16 | Clouds and Paper Airplanes
Mia | POV
It's weird just seeing Calum in school and not even smile or wave at him. I'm still mad at him for what happened last weekend. I know, it's been a week, but who can blame me, right?
This is exactly why I decided from the start that I wouldn't make any close connections at all, but Camille happened, Luke happened, and eventually Calum did. I sighed. "You okay?" Harry loops his arm around mine and slips his fingers around my own as we walk in the halls. I held his hand tighter and nodded. "Tell me if you're not feeling well, I'll drive you home." He tells me and I nod again.
"I'll see you later. If you need me, call or text, okay?" He says. "And in case of emergencies, you know what to do." He says and I nod again. For a moment we just stood there outside my first class, smiling. "Okay byyyyye." I waved at him. He laughs. "What's so funny?" I ask. "Perhaps, love, if you let go of my hand I could leave." He looks down at our still intertwined fingers. I quickly pulled them away. "Okay now bye!"
He gives my nose a light pinch. "See you, love."
"Gag." Luke teases and I roll my eyes. "Get a girlfriend."
***
First fitting of the costumes was today. Tatiana was helping me with Snow White's dress. "Turn around." She says and I do what i'm told. She tightens the sides of the dress. "I would just have to make a little adjustments here." She says and adjusts her glasses. There was a knock on the door, Sophia comes in. "oh.. sorry, I just needed help with my costume." She says.
Tatiana walks over to her and helps her into her costume. When she was done, she shares my full length mirror and I praise how she looks. "You fit perfectly in everything, Soph." I smile at her. She acknowledges it but doesn't say anything. "Oh, hold on." She says and walks over to her bag. "You like , right?" She asks me.
I hesitate, no, I don't like pink. I nod. "Guess you could say that." I reply and she beams brightly before rummaging through her bag. "I went shopping with Calum yesterday, I was looking for pendants and we came across this." She takes a small blue box. "It wasn't really my type, but Calum thought it would suit you." She looks down.
"Made me tad jealous, but I know nothing is going on between the two of you." She says. "And uhm, Calum told me about what happened last weekend, and he feels really bad about it." She tucks a hair behind her ear. "I guess it's why he thought of you." She smiles. "Come on, open it." She insist, so I do.
A soft gasp escapes my lips when I do. It was a pink tourmaline pendant. It's not exactly made in my style but it was beautiful still. "Thank you, it's beautiful." I tell her and she clasps her hand and smiles. "Glad you like it, my boyfriend seems to know you so well." She laughs.
If Calum thinks giving me this expensive pendant will make me talk to him then he's wrong. Little did he know I can buy millions of these with my own pocket money.
****
"And Sophia was okay about it?" Harry asks as we enter the house and down the basement. "Apparently." I shrugged. "Hey Angus." I briefly acknowledged his presence in which he nods to, then I went back to my conversation with Harry. "Sophia has nothing to worry about anyway, I meant they think I'm with you." I tell him.
"Wait, wait, what are you kids talking about?" Angus stops what he's doing for a while. "Calum gave Mia this pendant." Harry says and I held it up. Angus looks at it and makes a face. "I thought you hated pink?" Angus says. I shrug. "It reminded him of me probably because he hates me." I tell him.
I change the topic. "I thought Ash was arriving today?" I ask the both of them. There was a flash of hesitance in Angus' and Harry's eyes before one of them spoke. "He couldn't make it today, he has a schedule somewhere else."
I went up to my room and lie flat on the bed, staring at the ceiling. I sighed. I reach for the blue box in my pocket and opened it, looking at the pendant again. I clambered off my bed and took my jewelry box. I sat cross-legged on my sheets as I looked for a chain that will match the pendant.
I was fumbling through the boxing when my eyes landed on a familiar silver chain and a pendant. I gently took it and held in on my palms. I smile remembering the boy who gave me this. He was my first love. I close my eyes and smile.
I took a shorter silver chain and used it to chain Calum's pendant. I wore both necklaces around my neck, the longer chain overlapping the other.
There was a knock on my door, "Dinner's ready!" Angus voice echoes. "Coming!" I say out loud, clasping the chain around my neck.
My presence in the dining room seem to have halted Harry and Angus' conversation after they stopped talking too quickly when they saw me. I gave them a look. "What were you talking about?" I asked, taking a seat across Harry. His eye landed on the two pieces of pendants hang around my neck.
He smiles and looks at me. "Great timing." he says, giving Angus a brief look to what seemed to me as a look for an approval. "Sorry to interrupt your romantic eye gazing, the two of you, but am I missing something?" I asked them, feeling the odd one out. Angus laughs, Harry ignores the question too.
He stands up and takes my coat from the coat rack. "Where are you going with my coat?" I questioned. He walks to me and takes my hand, "I'm taking you out for coffee." He says as he guided me towards the door, my coat still hung on his other arm. I look back at Angus as we kept walking.
"Angus? Are you just going to let him take me like this?" I gave him a look of surprise, stunned that he's so passive about Harry. "Yup." he nods and waves. "What if he's a spy?!" I tried to make Angus to feel at least nervous, but nope. He trusts this man of curls. Harry was already opening the door when Angus says, "Trust me, he's far from a spy." he grins and the door shuts behind me.
***
"Why didn't you take your coat with you?" I ask, hugging the coat tighter around my body. We preferred walking to the coffee shop. His hands were shoved in his pocket as he spoke, "This sweater is enough to keep me warm." He smiles. I huffed, "suit yourself." I mutter under my breath.
