Amanda's POV
"Mom, you need to keep the fact that ' we know the father of Sam's baby ' as a secret ", I said while making an air quotation with my fingers."A real secret", I exaggerated the word secret.
"But Ammie, I guess we should tell her ", Mom took a sip of her coffee while we sat and discussed real important issues rather than gossiping about our relatives, like a normal daughter and mother, usually do.
"No, N + o = a NO ", I tried explaining her in mathematical language so that the concept of not telling Samarrah the secret directly varied with her mouth. I hated mathematics a lot but sometimes it added humor to our sentence so I used it, though this situation was a bit critical.
I took the coffee mug in my hand and walked upstairs towards Sam's room. "Don't tell her anything", I mouthed her from upstairs. My mom had a kind gentle heart that could be fooled easily, and that's why I kept saying the sentence "keep it a secret" to her after every hour.
Sam had left her room's door ajar and was busy applying a reddish shade of lipstick. Ugh, Sam, Gina and makeup. I knocked softly and she signaled me to come in with her hands. I walked silently towards her and sat on her bed. Once she was done applying her lipstick (which was an awfully long time), she sat down on her dressing table stool and began applying mascara. Was she freaking kidding me? I had come up to talk to her, not to get a makeup tutorial from her!!
"Did you take an appointment?" I finally questioned getting irritated by the silence.
Looking at me with the most boring expression anyone could ever put up, she spoke, "I clearly stated before, personal questions won't be answered". She then highlighted her cheeks with the blusher, which obviously got on my nerves. She was extremely obsessed with makeup, just like Gina and maybe that's why she had a better bonding with her compared to me. "Makeup soothes us and keeps us calm. It's our passion and that's what passions are for, right?" is what they both told me every time I questioned them.
"Well, too bad, 'Cause A) you are my fucking sister, so cut the personal bullshit. And B) it's not a question! It's a fucking necessity!" I half yelled-half spoke, losing my patience.
"What if I don't want to abort my child?" she challenged, raising her eyebrow.
"You can't even afford his diapers", I remarked sarcastically.
"Ammie, you can yell all you want, but I'm not a murderer for God's sake! I WILL NOT MURDER MY CHILD!!" she shouted, contradicting my abortion statement.
"It's not murdering for fuck's sake! You're only nineteen years old and you don't even earn! How the hell will you take the responsibility of the newborn when you can't even handle yourself?" I questioned. I couldn't just listen to her childish decisions calmly.
"What if his or her father comes back? He will be so mad at me when he comes to know that I aborted our child, that I killed our child", she spoke softly, her voice cracking at the threat of tears.
"Hmpf, he wouldn't even care", I said disgustedly. Little did she know that James, the so-called father of her baby didn't give a shit about my sister, he hadn't inquired once about Sam's health or well-being. Instead, he was busy making out with other girls, including me, her sister. The thought honestly made me feel like shit, but I was doing it for Sam.
She wiped a tear that had run down her cheek, cleared her throat, and replied, "You don't even know him."
Her statement hit me like a truck. I tried my best to not show it on my face 'cause that would've given everything away, but it ripped me apart from within. Seeing Sam cry had always been my weakness and it tore me every single time. It was like my own heart being stabbed. It hurt to see Sam's condition. But what hurt more was that I was so helpless right now. Sam was trying her best to put up her walls, to not let people see how broken she was from within, which indeed was very brave of her.
But this was it. I made sure that filthy-ass piece of shit James paid for the loss. I don't know how, but I would make his life a living hell. That was for sure.
"I may not know him, but I'm gonna make sure he pays for it. I promise." Saying so, I gave her a tight hug which she needed at the moment. Lying to Sam about not knowing James sure sucked. Like, A LOT. But in this situation, I would do all it takes to make my sister happy, to see her smile; a genuine one. That was all that mattered.
Pulling out of the hug, I kissed her forehead and rushed out of the room. I was running late to college so I just picked some raw sandwiches from the counter and stuffed them in my mouth like a hungry goat. I took the nearest taxi and as soon as I reached college, I sprinted to my class like my life depended on it.
For the first time in my entire life, I couldn't wait for my lecture to begin. You know, only so that it could end soon, and I could speak to the two idiots I needed the most right now; aka Gina and Francis.
So as soon as class was over, I grabbed my food and went to our table and waited for them to arrive. You know how when you're waiting for someone/thing to happen or arrive, time just seems to be slowed on purpose? Yeah, that's exactly how I felt waiting for Gina and Francis, who totally seemed to be taking their sweet time to come. After what seemed like ages, they finally turned up and Gina sat next to me and France opposite us.
