Teach me how to flirt.
Chapter seventeen:
You know that feeling you get when you wake up early in the morning? When you don’t want to face the world and just wish you could cover your face up with the covers to indulge into the world of dreams?
That was Not how Ella was feeling when she woke up the next day. In fact, she felt the exact opposite, she felt energetic, happy, positive, excited and in the end all of it is summed up in two words… in love.
So maybe after spending the previous night talking on the phone with Zack, chatting about nothing in particular, she still woke up with a happy glow.
Her instincts led her to check on the phone beside her and when her eyes caught on the words ‘ 1 new message’ a smile floated on her face.
“hey chika, I’m going to work and will pick you up on my way back. I don’t know why you didn’t pick up when I called but figured you were sleeping. See you tonight.”
Even though the message couldn’t be simpler, Ella’s heart flip flopped a couple of times.
He didn’t call her beautiful, he didn’t call her perfect, he didn’t call her baby, he called her chika. That word always held so many meanings in Ella’s mind that she couldn’t even imagine him telling her anything else.
She looked at the clock beside the bed and gasped when she realized it was three in the afternoon.
She slept a lot! But considering the fact that she stayed up really late to talk to Zachariah, her sleeping durations were still within normal limits.
She stood up and stretched, went through her morning ritual and it was already four, obviously her hot bath was too welcoming for her to just slip in and out of it quickly.
She walked downstairs and looked for her parents but the house was awfully quiet, she gulped before walking to their room and knocking.
No one said anything.
Does this mean they left?
She gulped again before turning the knob and peeking inside the room to find it perfectly arranged and organized.
They did leave.
Ella didn’t know how she felt exactly but the hurt was evident with the way her heart seized to beat enthusiastically for later tonight. plus, the feeling of abandonment, kind of haunted her right now.
She gulped for the thousandth time but it was because of how her tears were drowning her eyes that all she could see were the blurred objects inside her parents’ room.
Was it because she told them she didn’t care? They’re her parents, of course she does!
Zachariah was right, trying to convince herself that she hates her parents was like saying she won’t be angry if Zack slept with anot-
Let’s not complete the disturbing thought.
She realized –standing with tears falling silently on her face- that emotions are fragile.
There are easy as love changes into hate… and how hate changes into love.
It all requires one moment that we mostly miss to witness, so we end up standing like Ella, with a shocked expression on our faces and a heart that got beat up far too many times to care again.
She lied when she said she didn’t care, the first time. but now, she doesn’t care no more as in forever. Or was this a lie as well?
She wiped away her tears and was about to close the door when miraculously –as if god was by her side- the door’s movement, concentrated the light seeping through the gap towards a glittery thing that laid on the table by their bed. Ella never really wandered around their room because it tended to rise bad thoughts inside her, but the curiosity and the hope that ruled her blindly at that point pushed her to walk towards the glittery booklet, some sort of album and walk out of the room.
Closing the door softly behind her, her eyes were still fixated on the album in her grasp, she turned the cover as soon as she settled on her bed and lit up the lights and opened the curtains.
The first picture was of Ella as a baby with her mother at the hospital. Her father was crying as he watched her and her mother was smiling with red cheeks to the camera.
Ella took a deep breath and didn’t really know whether they got it out because they were leaving and needed to see this one more time, or they left it for her to find.
However, she turned the pages and she kept watching the pictures where she had her parents by her side. The first nine years of her life, those were when they didn’t leave her for too long.
She often wondered if they worked, but she figured her grandpa’s wealth left them no worries.
Suddenly, a picture took her by surprise. It was on her twelve’s birthday that she had to celebrate alone with Noah, Maryanne and her nanny that used to be pretty sweet at the time – before her daughter got a divorce and the nanny turned into an utter bitch getting her frustration at a thirteen year old girl who loved her like a mother-.
Ella found herself crying again. How did they get this picture of her blowing out the candles?
Then it went on with more surprises on the way, there were pictures of her in school projects, school plays, her displays, copies of her reports, school letters. It even contained the first picture ever with her and Noah together. They were young and –supposedly- in love, so their grins were from ear to ear and their hands were held together tightly that the knuckles were shown white.
Finally, turning the pages and reaching the end of the album, her mouth hung open when she saw a tiny piece of paper stuck to the back of the album saying,” We always love you.”
Ella cried again that her heart started constricting from all the sobs, finally becoming desperate for answers, she grabbed the phone and dialed Mary’s number.
After the third ring she replied.
“hey Mary, it’s Ella.”
“hey babe, don’t you dare cancel on me!” Mary warned.
“no, I wanted to ask you something important about my parents.”
Pause.
“s-sure?”
“did you send them pictures of mine?”
Pause.
“why are you asking? Mary exclaimed.
“Mary, please, just tell me.” Ella begged helplessly.
Pause.
“okay fine, I did.” She said quickly and Ella smiled at the pictures.
“why did you do it?” she asked softly which startled Maryanne slightly since that wasn’t the reaction she was expecting.
“it was a deal between us, I send them pictures via internet or mobile and they pay me when they return. It was a fun joke between us. But stopped last year, don’t know why though.”
