COMPLICATED – Episode 5

Complicated

Written by Princess Juliet

Episode 5

He finally apologized

 

The morning sun had dissipated the fog and it’s rays beamed through the blinds causing Jayden to stir.

“What the heck!”He groaned out of sleep when the first beam of sunlight hit his face and slowly began to sit up.

His eyes went to the wall clock. “Ugh! 7:30! Why is it so early?” He yawned lazily and stretched out his upper body.

In as much as he wanted to remain in bed, he couldn’t.
He had plans for the day and most importantly, he needed to catch the evening flight to the Philippines.

‘Your research was a success.’ Remembering Dr Aidan, the filipino doctor words made his smile.

Finally he climbed out from bed and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face.

When he returned to the room, he was feeling rejuvenated and relaxed.
He slid his feet into a black slippers and strode out of the room and down the staircase into the sitting room where he met his parent discussing as they watched the morning news.

“Morning mum! Morning dad!” He happily greeted and they paused, both his mum and dad, and stared at him in surprise.

“Morning son.”Mary looked at him rather strangely, not understanding his unusual cheerful mood. “How was your night?” She asked him.

“Splendid.” Jayden leaned forward to give her a motherly peck on her cheek and this made her even more surprised, she stared at her husband in wide- eyed amazement.

Trent was also amazed,in-fact stupefied. He cleared his throat and then spoke, “It seems someone woke up on the right side of the bed today……”

“And is acting all nice early in the morning,” Mary joined her husband in teasing their son and he just shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

“Perhaps, I guess.”

“So tell me,” Trent pursued, wrapping his arms around his wife waist. “What is it that made you so happy, if I may ask?”

Jayden opened his mouth to respond but then decided against it,
he couldn’t tell his father without confirming first.

“I’m travelling to the Philippines this evening,”He simply said and all colour drained from his father’s face, his once giggly countenance was now replaced by a grumpy broody look.

“You’re going because of that stupi……” His words trailed off at his wife’s stern look. Yeah, right! she was telling him to shut the f**k up. “Alright! Alright!”he heaved a sigh and threw his hands into the air in defeat.”You can go ahead but make sure keep in touch, Alright?”he spoke with an air of authority.

Jayden didn’t respond to that, he merely smirked at him. “You should keep your hands to yourself.”he told his father

“My hands?”Trent was completely confused.

“There are a lot of rooms upstairs should incase you wanna get all cozy with mum.” Jayden winked at him and he burst into a fit of laughter, finally understanding him.

He decided to play naughty. “What if we want to give you the little sister you’ve always wanted?” He winked back at his son.

“Nah,” Jayden shook his head slightly, “I am too old for that.” This response made Trent and Mary perplexed and they exchanged silent glances. “If I want to have those tiny humans in my life, then it should be my daughter.” He smiled lightly at them as he walked out through the front door way.

“Where is Greg?”

“At your favourite spot.” His dad answered, still very much puzzled by his son’s response and sudden change.

“Alright.” Jayden step was brisk as he walked around to the other side of the house and he found Greg sitting on the edge of the pool, shirtless, his curly blonde hair was covering his left eyes.
Try as he might, Jayden couldn’t understand why he always styled his hair this way.

“Morning bro.”He greeted him

Greg glanced over his shoulder and then smiled. “You woke up later than usual.”

“Were you waiting for me?”Jayden asked as he began taking off his pyjamas.

Greg nodded his head in response and Jayden scoffed silently.

“You should’ve just come into my room.” He was now in his brief short.

“I didn’t want to disturb your handsome beauty sleep.” Greg joking said and Jayden folded his pyjamas and kept it on the surface before sitting down beside him.

“So,” He looked at Greg intently, “why are you out here? Do you want to talk to me about something?”

For a moment Greg simply gazed into his eyes, and then he drew a deep breathe. “It is about Nancy.”

“Oh,” Jayden looked away from him and bit his upper lip, staring at the water. “Your fiancée to be?”

“Who is also your best friend.”Greg retorted cooly and Jayden gave him a stern and accusing glare

“But you don’t love her.”

“Yeah,”Greg didn’t deny that, “but someone have got to marry her. Dad pressure was up to my neck, the family hospital needed the deal,the contracted marriage, more money and I had to step in and save the situation. You wouldn’t have married her, would you?”

“I can’t treat her right.”was Jayden response.

“But she loves you.”Greg words made him feel an uncomfortable tightness in the chest, it was hurt and something akin to confusion.

Not that he didn’t know, he knew quite alright but was just pretending not to notice the way she stares at him and how she tries to impress him, he couldn’t possibly lead his best friend on.

“Promise me you’ll take care of her, Greg.”He whispered through teeth that didn’t move.

“I will.”Greg promised, “At least for the sake of our family,” he added with a smirk.

Jayden smile was strained as he nodded his head. “I’ll be travelling to the Philippines this evening.” He said after a few seconds.

“For your research work?” Greg looked at him curiously.

“Yep.”He nodded. “But that will be right after I apologise to someone,” He didn’t know why he said it out loud, but he felt he needed to talk to someone about it, it was like a heavy weight on his chest.

“And who is this someone?” Greg cocked an inquisitive eyebrow at him.

“Just a random girl I disrespected and humiliated yesterday.Gosh!” He facepalmed himself, “I don’t know her name, I don’t even know who she is.”

