The Classmate Series(BOOK I): The Personal Assistant

Chapter Eight: A story is like the Titan Atlas.

'Ms. Hastings, what are...,' Sebastian opened the door and came in saying, but was interrupted when he saw Matt and me making out next to my desk. Matt cursed under his breath and took a file in his hands and lowered it to hide his arousal. No matter how funny it was to watch, I was scared. Sebastian's cold eyes never left us. After a minute, Sebastian turned around and left. He didn't look angry or irritated. He looked devoid of emotion. Like he didn't care.

I left Matt trying to calm down his little soldier and saw Sebastian going in the elevator. Before I reached it, the doors had already closed. I sighed and took the other lift. I don't know but I had to tell Sebastian that the kiss with Matt meant nothing. Matt was just a crush and I wanted nothing more than friendship with him. I felt like explaining this to Sebastian. But he obviously had no relation with me. He wanted me to resign at any cost and this wouldn't matter to him.

-

I would tell Matt that I wanted nothing more than friendship from him, the next thing in the morning. I reached my apartment to find Andrea comfortably sitting on the couch watching Netflix. My stomach rumbled. I noticed Chinese takeout on the table.

Once I changed into my night clothes, I sat next to Andrea with the delicious food.

We watched Netflix until I had my dinner and once, I had washed the dishes, she closed the television. I knew it was time for one of 'The Andrea Talk'.

I frowned when I saw that Andrea had dropped some ice-cream on my batman tee. She grinned sheepishly before saying, 'I will wash it later, I promise.'

'What made you late? I hope Sebastian was not–'

'No, Andrea. He was not troubling me.' I said defensively...wait what?

Andrea smirked and continued, 'I was going to ask whether he was banging you on his desk or something.'

I flushed and I hit her on the arm, hard. She winced and rubbed the portion where I had hit her. After talking about a bit more random things, I thought I had succeeded in getting her mind off Sebastian and I. But the moment I thought of that, she said, 'Coming back to the point why I am here for.'

I sighed exasperatedly.

Andrea ushered me to talk, 'Begin, Le.'

I looked at the table and I decided to tell Andrea my story. I was going to tell her a part of my dark childhood and teenage – the part I had not dared to tell anyone. I didn't trust anyone enough. I didn't trust Andrea no matter how reliable she was. Having trust issues was another bad quality in me – just like numerous other bad qualities in me. I wasn't telling Andrea because she was pestering me to, no. I was telling her because I needed to let go of the built up emotions in my soul.

I was being selfish. But I needed to be, just for once.

'When I was 8 years old, I had moved in next to Sebastian's bungalow with my family. Dad was in Army and never got time to visit me, not that he loved me anyway. They all loved that stupid bitch Ivory, I couldn't see why. I thought it was just me being paranoid and I was happy with the library that was just a stone's throw away from our house, I used to be there all the time. I always used to see Sebastian in the library – yeah, he was a book nerd when he was a kid.'

I drank some water, there was a lot of talking to do. Andrea's eyes were perked up – she was attentively listening to what I was saying. S t o r y – it is such a simple five letter word but holds so much meaning to it. Some stories are short lived and some stories go on till eternity. But what makes a story special is neither the amount of words, 2000 words or 200000000 words, nor the people. It is the fact that a story, whether simple or complex, is like the Titan Atlas – it holds the weight of the whole world. The world that the story holds is that of an individual's. My story holds the whole weight of my world.