The Good Old Days

"Oriel is sketching in the class; she is not listening to the lecture," he complained, and made the teacher show her out. She lifted her eyelashes to glare at him, meanwhile rising from her desk on the order of the homeroom teacher.

"Oriel! you can leave the class if you do not want to study, but I won't tolerate this behavior in my class," the teacher burst on her and she lowered her head in embarrassment.

She hesitantly gathered her stuff scattered on the desk: her color pencils and sketchbook. She put them in her bag and walked out of the class with her head tilting downwards. "I won't forget it, Collin!" she blurted in the air.

Collin knew that he had made her upset. He immediately regretted his actions. "I am such an idiot," he knew that he messed up.

"Okay! Collin you can take your seat, there will be no disturbance now. Let's turn to the next page," the teacher ordered as he pushed his loose spectacles up again.

Collin hastily shoved his book inside his bag and said, "I'm sorry, sir. I don't have my book with me, and I will get out of the class on my own. He stormed outside of the class.

The scary homeroom teacher and students were dumbfounded at his exit. "What's wrong with him?"

He came outside in the corridor where he saw Oriel leaning against the wall as punishment. He braced himself for a scolding and headed toward her. She scowled at him like a sworn enemy. "You must be happy seeing me get punished."

"Then why were you sketching in the class?" he asked.

"It doesn't concern you." she retorted.

"It does," he abruptly claimed. "You attract unnecessary attention when you are immersed in sketching."

Oriel was baffled at his reason. She sighed and rolled her eyes in disbelief. "You must really hate me to do things like that."

"I don't hate you," he persisted. "I know I do stupid things to show my concern for you but I swear that I never meant to hurt you."

He silently waited for her to forgive him, his eyes begged for a look from her. She avoided his sight and stared in the sky, folding her arms. "Okay!" she broke the silence, "then, I want you to treat me with my favorite parfait.," she smiled brightly with a reconciliation.

"As much as you can manage to eat, let's go!" Collin expressed his happiness.

The two approached the staircase at the end of the corridor to escape the school. They had planned their day with fun things after ending their school earlier. "Let's go and watch a movie, there this new release that I want to see," Oriel said, as she turned behind and walked backwards, facing Collin, who was steadily following her.

All of a sudden, a big boy from one of the senior classes ascended the staircase that they were headed to. At the unexpected entry of the boy, a collision happened between him and Oriel, who was not looking her front. "Oh! I'm so sorry," she was startled and looked at the big boy at once.

He was Paul, the badass bully, and a spoiled brat at their school. Both Collin and Oriel knew him from the past, ever since he had confessed his feelings for Oriel. "Oriel, you little angel. You should always look ahead while walking. But I'm not saying that I hated it."

She felt his hand on her waist, making its grip tighter. She waited no more and removed it off in displeasure. "I'm sorry."

Collin read his role and came forward to block her front, standing between them. "She has understood bro! how about we continue in our own directions," he mediated, casually putting his hand on Paul's chest, as gesture of restricting him from heading forward.

Paul looked at the hand that Collin blocked him with, and scoffed at his audacity. "You must be really brave to put your hand on me."

Collin retreated and reached for Oriel's hand. "Sorry, bro! I thought we were friends. You just broke my heart with that look though," he resorted to sarcasm.

"Collin, let's go. We have to come back before the next period," Oriel said, in her intimidated voice. They started walking forward, ignoring the presence of Paul.

He narrowed his eyes down and smirked as she passed by him. "You look in hurry, are you guys up to something fun?" He seized her hand from behind and pulled her closer. "Can I join you?"

Oriel was scared and disgusted at his touch. Collin didn't control himself and freed her from his grip. "Let her go!" He pushed him back.

Paul stumbled on his feet and retrieved his balance. He was furious on Collin and flared his nostrils looking at him. "How dare you?" Do you know who I am?" he spoke, agitated.

Collin didn't back off this time and faced him in the eye grabbing him from his collar. "I don't care whoever you are. If you ever try to bother her again with your sick obsession for her, then I swear I am going to beat you and free your soul from this filthy body," he released his collar, pushing him back. "Let's go." He possessively grabbed her hand and took her away from him.

Paul stood there with his broken ego; he rolled his eyes at his surrounding, fearing a third eye. "I will make you both regret it."

_________________

Collin brought her to a cafe near their school and brought her a parfait as he had promised. He placed large size parfait cup on the table and observed her hands still trembling with fear. "Oriel," he called her, pulling her back from her daze. "You don't need to be scared of anyone. I assure you that there will be no one who I will let near you," Collin said in his reassuring voice.