“Then how do intend finding her?”Greg was watching him intently and was trying so hard not to laugh

“Perhaps by asking around when I go drop off Nancy at schoo……”He suddenly stopped talking and smirked. “Permit me to drop your….fiancée….off at school,”He drawled, “I made a promise to her.”

“Of course you can.” Greg chuckled lightly, he hesitated for a second and then dived into the pool. “Come on little bro, let’s have a race.”

Jayden was more than pleased. He readily dived into the water and swam as fast as he could to the other end, making sure to give his brother a clear win.

Trent and Mary watched the boys from the balcony of their room with a soft and placid smile.

“Our boys are now grown men.”Trent remarked proudly.

“Yeah,”Mary couldn’t agree more, “most especially Jayden. He really surprised me with his cheerful attitude.”

“And it is all thanks to you wifey,” Trent leaned down, fitting his mouth to hers, and taking a long, ardent taste. Her head swam, and she welcomed the exploration of his tongue.

“Do you regret marrying me?”She breathe in deeply into his mouth.

“No,”

“Then make love to me one more time.”

Trent chuckled. “Aren’t we becoming too old for all this love games?”

“You will never be too old for me,”Came Mary’s response, “I love you so much Trent, much more than you can ever imagine.”

“Same with me.”Trent made a guttural noise as he lifted her into his arms, carried her to the room and gently placed her on the bed.

Then he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her for another kiss,much more aggressive than the first one. Mary tightened her hand around him and kissed him back, the sound of moans and groans of ecstasy filling up the whole room.

~~~Washington State University~~~~

The afternoon lecture was going well. Atarah was there in the hall room listening attentively to the professor and was jotting down notes and points with a look of satisfaction.

She paused for a moment to stretch her arms, and then resumed writing, all the while wondering why the psychology lectures was so easy for her to understand.

‘Should I major in it? She wondered, or should I just settle for English? Literary studies? or even Economics……

“So class, that is all for today.”
The professor loud voice interrupted her thoughts. She quickly composed herself before looking up at him, “we will continue from where we stop in our next meeting.”With that, he picked up his books and flounced out of the hall.

Atarah crammed her books into her bag and rose to her feet. She then proceeded out of the lecture hall and down the crowded hallway and outside beside the parking lot, calm and unhurried.

“Atarah,” The sudden sound of Hilary’s voice startled her a bit. “Good gracious!”She clutched her hands to her heart and turned around, Hilary was walking towards her, with a big smile plastered on her face.

“Hi,” she greeted Atarah waving her hand. “Where in the world have you been? I’ve literally searched the whole school looking for you.”

Atarah let out a little smile, chuckled lightly and said. “I attended the psychology class.”

“Oh.” Hilary nodded her head and sighed as she looked away. “I thought you were avoiding me.”

“And why would I do that?”Atarah was puzzled.

“You know… about Yesterday, I’m partly to be blamed.”Hilary sighed again. “I mean I never knew Jayden Hobsons was such a proud and……”She suddenly stopped talking and kept her gaze behind Atarah. “Speak of the devil, here he is.”She mumbled under her breathe.

Atarah was curious, she looked around and saw the pink haired ‘monster’, he was leaning against a black sport car and was talking to a girl as he gazed into her eyes tenderly.
‘So he can be this nice’

“That is his best friend, Nancy.”Hilary whispered and Atarah just nodded absentmindedly. She was lost staring at the pretty boy and this made her a bit upset. Jeez! She was supposed to loathe him for humiliating her and not drooling over him.

……”Her father owns one of the largest hospital here in Seattle after the Hobson’s.”

Jayden’s gaze caught hers just then. He gave Nancy a quick peck on her cheek and started towards Atarah.

“He is coming this way.”Atarah looked nervously at Hilary.

“To apologise, I guess.” Hilary smirked at her.

“No! No! No! I don’t want……”

“Let me have your contact details.”Hilary cut her off abruptly and Atarah let out a deep sigh before reaching into her bag for her phone.

“You on We-chat?” She asked rather excitedly

“Nah,”Hilary grabbed her phone out of her hand and began punching in her numbers, “We don’t do that here in America.”She winked at Atarah as she handed the phone back to her. “Settle your differences with him, I will call you later in the evening.”She ran off to her car, giggling excitedly.

Atarah bit her quavering lips and cursed silently, she could feel his presence right behind her, the smell of his expensive cologne was surrounding them.

“What do you want?” She summoned courage and faced him.

“I’m sorry.” Jayden whispered and Atarah scoffed, disbelieving.

“You’re sorry?”

“Yes, I am sorry and really mean it. I didn’t know what came over me, I guess I let my conflicting emotions get the better of me and………” He trailed off mid sentence then took a deep breathe. “Come with me to the Philippines, I want to make it up to you.”

“The…The…What? Philippines.”Atarah had so lost her breathe that she was almost speechless.

“Your family lives there right?” Jayden looked at her long enough for her to see the sincerity in his gaze. She looked away from him and stared blankly into space.

Going with him to the Philippines, how great that would be! She really missed her grandma, her uncles and wanted so badly to see them, even if it is just for a day.

“I will have to ask my mum first.” She finally spoke, her voice unsure and so low……

TBC