"You totally won't believe what happened," I spoke, purposely creating drama so that they get interested. (Not that they won't.)
"Then tell us, idiot." Gina pulled my hair.
"Yeah but stop pulling my hair first," I said, giving her a pointed look, which she returned.
I narrated them the whole story of the night at Pallapora town and they listened to me in bewilderment, not interrupting me even once. I couldn't look at them straight in the eye because I felt that they'll judge me, which obviously they didn't and I was relieved. Never in my lifetime had I imagined getting such amazing best friends (who also acted like jerks some times, but well, yeah okay). At least something in my life was always constant; their friendship.
"Ammie, it's alright. Don't worry, you've got us with you, sweetie." Gina said while side hugging me for comfort.
I sighed, "That's because you don't know the other part of the story."
"We've still got you."
"Then tell us"
Gina and Francis spoke at the same time, earning France a glare from Gina and me
I cleared my throat and continued, "It's just that," I paused for a while before continuing. "James is not just another stranger or co-worker."
"Then who is he? a serial killer?" Francis remarked sarcastically.
Every sarcastic comment I've ever received is either from France or from Mr. Reynolds. Mostly from Mr. Reynolds only, but..... Oh well, and now my mind was drowning in the ocean of his thoughts, AGAIN.
Gina's voice got me out of my thoughts, "Can you be serious for once Francis?!"
"Okay, sorry!" Francis defended.
"I really don't know how to start." I looked down.
"Come on, how bad can it be?" Gina assured.
"Way worse than you can imagine", I spoke under my breath.
"Huh?" They spoke together.
"Alright, okay. I'll get straight to the point without beating around the bush." I made a ponytail out of my hair, and then got back to explaining "James was, um, Samarrah's ex-boyfriend."
"It's okay, we live in the twenty-first century", Gina looked at me and gave the most pleasant smile.
"He's um", I started, "the one who got Sam pregnant and I don't know how to react", I spoke in a single breath and face-palmed myself.
"Son of a bitch!" They both said in synchronization.
"Jinx!"
"Jinx again!!" Oh hell no.
"Guys, Really?"
"Sorry", France said sheepishly.
"Is Sam okay?" Gina questioned, getting all serious about Sam. She was always like an elder sister to Sam, and thanks to 'makeup', well they're extremely close.
"She actually isn't, but she's being strong and not showing it on her face", I said with a sad smile and continued, "Pay her a visit, try to make her happy; but don't tell her anything about the pregnancy or James."
"But you're coming along right?" Francis questioned.
"Although I want to, I really cannot. I've got some extremely important work to do; which also includes threatening someone's existence on Earth", I said, smirking evilly.
"Aaron or James?" Gina asked.
Really, Gina? Aaron? Sweetie even I don't call him that. "A) It's Mr. Reynolds, not Aaron; and B) James is the evil one for now."
"Jealous much?" Francis prompted and burst out laughing. If looks could kill, he'd be dead by now.
"Real funny France", I grumbled. "Anyway, I got to go. I'll catch you'll later. Don't forget about Sam and remember what I said. Bye!"
"Okay! Good luck with James, and yeah, we've got your back in whatever you do. Don't fuck up!"
"Thanks, Gina! That really helped!" I replied sarcastically.
I took my bag and followed my daily routine of going to hell; I mean the office. Today was different though, I didn't feel the hatred for Mr. Reynolds; simply because my mind was busy developing unlimited hatred towards the mother-effing James guy. Just the thought of him made my blood boil.
I decided to walk up the stairs because I was in no mood to come across James, and seeing his face would only spoil everything from the beginning.
After walking up three floors I started panting like my head had been kept underwater for 15 minutes; okay not 15, 'cause I'd be dead by then, but you get my point. After I 'successfully' crossed the fifth floor, I was ready to pass out. So to prevent that from happening, I sat down for a while. Luckily, the stairs were vacant because no one really used them much. They were pretty much crowded up till the third floor, but after that, it was as good as the desert. Growing Technology was responsible for making us all so lazy.
On finally reaching the seventh floor (which, may I add, took me 10 full minutes), I couldn't breathe. All I needed right now was a glass of water to calm down, but I had to cross the shitty area called the hallway in order to get to my cabin. I decided to sit on the stairs which were at the end of the seventh floor for some time. My legs didn't have the potential to even move; all thanks to myself for not ever having climbed seven floors at a stretch, yeah, my maximum was only five floors.
"Taking the elevator won't deduct any part of your salary, Miss Waters", Mr. Reynolds spoke once he noticed me.
