Melissa encountered such victims way too often than regular individuals did which filled more anger inside her for the ones who caused them to tear apart. She founded an NGO when she was twenty-one. She was already working by then but did not have enough money. But like they say, when your intention is noble, everything comes to your aid. Bit by bit, everything got arranged, and now, fifteen years late, it was home for several hundreds of people.
She had named her NGO as HELP that stood for Hope, Empathy, Love, and Peace. All of which those people lacked in life.
She just considered herself extremely fortunate to be able to do what she was doing. She worked full time as an editor in a publishing house called 'Gems'.
Realizing that she went a bit too far in front of Irene, she diverted the topic. "How was your day?"
"It was good." Irene lied, what she usually did, whenever she thought revealing the topic would upset or bother Melissa. She tried to keep her problems away from Melissa as possible.
Melissa and Irene had an unsaid agreement where Irene could lie despite knowing that Melissa would catch it in the blink of an eye and Melissa would nod at Irene's lies despite knowing that Irene was dealing with issues.
Unless Irene came on her own to talk to Melissa about them, Melissa would not force Irene.
"Alright. I am in my room. Call me if you need anything."
Melissa left, leaving alone Irene to sit, contemplating what step she should choose to take. She moved to her room and lay on her bed. As she clutched her pillow to her heart, she briefly glanced at the events in her mind that had happened in the span of two days.
Her heart ached at the two responses of Ayden when it came to Ashton.
She was getting to know that Ayden did not really think of her the way she had felt all along that he did.
But still, her foolish heart yet kept going back to Ayden and she hated that she could not stop it from doing that.
She missed him.
She missed chatting to him the way they would always do. Each would know what the other was doing. They talked about almost random things but that meant a lot to her. It was her daily routine for three years. How could she get out of it in just a couple of days?
The more she thought about the moments in her relationship, that were precious to her, the more her heart raced, forcing her to take a break from the entire mess and call him… just once and talk… until she felt better.
The desire was too strong to resist but she knew, if she gave in once, she would give in every damn time. It was hard but she needed to accept that Ayden was not a part of her life anymore. Calling him just meant the first step toward slowly crawling back to the same cage again and she knew, if she entered again… this time… she would suffocate and her self-respect would die a brutal death and she was not going to let that happen.
She looked for her diary and her pen.
'Date - 07-01-2015
Dearest, Irene's diary, her head is pounding. She does not understand what life is trying to do. She is okay with life throwing problems at her. She is used to it but why doesn't she get enough time to solve them? She sincerely tries to solve one issue and it is not even solved and another one pops up. What is she supposed to do?
Her friend has landed in a more serious problem and she is feeling helpless enough for not being able to do anything. And this Ashton… he is beyond her understanding.
Melissa is also stressed.
Irene cannot help but think if it's because of her. Is she the reason why people in her life are suffering?'
She shut her diary, after penning down her thoughts in it.
<>
"Kiara," Ayden called Kiara whom he spotted from a distance and rushed toward her. "How is your back now?"
"It's fine. You don't have to worry. How are you feeling today?"
Ayden could only return her a smile. "I have to worry. I am the reason you got hurt the other day."
Kiara stared at his anguish filled eyes until he averted them from her. "Would you like to have coffee with me?"
Ayden glanced at the girl in front of him in curiosity. Why would she want to have coffee or anything for that matter with someone because of whom she had got badly hurt? While asking someone for coffee was not that unusual occurrence but for him, it most definitely was.
He was not friends with Kiara. She had never made any effort to start a friendship either and suddenly her behavior was making him feel like she cared about him but then, the same question - why?
He did not feel like going because his heart was still grieving the loss of his relationship but at the same time, he did not have the heart to refuse her. Not after hurting her. He felt like he owed it to her and he agreed.
Kiara's face had a different glow when he did.