When we arrived, we took the table on the corner near the glass window. Harry orders for the both of us as I watched people pass by, some taking their time, some in a hurry. When Harry gets back with our coffee, I wasted no time.
"Did you and Angus plan this?" I eyed him and he shakes his head smiling. "Not really, but we were talking about what i'm going to tell you." I raised my eyebrow, taking a sip from the steaming coffee but I never broke eye contact with him. "What's the deal? Why did you take me out?" I held the mug with both hands to keep me warm.
"I wasn't going to tell you just yet," he starts, his eyes landing on the pendant again. "But you wore the pendant that I gave you, love." He smirks, "It was my promise to you, that no matter how far apart we are, you will always have a piece of me, and you said—" And suddenly the past seemed to have run back to me fast, slamming the walls of my memory. "I'll keep this pendant close to where my heart is.." I continued and his eye lights up, realizing that I have now remembered him.
***
Daddy says today is Christmas Eve.
I held onto my straight from the box barbie doll as I looked up the window. "Daddy." I say, tugging dad's sleeve. He turns to me with a pleasant smile on his face. "What is it, sweetheart?" He scoots closer to me.
I looked up at the window again, pressing my palms on the glass. "I think the world is going to end?" He laughs. "Why do you think so?" His large hands grip my underarms as he lift me and rested me on his leg. The both of us looking out the window.
"Because the clouds are broken." I turn to him and he looks at me with a bemused face. "Look." I continue, looking up the sky, watching the little white puffs falling down. "The clouds broke, they're falling." I frown and turned to my father. "Can you help the clouds too?" I plead and he looks at me with a gentle smile.
"The clouds aren't broken, sweetheart." He starts. "It's falling from the sky not because it's broken." He continues. He leans closer so the both of our faces were close to the window. "See why they're falling so gently?" He points and I nod, watching little bits sticking on the window. "It's like your mother, simple, gentle, and beautiful." He smiles and looks at me.
I held the doll closer to my chest. "Your mother is up there, and she sent these little clouds to say hello. These are her little guardians." He says and my eyes lit up. "Really? Hello! Thank you for saying hello to me from my mom. Can you fly back and tell her I miss her too?" I say to the little white puffs sticking on the window.
"Excuse me, Mr. President, we would have to reroute to our destination." The big man driving the car says. Daddy sat me on the leather seat again. "What's the problem?" He asks and looks straight ahead.
"Daddy the car is burning!" I panicked and tug on his sleeve repeatedly. "Daddy the car is burning!" I repeat again. "Rerouting now." The big man says but my father stops him. "Stop the car." He orders. "But Mr. President—" He raises his hand to cut him mid sentence. "I am responsible for these people. Stop the car, Jacobs."
The big man nods and our own car stops too. I wanted to cry, I was scared. I watched the blue car burning by the tree. "Daddy where are you going?" I cried, squeezing the doll in my hands. He looks at me with a gently smile on his face. "Stay here, sweetheart. Don't go out, and don't open the door, okay? Daddy will be back." He says.
I nod and sniffed. There were other men with daddy, some were wearing a bright green jumpsuit. There was a big car with a red light, it was blinking, hurting my eyes. Some wore a black suit too, like my daddy. When they saw my father, everyone crowded around him but the big men wearing bright green clothes.
They were all talking to daddy.
I moved very close to the window. "Mia, darling, remember what your father said." The Big Man my father called Jacobs said to me. I pout and sat again. I was watching daddy talk to the men in green. A man in a black suit blocks the way and I panicked.
"Dad is gone!" I said in a loud voice. "No, darling, your daddy will be fine." Mister Jacobs tells me, but I don't believe him! Daddy is gone! "I can't see him! He's gone!" I cried and pressed the button for the window to roll down.
"Give me back my daddy!" I scream, but before I could finish my sentence, the window rolls back up again. I look at Mister Jacobs with teary eyed. "I'm sorry, Mia, you can't do that." He says, feeling surprised and nervous in the same time.
I tried pushing the button again and again but nothing happened. Maybe it's broken? I huffed and moved to the other side of the car, hugging my daddy's gift.
Moments later I hear a click and the door opens. I blink. A little boy climbs up the car. His eyes were red like mine. I sniffed, he sniffed. Daddy was right behind him.
"Marcel, this is my daughter Mia." Daddy says. Marcel wipes his tears from his red cheeks. I sniff again. "Hi Maya." He squeaks. "It's Mia.." I correct him. "I'm sorry." He starts crying and I start crying too. "Are you sad because you said my name wrong?" I frowned and he shakes his head. He sniffs and wipes his nose. "Why are you crying?" He asks me.
The car starts moving.
"Because I thought the men took daddy from me." I rub my eyes. "Why are you crying, Marcel?" I ask him.
"I—I think they took my parents!" He cries. I move close to him and hug him with my tiny arms.
"Do you see the falling clouds?" I ask and held his hand after letting go of the hug. I tell him to look out the window. He sniffs and nods. "My daddy says mom is up there, and these little clouds are her little guardians sent down here to say hello to me." I tell him. I squeeze his hand and smile. "Maybe your mother will be best friends with my mother in the sky, and they will send their little guardians together to say hello to us."
And he smiles for the first time.
***
" 'Because that's where you belong' " he finishes off for me.
—-
Getting to know Harry on this chapter. I'm trying to update as much as I can so we can reach the action! I hope you enjoy reading Mafia as much as I enjoy writing it.
P.S. Reading your comments make me so happy :') specially the long ass ones. Thank you so much for the love!
Johanna.