Couldn't this man ever speak normally? And what the hell was he even doing outside his office? I mean, I know that it's his office and all, but, doesn't he have 'work'?
Faking a sweet smile, I said, "That's not the issue, sir."
"Oh, so you think that climbing seven floors by any chance will cut your gym costs?" Yeah. And do you think that you can shut up?
"No, sir, that's not the matter. I felt like walking up the stairs rather than taking the elevator; so I walked up. Is there any problem with that?" I questioned after standing up straight.
"Are you blaming on the quality of my office's elevators?" He questioned coming closer. Was it so hard to understand simple English?
"Oh no no no, really!" I was now annoyed by his comments. The more I tried not to hate him, the more he seemed to ask for it.
"Can I go to work now? Because maybe if I don't complete my work you'll deduct my salary and that's something I don't prefer", I spoke in the same monetary terms as him.
"Yeah, you're right. I will deduct your salary if your work hasn't been completed. So you better get going." And he walked off. All I could do was roll my eyes and walk off.
The moment I walked into my cabin, I desperately wanted to straddle the person in front of my eyes. Seated comfortably on my chair, in my freaking cabin, was the asshole called James. I wanted to turn around at that instant, but that would have been strange and my cover would have been blown, so I marched towards my chair; which is indirect, him.
"Um, hey. That seat's mine, I guess?" I tried saying the rude words after coating them with extra sugar.
"And you're mine honey, so indirectly the seat's mine too", he said smirking.
"Well I hope that you didn't take our one, not to mention, short, kiss very seriously", I smiled and then continued "Because to be honest, I didn't."
"I was joking Ammie, but I guess you're not in a good mood today", he stood up from my chair. See? Was that hard?
"No I'm okay, really." I smiled again. Only a smart or mean the guy would recognize such a fake smile; and James being the mean one here, figured it out. He started walking closer to me, making my heart participate in a freaking long jump competition, but I luckily stopped it. AND, if you just thought that that was because of the butterflies or anything that girls feel when a guy approaches them, NO. It wasn't that. I was fucking scared that he might've found out that Samarrah is my sister and that I know about him.
He took a firm grip of my waist and pulled me towards his chest. I let my hands rest on his chest in between us because I was in no mood to put them around his neck; actually I was, TO STRANGLE HIM.
"Hey Ammie," Ugh, stop calling me that! "Are you thinking about my ex? Samarrah? Hm? Don't worry! I never loved her anyway!" he questioned and then answered himself. This asshole never loved Sam and there she was, still hoping that he'd come back for their child. Oh, Samarrah, what have you gotten yourself into?
"What makes you think that I'm mad because of your 'so-called ex'?", Regardless of my thoughts, I questioned back.
"Don't play dumb with me. I noticed that you were in a jolly good mood yesterday, but suddenly after meeting that old man you started acting differently", he held me tighter.
"Okay fine. But then you've got TO tell me everything about this Samarrah girl." I initiated working on my plan.
"Sure", he spoke and dragged me to the corner of my cabin, where a small couch was, enough for two people, was kept.
I only had one way to spill the beans about James and Sam now; to act like a fucking possessive girlfriend, "So, start."
"We met in Pallapora town; she was kind of attracted to me. In fact, she even asked me out once, but since she was younger than me, I rejected her. I was pretty sure that I'd disappointed her, so we used to hang out as friends", I nodded, completely dissatisfied by the story so far," but I swear, I didn't even touch her."
I could've abused the shit out of him right there, but the latter part of his "story" got me puzzled. I mean, I had full faith in Sam and knew that James was lying, but then he also might be speaking the truth and the "J" guy might as well be someone else whose name began with J, right? But no. I knew it was James. Who else would stoop so low as to not even check on their ex, whom they've fucking gotten pregnant?!
I needed to dig this matter deeper as fast as I could so that I could help Sam aborting her child. Why was she even refusing the abortion? She needed to move on with her life and not waste it waiting for this lying, piece-of-shit, whore.
"Are you even listening?", James shook from my shoulders and got me out of my trance.
"Yeah, yeah I am." I tried re-focusing but couldn't get myself to remember anything. Even though I had a thousand questions in my mind that I wanted to ask him, I stopped myself 'cause that would only make him suspicious. All I could do was fake a smile.
Suddenly he came close to me and wrapped his arms around me in a not-so-friendly hug; one of his arms was around my waist, and the other was rubbing my back. "I've got you now Ammie", he whispered in my hair.
"Yeah", I murmured and wrapped my hands around his neck; because it was the only thing to do without being suspicious. His hand constantly rubbing my back was making my anger range from 0 to 100 real quick.
