My Sky, Apple of My Eye

~In the Parking Lot~

Bismika's P.O.V.

"What happened to your cheek?"

Oh, dear! Such a harmless query! And I can feel all my blood finding its way to spill out through my already punctured cheeks! I have no idea why this dreamboat is on its way to crashing my poor cart!

After cursing myself enough for removing the mask earlier, I slowly turned around. I take a good enough time to meet the confused gaze of my questioner. I know that I'm terrified as hell and the confusing look on his face says that the fear is all visible on my face too.

'Chill Bismika. It's not like every popular guy with a ravishing face is bound to bully you. He just asked a normal question. Don't stress over such a small thing.'- my smartass brain shouts at my hyperventilating mind. Cause, even if this dapper doesn't want to treat me like a bully, I sure am acting like a victim already.

"Uhmm. The uhm-" my pathetic stammering comes to a total shut as I see him walking towards me with casual steps.

The dude is dope for sure. But somehow, his mysterious aura is giving me a chill down my spine. Those piercing blue eyes seem to have a large stock of secrets. I can see some of his tattoos peeping out from his unexposed neck and wrists. Surprisingly, he has no piercings like other typical jocks.

Since he's too close now. I can smell his cologne. A strong woody incense-like aroma.

"Your cheek"- he lifts his index finger to point at my reddened cheek.

Maaan!! His fingers even look gorgeous. Pale, long fingers. Some of those have ink on them.

"What happened? You got hurt somehow?"

"Th-thi-is"- I unconsciously place my hand on my injured cheek. "My cheek g-got smacked with the d-door."- embarrassing myself more, I somehow manage to reply through stammering.

The list of people who worry about me is very short. So, the idea that this super cool and gorgeous man will show concern for a geek like me sounds too good to be true.

What if he is checking if I am fragile enough to be his perfect errand girl? NO! I don't want a new addition to my bully gang. Though his outfits and appearance don't match the typical bad boys. But my mind isn't getting enough hints to believe that peaceful idea.

"Ohh. That sounds harsh,"- Mr. Perfect said crossing his arm. The questionable look hasn't left his face yet. "When and how did you get yourself harmed?"

And with another question of him, he is now indirectly telling me that my half-ass excuse wasn't logical enough to convince him.

"Uh-uhm. During the break, I was being late for my lunch,"- I swallow and start again with more confidence. "When I hurriedly get near to open the door of the restroom, someone was on the other side of it. She opened the door before me and in that process, I got my cheek hurt,"- I try to smile in order to make my lie more convincing.

This whole time Aiden was looking intensely at me. Even without a blink of an eye! As I have finished showing my unskilled acting, I am looking with anticipation to see his reaction. But the dude hasn't brought any change to his too-good-looking face!

Without saying anything, he makes his move. Leaving me all confused by myself, he walks past me toward his car.

'He must have lost interest.', - I sighed and kinda feel proud of my damn boring personality. As I am about to walk on my way, his husky voice again makes my legs freeze.

"Stop right there.", - his voice sounds kinda softer. But his soften-up attitude isn't enough to convince my shaken-up soul.

I make tight grips on the straps of my bag with both hands. Wetting my dried lips with my tongue, I start to bite my lower lip out of fear.

After getting something from his car, he again came and stood in front of me. Watching my pale face, he rose up his left eyebrow in confusion.

"Do you always act like this or is my presence somehow making you feel awkward?"- I could sense the amusement in his words. I guess, he never had thought that he could be the reason for someone's fear. And here I am, bursting that bubble I guess.

"Uh_uhm. No. It's nothing like that," I could feel my voice getting lower with each word I was speaking. "I'm just embarrassed to get hurt like a kid." Somehow, I managed to make another dumbass excuse.

Hearing my reason, he chuckled a little. He sure can steal the hearts of lots of girls just by showing his genuine happy face.

But there wasn't much time to be infatuated over his beauty as his hand caught my eyes. He bought a tube of ointment from his car! And making me more shocked he squeezes some of the ointment on his finger and place the finger gently on my cheek.

