His Misunderstanding

Amelia yawned a little, and closed her eyes, listening silently to the serene sound of birds chirping as the sun shone brightly. She wanted to stay in bed all day but Waggles had another plan. Waggles was her pet, a golden retriever. He jumped on the bed, hovering her and licking her face. This was a Waggles’ part of a daily routine waking Amelia up.

‘’Okay boy! I am up!’’ Amelia groaned, but couldn’t help but smile at her little pet, she called Waggles.

Waggles jumped off her and was wiggling his tail. A sign to deliver he was happy waking up his favorite person.

Amelia completed her daily bathroom routine and went to the kitchen, followed by a giant golden retriever by her tail. She took Waggles’ food tray and poured his dog food there, putting it down on the floor as Waggles let out a happy bark, and subsequently rubbing his head on her legs, letting her know he appreciates it and pleased that she is his. Amelia grabbed her coffee from the coffee maker and made her way towards her balcony, her favorite part of her flat.

She stood there, keeping both her elbows on the railing and sipping through her coffee. Taking in the scene going on in front of her. A woman feeding her child ice-cream, men smoking openly in front of that child, she frowned when she saw that. She never liked the thought smoking, she never knew why anyone would smoke knowing the fact that in the end, it’s going to kill them. Standing there on the 10^th floor of a building in New York City, she couldn’t do anything, why? Because at the end of the day they will say it’s none of her business.

Holding the mug in one of her hands, she scrolled through her emails. Scheming through if she got any replies from the jobs she had applied. After 5 months she would graduate and she needed a job! She thought. She didn’t get any reply from any company yet, but there was one email that had certainly caught her eyes, it was from the Greenville High, her school. She opened it to check what it was about,

Dear Ms. Rose,

We are pleased to inform you that, in the celebration of the 20^th anniversary of Greenville High we are arranging a reunion for the seniors of Greenville High, we would appreciate it if you could join.

Sincerely,

Principal Jones.

Date: 24^th December 2019

Venue: Greenville High Gym.

Timing: Starts from 7:00 p.m.

It’s been four years, she thought. Four years she didn’t talk to anyone from that school, four years since they separated, four years since her heart was shattered into pieces, four years without him.

She didn’t know if she wanted to go. She did, she thought. But she didn’t want to go there, knowing he would be there as well. It took her 2 years to get over him. Two years of tears, sobs, ice-creams, and ‘Friends’. She thought of calling one of the two people she was in touch with from her high-school and Washington, the place where she spent half of her life until 4 years ago, when she shifted to New York, for her university. After 5 months she would be a graduate of NYU, New York University, her dream University. She laughed at the thought of, how she was ready to leave this, for him.

Her family still lives in Washington, being the only child her parents visit her frequently in New York.

Clicking the dial button she called Stacy. Stacy Grey her best-friend. She didn’t pick up at first, so Amelia redialed,

‘’Hello,’’ a groggy voice received the call, indicating that Stacy was sleeping.

‘’Hey stay’’ Amelia replied softly

‘’Am, why on earth are you calling me this early in the morning!!’’ Stacey groaned on the other end.

‘’It’s already 10’’ Amelia said rolling her eyes

‘’so what! It’s still early!’’

‘’Okay sorry, I called you to ask if you received the mail from the high-school’’ Amelia said quietly

‘’what mail?’’ Stacey asked in confusion

‘’check your mails and then call me back’’ with that Amelia hung up the call. Stacey was childish, she loved arguing for petty things, but she was also a ball of sunshine. Her ball of sunshine, whatever it is Amelia wouldn’t have had it the other way, she thought.

Interrupting her thoughts her phone rang, the caller ID was stay.

‘’Oh my god Ams!!’’ Stay shouted from the other end, which resulted in Amelia, to remove the phone from her ears.

‘’Calm down’’ Amelia said chucking

‘’We are so going!! It’s been so long! Since I have seen those stupid faces!!’’ Stacey said with enthusiasm

‘’He would be there’’ Amelia replied quietly which caused Stacey to frown in the other end.

‘’Ams, it’s been four years! You cannot still let him hurt you, your decisions shouldn’t be changed because of him. ‘’ She said softly and continued, ‘’and you are seeing that business tycoon, what’s his name again? Marshal?’’ she asked scratching her head.

‘’No it’s Marcus and we decided to stay as friends, he was too good for me’’ Amelia replied sighing. It was true Marcus the great business tycoon took an interest in her. He was devilishly handsome, whenever she used to go anywhere with him, girls used to throw daggers at her, but she was already used to those, as faced the same thing with him.

‘’Oh,’’ Stacey replied and continued, ‘’but you still coming right? Because you are already visiting Washington next week and you would be there that time, so it’s confirmed’’ Stacey squealed

‘’Stay-‘’ Amelia was cut short by Stacey

‘’ don’t stay me, come on! I didn’t see you for 6 months!! Wait, are you telling me that, you care about that jerk more than your best friend?!’’ Stacey huffed in anger. She knew the only way Amelia would agree would be when Stacey would be riled up.