"But I'm not scared and I don't need anyone to protect me. You just overreact sometime," she acted strong and grabbed a spoon to jab into her parfait, deliciously eating it.

"Exactly! you are not scared of anyone," Collin muttered. Even when Oriel didn't confess it, she was shaking with fear, and Collin knew how to listen to the things she never said from her mouth. His only goal was to keep her away from every bad thing that comes her away. He was keeping the promise that he made to her father, meanwhile suppressing his heart that wanted something more than just her smile.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she snapped him from his dreams. "Do you want some from my parfait?"

He lightly shook his head in refusal and smiled looking at her. "I don't want it, I'm fine just like this."

Oriel shrugged her shoulders and continued eating. They forgot about school and changed their path to a movie theater, and then amusement park. Their day was filled with happiness and joy.

They made new memories with each other, but different memories had different impacts on the two individuals. Putting a cat head accessory on Collin's head was the most memorable moment for Oriel, when Collin couldn't forget about the time when she wrapped her arms around him after seeing a skull inside the haunted house; his heartbeat had stopped at that moment. Just like that, they came back home with two utterly different but same experiences.

They stepped inside the home that still lightened with dazzling bulbs and chandeliers, the lost prosperity of the family was not evident at the first glance.

"I'm exhausted! I'm just gonna fall dead on my bed," Oriel exaggerated.

Roger matched the timing and came back with them, "Where were both of you?" he asked.

Now that he was just a failed businessman, trying hard to get back on his feet, he looked weary and tired of everything around him. "Dad!" Oriel went scampering and hugged him.

"Uncle!" Collin stood in his place.

The relation between them was indeed twisted. Collin had never addressed Roger as his dad, when Oriel had always seen him as his father. "You had fun today?"

"Umm! we had a blast. We bunked our school and went to play around," she jovially shared with Roger.

"I thought we were not telling this to anyone."

"Okay, good job. Now let me rest for some time. I had to switch seven trains and buses today."

Bella was watching them standing on the railing above the living room. She grimaced seeing the miserable condition of Roger. "I wish I had never married this man."

Roger tossed his bag on the sofa and pressed on his forehead to appease his headache. "Such a hectic day it was!" he walked to step on the staircase going to his room. "Collin! can you see me in my room? I have something importance to discuss with you," Roger asked him follow.

"I'll be there after changing into something else," agreed Collin.

______________

Roger came inside his room, seeing Bella waiting for him at the couch. "How was your day, honey?" he softly asked.

She slanted her eyes and looked at him with loathe. "How do you think it must have gone?" she asked with her voice brimming with scorn. "Every single one of you has a place that you can go to, meanwhile I have to stay at home to answer the countless calls from the creditors. The bad mouthed, ill-mannered men show up at our door; I have to face them. What did I do to deserve this?'

Ashamed Roger lost the strength to keep his neck upright and caused his head dip downwards. "I don't have words to offer you an apology in. I am just too embarrassed to look in your eyes right now."

"You have lost that right long ago, ever since you decided to keep that ominous girl in our home, when I was strongly against it," her voice raised as she kept bursting at him. "Now you see how unlucky she has been for us?"

Collin showed up at their door, knocked to make them aware of his presence. "I'm here."

Bella wiped her wet cheek and aggressively walked out of the room. "No one in this hell of a house cares about me."

Collin pursed his lips as she went past, flouncing. "You said you had something to discuss with me."

"Yes, yes... come here," Roger instructed.

Roger unbuckled the wrist watch that he was wearing and loosened his necktie looking in the dressing table in which Collin reflected standing behind him. "It is a question that I must ask cautiously, or else it may change a lot for you, depending on your answer," he spoke, unbuttoning the top two buttons of his shirt. "What do you feel about Oriel?"

Collin lifted his head, looked inside the mirror in which they both reflected. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean it just the way I said. What do you feel for Oriel? Love as a sister? a friend or... more than a friend? You're not a child to not understand what I mean."

Collin's eyes wavered in the air, he didn't allow himself to take much time answering and replied at once, "I feel nothing! she is just a family that I feel obliged to take care of."

Roger sighed, putting his watch in the drawer that was once filled with every precious watch but now it was almost empty. "Then it is fine."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, confused.

Roger turned to face him, "I am sure you have met Paul. He is a boy who likes our Oriel and I want them to get closer to each other because," he took a pause clutching Collin's heart with his words, "Paul is the only son of the chairman of the company which is signing an investing with me."