𝓘𝓽 𝓲𝓼 𝓭𝓾𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓴𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝓶𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔀𝓮 𝓶𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓯𝓸𝓬𝓾𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓼𝓮𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽

I walk, motioning for Albert to follow me by waving my hand. The crunching of leaves behind me shows he obeys, and when I look at him he's already staring at me with raised eyebrows. I glance back ahead, my eyes scanning the path that's brightened by my flashlight.

Instead of responding to Albert, I gulp audibly, trying to remove the lump that formed in my throat. I feel as if I know the answer to his question, but I don't know how to put it into words. Wiping my free hand on the rough fabric of my jeans, I steal a little peek at him from the corner of my eye. Thankfully, he's looking ahead, at the trail we're walking on.

"Because I wanted to?" I ask, and he looks at me.

"I don't know Ari, you tell me," he says, a funny expression on his face.

"Well, in that case, I don't know," I say with a smirk.

Smooth. How to handle awkward situations 101.

"You have told me," he groans, "Because I don't know what to do. I don't know whether to keep my distance or have a nice, cosy chat over coffee. You have to decide, Ari, and I think you decided the moment you decided to come here. For some reason, you're not accepting that because you fear something, but you have to continue to be strong, you shouldn't continue to neglect things like this or it'll all be a colossal mess."

Or blow your cover 101.

Once he's done speaking, I realize something. Hiding how I feel from him won't help me much.

"I guess you're right, I have been ignoring things," I whisper, "Maybe because I don't want to push you away." My voice doesn't get louder than a whisper, but I'm glad that he can still hear me.

"You mean you want to give us a chance?" he asks, stopping completely and looking at me with a shocked expression.

"Why are you acting so surprised?" I ask him, moving forward. He follows and slows jog to catch up to me.

"I just... I've seen you push people away since the moment I met you. But now you're willing to get attached to people, me in this matter... I feel honoured," he says, slowing down now that he's reached me.

"Honoured that you're risking your life for some dumb brunette?" I snort, and before giving him a chance to utter a word, I speak up again, "I'm afraid that you'll get hurt if you're with me, but I still want to give you a chance. I make no sense, do I?" I ask him.

"No, actually, you do. And I want to assure you that nothing will happen to me, you just have to give me a chance, I'll protect you. Don't worry, I'll protect everyone you think is in danger," he says.

"But you have to promise me that if this, whatever this is between us, gets anywhere and- God forbid- something happens to me or anyone around me, you will let go and never look back. You keep going and forget that there was ever any Ari in your life. You won't come after me, because I've risked the lives of too many people, and I can't afford to put you in danger too."

I fold my arms when I'm done speaking, standing on the side of the road we've reached and waiting for the car to arrive. Luc said that he had only one car, which was the convertible, so he'd send a car for me and Albert. The icy wind rushes by, making me clutch my coat tighter and narrow my eyes at Albert, who looked unfazed.

"I will say that I'm not exactly keen on the idea, but I think that I should allow you to decide if something happens," he says, looking me in the eye.

"So, you promise that you'll let go if something happens?" I press. I can't let him get away with tricking me and getting himself into danger.

"I promise to let go if something happens," he sighs.

"Albert, one more thing," I say, my mind suddenly remembering what happened this night before I went to bed.

"What?" He asks as a car pulls up beside us. He glances at the driver, giving him a little nod of acknowledgement as he gives a little bow with his head.

"I think my leg is healed. Can we go to the doctor tomorrow? I mean, you don't have to go, you can just get me an appointment and I'll be fine. Or, don't even do that, I don't want to be a burden, just give me the number to set an appointment," I say.

"Ari, you will never be a burden. Just be ready by four in the evening, I'll pick you up. And you should stop degrading yourself, we're done with that." He walks to the backseat of his Lamborghini and opens the door for me. I slide in easily and the driver turns up the heat when he sees me shivering, to which I give a grateful smile.

"I have never degraded myself," I state as Albert climbs in the car from the other side. The door closes with a soft slamming sound, and the surrounding air warms because of the heater. Making my tight grip on my coat loosen a little, I relax a bit.

"Yeah, and I'm an idiot," he replies, "Take some rest, I'll wake you up when we reach Manhattan."

***

I continue reading Lolita from where I left off. The curtains are pulled back and the New York skyline glamorously flaunts in front of my eyes. The harsh sun rays pour in through the tall windows, providing sufficient light for me to read.

Before I can start reading, a knock on the door gains my attention. I raise my eyes to see Riona standing in the doorway with a soft smile on her face. She walks towards the bed, her flats making a soft clicking sound on the floor.

"Hey." She wraps her arms around me. "I heard you got better?"

"Kinda," I say as she sits in front of me on the bed. "What's going on at uni? it feels like years since I've been there, even if it's only been a couple of months."

"Um- if I were to explain it, I'd say we've, well, met a few issues." She folds her legs and settles herself in, glancing at me.

"Ugh, what now?" I ask.

"So, you know how it's been two months since we've been living here and not the dorm?" I nod, signalling for her to go on, "So, someone else occupies our room and we can't live there."

I blink at her for a couple of moments before groaning, resting my head back on the soft surface of the bed headrest.

"My life is so fucked," I whisper, covering my eyes with my hand.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's going to be fine, okay?" Ri says as she peels my hands from my eyes. "You can live with me. We'll continue to live here. My mom will have to go, but now that you're all healed, I don't think that'll be a problem."