‘’No, stay you know that’s not the case’’ Amelia replied immediately

‘’Then?-‘’

‘’I am coming’’ Amelia replied, sighing she could never think of hurting her best friend.

‘’What?’’ Stacey asked in an amused voice

‘’I am coming’’ Amelia replied smiling at the thought of her best friend being back to herself.

‘’I love love love you!!’’ Stacey shouted

‘’I love love love you too’’ Amelia replied smiling

‘’I gotta go get some shopping done!!’’ Stacey said squealing and jumping

‘’Okay, talk to you later’’ with that she hung up and looked down to a grinning Waggles, waggling his tails. Stacey was right, she thought. It’s been four years and she’s over him. There are no reasons for her to give his presence some importance. Even if he was there, she would greet him in a mature manner and avoid him the whole night. That’s it, it was easy, she thought.

‘’Come on, we need to get some packing done’’ she said, smiling at Waggles.

-----------------

1 week later…

Unbuckling the seat belt, Amelia was still seated on her seat, waiting for all the passengers to get down. She got down the plane, bidding the gentle flight attendant goodbye. After getting her luggage and Waggles from the pet section she made her way out of the airport, where people were waiting for their guest, family, or friend with a name written on it. On the left side of the corner, there was a tall, handsome man with grey-black hair along with a huge board, which read,

‘Welcome back Princess Amelia! We missed you!’

Her king, her dad. She immediately ran and crushed him in a tight hug, making her dad chuckle.

‘’Welcome back princess’’ he whispered smiling at her.

‘’I missed you’’ she sniffled.

‘’I missed you too, now let’s get going, your mother is going to kill me if I take more time’’ he said and she laughed in response.

The car ride was full of gossips and laughter with her dad, he was complaining about her mum, how she still argues about the little things he does and she was attentively listening to him, not missing the gleam of his eyes whenever he mentioned her mum, he loved her, you could understand that by the way, he spoke about her.

After reaching home, the sound of the engine going off, made her mum jump from the kitchen counter, where she was waiting for them and ran and trapped her daughter to a bone-crushing hug.

‘’oh my God! Have you not been eating properly? My baby has lost so much weight!’’ her mum said and hugged her tighter

‘’hi mum’’ Amelia replied with a grin

‘’Yeah, hi’’ Her mother replied with a roll of eyes and then papered her face with kisses

‘’okay, let our princess breathe Ells’’ her father said with a smile

‘’you don’t talk! What took you so long!!’’ her mum glared at her dad

‘’traffic not my fault’’ he said surrendering his hands,

‘’Okay, stop! I am very hungry and so is Waggles, let’s get inside’’ Her mum cooed after seeing Waggles and her dad rubbed his forehead.

Entering her home she was greeted with the smell of steak and pasta, her mouth-watering just at the smell of it. Oh, how much she missed this. Maybe coming back wasn’t that much of a bad idea, she thought.

-------------

24^th December, the reunion.

‘’Am, you look fine! Just get down! Now!’’ Stacey said in annoyance when Amelia was not getting down the car. She wore a dark blue strapless dress with nude heels with a short glittery blue jacket. Stacey wore a bottle green short dress with brown boots and a brown jacket. After the outburst of her best friend, she hopped down but she was still nervous. She was, finally, after 4 years, going to meet him again.

It had been half an hour since the party started they were greeting all their teachers and old friends, who didn’t bring up his name in any conversation, until,

‘’Luke!’’ Fred shouted, while he was talking to Stacey and Amelia. Luke, the name which always made her stomach flutter with butterflies, and the thing she most hated, is that it still did. He turned his direction towards Fred then Stacey and then Amelia.

Their eyes locked for how long they didn’t know, she just knew that he had become more handsome, tall, and more structured. She hated that his one gaze could still make her knees weak.

Luke. He came to the party only in one hope. That he will meet her. Not missing the point that it is him who had paid the school, to do this reunion, only in the hope that he will get to meet her. He was stupid, that he thought the girl he loved, the sweet-innocent girl, who was scared to hurt a fly would cheat on him. She was an angel. His angel. He was possessive he knew that he constantly thought why would an angel like her want to be with a devil, like him? He flashbacked to the night it all ended.

‘’Hey, handsome’’ Grace called him, running her hands over his arms. This girl doesn’t understand the meaning of no or rejection, how many times should I reject her? , he thought.

‘’Grace, leave me alone!’’ he huffed in annoyance shoving away her hands from his arms. It’s been one hour, where is she? He thought.

‘’Waiting for your girlfriend?’’ this caught Luke’s attention and she continued, ‘’I saw her entering a bathroom with Josh’’ Luke gritted his teeth, he knew, his Lia would never do this.