Except for Liam's beating, I don't know if I had ever been this close to a man before. He has a freaking height I must say. Without craning my neck back, I only can see up to his torso! But I want to watch his expression. I really have no idea what made him help me.

Suddenly I feel relief thinking that he is also unable to watch my expression in this position. Cause I can feel my eyeballs are trying to jump out of their socket by shock and I don't want to show this pitiful sight of mine.

Spreading the ointment all over my injury he slowly removes his fingers and steps back slowly. As he is now standing about two meters far from me, I can make eye contact without craning much.

Meeting his gaze, I smile shyly. I can feel the soothing cold liquid on my cheek. It feels kinda relieving.

"Thanks for helping me,"- I bow my head a little to show my gratitude. My head still processing the thing that just happened now.

"Be careful from now on."- his husky voice again made me look at him.

Biting my lower lip, I nodded. He gave me gentle smile and walked back to the wall where he had been standing before. This time he took out another expensive-looking cigarette from his pocket along with his phone. Searching through the phone, he bought back that intense look on his face again.

Aiden's look was telling me that, he was getting some bothering news. A famous guy like him sure has lots of stuff to do.

Wait. Staring at him like this surely is making me look like a creep. Without wasting any more time checking him out, I turned on my heels and started walking fast.

~At Johnsons' House~

"Bismika. You have a plan to make us starve tonight?"

I stop stirring the soup and rise up my head to meet the cold stare of my questioner.

"Sorry, Karla. The dinner is almost done. Give me 5 minutes and I'll set the table."

The annoyance didn't leave Karla's face. The squint on her forehead is still there and is screaming the trouble I got upon myself for being late.

"Do as you wish. It's not like you are obliged to help us."- her voice comes like a mixture of aloofness and hatred. And that's the most painful thing they do to me. All I can do now is, sigh helplessly.

Being a freeloader in this house, I never complain to do the chores all by myself. I actually love to do something for them. But the irony of fate! Except for granny, none of them ever bother to acknowledge either my hard work or my love for them. Instead of getting treated well, I always end up hearing all kinds of mean things.

I speeded up my work to distract my depressed mind. If I do further delay in making the dinner, I would end up receiving more taunts from Mason and Megan as well.

Setting up the table, I came back to the kitchen. We don't eat together unless we have a guest over here to witness our affection towards each other.

I filled my tacky old plate with food. Neither do I get any afternoon snacks nor any midnight ones. So, I usually eat as much as possible during dinner time since I frequently stay awake till midnight to study. It's not like I belong to those studious students who care about their grades more than their life. But getting extra attention from that bully king, I always end up doing both his and my homework. Besides, house chores, occupying most of my schedule, don't leave much room for studying.

Hurriedly finishing my heavy dinner, I took a glance at the dining table. They haven't finished yet. So, I started washing the cooking utensils first. As I am washing the pots, faint giggles are coming from the hall. Sometimes I think about normal life. A normal life where I will share the same dining table with my close ones. It sounds great to have a meal with family while chatting about the whole day! The last time I had this kind of day was the day when my best friend, Scarlet, invited me to her house since she was moving the very next day. Scarlet Brown is my only friend aka bestie.

Speaking of Scarlet, I haven't been able to contact her for the last two months. It's not like we talk to each other on the daily basis but we try to contact each other at least once a week.

I think they are shifting again. Her father often gets transferred from one corner of the earth to other and my dear Scarlet just turns her 'out of contact' mode on. I guess I'm having one of those sessions again. Some of these days she will call me out of the blue and will whine about how did she miss me these days. Thinking of her babyish charm, a small smile found its way up to my lips.

PPPHHHEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRTT! PPPHHHEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRTT!

The vibration of my phone burst my happy bubbles of thoughts. But my mood lit up as soon as I saw the caller ID. IT'S SCARLET! Speak of the devil!

"Mikaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

As soon as I received the phone, I cursed myself for holding it too close. Sky's loud enthusiastic voice was almost there to puncture my eardrums without even noticing. For sake of my precious eardrums, I hold my phone far from my ear this time.

"Mika you there? Guess what? I bet you would have never guessed this. Get ready for the ultimate supraaaaiiisseee."

So, this day still has something new up its sleeve to surprise me!