"Miss Waters, I cannot fi-", Mr. Reynolds came inside my cabin out of the blue and saw me hugging James, making him cut his sentence. Although I had no intention of hooking up with James or anything, I'm pretty sure that the hug looked pretty intimating; not to mention James rubbing my back. And this guy, Mr. Reynolds-the the great businessman, ever heard of a thing called 'knocking before entering'?
Nonetheless, I quickly separated myself from James, straightened my dress, and walked up to Mr. Reynolds. "Yes sir?"
He cleared his throat and said, "I cannot find my file and I want you to come and look for it in my cabin. It will be labeled 'Amar and Sons'." What? Nothing about the hug? No sarcastic comment? "Oh and you and James need to understand that this, not a porn hub!" Oops. Thought too soon I guess.
"It was just a friendly hug", James offended."
"Which didn't really look friendly," he muttered under his breath. Was he.....jealous? obviously not. Then- "Miss Waters. I need the file today. Could you please stop day-dreaming and come along?" he spoke, getting me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah, sure" I replied quickly and walked out immediately after Mr. Reynolds. I purposely left James alone in my cabin so that he'd leave too. If Mr. Reynolds would've come in any other time and told me to find the file, I would've definitely sulked. But this time his file had actually saved me from that James.
"You should really organize all the files properly Miss Waters", Mr. Reynolds finally spoke after entering his cabin.
"Alright. So, where do I start?" I questioned looking around his office. There were shelves of files everywhere. Looking at the shelves itself made me exhausted and the number of files around made me dizzy. There were so many files and he couldn't find one particular file. I must say, his previous secretary was horrible. All the files were scattered on the shelves. I was pretty sure he'd make me start from the very first shelf.
"You need to figure that out yourself because it's your job, not mine!" He sat on his chair and rested his elbows on the desk.
"This will take the whole freaking day", I complained, sounding extremely unprofessional.
"Then consume your whole day with it. Cancel all your plans", he paused for a while "professional as well as personal." He stressed the word personal. I knew it was an as he must have misunderstood me and James as a couple. And did I want to explain anything to him? No, because, no matter what, he'd never believed me. Getting paired up with the pervert James was the last thing in the world I'd want.
I went towards the first shelf, which was behind Mr. Reynolds's chair, and tried opening it; only to look like I was trying to catch air. BUT, no, that doesn't make me short, it just makes the shelf taller than it should fucking be.
I looked for a chair around the room and saw one next to the open window. I went to drag it towards the shelf but made sure to shut the window first. Because if I fell out of the window and died, the police would call it a suicide case. It would take them a lifetime to find the reason for suicide; which was actually nothing, and then when they wouldn't be able to find that out, they'd accuse Mr. Reynolds of pushing me out. They'd also put him in jail for a lifetime, but no, this guy has a hell lot of money; he'd be easily bailed out.
I hit myself on the head for thinking about such bullshit and then began dragging the chair towards the shelf. As expected, the chair made this weird high pitched sound which was extremely unpleasant to hear, but I continued dragging it nonetheless; how many such opportunities will I ever get to annoy my boss?
"Stop doing that for fuck's sake", he yelled getting irritated.
"Okay" I tried picking up the chair, only to end up walking like a drunkard. What? The chair was quite heavy to lift, and Mr. Reynolds, being the gentleman he is, of course, did not help. Actually forget helping; he didn't even offer to help, not that I would've declined though.
Snapping out of my train of thoughts, I carefully positioned the chair below the shelf and took the support of Mr. Reynolds' chair to get on it. "Careful Miss Waters", Mr. Reynolds shifted his chair as a safety measure. From what? Oh nothing much, just from me falling over him.
"I'll try my best sir", I assured him. He started working on his laptop, again. Since the day I've entered his office, he was always on his laptop working. He never took free time from work, despite being the freaking CEO! His dedication kind of inspired me.
I opened the shelf and tried my best not to move, because if I moved even a little, the chair would move; leading to very serious consequences (which includes falling on my butt and breaking it). So I just took a brief view of all the files and tried searching for the one Mr. Reynolds wanted. I placed all the files on over one another very slowly, and carefully made only necessary moves.
But then while I was placing the files on the shelf, I felt like something ran over my fingers. The color from my face vanished almost instantly after my brain registered the fact that there was definitely some creepy creature inside. I really didn't want to see it because that would do nothing other than me screaming. Keeping up my courage, I carefully piled up the last file systematically. And then, the horror of horrors, that creepy thing crawled onto my hand. If you're wondering why am I overreacting, well it's just that I have an extremely bad experience with these horrible insects.
