E L A R A
I move the mobile near my ear, "Uncle I'm-"
"Where are you Ela? What were those voices?!" Uncle shouts and I jerk away from the mobile as it suddenly hurt my ears. I bring it back near and hear him talking in a serious tone, "Who are those guys Ela? You don't remember anything and-"
"Uncle calm down, they're the friends of the guy who helped me in hospital, his name was Neville, he wanted to talk to me about something so I went to his home with Ara and Darla directly from hospital," I say in one go and sigh. I don't hear anything from there for seconds, "Hello?"
"Hmm, and what are the names of those young men?" he asks.
"Erin and Leo" I reply.
"Leonardo Sivan" Leo says and smirk, I roll my eyes.
"What? Neville, Erin and Leonardo? That's... weird" Uncle says in a confusing tone.
"Anyways, call me once you get to your hotel room safely, I need to go and check the soup I was cooking, it's burning I guess" he says and declines the call in hurry. I chuckle and put back my broken mobile in my pocket.
I'll just pray Uncle's food don't get burned because of me. I barely know him or have ever seen him, but he's a good man. Knowing I still have someone to look after me, care for me and ask how I'm doing feels so good.
"Now tell me where my cigarette packet is?" Leo blurts at Erin and I move my gaze at them.
It seems like they both are about to fight over a cigarette box.
"I won't! You had enough of them, you need to stop. Do I need to remind you that was your second box today you spent huffing-puffing around?!" Erin shouts and Leo stares at him for seconds, of course he didn't expect him to shout at him those words.
I look at Leo sighing heavily before whispering in a calm and sensual tone quietly near his ear, "Bro you shouldn't have shouted at me in front of a girl, imagine what she would think of me"
Erin rolls his eyes and looks at me. He looks back at him "She's not that type of girl you hook up with, so go off and concentrate on what I said"
"Still... she seems like my type-"
"You say that about every second girl you meet and end up making her a one night stand" Erin mumbles.
"Not my fault I'm so hot and they can't resist me either"
"Leo, please shut up and let me do my work"
They both are talking in a so low voice as if I can't hear them. I roll my eyes and I see Ara standing at the door, signing me to come over to her.
A big relief I felt looking at her and I stand up, "Excuse me" I say to them and walk away.
I'm walking towards the door she called me from and stop on my way looking at a very large photo frame besides which several trophies are placed on a black coloured hanger, pinned on either side of it. A photo frame of him.
Neville's jaw, eternally set in a smirk, confining the lines of his mischievous eyes, which glittered with a self-pride of a man who thinks himself the best in the world.
His head was thrown back, his neck stretched back showing it to the fullest making me feel butterflies inside my stomach even without a trial.
He's holding a guitar, a bright light striking his body from the front which isn't shown in this pic. He seems like a professional guitarist and musician.
Too much for a pub performer.
No smile touched his lips, it seems like he stared dead into the camera with sharp sharklike eyes as if a single glance could tell a story no one else could.
Why do I feel like he's staring straight into my soul?
He's not even here Elara, stop looking at this ordinary photo frame. You're not planning on standing here forever, are you?
"Are you done staring at my picture?" I hear a whisper in my ear from behind, a hot breath on my skin.
I inhale his rare cologne, it has warm and sensual notes of incense, I can realize it's him just when his uncommon floral fragrance fills my nostrils.
He's standing so close to me from behind. I slowly turn around and look at his muscular chest in front of my eyes.
He's so tall as compared to me that I don't even reach to his ears. Lifting my eyes up, I can see his icy, bitter, and ever stoic glares at me.
A half-smile creeps on my lips, "Mind giving me my personal space?" I ask and stare into his brown eyes, the prettiest ones I've ever seen.
He stares at me too for seconds, why he's not stepping back? His eye contact, with hidden coldness behind.
This goddamn eye contact.
Without taking his gaze away from me, he pulls himself away.
"We've brought her here, what's the next order?" Ara comes out of the kitchen with a hamburger in her hands and asks.
I look at Neville glancing at her giving death glares. All of them are swaggy and bossy, why do I feel like I've woken up in a mafia world?
He rolls his eyes, "That was my hamburger" he says in a throaty voice, getting irritated. Is that all he got to say?
Just meeting him the second time and hearing his third sentence ever spoken makes my blood boiling. "You asked for me?" I ask him.
I don't know why he didn't open his mouth in the hospital room, I would be driving my way to the hotel, it's getting late too.
He starts to take off his leather jacket while talking, "Yeah, the doctor said to make sure you don't get left alone, and my sister isn't here either, so I want you to live here and babysit my Nero while I'm gone for my performances"
"Your what?!" I ask confusedly, "You lost your brains nut?"
I don't know what to think anymore, he has a baby of whom he wants me to take care of? But he looks so young to have one.
Before his icy gaze at me could turn into anything more dangerous, I hear a cat's voice from the bottom. When I search down, I look at a very adorable cat caressing himself on Neville's legs. He has a smallish cap on his head making him cuter.
"Nero" he smiles widely and lifts him up with just one hand like he weighed nothing.
The first time I'm looking at him smiling. His smile is something that can knock a girl off her feet.
So this is his Nero and he wants me to babysit his cat? I literally don't have any problem with taking care of this cute little creature but, is he serious?
I'm really grateful to him for saving my pathetic-ass life, really want to pay him back for everything he did but is this the way he wants it to be?
"You think I would take care of your cat living here while you're gone to perform somewhere in some bar or pub in this city just because you don't have your sister to take care of Nero anymore? Are you serious?!" I scoff.
His facial expressions become unreadable, "Elara..." the way he mumbles my name and then slightly shakes his head makes shivers run down my spine.
I hear Ara, Erin, and Leo laughing hard. Their voices echo in this living room. Darla comes out laughing too.
I don't think they realise but they are scaring me to death, why they're laughing all suddenly?
"Perform in some bar or pub?" Leo says and laughs walking to Neville, he takes the support of his shoulder to laugh hard-throwing back his head, "Sorry dude but that's something new I'm getting to hear!"
"You should be shut up and ashamed since you're a part of the band too she's talking about," Ara says to him and they all keep quiet after listening to her.
Neville moves his gaze at me tiredly and I rub my elbow in nervousness. So he isn't what I was thinking of him to be.
Neville is still staring at me like he's still observing what I said, "Look I didn't-"
"You listen to me" he interrupts, being bossy, his voice deep and calm while speaking, "Nero's biscuits are there on the table in the kitchen, feed him, don't try to pick him up in your arms he doesn't like being touchy to anybody except me, you might get scratches if you do so. We all are going to practice our performance for 'pub', so take care bye!"
He says seating down Nero on the floor and they all start to head to the exit door, "But hey-, what the heck is happening?! Darla? Ara? Erin?" I look at them waiting to hear some explanation from any of them, since others here are nothing but crackheads.
"Don't worry we'll be back soon, and you don't really have to live alone in such condition, you've got new friends!" Darla says looking at me and walking towards the door taking steps back.
"Or maybe some more than that" Leo winks before leaving.
I hold Erin's arms for my dear life, looking at him with pleading eyes not to leave me alone here, "You can watch Netflix if you get bored, arrange your room besides the kitchen one. Don't enter another one it's Neville's, he doesn't like somebody-"
"I've left one hamburger in the kitchen behind the stove, eat it before Neville sees it. And yeah, search his name on google, maybe you'd find something interesting" Ara interrupts Erin and winks at me.
She again closed the door on my face while I'm just standing here like my whole world is shattered in front of my eyes and I couldn't even blink.
