Chapter sixteen

 Catherine opens her eyes dimly on the bed. She sees various eyes piercing down on her.

She groans as she sits up.

'Are you okay?' Michael ask extending his arms to help her.

'Oh yeah I'm fine', Catherine answers wondering what happened. She looks at everyone and faces Michael 'What happened?' she asks

'You fainted. I guess it must have been from the stress' he answers

 Catherine bends her head and tries to remember what happened. She has been feeling dizzy ever since she was hit. The blow had ignited her suppressed stress and took a toil on her.

'I'm sorry', she apologizes ,' Looks like I halted a party ', she says forcing a smile out.

'It's okay', Michael replies, 'You should get some rest. Let's go out', he says facing his friends.

 Catherine watches them as they leave. She founds out that moment Sebastien is also there with her. He stays behind after everyone leaves and takes a close look at her. 

He leaves without saying anything.

Catherine rests back in the bed.

 The party continues till evening. Catherine picks her bag and plans to leave unnoticed. She opens the door and walks to the gate. She stops as she hears her name

'Catherine', the voice calls.

It is Michael. He runs to her. 'Are you feeling better now?' he asks

'Yes', she nods and smiles, ' I'm fine now', she replies

'You don't have to come tomorrow okay? '

'Why?' she asks surprisingly

Michael smiles at her 'You should get enough rest and take it as a bonus for getting hit. Your face is a bit red swollen', he tells her.

'So who's going to take care of the house cause I'm pretty sure it's going to be in a mess by tomorrow' she asks 

'I can just hire someone to do that right?' 

Catherine nods'Ok then. Thanks', 

'Take care of yourself ', Michael says after her as she opens the gate.

 She gets to the house and makes dinner. She leaves for the hospital to drops her mum's food and walks back to the house.

 As she sits to study she observes her face at her screen laptop and notices it is slightly swollen.

 She brushes her hand gently over it, 'Kat', she says to herself, 'this is what you get when you try to settle a fight between two grown up spoilt kids'.

 She turns on the laptop and sigh. She abruptly look away as a thought suddenly strikes her 'He couldn't even say sorry', she angrily says to herself as she remembers Sebastien. She turns to her laptop to read.

 Catherine wakes up early the next day and cleans the room. She put a little bit more effort for her mum's welcoming. She pours the trash in the kitchen into a big black polythene bag and opens the door with the trash in her hand . 

She walks outside and looks over Mrs Johnson's house, sees the windows locked. She is probably out she thinks.

 She drops the trash in the big bin and notices someone from behind walking towards her. She walks a bit forward and senses the person is trailing her. She becomes afraid and runs down the street without looking back. 

She screams, her eyes closed as the person catches up with her and holds her hand.

'It's me!', the voice tells her.

She opens her eyes as she feels the voice looks familiar

'Sebastien?' she is surprises as she sees it is him. 'What are you doing here and why do you have to appear to me this way. You almost killed me' she yells at him.

 BSebastien looks down apologetically 'I'm sorry I thought you were going to look back after throwing the trash but then you started running. You're okay?' he asks as he sees her still panting, holding her chest.

She nods 'Yeah. What are you doing here and how did you know this place?'she questions

'I brought you home some times ago when you tripped in my room', he answers in a cool voice.

'Yeah that's true', Catherine says as she recalls and looks at him 'What do you want?' 

Sebastien looks at her. 'Can we talk?' he asks

Catherine looks at him and point up the street. 'Let's go'.

They both walk back in silence. She bring out a chair for him to seat at the house entrance. One way or not, she doesn't feel like letting him in the house. 

'You want water?' she asks him as he takes his seat

'I'm fine', he replies and clears his throat. Their eyes meet and Catherine looks away.

'Is your face okay now?' he asks not knowing what to say first. 

Catherine folds her hand slightly angry 'Wow!', she exclaim, 'did I just hear that from you ? Like I mean you?', she emphasizes and continues, 'Sebastien. Where were you the first time I got hit?' she spills out. 

 She doesn't know, she just always feels like pouring her whole anger at him anytime he tries to be nice to her

Sebastien sighs 'Look I'm sorry for what happened yesterday. I know You were just trying to separate us and thank goodness you did cause If you hadn't, something worse would have happened ', he looks her face 'I figured out you were not going to come today and thought you were still in pains'.

Catherine chuckles. Her heart suddenly melt at his word. ' It's fine and I'm okay', she replies calmly.

 Silence descends on them for some time and Catherine decides to break it. 'So are you guys okay now?' she asks him

'No', Sebastien replies and continues, 'His friends are still at home so I guys he still wants to party away to think less about what happened', he replies

'What happened?' she asks 'oh sorry I asked that, it's none of my concern actually' 

'I fought with his mum' Sebastien pronounces

Catherine replies unmoved 'You do that a lot'

'No I mean', he tries to explain 'I said something mean to her', he looks at her and exhale 'I called her a leech'

'A leech?' Catherine shouts. She shakes her head 'Sebastien why did you call her that'? Why would you call someone's mother a leech?' she yells at him

'Cause she was my mum's secretary that stabbed her back by marrying my dad!' Sebastien yells back and looks down 'Sorry I shouted at you '

'Really?' questions Catherine

Sebastien sits back fighting tears 'she was my mum's trusted friend and secretary. My mum was having a hard time with my dad then. I guess she knew about that. I don't know the whole story but she left the job and my mum later found out it was because she was getting married to my dad whom she has divorced then. I...' he pauses to swallow hard 'I just couldn't forgive her. My mum died with that pain in her heart. Though she has been nice to me but I remember my mum everytime I look at her'.

 Catherine bends to him and pats his back as he sob. 

After he calms down Catherine walks in to get him a cup of water.

'Thank you', he appreciates collecting the water. 

Catherine sighs 'I don't really know what to say but I know you feel so angry at what she did but you know I think she also feels guilty and maybe that's why she has been tolerating all your attitudes cause I won't lie you've really been bad to her', she smiles as she sees him chuckles 'You know that right?'

'Yeah', he agrees

'But she has really been cool with it. Wait does Michael knows all this?' Catherine asks 

'I don't think so', he replies

'You need to apologised to him. I won't really take that lightly if you did that to my mum you know', she addresses him 'And Sebastien', she continues 'You really need to let go of the past. I think your mum would also have wanted that and besides you agreed to live with them. You could have lived elsewhere'

'Like I had another choice. Dad wouldn't spare me a dime if I hadn't stayed with them ever since mum died and then', Sebastien replies

He continues 'Thanks for hearing me out and consoling me while I...'Sebastien stops ashamed of saying it

'Cried' Catherine replies laughing

'You're quite good at completing statements right?' Sebastien questions and laughs also

'It's my pleasure', Catherine replies

He stands up, ' I guess I should be going now. You probably have a lot of things to do . How's your mum?' he asks

'She's fine. She will be discharged today. Thanks for checking up on me', Catherine appreciates and walks him down the street.