I got up on my toes to see the dreaded creature, and when I did, I started shaking and so did the chair.
"Mis-mis-mister Rey-no-nolds", I stammered/yelled with whatever might I had left.
"Yes Miss Waters", he replied calmly. 'Get the fuck up from that chair and get this thing off me.' That was what I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't get a word out of my mouth anymore. Not gaining a response from me for like a minute (I guess it was just a few seconds though) he finally stood up.
"What's it Miss Waters?" he questioned boringly and I could hear him walking towards me. Yeah, I hadn't dare look away from the devil, you know, in case it went up to my sleeve.
"A liz-liz-lizard", I stammered and tried moving it off my palms.
I was scared shitless and began walking backward carelessly; completely forgetting that I was on a freaking chair right now. Obviously I slipped and lost my balance and began flying, actually falling, on the ground.
I closed my eyes and accepted that I was going to fall and break my butt or my leg. Actually that's what I thought at that moment because 1) the chair wasn't that high and 2) I really don't know how butts break.
When I finally felt myself land, I was surprised that I hadn't made contact with anything hard; rather it was quite comfy, and I wasn't even hurt a percent. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with myself in the arms none other than Mr. Reynolds himself. And, to be more specific, I was in his arms in bridal fucking style; and obviously, thanks to instincts which work extra hard when you don't need them to, my arms went around his neck for support. Well, he had obviously held me that way for grip and things like that but that was super-duper awkward.
My heart almost fell out and my face was red with embarrassment; but then again, he had saved me from falling on the floor (which would've been much worse). Although it was awkward, it was comforting in his arms at the same time. I felt close to him as I rested my head on his muscular chest. I could feel heartbeats, breath, and touch.
I didn't utter a word; silence was all that was needed right now, in this situation. He carefully placed me on the floor (yeah literally) and then went back to work on his computer. Seriously, what does he do on there? Nonetheless, I got up and straightened out my dress.
"Thank you", I spoke softly as I walked up to his desk.
"I just protected myself", he answered and closed his computer (finally). Although I would've preferred a 'you're welcome' or 'my pleasure' instead of his rude comment (which honestly didn't make any sense to me), I smiled softly and let it go.
"Complete your work quickly, I'm heading for lunch." He looked at his watch and continued, "You are not allowed to go for lunch unless you found my file.", and he just left the cabin leaving me alone. What the hell does he think I am? A robot, or machine? Like, don't I need food for energy? But I couldn't do anything about it; instead, I decided to finish my work quickly and get the hell out of here.
I started looking for the file in all the shelves but thankfully it wasn't hard 'cause all the remaining shelves were either my height or at ground level; the only tall shelf was the one behind Mr. Reynolds' desk.
After looking at all the shelves, I was aghast by the fact that the 'Amar and Sons' file was nowhere to be seen! I had checked all the shelves carefully; so there was no question of I missing it. I thought of checking the only place that I hadn't checked: Mr. Reynolds' desk. After looking around the tidily kept desk, I found the file which read 'Amar and Sons' stacked at the bottom of the pile on his desk. I felt tricked! Mr. Reynolds had made me work for the entire day to find a file that was in front of his face on his desk this whole time!
That's it. I had lost it and yelled, "Son of a bitch!"
"Did you say something, Miss Waters?", Mr. Reynolds asked calmly and he entered his cabin with his perfect face; only it was accompanied by an evil smirk this time.
"Oh no. Nothing, really!" I made a poker face. "One last question, can I?" I looked at him, and spoke immediately as he was about to do so, "And it's really relevant", I completed my statement for him before he could classify it as 'irrelevant'.
"Sure", he answered.
"If you already knew where the file was, then why waste my entire day?", I asked angrily, raising the most relevant question of the day, or night, or of the entire fucking century.
"Because I wanted you to clean all the shelves", he answered like it was the obvious thing in the world.
"I'm not a maid for fuck's sake!" I was so angry at him right now!!
"Oh yes, I'm aware of that Miss Waters. It's just that maids don't know anything about my business; they'd throw away the necessary files. But since you work with me, as my secretary, you have better knowledge." He sat down on his beloved seat again. Seriously, why doesn't he just glue his ass to that fucking chair of his?!
"Oh wow! How thoughtful of you sir!" I began walking back towards his door and continued, "And since I'm done with your 'cleaning work' and it's time for me to leave for my house, goodbye!" I banged his door as hard as I could, took my bag from my cabin, and took a taxi home.
I was desperately in need of some coffee; thanks to Mr. Reynolds and his split personalities which had annoyed the shit out of me.