COMPLICATED – Episode 13

COMPLICATED

Written by Princess Juliet

Episode 13

Their first kiss

It was at midnight that Jayden arrived home. Rain was pouring down, and the street was completely deserted except for the three policemen in riot gear guarding the mansion.

Fully aware of the time, he pulled into the driveway in front of the garage and briskly alighted from his car.

The moonlight was dim and had begun to show its pale face from behind the dark cloud, surrounding him in a hazy-metallic shimmer as he walked into the sitting room where he found his dad snoozing on the sofa.

He scoffed silently, ‘I bet he fell asleep waiting for me.’ With light quick steps, he carefully tiptoed past him and started towards the staircase.

“Where in god’s name are you coming from?”His dad boomed thunderously from behind him and he stopped walking. ‘Holy crap!’He squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip, silently cursing his bad luck. ‘So he hadn’t been sleeping, D**n!

“I’m talking to you, Jayden.” Trent sprang up to his feet and slowly began to walk towards him. “Where are you coming from by this time of the night?”He asked again, but this time around, in a calm voice.

“A friend’s place,” Jayden grunted his response and ran lightly up the stairs to the second floor, heading to his room.

“You went to a friend’s place, at the expense of your brother’s engagement party? That’s too bad.”Trent didn’t stop there. He followed behind him like a puppy, stopping for a moment when he flipped a light switch. “Or do you want to tell me that your friend is more important than your family? Tell me, is he or she more important than your promising career?”

“Please dad, don’t start that again.”Jayden stepped into his room, took off his suit jacket and flung it on the bed. “I know exactly what you are thinking and I’m not interested.”

“But this is a lifetime opportunity, son,” Trent cooed, “An opportunity to be famous. All you need to do is hold a business party inviting important doctors from around the world and then explain to the press how you discovered the drug cure for leukaemia…”

“Which you were never in support of,” Jayden snapped at him and he swallowed hard, confused at first, unsure of how he should respond.

“I never knew you were so serious about it.”He set his lips firmly as he gave an excuse, knowing it was a stupid one.

“Oh yeah!”Jayden sarcastically commented. He collapsed on the bed with a soft thud and started untying his shoes.

“You need to do this, son,” Trent pestered, he wasn’t ready to give up just yet. “you really need to do this. Do it for me, do it for you, do it for the Hobsons family.” The desperation in his voice drew Jayden’s attention and he paused to stare at him.

“I saw someone who looks like my nanny today,” He said after a few seconds and Trent froze in place.

“Your nanny?”His face was blanched with shock, “Why …..how….where…, I mean did she tell you anything? He stuttered and Jayden looked at him rather strangely.

“Is she supposed to tell me something?” He scoffed at his father. “I’m not even sure she is the one. She left me all alone in the hospital remember? She left me when I needed her the……….”He suddenly stopped talking when something clicked in his head–it was like a loud banging sound or thereabouts and he began to hear strange voices talking to him.

“I love you so much, baby! Feel my belle, Jayden. I’m going to give you a little sister whom you are gonna protect and love………….”All of this confused him and he held his head in his hands as vague images of a seemly pregnant woman jogged his memory.

“I love you, Jayden” The woman whispered again and he sucked in a breath, struggling to calm himself.

“Leave me alone.” He screamed so loudly that Mary who was sleeping in the next room jolted awake, scared to death. ‘Oh my god’ Her heart was racing so fast she thought she might pass out. ‘Where did that come from?’ She looked around her and slowly, the realisation dawned on her. “Oh no, Jayden! He is at it again.”She jumped out of the bed, pulled on her bathrobe and dashed out of the room, through the passage and into Jayden’s room where she was greeted with an appalling sight.
Her husband, Trent was sitting beside an almost unconscious Jayden looking so blank.

“What are you doing, Trent?” She screamed at him, “Go get his injection.”

Trent didn’t move or react to her words. He was too frightened to speak.

“Do you want him to die?’She yelled out in frustration and he slowly turned to her

“I think… I think…he remembered her,” His voice was barely more than a whisper and Mary gasped, trying to catch her breath at the weight of such revelation.

“You mean Matilda?” She spoke slowly, and her voice had a disembodied, metallic tone

Trent nodded his head in response.

“Not again,” She panicked silently. For a few seconds, there was an uncomfortable silence in the room, and then she inhaled deeply, bracing herself up. “Go get the injection,” Her voice sounded more composed than she felt and Trent looked at her, conflicted.

“You wouldn’t want him to live with the trauma, would you?”She asked and that was enough to convince Trent.

He rose to his feet and staggered on trembling legs to his room, only to find Greg standing in the doorway

“You want to inject him again, right?” Greg pinned him a cold glare, crossing his arm but Trent didn’t respond.

He completely ignored his son and walked over to his drawer, reaching into it for the syrup of metyrapone-a drug to erase bad memories and a syringe. He put all of the liquid into the syringe and proceeded back to Jayden’s room.

