"Help me!" The voice yelled.
"Darcy!" It yelled again.
"Dad?" I opened my mouth to yell but water filled my lungs.
I gasped and my eyes shot open.
It was the same dream. I have been getting this dream since my first day in London.
In the dream - I have been drowned in the deepest ocean body. However, I hear my father's voice every time. He seems to be calling out for help. He seems to be calling me for help. I always try to call out to him, tell him that I'm here, but water fills my lungs; and well, then I wake up.
After I finally came back to my senses I realized that Joshwa was still in my room.
The laptop was no longer on my lap but Joshwa's head was. My head lay on his chest and I could feel his heartbeat. As his chest rose, I got a glimpse of his sleeping face. The morning rays of the sun fell on his face, making his skin glow. His face was ineffable and I couldn't stop myself. I cupped his face with one of my hands and stroked it with my thumb. I felt his breath get uneven and his hand tighten around my waist. I hadn't realized that his hand was around my waist, until now. All I hope is that he is still fast asleep or else the situation could get awkward.
For about five minutes I kept stroking his face. But then I got my shit together and started using some sense. I slowly got out of his embrace, which was extremely tough for me, because his embrace gave me a certain feel of tranquillity and security. Getting out of such an embrace can easily cause a torment.
After I got out of bed, I crouched and slowly opened the drawer which was under the bed so that I could pick out an outfit for the day. I decided to pick out something comfortable as we will be roaming through the markets of London today. I settled on wearing a black sports t-shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans. On top of the black sports t-shirts, I decided to wear a red and white flannel, which made the outfit look cute. I finally completed my outfit by pairing it with brown boots.
"You've got a good choice" Joshwa's voice startled me.
I looked up at him. His eyes still had some sleep in them and his sweatshirt's hoodie was over his head. His blondish-brown hair peeked out of his hoodie, which made him look incredibly hot.
"God! You scared the shit out of me" I exclaimed and he chuckled.
I stood up from my crouched position and began walking towards the washroom.
"Darcy" Joshwa said and I turned around to face him.
"Yeah?" I said.
He got out of bed and walked towards me.
"Move on to the next chapter or you'll never finish the book" He smiled and then walked out of my room.
***
"You took forever to get dressed!" Joshwa sighed.
"I took literally five minutes" I said and rolled my eyes.
"You were the one who took forever to set your hair!" I stated the truth and he nodded his head in disapproval.
He wore a white t-shirt with a black leather jacket on top of it, with a pair of black jeans which completed his outfit. He paired his outfit with white tennis shoes.
In short, he wore a typical boys outfit.
We walked through the corridor and then handed over our room keys to the receptionist.
Joshwa walked towards his car and I followed behind. It was a black Audi with cream coloured seats.
"Thank you" I smiled, when he opened the car door for me.
He smiled in return and then jogged towards his seat i.e., the driver's seat.
"So where are going?" I asked, as he started the engine.
"Well, as I said we are going to the market-" He began.
"Which market?" I butted in.
"Borough market" He said and we drove off.
After ten minutes, I suddenly remembered what he had told me. I didn't really understand what he was trying to say, so I decided to ask him.
"Hey, Joshwa" I said to get his attention.
"Yeah?" He said and glanced at me.
"What did you mean by- move on to the next chapter or you'll never finish the book?" I asked and he smiled.
"Well" He began.
"When you're reading a book, you're always keen to know what happens in the next the chapter. But sometimes, we like one chapter so much that we intend to read it over and over again. We fall in love with that chapter so deeply that we just can't go ahead. We begin living with that chapter; just that one chapter. We have to learn to move on, we can't just stay on that same chapter forever, 'cause you know the people around you are in a constant race. They might just read the whole book and tell you the end, which will in turn spoil the fun that you were having while reading the book. Why would you want to read a book, when you already know the end?" He said.
His deep words hit me like a wrecking ball, everything suddenly started making sense. His words had a traumatizing effect on me.
"Woah" Was all I could say.
After that, we both fell silent. I kept thinking about what he said. I have no clue for as to how he came to know that I was stuck on one chapter; the chapter when my father left me.
Soon, we reached Borough market.
"You'll love this place" He smirked.
As we entered the market, I suddenly felt like home. It's pretty dumb to feel homely in a market, but this market resembled one of the markets in Amsterdam. The market where my father and I used to go every Sunday for grocery shopping.