Ella nodded to the air and gulped to prevent her words from wobbling.
“okay, thanks Mary for everything. I’ll go get dressed now.”
“hey hey hey, wait, why were you asking?” Mary asked curiously that Ella chuckled.
“it’s nothing. Bye.” With that she hung up just to dial Zack’s number.
“My chika!” he said happily through the phone and Ella surprisingly laughed at how cute he was.
“hey baby, how are you?”
“I’m great.”
Ella sniffed involuntarily, which was a big mistake because of how the phone went dead.
“Ella, what’s wrong?” his deadly tone just told Ella that ‘ nothing’ wouldn’t be good enough.
“um, my parents left again this morning…” she said disappointing herself when her voice turned into sobs as she watched the pictures.
“they left me this album that held lots of pictures of me and when I called Mary she told me they had an arrangement that she would send them any pictures of me. they followed my life from behind the scenes Zachariah and I feel so sad.”
“oh, sweetheart. I’m… I’m actually not sorry.” He whispered.
“w-what?” Ella stuttered from all the sobs escaping her.
“now, you’ll love them without doubts chika, you’ll remember how it felt like to be loved from your own family. You were never alone, you were not forgotten and they never hated you. You were wrong about them all these years.”
“Zachariah, I’m not so sure if what you’re saying is making me feel better or so so much worse.” She sobbed and his sigh echoed through the phone.
“chika, it’s 5:45”
“I know, don’t care right now.” She said wiping her tears and sniffing in the process.
“fine, you know what Ella, you should cry, get out how you feel.” He said and Ella could have sworn she heard a subtle noise from his end of the line.
“I know. Zack, I feel worthless. I told them I didn’t care yesterday when they said they’d try over. I was the one who ruined everything.”
Zack furiously shook his head as he drove through the streets. As soon as he knew that she was crying, he left his office and ran to the car. He was ending his final papers because of the road trip and when Ella was crying, he couldn’t just wait till he finished, he had to go stay by her.
“don’t say that.” He argued.
Ella’s tears didn’t stop, and she sobbed harder. Zack kept telling her how amazing she is, how important and beautiful she is, but in her mind, she saw herself as the person whose own parents didn’t want her no more.
So how could anybody do?
Suddenly without warning, Ella found the door knocking. She told Zack to wait a second and walked down the stairs with the phone plugged to her ear.
When she opened the door and found him standing there with his disheveled brown hair and cute lips pursed into a pout, the sweetness of the situation, and how loved he made her feel all of a sudden, pushed her limits and she weakly broke down in his arms crying.
They ended up sitting on the stairs because Ella didn’t want to walk upstairs just yet.
Zack felt helpless and he hated it. He never thought she would hurt that much if she was used to the fact that they’re gone. But when she informed him that they left her an album as if it’s a goodbye present, his heart tugged a bit and he felt sorry for her.
He wished he could make her smile again, but he didn’t know what to do.
Till suddenly something popped in his mind.
“Ella, chika, listen to me.” he ordered softly urging her to look at his face using his fingers.
“hm” she murmured looking so sad at him.
“you were never supposed to mean this much to me. I was never supposed to fall so hard, but you know what chika? I did, and I’m happy, because the truth is, I keep holding on to you because when I imagined myself letting go, it hurt like hell. I hold on to you because I need you, I want you and most importantly love you. If you were all the horrible things you’re saying about yourself, do you think I would have been so deep in it like that? Sweetheart, open your eyes. You’re much stronger than you think.”
Ella’s eyes watered with his words and a tear or two fell as she sniffed cutely causing her lips to pout. Zack smiled his half smile before leaning in slowly and planting a slow thorough kiss on her wet salty lips to support the truth he just said.
Another sniff escaped her before saying,” I absolutely can’t believe how we were pretending all this time. I can’t see my life without you there being my support.”
Zack smile and shook his head, kissing her again and then whispering as if it’s a secret, “ no, I will support you forever, but don’t you ever say that you can’t see your life without me. you are a different person, who is not defined by your relationship with me. I love you for your independence, your existence, but don’t ever put your life’s purpose along the shelf of another’s life because it will never be their priority as much as their own.”
Ella nodded at some bits but in the end she chuckled and lifted her hand to cup his face before asking teasingly, “ so you mean I am not your priority?”
Zack rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue before scolding,” you leave all the awesome stuff I said and focus on this part?”
She laughed and hugged him feeling much much better.
“god, I feel much better now, thanks to you.” She said rubbing his back soothingly.
He had his arms around her waist and her legs on his thighs, he hugged her back and said,” can we go to your room now? I think my butt lost all blood circulation because of how firm those stairs are. I don’t feel it no more.”
Ella blew up laughing at the absurdity of what he said that her eyes watered again, for a slightly different reason this time… a happier one.
Zachariah started chuckling when she first laughed but in a second he was laughing hard as well.
They just laughed and they both knew that this relationship wasn’t actually ‘real’ since yesterday when they admitted their feelings.
They started off as friends from the first day they met each other, which shows that Zack has been her support ever since day 1, as well as Ella being his priority.
It was a twisted puzzle but now it fit perfectly forming perfect sense.