“For how will you do this, dad? This sh*t is the main cause of his panic attack,” Greg was furious. He followed behind his dad, trying to talk him out of it, trying to make him see the sense of reason.”Jayden is no longer a kid, he is now a twenty-two-years old adult. When will you stop lying to him?” He half shouted

Trent stopped walking and slowly turned around to face him. “You wouldn’t understand son, you wouldn’t understand the pain I felt just watching him lay helplessly on that hospital bed. I remember sitting there, thinking of a thousand ways to console him and then he woke up from coma losing all of the painful memories, except the one about that dumb stupid girl who he doesn’t even know,” He mumbled the latter words so Greg wouldn’t hear, but unfortunately he did.

“What girl?”He quirked an inquisitive eyebrow at his father, this was the first time he was hearing about her.

Trent didn’t respond. He just gave him a weak smile and walked into Jayden’s room.

“You took so long.” Mary queried him, “or do you want him to pass out first?” She hissed and this made Trent angry.

He wanted to tell her to shut the f**k up but then decided to put his emotions in check. His son’s safety comes first.

Hastily, he walked over to him and for reasons best known to him, injected only a little of the drug into his bloodstream. Jayden grimaced in the process.

“Why?” Mary whispered

“A little is enough for him.” Was Trent’s response to her question. He stared at Jayden’s pale face, watching him inhale and exhale softly for a moment longer before walking past Greg and out of the room.

“Do you know the girl dad is talking about?”Greg’s natural curiosity led him to ask his mother.

Mary shook her head absentmindedly, without looking at him. Her whole attention was on Jayden as she held him tenderly and gently stroked his hair.

“Mum,” He suddenly moved and she smiled to herself demurely.

“Yes honey,” She whispered to him, “I’m your mum and will always be your mum.”

~~~~~~The next morning………

Stretching and yawning, Atarah sat up in bed and rubbed a hand wearily over her eyes.

It was 8:00 am, banged on the dot and the sun had already risen, its slanting rays were shining into the open window and were too bright to look at.

Atarah squinted at it as she slowly climbed out of bed and dragged her tired self into the bathroom to brush her teeth and take a long hot bath.

When she was done, she blotted herself dry, wrapped herself in the towel and returned to the room, feeling a bit refreshed.
She walked stiffly to the wardrobe, deciding quickly on a pair of blue jeans and a light shirt with a collar that would hide most of her neck.

‘I’m resigning from my job today anyway, so there would be no need to dress officially.’ Heaving a deep sigh, she slipped into her shoes, picked up her handbag along with her phone and walked out of the room.

“Good morning mum,” She greeted her mother who was just dressing up for work and her mother paused to stare at her.

“Morning child,” She responded, slowly looking her up and down. “You aren’t going to that hospital today, right?”She held her breath as she waited for an answer.

“No mother, I’m only going over there to drop my resignation letter.”Hearing her daughter’s response made her sigh in relief and she beamed a smile. “And it’s all thanks to you.” Atarah sarcastically said when she got to the front door and her mother’s smile faded in an instant.

“Do you like him?” She was forced to voice her fear and concern.

Atarah pondered her question for a moment before replying. “No.”
With that, she walked out of the house and down the lonely road to the bus station.

There, she took the next available bus to Hobsons hospital.

~~~

Eventually, the bus came to a screeching halt and Atarah alighted after paying the driver. With short quick strides, she walked into the building and hurried through the wide hallway to Jayden’s office.

She paused for a moment at the door to retrieve the resignation letter she had carefully written the night before from her bag before going into the office.
To her utmost relief, she met no one there, Jayden was yet to arrive.

She placed the letter on his desk and began to look around the office one last time, her heart was hurting so bad that she was almost tempted to disobey her mother.

“What are you doing?” The sudden sound of Jayden’s voice startled her and she quickly turned out, he was leaning against the door and was watching her with an amused expression.

The sight of him stirred emotions that confused her, “erm……erm… I came to submit my resignation letter,” She stuttered in her response.

“But why?” Jayden was puzzled, “Did I offend you in any way?”He stared deep into her eyes, and Atarah noticed for the first time his pale sickly face.

Are you alright? She almost asked him, but bit her tongue. “My mum wants me to resign,” She said instead and this made Jayden look sharply at her.

“Why?”He asked and Atarah shrugged her shoulders slightly

“To save me from the stress, I guess.” She tried to make a joke out of it but it didn’t work on Jayden.

He moved closer to her and whispered. “Is that what you want?”

“No,” Atarah answered truthfully and he smiled to himself

“Then I’ll talk to her.” He assured her of his help.

Atarah looked up at him and swallowed hard nervously. He was so close, so d**n close that she could inhale his scent as she took a deep breath.

“But that will be after you agree to be my date for a party tomorrow.”Jayden’s mouth was drawn back into a smirk of triumph.

“What party?”Atarah narrowed her brow at him curiously and he let out a quiet sigh

“Just some business party my dad insists I must partake in.”

“Alright, I’ll go with you.”Atarah readily agreed, “Just text me the details.”Blushing lightly she started for the door, but Jayden caught her arm and drew her back to him. “Are you gonna leave without saying goodbye?” He flirted with her and that was it, Atarah gave in to her rush of desire.

She stood on her toes and stretched upward to peck him on his lips, Knowing that wherever it led, she could count on an utterly delightful experience.

For a split second, Jayden was taken back and then he bent back her head across his arm and kissed her, softly at first, then with a swift graduation of intensity that made her cling to him as the only thing in a dizzy swaying world.
In his heart, he knew that he was ready to love her.

TBC