"This place just..." I trailed off.
"Embellishes London" He said.
"Yeah" I sighed.
He slung his hand over my shoulder and then we walked through the market.
The Borough market was a closed area with dim lighting and there were many stalls at each side. There were various kinds of stalls. However, most of the stalls sold vegetables, fish, bread, etc. People walked with shopping baskets in their hand and there were loud echoes of people bargaining with the vendors. It was a typical market but a swanky one and I was more than just impressed with this place.
We bought a few groceries for daily use and picked up a quick snack as we heard our borborygmi. Joshwa being the gentleman that he is, carried all the grocery bags for me.
Soon, we stopped before a perfume stall.
"Dy, how does this smell?" Joshwa asked and bought a cologne bottle near my nose.
The cologne had a minty fragrance and I absolutely loved it. I might just get addicted to this fragrance.
"This smells so good!" I said, stressing on the word 'so'.
I looked up at him and he had a smug look on his face. I quickly grabbed the bottle from his hand and bought it near my nose once again. But then Joshwa snatched it from my hand and gave it to the vendor.
"I'll take this" He said to the vendor.
Once he had paid for the cologne, I tried getting the bottle out of his grip. However, it was impossible to do so as he is a born coconut tree.
"Oh my dy, you can smell it all you want. But only when I use it" He fleered and I swatted his arm.
"Cocojerk" I mumbled and he started laughing.
"What's Cocojerk?" He asked between his laughter.
"What's dy?" I asked and he laughed louder.
"Well, that's your new nickname" He said after he had finally stopped laughing.
"Well, then Cocojerk is your new nickname" I simpered.
I'm very sure the vendor must be considering us as nincompoops. Before we could create a bigger fool of ourselves, we began walking away from that stall. We were almost at the end of the market, when Joshwa spoke up.
"Dy, just wait for me at the end of the market, I forgot to get something" He said and I nodded.
I took the grocery bags from his hand and then he walked back into the market for God knows what reason. I began walking towards the end of the market.
After around ten minutes, I saw Joshwa running towards me.
"Did you get what you wanted?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yup" He smirked and then we began walking out of the market.
"Cocojerk" I whined.
"Dy" He whined back.
"Lets have coffee" I said and pointed towards a nearby coffee shop.
I was marcid and all I wanted at the moment was a nice hot cup of coffee.
"I was thinking of doing the same thing" He said and my eyes glistened.
As we began walking towards the coffee shop, I heard a familiar voice.
"Help" The voice said and I immediately recognized it.
Dad?
"Dad?" I mumbled and turned around.
There was no one.
"You coming?" Joshwa asked and I turned around to face him.
I nodded and trudged towards him.
As we entered the coffee shop, the smell of caffeine calmed all my senses.
"You find us a seat and I'll go place our order" He said and I nodded.
I found an empty seat at the extreme end of the coffee shop. I quickly walked towards it, placed all the grocery bags on one seat and then sat down on another.
After five long minutes, Joshwa came and sat down on the opposite seat.
"Here you go" He said and handed over a cup to me.
I immediately took a large sip of the hot coffee.
"This was needed right now" I said and he nodded in approval.
We finished the rest of our coffee in silence.
"Dy" Joshwa said to get my attention and I looked straight at him.
"I...um...got you this" He stuttered and produced a cloth bag out of nowhere.
He handed it over to me and I opened it slowly. There in the bag, lay a dreamcatcher. I got it out the bag and started admiring it. It was turquoise blue in colour with multicoloured feathers hanging along with strings which had beads on them. I had never got such attention before, so I am practically in love with this Cocojerk right now. He knew that I had got a nightmare this morning. The fact that he actually thought about getting me this, makes me suffer from hysteria.
I got up and hugged him.
"Thank you" I said while hugging him.
"Always dy, always" He said and rubbed my back.
//Double update!YAYAYA!!! To be honest, I absolutely loved writing this chapter. I got all the feels, while writing it. Especially when I wrote the deep words said by Joshwa. Oh my god, I had been waiting to write that down (I feel so dumb, fangirling over my own book... *packs bag* *moves to Chile* *starts living a life as a loner fisherman*) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. If you did, make sure you vote for it. Also make sure you follow me and switch on my notifications so that you never miss an update :)//