal. She stared through the fringes of her long lashes and decided to keep mute in hopes that she wasn't going to talk about Quinn.

“ I'm not good at guessing. Just tell me already. ”

“ Just guess. I will say it if you are wrong”

Mason nodded at her. “ Alright then. Umm...well, only Tina Walker is capable of making you this excited ” He shrugged nonchalantly. There was no way Tina Walker would have made a trip to the hospital.

“ You are very close. I saw her boyfriend instead. ”

Mason glanced at Alyssa . “ You don't look surprised. Were you already aware about it?”

Before Alyssa could respond, Alexia opened her big mouth “ Why would she be surprised? She brought him to visit me. I must tell you something, ” She tried to lean closer but was unable to do so. She lowered her eyes in disappointment. He noticed it and went over to meet her.

Her eyes lit in delight and she smiled mischievously.

“ I think Ally and Quinn Winters are quite close.” As if it wasn't enough, she added. “ He patted her head”

Alyssa felt a shiver run down her spine. She raised her head up only to meet with Mason's complicated gaze. She looked away feeling guilty about everything.

Alexia glanced at the quiet older people. The tension in the air was strong. She cleared her throat drawing their attention to her.

“ I'm feeling tired ”

*Of course you would be after stirring trouble* Alyssa glared at her sister's innocent look.

Mason wheeled her to her room with Alyssa following closely, her head lowered.

He carefully placed her on the bed and a nurse entered to change her IV.

In a short while, Alexia's soft snore enveloped the quiet ward.

Mason turned to Alyssa whose head was still lowered than and playing with the rope of her oversized hoodie

“ I guess you owe me lots of explanations. Why did Quinn Winters visit Alexia today? and he even patted your head?”

Alyssa's eyes wandered around trying to avoid his intense gaze. Mason moved closer to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. A loud growl sounded which caused Alyssa's cheek heat up in embarrassment.

“ Let's eat something first. We can talk over lunch” Mason said and led Alyssa out of the room quietly closing the door behind.

Alyssa sat across Mason chewing her lower lip under his stare. She wished to continue eating lunch forever so she won't have to have a discussion about her disappearance in the first place.

“ Since you have been avoiding my question, I will have to ask specifically....First and foremost, what happened on the night of that event three months ago?”

Alyssa's lips parted as she stared at him. She wasn't the type to keep secrets from him. She had been confiding in him since she was sixteen so keeping secrets now seemed harder than she thought. Before she knew it, her mouth began moving on its own accord.

“ I was in the party on the night of the event. Stacy begged me to fill in for her, her brother suddenly started vomiting so she had to tend to him. That was when I found out you escorted your cousin to the party”

“ Yeah. I tried looking for you after that but I couldn't find you and you weren't picking my calls. It was as though you disappeared from the surface of the earth ”

Alyssa took in a couple of deep breaths trying to arrange her words together.

.

“ Ally....I'm really sorry that I have to trouble you. My brother suddenly started vomiting at home. Can you please fill in for me till I settle everything with him. You're the only one I can count on since you're quite less busy.” Stacy said as she opened her locker and handed her an ID card.

Alyssa hesitated but still received the ID card. Stacy was such a sweet lady she couldn't refuse. Beside it was the first time she had seen her so lost and worried. She still had some free time before her work shift that was in two hours time.

“ Thank you very much. You just have to pretend to be me till I come back. Thanks once again” Stacy said, her eyes filled with gratitude.

“ It's nothing. Your brother's health come first ” Just like her sister's health comes first for her.

After Stacy left, Alyssa leaned on the locker for a while with her eyes closed. She heard the clicking of heels against the floor and she opened her eyes.

“ If you are going to stand there all day then you shouldn't have bothered to help Stacy out. The rest of the waiters are outside. It's best you join them now. The event is starting soon.”

“Yes ma'am ” Alyssa said as she wore the ID card and walked out of the room.

After series of instructions from the manager, the waiters went on to carry their respective duties.

Alyssa glided softly across the floor while holding a tray filled with drinks. Her feet were already aching from the four inches she wore. She couldn't understand how the ladies in the event were able to move freely in heels that were obviously higher than hers.

*They must have been used to it after a very long time*

“Softy?”

A familiar voiced called out surprising her. Only Mason called her a very childish name like that. She turned to the direction of the voice and saw Mason approaching with a lady beside him. It was hard to tell if she was younger or older than him judging from her dress and make up.

“ Softy, what're you doing here? When did you start working as a waiter?”

Alyssa ignored his question and quickly handed the lady beside him a drink.

“ I also did not know that an eighteen year old boy is allowed to attend this party”

“ Who are you calling an eighteen year old boy. This is my cousin, Rose. I had to escort her since her boyfriend suddenly... Oww” Mason winced sending his cousin a pained glare.

“ Nice to meet you. Ignore what he said just now” Rose laughed slightly. Alyssa nodded returning her smile.

“ I really have to go now. I had to fill in for a colleague at work. I will talk to you later”

“ Wait! When will you get off work? ”

“ Hopefully in three hours time” Alyssa said and turned on her heels.

She continued serving till Stacy arrived and took over from there.

“ Thank you very much” Stacy handed her a wine glass and quickly walked away.

Alyssa smiled at her departing back “ Is she shy or what” It was after emptying the contents of the wine glass down her throat that she noticed she was very tasty.

Well water can wait for she had her own cleaning job to do. She quickly changed to her own dress and grabbed the items she needed for cleaning then marched to the elevator reserved for the workers.

By the time she got out of the elevator, she was already drenched in sweat and feeling uncomfortable. She managed to clean the four rooms allocated to her with much difficulty. She was about leaving the topmost floor when she saw a message from another colleague. She took a deep breath to steady herself. Everything surrounding her was getting blurred and it seemed like she was about to enter the ground. She looked straight ahead and saw the door with ‘ SWW7” staring back at her. She sighed and dragged her feet to the room silently cursing her soft heart that's unable to refuse anyone's request.

As soon as she opened the door with the master key, she began cleaning the room with all the power she could muster despite her weakness. The person who was supposed to clean the room promised to give her twenty dollars. A very huge amount of money to her.

Despite her condition, she was able to make out the fact that the room was very neat. It seemed like no one has ever stepped into the room before.

Her tired eyes went to the bed and she couldn't resist the temptation to lay on it even if it's for a while. No one was going to know, the room was being cleaned for the next day.

She kicked off her shoes and undid the button of her shirt before falling on the soft bed.

Seconds passed slowly turning into minutes. The door creaked open and someone entered into the room panting heavily like something bad had happened.

Alyssa heard the sound but she was too lazy to get up. She was slowly drifting into the dreamland and didn't even notice when the side of the soft bed dipped down indicating an additional presence in the bed.