Chapter 7: let’s see how much you can keep up, Nicholas!

There was nothing. The headache came but nothing. No vision, just blank. What does this mean? Lily asked herself. "I need to call Old Bloom" she muttered. 

She rushed to the room. Yet again, she didn't knock but luckily Nicholas was in the bathroom, as if bathing will help reduce the choke.  

She picked up her phone and dialed Old Bloom. The voice that came wasn't Old Bloom's. The annoying customer service that always advised they leave a message if the person is not reachable. Not minding, Lily started saying the reason she called at first.

"Old Bloom, it's me, Lily." The rush of shower inside the bathroom interrupted her. She realized how fast she needs to be to avoid being beards by Nicholas.

"I will be swift Old Bloom" she continued. "Something just happened and the headache came just like it always did. But this time around, nothing came. The vision was blank." Just then, the shower stopped running causing Lily to turn around. "I just want to know what it means...." The door to the bathroom, unbolted from behind. 

"Please get back to me as soon as possible". Nicholas finally stepped out with a towel wound around his waist. The water on his chest was on beads, his hair fell across his forehead and his nice physique became visible enough.

Lily maintained composure. "Bye Grandma, I'll speak to you later" she feigned.

"You didn't have to end the call"

"When did my call become your business?" She replied.

"I never said it was" Nicholas replied. "I hope you're not terming me an eavesdropper by ending the call cause it isn't my "BUSINESSES " He emphasized.

"You're many things Nicholas " Lily replied, enjoying the quarrel. "And an eavesdropper?" She scoffed, "I'll be the judge of that".

After the event at the dinning, lily understood what a simple quarrel could do. She had embraced hostility few hours back but never understood. Now she gets what the thread looks like and she's bent on maintaining the ambience! Nicholas looked at her, the courage. For the first time he heard his name from her mouth and truthfully, he doesn't know how he feels about it. He moved on to what he was about to do.

He cornered the sheets, arranged the pillows to Lily's surprise. 

"What are you doing?" She asked.

Nicholas looked at her bewildered. It's already night, what else is he doing than preparing to sleep. "What do you think I'm doing?" He asked back.

Lily ignored the question and went straight into the bathroom to have her bath. She was anxious. She knew perfectly what was happening. "Why today?" She asked herself. She had gotten so used to him sleeping outside. Although she doesn't know where but not inside the room, not on the same bed. She put on the shower, had a rather slow bath, wishing not to finish. Then she looked herself in the mirror, "there's nothing, absolutely nothing to worry about" she assured herself and left the bathroom. As she walked out, she stumbled upon already sleeping Nicholas. How peaceful he looked on the bed. Something drew her closer. She watched him closely, perusing his face, looking for wickedness, that sheer cruelty he always disseminates. But she found none, only peace and innocence. 

"What has made him this way" she muttered, breathing on his face. Then she left him, dried her body, wore her nightgown and left the room. 

"I'm not going to let my guard down" she said. Lily went straight into the sitting room and lay on top of the sofa, thinking of what had just happened that night. Then her eyes met the television hanging on the wall. How she has forgotten how happy movies made her in the past. How movies served as her own personal therapy. She sought for the remote.

As she put on the television, the news channel aired, she quickly switched to the movie channel. A popular movie showed, she happened to have watched it, she laughed sadly and tears left her eyes. This was who she was just few weeks back. This was her, that road safety corp who always watched movies during breaks. She tried to clean the tears, to keep her sobs from being heard, but it was impossible to control. She let it go. She scoffed at so many memories. How her sister hates movies, especially the sound. "Oh Floria" she wept. She now missed her. She continued crying until sleep snatched her. 

The bang of door woke her up. It was already morning. She yawned and wiped her eyes. Then, he's leaving, well dressed!

"Nicholas?" She called. He looked at her, snubbed and made way for the threshold. Lily shook her head. 

"So this is it?" She mumbled. "Let's see how much of this you're going to keep up"

She felt another energy surge through her. This energy was different from when she chose hostility. After crying so much the previous night, she realized how much she has forgotten. Her father is still in the hospital, her sister, even Lustre, the main reason she's in this hellhole of a marriage. "I have to strengthen my resolve" she encouraged.

Her head banged. The headache from too much crying. But was it only that? She fell on the floor, holding her temples. Then the deja Vu, The visions came, very clear like one of her movies. And then she saw herself, for the first time, she saw her face in those visions, drenched from excessive weeping. She had cried, for a thing like this. Then she snapped out of the trance. "Was it for Nicholas? Did I cry for this dude before?" She wept, her face clouded with fury. Then her phone rang. She quickly rushed it. It was her grandma, Old Bloom.

"Hello grandma " she picked up, her voice, down.

"Young Bloom, what's the matter? You don't sound so well "

"I'm fine grandma..."

"No you're not" she cut her short. "Tell me everything."

"It's too much grandma " she broke down in tears. "I want my life back, I miss the road, my sister, my parents, mo.....mom" she wept.

"Lily" Old Bloom called her by the name for the very first time. "You have to trust yourself. I know it's heavy and how much it can weigh you down but please my dear...tell me about the vision "

"I had the headache but it was blank. A blank vision "

"A blank vision "

"Yes Grandma "

"Then it means you never encountered such a situation in the past. It never happened"

"Never happened?"

"Yes. Don't always expect everything to have happened. Not everything."

"It's just how many days since we're married, if it never happened..."

"Lily, open your mind to all possibilities. Have you ever thought that it's possible you both never married?"

"Never married?" She mumbled.

"Think about it" Old Bloom hung up on her.

"If we're never married, how come I cried cause of him?"