4 : Around You

"Gravity loves you"

 

Aaron spoke, dragging her out of her agonistic thoughts. She was startled from her seat and took the phone. 

Aaron darted his eyes, filled with concern, and urged to hear something from her. He could see her eyes getting moistened and her lips pressed harder with each other as if she was trying to hold her tears, looking out of the window.

"Are we done with the session?", he asked after a pause.

"I'm not interested. Please", her voice throbbed while talking as she hanged her head, staring at the blank screen of her phone.

"What's your interest? May I know?"

"Why are you so much interested in me?", Haya shrugged off. She realized she was being too harsh towards the only person who was giving her a bit of attention. Even when Rubel dumped her, she didn't utter a single mean word for him.

"Well, you lost the opportunity to know. I told you if you delay much, I will remain a mystery to you", he chuckled.

Torn among all the chaos in her life, she couldn't figure out why Aaron was being so much interested in her that day. She knew he had come back from New York the previous day. A year ago, during their fresher's party in the college, he didn't even look at her for once, he might not know she even existed.

"Here we are. Your home", with a jerk Haya came out of her thoughts and climbed down from the Audi, Aaron followed her.

"Thank you", she mumbled without glancing at him for the last time and turned around towards her residence.

As she backed him, Aaron's eyebrows wriggled while gazing at her.

------------

"Oh! Fuck!", Haya heard someone moaning as she entered inside.

The sound was too embarrassing for her to hear when she knew it was her younger sister Delilah. She tried to avoid it and walk towards her room but Delilah was too loud.

Haya's entire face turned ruddy and she stumbled to climb the stairs.

"It was fucking great", Delilah laughed behind as Haya titled her head, finding Delilah with Steven.

"Hey, when did you come?", Delilah's words seemed to be unwanted enough.

"Just now", Haya looked away.

"Okay, bye babe", Steven kissed Delilah's cheeks. "Bye, Haya"

"Bye", Haya said in a low tone and stayed quiet until Steven was out of the house.

"Delilah, you shouldn't do all this here. I mean, I don't have any problem. But it's embarrassing. I'm your elder sister", Haya said.

"Huh! So what? Am I scared of you?", Delilah grimaced. "He's my boyfriend and mom dad also know about it. Moreover, there is a higher chance that he's my mate"

"I'm not saying that. But here....."

"Listen", Delilah made a dirty face, showing Haya her palm. "Mom and dad were not at home. And I didn't know you would come home early today. I'm not interested in fucking my boyfriend in public. Stop being so jealous of me"

She turned around towards her room.

"Jealous?", Haya exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah. Aren't you?", Delilah scowled at her, tilting her head a bit. Haya was searching for specific words to speak. "Despite being two years younger than you, I'm not a virgin anymore. And look at you. No guy had ever been interested in you. That's why you're mateless at the age of nineteen. It shows how much incapable you are. That's why you always have problems with me"

Haya was out of words. However, she wasn't even a virgin anymore but it didn't mean that she achieved something. She was still mateless and the man she loved wasn't even interested in her after taking her virginity.

Her chain of thoughts broke when Delilah slammed the door of her room. Taking lazy steps Haya climbed the stairs and reached her room.

Rubel's last message was still disturbing her. She didn't want to damage her unborn pup but deep down she knew it would be hard for her too to survive with it. She was being mentally harassed by her people for the past three years.

Her mother always thought she would mate with an Alpha. But even after her sixteenth birthday, no one claimed her. According to her father, she was too weak for an Alpha and incapable of being the Luna of any pack.

From then, her mother started to drift away from her. They thought Haya might find her mate at least in her eighteenth. Unfortunately, it never happened.

At that point, when Rubel started hitting on her she finally hoped for something good. At least, her mother would be happy to know that an alpha showed some interest in her. Nonetheless, the last hope she had was broken too.

"Should I abort?", she mumbled to herself.

"How can you?", Serena blurted out.

"I can't do this alone. It's not my fault that I'm weak", she was in tears.

"He has no right to force you to abort"

"I know. But what will I tell mom? She'll kill me for sure this time. I have gotten enough opportunities to survive. I don't think it's happening anymore"

"You want it", Serena said.

She sat on the ground, her back pinned against the bed. A million thoughts struck across her sanity. Her tired eyes were squeezed shut, heaving her into a deep sleep.

-----------

The doorbell rang like a storm when Haya's eyes shot up and she woke up in a haste, pushing her drowsy eyelids. As she looked at the clock, it was eight. She got terrified and her gaze drifted out the window, discovering the truce darkness all around. She had to go to the pack physician that afternoon.

The crucial assault on the doorbell was being harsh with every passing second. She stood up and rushed towards the living room. Delilah was hardly at home whenever their parents were out of town. Haya figured out Delilah wasn't at home that night either.

She opened the metal door, goosebumps all over her body as she swallowed the saliva. Rubel was standing in front of her, scooting his grey eyes on her.

"You?", a sound escaped her mouth, trembling and half-uttered.

