Hills Of Pain

Mild light shot through the windows framed by blinds and painted soft rectangles on the lush carpet. Layla rolled over to the right side of the bed, facing the windows like a plant that had just noticed the presence of sunlight.

Her wonderful rest was cut short when a dark shadow suddenly fell upon her face, blocking light from the window. She blinked her eyes several times to get a clear view of the obstacle, but all she could see was a figure with Hercules gold hair.

“Haymo?”

“ In the flesh.” he giggled,

She jerked up from the bed. “ What are you doing here? I thought you.” she paused,

“ I?”

“ Moved on.”, she uttered with a low voice.

“ I'd some things to take care of, so I left. But now! I'm back.”

She walked past him to the freezer and took out a bottle of water to calm her nerves.

She kept him firmly in her gaze as she drank slowly.

“We both know when you return, there's always a reason for that. So, what's the catch?”

“Aren't you happy to see me?” He opened his arms, feeling a bit uncomfortable. She grinned,“Let's just skip to the part where you tell me the reason you're here.”

She sat the bottle on the freezer and partially leaned on it with her arms crossed.

“You should offer me a seat, at least.”

“Make yourself comfortable.”

The atmosphere had suddenly turned sour, “Ahem,” he broke the silence, “Don't give me that look, am a changed person now.”

“I don't need your assurance, someone like you will cause more harm than good”, she bluntly declared. “So unto the part why you're here.” she exhaled deeply as she leaned backwards and crossed her legs.

“I am guessing you became a model already,”

He grinned, “Your posture says it all.”

“Smart as always. I'll be packing up soon and hopefully” She said with a brief tilt of her head, “I'll leave first thing in the morning”.

“Ah! Is that so?”

Layla had suddenly noticed his continuous stare at the bottle of water sitting on the freezer.

“Are you thirsty?”, She inquired to gain his attention.

“That's so thoughtful of you, many thanks”. He smiled, “But am not thirsty”.

His smile always found ways to melt her hardened heart. She hated him so much for what he did to her, but still, she couldn't deny the fact that she had feelings for him.

He stood up, “I've got something else to catch up with.”

“You're leaving?” She stuttered as she rose to her feet, “You haven't told me why you're here.”

“Oh!” He sounded as if he had just remembered something dear to him,“If you're that curious”. He moved a step closer to her and whispered into her ear,“Check the net tonight”.

Layla felt a knot in the belly as she shot glances at him. “What are you up to this time?”

“Just watch and see”

He slammed the door behind him and left.

The gentle blue light from the moon enveloped the earth, painting soft irregular patterns on the concrete floor.

“Woo-hoo”. Aria blew off the lights sitting on the cake.

“Happy birthday girlie!”. Yoritza blurted as she opened her arms for her hug. Aria covered her hands with her face as she almost felt shy and embraced her.

“Thank you so much for the gift”

Seconds later, her phone beeped, she stretched her arm and picked took it from the arm of the couch. She moved her thumb hastily as she drew some lines and unlocked her phone.

The message popped up, covering the home screen of her phone. It was an email from JK modelling company, it read.

“You've been selected among the few that got accepted as a model in our company. You're expected to resume on Monday.”

Her eyes moved from left to right and vice versa as she read silently, still embracing Yoritza. Her heart beat increased as she got to the end of it. Furthermore, her heart let out a loud thump as she read the last line.

“This is unbelievable.” She muttered.

“What is?”

Aria pulled away from Yoritza's hold and gave her the phone. Yoritza held the phone firmly as she read out loud.

“Definitely! He was right when he said”, The best surprises will happen on a Sunday”. She uttered silently as she quoted from Andrey Clive's, from “Mourning to morning”.

Suddenly, she noticed an awful silence from Yoritza. They both had applied to become models in JK company, why was Aria the only one to get the acceptance message?

Ever since childhood, it'd always been like that. Aria got everything and anything she needed on a platter of gold, what was nature being cruel to her?

She flashed back to a humiliating moment some years ago.

She stared down at her feet, took a deep pained breath and closed the eyes.

“I'll fix..”

“Fix what?” He cut Yoritza off. Mr. Irving, their course advisor, sprang up and thundered. He had a devil-may-care outlook.

“Don't try to fix this.” He said jabbing a finger at her.

“It's your life that needs to be fixed.”

Yoritza felt a sudden coldness that hits at the core, her body collapsed on itself.

“My life?” She stuttered, choking out her words.

Aria could feel the pain in her words, although Yoritza didn't fulfill the expectations, but Mr. Irving had gone too far with his words. He drew in a slow, steady breath and fell back to his chair.

“And you!”

“Huh!” Aria gasped.

“You'll be in charge of the duty henceforth.”

She ambled round the room several times with different thoughts running through her mind. No definite answer came forth, she stopped and fell on the couch beside the round mini three-legged table which had a frame of them both sitting on it. Aria moved closer to her and wrapped her arms around her shoulder as she sat on the couch's arm.

“Don't worry, you'll be accepted.”

Yoritza sent a long pained gaze to Aria before breaking the eye contact.

“Do you think so?”

“I don't think so, I know so.”