‘’shut up, before I do something I regret’’ he said in his low menacing voice

‘’ you don’t believe me? Follow me.’’ She said and walked towards the direction of the bathroom. He knew she was lying and wanted to prove her wrong so, he followed her.

They stood in the corner outside the bathroom. The door creaked open and only Josh come out. Luke had this grin as if he had won a competition, but soon it was wiped off, when he saw Amelia come out, her dress crumbled and her hair messy, his heart dropped.

‘’Thank you’’ she said smiling at him and started turning in their direction, he did what he thought. He grabbed Grace’s face and crushed his lips on her, after a while, he pulled his face away from her, only to meet the tear-stained eyes of Amelia. He wanted to go there and hug her but he didn’t, he remembered what she did and hid his sadness with a smirk. Amelia turned and went in the other direction. He shoved away Grace, who also had a smirk on her face, and made his way towards the bar.

Now here she was, beautiful and elegant as always, the dark blue dress made the curves look more prominent. She became more beautiful if that’s even possible. Every day after that night he thought of running back to her, to ask her to take him back and explain to him why she did that, but he couldn’t, she cheated on him. It’s, after two years, he met Josh in a bar and couldn’t handle it, he punched him, kick him, and asked why he did that when he knew Amelia was his girlfriend, he knew Josh always had feelings for her, hell, not only Josh every guy in Greenville High had a crush on Amelia Rose, but he was lucky to win her. He felt stupid, idiot scratch that he felt like the dumbest person on earth when he got to know what happened inside the bathroom.

‘’Nothing happened!!’’ Josh exclaimed

‘’Really but her crumpled hair and dress were saying a different story’’ Luke shouted, the image of that was enough to boil his blood.

‘’Will you listen to me?!’’ Josh shouted equally loud in annoyance. Now, they had gathered a good crowd.

‘’yes, she and I were in the bathroom inside’’ Luke clenched his fist, ‘’it’s also true that I had feelings for her’’ Luke looked took a stance to punch him again but Josh backed off,

‘’for fuck’s sake listen to me! Yeah! I had feelings for her and I told her that, that night, but you know what her reply was?’’ he said with a chuckle, ‘’her reply was she was in love with her boyfriend, she liked me but as a friend, she wanted us to stay as friends. After we entered back to the party, one of your previous hookups threw her drink on her and started a catfight, I stopped them and took her to the washroom, if you would have checked you could have seen it was not locked. I helped her clean up the mess and of course, after she got out, she saw her love was sucking another girl’s mouth. It happened for good, she never deserved a dimwit like you’’ He spat and left the bar wiping his mouth with the back of his hands.

‘’she loved me’’ he whispered himself, he felt dumb, he immediately wanted to contact her but he knew it was not possible, she hated him now.

Now when his name was called he turned and met the most beautiful dark-brown eyes. She was here. He wanted to beg and apologize, but he knew he needed to get closure. He walked towards them, towards her, keeping his gaze on her.

‘’Hey Freddie, hey Stacey’’ he said with a grin and turned towards her,

‘’Lia... Hey,’’ he said quietly.

He wanted her to shout, scream ask him why he did that but the reaction he got was,

‘’Hey Luke, how are you?’’ She replied with a smile, his heart fluttered at her smile, but his heart faltered thinking that she didn’t want anything to do with him, she moved on, he thought.

Amelia wanted to scream, shout, punch and kick him, but couldn’t, she told herself she will behave like the mature woman, she is now. Lia, the name only he called her, the way it rolled off his tongue still made her stomach flutter with butterflies. She hated it, he cheated on her but still, she was feeling these weird things back again, she wanted to hate him and she hated that she didn’t.

‘’I am fine, what about you?’’ he asked composing himself. Stacey frowned at the interaction. She knew it was hard for her best friend to interact with her ex, whom she loved, and that she was hiding her pain. This man had the audacity of cheating her best friend and now he’s acting normal, in front of her, she thought.

‘’Hey, Indiana!’’ Stacey called out waving her hands, an excuse to take away her best friend from him.

‘’’hey there’s Indiana, let’s go there, see you around Luke’’ she said his name venomously and shoot a glare taking her best friend away. Luke knew Stacey hated him. She was one of those, who shipped them.

After conversing with a plethora of people, Amelia needed some fresh air, she thought. She told Stacey she was going out to get some air and skipped through the crowd. She made her way outside the gym, fresh and cold air instantly hit her nostrils. She sat on the bench near the gym. Thinking about how normal Luke made things to be.

Maybe things were normal for him, he never told me he loved me. He must have gotten bored me, obviously who would want to stay too long with the girl, who cries reading romance novel and watches football matches with her dad, I was just too normal for him, I hope he finds his true love and a gorgeous girl, whom he can love and perish. She thought. The thought of him with another girl again broke her heart into pieces.

When Luke didn’t see her in the party anymore, he went outside in search of her, but she was gone.