"Yeah, Elle doesn't have to stay anymore, I've troubled her enough. But what about the rent?" I bring up the topic that I can sense that she doesn't really want to discuss.

"She will not take anything," I hear Albert from the doorway. I look over to him and see him leaning against the dark door frame. He's in his usual formal attire, his hair tousled and blue eyes twinkling with happiness.

"Of course she isn't," I say.

"No, Albert's right, I'm definitely not taking anything from you," Riona says, and I tear my eyes from Albert to look at her.

"Then, I live here," I say, noticing that she will not budge.

"Well, I'd like to see you try," she says, raising her eyebrows. My jaw falls open and my eyebrows raise at the change in her attitude. Riona was always the one to persuade people softly, definitely not to confront or sass them. That was Jade's job. A snicker from the doorway makes me realize that I've been staring at her, so I close my mouth and turn to Albert. I fix him with the scariest death glare I can muster and narrow my eyes at him.

He straightens up and clears his throat. "I'm just going to wait in the living room, come there whenever you're ready," he says and leaves, his heavy footsteps echoing through the empty house as he walks away.

"Riona, I can't stay here without giving you the rent, that's against my morals," I breathe. By now I'm standing, looking down at her with the best gentle eyes I can muster. I'm hoping she can somehow see how much I don't want to stay here for free, but alas, luck is never on my side.

"I don't take rent from family, that's against my morals," she says, standing up as well.

"Then we need to work something out because I need this to be clear," I say, my voice strong and confident. Riona's eyes widen, just as mine did. The only difference in our expressions is that a small smile is playing on her lips. She looks proud that I spoke up with so much confidence in my voice. I was never open to be this confident in any conversation. Not after what happened.

"It's already past four, I think you should go now. We'll discuss this after you come back," she says, and I nod.

***

"Ugh, it feels so good without the cast," I say as I climb into the backseat. I fasten the seat belt as Albert climbs in from the other side and settles himself beside me.

"I still can't get over you not needing therapy," he says as the driver turns on the car.

"Well, it's a little unbelievable, but I'm happy and relieved," I say, leaning my head against the headrest. Half of the car ride becomes Albert talking to his associates and employees about work that I don't understand so, naturally, I zone out.

My stomach grumbles a little from the lack of food, but I pay no mind to it as I gaze out of the window. Albert is still on a call but I can feel his gaze on me from time to time.

"Chick-fil-a?" He asks suddenly, startling me.

"Sure, why not?" I say and he motions the driver to stop by the Chick-fil-a close to us. I look at him with raised eyebrows.

"What?" he asks, finally getting off the call.

"Nothing, just surprised that you people eat at fast-food chains too. One would think you eat nowhere except those bougie-ass hotels," I say, but I pause as soon as I realize how bad it sounds. I feel relieved when I see Albert's lips quirk up a bit.

"We are human too, you know. We can eat junk food sometimes, and yes, we too enjoy eating at food chains," he says, "on that note, what do you want?" he asks.

"Small curly fries?" I say meekly, realizing that I have brought no money other than the small amount that I gave at the hospital after basically arguing with Albert.

"Okay," he says and leans forward.

"We'd like two deluxe chicken sandwiches, two four-piece nuggets, and a side of fries," he says to the driver who nods and slips out of the car. After a bit, he comes back with two bags and hands them to Albert.

"Here," he says, handing me one of them.

"I just ordered a small fries," I mumble, after looking at the contents inside the bag.

"Ari, you don't need to hold back with me. You slept through breakfast and lunch. I know you're hungry, you need to stop pretending like you aren't," he says.

"Hey, Albert?" I ask after a while.

"Yeah?" He asks, climbing out of the car. I follow his lead.

"Whatever is going to happen... I don't want Riona knowing about it just yet, please?" I ask as we stand near the entrance of the building.

"Why?" he asks.

"I just- I just want to be ready before telling her. I don't want her getting any wrong ideas, or for her to end up hating me," I say, fiddling with my fingers. My palms are getting sweaty as I talk more and more about it. My heart is definitely going miles per minute, but I need to talk to him about this.

"I'm sure she won't have any problems, but if you don't want to tell her, then I'll try to keep it to myself. But we'll have to tell her soon because she knows basically everything about me, and I don't want to hide anything from her either," he says, knotting his eyebrows.

"I promise, but please don't tell her just yet," I say.

"Tell me what?" I hear Riona ask from behind. My heart, which was just going miles per minute a couple of seconds ago, stops and drops to my stomach as I freeze.

Umm, so hi everyone, I guess.

I'm sorry for not updating for a whole-ass week but I was suffering from a major writer's block and as I said in my previous chapter, it is a bitch, a pain in the ass if you will. But thankfully, I overcame it, earlier than I thought I would but that's good, so I've got a couple of chapters written!

So, yeah this was chapter nine. I hope you liked it. I am really excited, the story is finally coming together and things are going to start happening in the next chapters and I'm so excited to for you guys to read it!

So, if you did like the chapter please vote, comment and share. And constructive criticism is always welcome! Also, if you feel like it, give me a follow! 

Stay safe and see you with the next chapter!

Edited by the awesome Sarah Baker. (from now on I'll leave her username in the comments, just because is acting like a little defiant brat)