WHEN ALL STARS GO DARK (On-going)

Chapter 5

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yeah. I know I've said that I'm going to update every Wednesday, but since I'm in a good mood right now, I'll just post this. So yeah. 😅 Happy readingggg~~

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When Aya saw that it was her mother who was calling her, she was happy but at the same time, she wanted to decline it. Because even if she didn't answer this call, she already knew what is it about.

But she know that her mother will throw a fit at her if she do that. So without much of a choice, she still answered. It won't last long anyway.

"Hello mo---"

"Hi sweetie. I just wanted to say that I have a dinner meeting and you're coming with me. So wear your best dress and look presentable okay? Bye."

Before Aya can even say goodbye, the call already ended. What's new to it anyway? It always happen whenever her mother has dinner meetings. She would call Aya and tell her exactly the words she had said earlier. As if it was already recorded and she just sent it to Aya.

Every dinner meetings her mother had, Aya's always forced to attend when in fact she didn't even understand why. But after so many meetings she went to with her mother, Aya already knew what is the reason why her mother keep on bringing her to the dinner meetings Aya isn't even interested at.

And every calls she had received from her mother, Aya already lost count of the times when her mother asked her how her day went, like any normal mother would. Instead she's always greeted by the dinner meetings of her mother.

'Straight to the point? Nahh. They just don't care about me. But when did they even?'

Sighing, she put down her phone and when she did, she saw her wallpaper. It's them. Her family. A happy one. Her father was carrying her in his arms while her mother was smiling widely at the camera and she was just a newborn baby.

No one knew how much she wanted to go back to that time. Because the smiles her parents were wearing on that photo was now long gone. And all because of her.

Clutching slightly at her phone, she put it back inside of her jeans' pocket. And turning her heels, she walked towards the direction of her afternoon class. Not remembering that she was supposed to talk to someone until Tracey asked her.

Aya didn't even gave her an explanation as her mind was already at the dinner meeting that will happen tonight. Aya knew that Tracey noticed something was wrong but didn't ask for more, which she was thankful for.

She was even called for a few times for a recitation but she can't find herself to answer.

If she's in her normal self, she would already pinched herself for not answering, but right now, she can't even have a slight attention to what lessons they are having.

And their whole afternoon class ended with Aya being not her normal self. She just can't stop thinking how can she be able to survive this dinner meeting again without ruining it and disappointing her mother.

And when she finally get a grip of herself, she was already at a fine restaurant, sitting in a 4 person table, wearing a dress and giving fake smiles. She just hope it looks real.

"You've got a wonderful and lovely daughter Mrs. Hart." Mrs. Everson, her mother's business partner said while looking at her. And again she was forced to smile.

Since the very start, Mrs. Everson keeps on complimenting Aya as well as her mother to Grey, Mrs. Everson's son. If by other circumstances, Aya would think that it was only normal, but she knew it wasn't, because as always, her mother was silently throwing her to the guy, as well as Mrs. Everson doing to her son, silently throwing at her.

Aya looked up to the guy sitting at the opposite chair right in front of her. He looked like he was also forced to attend this dinner meeting. Well atleast they are on the same page.

"Oh please, you can just call me Samantha." Her mother gleefully said to Mrs. Everson. And the latter agreed.

'And now they are on the first name basis. Great.' Aya uttered to her thoughts as she looked down on her slice of cake. It looks delicious but she can't find her appetite to devour it like she normally would.

She was busy murdering that slice of cake when she heard her name in the two older women conversations. She didn't raised her head to looked up and pretended that she's busy with her cake, which she really was, but she's actually listening to the conversation.

"If only I had a daughter like Aya, I'm sure I'm the luckiest mother on Earth." She heard Mrs. Everson exclaimed. And hearing that, she just wished that her mother would also think about her like that. But instead, she heard her mother chuckled.

"Oh Dorothy, Aya still have so many things to learn. Yeah she's smart but it's not enough." She heard her mother say. Not even realizing that her words was just like a knife, cutting and hurting Aya.

'Yeah. I will never be enough.' Aya can feel her eyes watered, but she forced herself not to cry in front of them by clutching her fork really hard she can even outline the fork in her hand. She's also blinking rapidly so that the forming tears in her eyes will just disappear.

She's already having a hard time controlling her tears, but the two older women remained talking, oblivious of what she's hearing and feeling.

"Oh come on Samantha. Your daughter's acing all of her subjects. Don't tell me you're not proud of having a daughter like her?" Mrs. Everson question was like salt rubbing to Aya's wound. Because seriously, is it really necessary to ask that when the person they're talking about was right there in their table? And was it necessary to talk about her when they are here for "business meeting" in the first place?

"She's still got this one subject she's really bad at. And I don't intend to let it slide since it's related to the course she's taking for college." Her mother explained.

Aya's head hung lower than earlier when she heard her mother. And she can even tell that all of the eyes turned to her. Her mother, Mrs. Everson's and Grey's.

Not able to stand all of the attention, she stood up and excused herself for the bathroom. She eagerly walked away to that table and instead to go to the bathroom, she chose to went outside of the restaurant using the back door.

And the moment she finally did, she burst out crying. Clutching her chest as she can feel it hurting. She let her tears finally flow and let out the sobs she's bottling up the very moment she entered that restaurant.

She just cried and cried. And she's thankful that it's already dark and there's no one out there who can witness her situation right now.

But little did she know that there was actually someone who's staring at her. Someone who already knew that her life was far from being perfect as the students in their school thought to be.

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