Complicated – Episode 4

Complicated

Written by Princess Juliet

Episode 4

Could their meeting be fate 2

Atarah blinked her eyes rapidly, shocked to see the rude guy she’d bumped into at the airport a few days ago.

“He is the Jayden,”She mumbled under her breathe and Hilary looked at her, befuddled. “Do you guys know each other?” She asked in a whisper.

Atarah didn’t respond. She kept her gaze on the pink haired boy who was staring right back at her with a stony glare.

Jayden dropped his gaze just then and scoffed. “Send her away,” He growled at Toby.

“But why?”Toby was confused as well as surprised, he looked from Jayden and Atarah, waiting for an answer.

“Because I don’t want her here,” Came Jayden’s response as he plunked down on the sofa.

Atarah eyes misted with tears, she looked as though she wanted to cry and gave Toby a blank look.

Toby sighed in frustration. “C,mon bro, you can’t just send her away like this simply because you don’t like her.”He tried to reason with Jayden, and was at the same time trying to avoid his girlfriend pleading eyes.
What the heck was he supposed to do?

“Well, I can and I will.”Jayden said stubbornly as he looked sharply at Atarah. “Get the hell out of here.”he half shouted, causing a thick tension in the room. Toby and Hilary exchanged uncomfortable glances.

“But I am here to work,” Atarah couldn’t think of any other thing to say, she was embarrassed, almost terrified.

“Then you can work as a bikini model.” Jayden smirked at her. “It will suit you better.”His shrug and tone were nonchalant.

“Bikini model?” Atarah turned to Hilary, horribly confused. “What in the world does that mean?”Her mind was spinning like a top.

At first, Hilary was too stunned to respond, but then she pointed towards the next room.

Atarah could see through the frosted glass door the two girls in bra and panties, feeling totally comfortable in front of a camera, without feeling naked at all.

“Impossible!”She huffed and turned to leave, but her legs refused to move when she remembered how badly she needed money.

She was completely stuck. “I…will…erm…do it.”She choked out the words.

Jayden’s handsome face was puzzled, and he frowned. “Do what?”he wanted her to spell it all out.

“The bikini sh00t,” Atarah voice was a whisper.

A slight glint came to Jayden eyes then, as if he was about to say something mischievous. Oh yeah! He really wanted to humiliate her. “Then strip down to your underwear,” He heard himself say, almost like he wasn’t the one talking.

“What?” The girls gasped in shock.

“Yes,”Jayden nodded his head strongly, “I want to see you in your undies, or ain’t you wearing one?”his eyes mocked her.

Atarah face ashen like that of a corpse, it felt hot and cold. ‘He is such a monster’. She swallowed hard nervously, dropped her handbag on the floor and slowly began to pull her shirt from her jean,stopping suddenly when she noticed “the monster” cunning smile, the glow of lust was in his eyes.

“No! No! No! I cannot do this,” She quickly adjusted her clothing, whimpering pathetically. Gosh! What was she even thinking? Unshed tears of embarrassment were starting to burn her eyes.

She retrieved her hand bag from the floor, and started toward the doorway, hesitated for a moment, and then halted to give Jayden a piece of her mind.

“You are happy, right?” Her question stung him and he felt somewhat weak, he could see the visible pain in her eyes as she glared daggers at him.

“Yes! You might be rich, but your heart is purely evil……”Tears poured freely down her face as she vented out her pain and the sobs wracked her body so bad. “………You are a monster Jayden Hobsons, a complete psychopath.”She screamed hoarsely and flounced out of the room in a huff.

Jayden said nothing, neither did he react. He just sat there gobsmacked and stared blankly after her.

“Have you see what you’ve caused?”Toby scolded him, “You just succeeded in ruining everything, d**n. “Go after her, Hilary.” He turned to his girlfriend sharply. “And make sure is alright.”

Hilary nodded her head and without wasting any more time, ran after Atarah. She got outside and saw her at the bus station, about to board a bus.

“Wait, Atarah.”She screamed.

Atarah Halted. She turned around and just stared as Hilary ran up to her.

“What do you want?” She asked her coldly.

Hilary sighed tiredly. “Let me drop you home,” she offered.

“No, thanks.” Atarah bluntly declined

“But why?”Hilary looked at her with a hurt expression. “Do you hate me now?”

“No, I don……”

“Then let me drop you home,”

Atarah almost yielded, but then she thought about her mother’s reaction, the small farm house and the creepy surrounding.

“Not today, maybe some other time.” She smiled her sweetest smile and Hilary nodded, satisfied to see her smiling.