"How dare you overstep me?", he banged inside, almost bumping into her. Her legs wobbled to stand straight as she strived her best not to fall.

"What-what did I do?", she pushed the words to break out of her throat, sweat all over her tanned skin.

"Didn't I tell you to visit Yukta this afternoon?", he clasped her arm, thrusting his body against her. She had come in contact with him several times. Nonetheless, it never haunted her like today since she thought he was in love with her. Now, she was only scared of every gesture of him.

"I-I was", she stammered, looking down.

"Are you trying to trap me with this shit?", he howled aloud, scouring his sharp nails into her delicate flesh. She whizzed into her mouth with the sharp pain.

"Trap? No! I fell asleep", she tried to explain. "And this is not shit. This is my baby. How can you-"

"See, here comes the truth. Your so-called affection grew up so early. And now you're gonna use this to get into my life"

"No!", she screeched. "I don't-"

"That's your fucking motive. Your eyes were always on the tag. You want to be the Luna through me, right? To make yourself stand in crowd", his allegations were breaking her more from inside.

She never tried to approach him, nor she was after him. It was Rubel who cheated on Harper with her. Whenever Haya reminded him of Harper, he claimed that he was bound to Harper unwillingly. He wanted only Haya.

However, Haya was dumb to utter the facts in front of him right then. She couldn't utter a single word.

"But I won't let you succeed. Come with me right now", he dragged her out of the residence.

"I don't wanna abort", the unexpected words came out of her mouth which shocked her too. Until the afternoon she was not sure if she wanted the pup or not.

"What did you say?", with a dreadful look, Rubel turned around.

"I-I don't wanna ab-abort", she stammered in a jiggling voice.

"Do you think I care about what you want? You're gonna ruin my life", he howled.

"I won't. I won't trouble you with it. Ple-", before she could complete, his fingers wrapped around her jaw, scooping his long fingers deadly under her skin.

"Listen, you fucking girl! I don't want anything that connects me with you. Got it? How will you handle this alone? Ha? You- a girl like you who can only stammer and plunge around will handle this? You will surely bang into my life to make a mess like all the weeping doomed girls. I can't take a risk", he shoved her face away when tears spiraled down her wriggled skin.

She had no strength left to scream at him and she was not even strong enough to push him away. He clasped her arm again and dragged her towards the gate like a corpse.

"What a pleasant surprise! Rubel"

Rubel's eyes shot up at the guy standing a foot away from him in a black hoodie, all smiles.

"Aaron!", he exclaimed, loosening his grip and shoving Haya away.

Her devastating eyes wandered around, halting at Aaron who was smiling at them. She wondered why he was there. Another hand, Rubel had a line of stress across his forehead.

"Good evening", Aaron settled his hands into his pockets and walked towards them.

"You-here?", Rubel's eyebrows drew together.

"Ah! I was here for Haya. The thing is we have a surprise match tomorrow. Sorry for revealing it. You all know tomorrow itself. Haya has to practice", he looked at her ruddy face when she gulped down, trying to hide her tears. "It's too late so the manager of organizers sent me to fetch her. But you?", Aaron curved his jawline with his fingers, raising his eyebrows.

"I-", Rubel muttered.

"Something is going on between you and-", Aaron pretended to tease him.

"What? Hell no!", Rubel blurted out. "I deserve better"

He passed an arrogant look to her. With every word he spoke, she was losing her strength, her spare confidence, and her ability to breathe.

"I just came here to meet her father. You know he's the gamma of this pack. So-"

"Oh, yeah. Then why were you dragging her like this?", Aaron rolled his eyes.

"Listen! Be within your limits. Don't question too much and don't forget who I am", Rubel spat, glancing at Haya for once.

His firing gaze somehow told Haya that he was gonna come back very soon. The next moment, he was gone.

Aaron looked behind and then glanced at Haya for once. She drove her eyes away, placing her palm around her arm where Rubel had gripped her as if she was trying to hide the ruddy imprints of the fingers.

Aaron observed her well, even the way she was trying her best to hide the tears and marks. He grinned at her failed attempts.

"Is there really a prac-practice?", she mumbled, lifting her eyes, filled with blood-red shade.

"Would I lie?"

"It seems like you deliberately come here to-", she stopped.

"Oh! I didn't know you're so intelligent to figure this out", he cracked up.

Everything seemed like a puzzle to her and Aaron was the most mysterious puzzle among them. She gritted her teeth at him. She didn't know why all the hatred and ignorance from others never pissed her off but a bit of taunt from Aaron angered her. Only he could bring out the last reaction from her that no one could ever bring.

"Stop taunting me all the time", she shrugged. "What do you want from me?"

"I guess I'm the most fortunate one whom you answer back", he giggled at her, decreasing the gap between them with tiny steps. Haya stepped back. "And I just want to be around you", he husked in a raspy voice almost near her ear.

His cozy breath delivered chills down to her spine and she quivered from the core as her exhausted gaze met his grey eyes.