A bus arrived just then and Atarah got in. “Bye,” she waved at Hilary and sat down in the front seat close to the window, then she buried her face in her hands and cried bitterly most of the way home.

~~~

It was nearly sunset when the bus came to screeching halt. Atarah alighted and lazily walked through a narrow path and down the lonely road to the farm house.

Her mother was standing outside the front door, waiting for her and this made Atarah very surprised.

“Mothe……”

“Where’re you coming from, Tarah?” Her mother’s loud voice drowned hers.

One look at her, Atarah could tell she was angry. But why?

“School,” She replied shortly and walked past her to the sitting room, which also served as her mother’s bedroom.

“By this time?” Her mother followed behind her, huffing. “Don’t lie to me young lady, where in god’s name are you coming from?”

Jeez! This question pissed Atarah off even more and she turned to face her mother with an angry face,red and unlike herself, began shouting. “I went out in search of a part time job, I went out in order to make more money and pay for the rent and to clear off your stupid debts but what did I get? Humiliation and disrespect. I am tired mum……”She went on, “…tired of being poor, tired of being called poor, tired of being treated poorly, tired of living in this sick and lonely house.”

Her mum eyes watered, but she held the tears back, blinking a few times so her vision could clear. “I am sorry, so sorry child, I never knew how much you were hurting until now. Forgive me, Tarah. Forgive this mother who just wanted the best for you, forgive this mother who just wanted to protect you from…………” She trailed off mid sentence and looked away. “Go to your room,”She spoke somewhat sternly, “there is a surprise for you on the bed.”

Without a word, Atarah went into the room and found the surprise underneath the pillow, it was a fairly new iPhone with a pink pouch.

Perfect! She tossed her handbag on the floor next to the wardrobe and stood staring at the paper drawing glued to the wall.

“I,m so sad Gwapo, I feel like dying.”She spoke to it and then collapsed on the bed, dozing off almost immediately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jayden couldn’t think straight, he couldn’t concentrate as he posed in front of the camera—his mind was all jumbled up and he knew that he wasn’t himself.

‘You are a monster Jayden Hobsons, a complete psychopath.’
The Filipino girl words kept on replaying in his head and that was enough to make him sick.

Gosh! What the hell did he do? Why didn’t he just ignore her or, better still, pretend like he didn’t remember her? She isn’t important to him after all, just a lousy-mouthed brat who dared to call him rude………

“Are you alright man?”Toby’s voice interrupted his thoughts, this was the umpteenth time he was asking this.

“I want to go home.”was Jayden response to his question

Toby was a bit surprised. “Why?” he lazily asked as he rushingly took more of Jayden pictures.

“I am tired.” Jayden put on his denim jean jacket, and reaching for his car keys, started out of the room.

“You should apologise to her.” Toby words made him stopped moving.

He glanced over his shoulder and let out a deep breathe. “Who is she?”

“My girlfriend’s friend.”

“Oh I see,”He tilted his head curiously and looked sideways at him. “A college student?”

“I guess so.” Toby shrugged his shoulders

“Alright.” Jayden nodded at him before leaving the room and out of the building.

He got into his car, completely ignoring the female models who had stayed back just to catch a glimpse of him, their lustful eyes almost devouring him.

“Crazy!” He slapped his booted foot down onto the accelerator, and made a u-turn, driving back to the mansion.

~~

He got home just before dusk and parked his car in front of the garage.

Briskly, he alighted closing the door behind him and walked straight into the sitting room where a surprising sight greeted his eyes.

His family and the Garcia’s were sitting around the dining table, laughing and talking over dinner.

“You are welcome to the family, Nancy.”His dad laugh was the loudest.

“Thanks dad,” Nancy smiled shyly.

Dad? Jayden was more than confused. “What’s going on here?” He demanded and only then did they notice him.

“Welcome darling,”Mary smiled sweetly at her son.

Jayden looked away from her and to his father. “What is going on here, dad?”he directed the question to him this time around.

“A family introduction,”Greg answered, he was sitting beside Nancy and Jayden didn’t fail to notice the unusual warmth between them. When did they become so close? He wondered. “Nancy and I are trying to set a date for our engagement party.” Greg grinned from ear to ear as he took Nancy left hand into his and kissed her palm.

“Engagement what?” Jayden shifted his gaze toward Nancy and saw she was biting her finger nails, this she always do whenever she is nervous.

“Yes, an engagement party between your brother and your best friend.”Nancy mum, a petite woman with long curly hair and large glasses explained excitedly while the men just laughed.

Jayden only nodded in agreement. He didn’t know if he should be happy that his best friend was about to get engaged to his brother or to be sad that she would now belong to him.

A bit disoriented, he opened his mouth to say something, only to be cut off by the sound of his phone ringing.

He fished it out of his pocket to check out the caller and noticed it was a filipino number. He received it right away and held the phone to his ear.

“Mr Jayden Hobsons,” A baritone voice boomed from the other end, “I called to tell you that the research was a success.”

TBC