(Amazing cover by @IshaBhardwaj6 <3)

***

When Preston walked in Nathan's room, he found his friend seated at the desk lost in thoughts.

"Daydreaming like always, aren't you?"

That cheeky remark caught Nathan completely off guard and made him jump on his seat. He got so clumsy that he dropped all the books and the pen holder on the floor.

"Relax, dude," murmured Preston as the bespectacled boy bent down and began gathering everything rather awkwardly.

"So what exactly were you thinking about and smiling like a fool to yourself?" Preston raised a brow.

""N-Nothing....nothing as such," Nathan responded, flustered. "I-I was just thinking a-about an upcoming project in co...college. Nothing other than that."

"Lies. You know what I think? I think that you're hopelessly crushing over someone."

Nathan grew wide eyed hearing that, his heart was thudding nervously. "No-No! Nothing like that."

"C'mon, tell me about her. Who is this girl who has got the super nerd completely wrapped around her thoughts?" Preston snickered.

"I said there is no girl!" Nathan defended.

"Why the fuck are you blushing then?"

"I'm not! My cheeks were always this red! Didn't you ever notice?!"

Preston began to laugh. "I can tell you like someone a lot. Hoping you'd tell me about her soon, " he said to his ridiculously shy friend.

***

Eleanor was chosen to give a presentation to clients in office. It was the first time she would be speaking in the conference room about her ideas to a panel of professionals. Though she maintained a calm exterior, she was very much nervous indeed. She walked into the meeting room early before anybody else. Standing at the head of the table, she browsed through the PowerPoint slides in her laptop one last time to check for errors. After a while, the door pushed open and in walked the people all dressed in formals and took their seats around the long table.

Eleanor greeted her seniors and the clients cordially and then began with her presentation. It went about pretty well, actually better than what she had hoped for. She got nods of approval throughout and by the time she ended, to her surprise, everyone applauded and clapped for her. She humbly accepted all the compliments she received.

Eleanor was so happy that she was beaming from ear to ear when she exited thr conference room after everybody had left.

I need to tell Devon about this!

She took out her phone cheerfully and was about to give him a call but then the stark reality hit her square in the gut.

The colour drained out of her face all at once and the hand with which she had clutched her phone dropped to her side.

An expression of shock swept over her facial features. It felt so natural to her to ring Devon up and share her happiness with him. It was like everything of hers saw him as the destination. Whether it was her anger, her hate, her grief or her bliss, her enthusiasm and or her dreams.

It was like he was the pain and also the one and only cure.

It was scary how all her feelings were associated with him. It was scary indeed.

Eleanor had just exited her office premises when she saw Devon stood leaning against his car right outside the gates. He immediately straightened himself as soon as their eyes met. He looked tired, yet handsome in that light office blue shirt and formal grey pants.

The way he was looking at her made her want to feel girly and butterflies all over again.

No!

Have been there. Done that.

And how did it all end? Nasty.

Don't want to go through everything again.

Eleanor evaded his gazes. Devon took long strides to reach her and held her by the arm.

Before she could protest, he spoke, "Come with me, Eleanor,"

"I don't want to go anywhere with you," she refused, looking away.

"Eleanor, come with me," he repeated, his tone more ardent.

She was about to refuse again---

"Just come with me, Eleanor." He was not going to take a no for wn answer.

Eleanor began to walk towards his car. Devon jogged a step ahead to open the door of the passenger seat for her. Once she was settled in, he closed the door and hurried over to the other side. He sat behind the wheel and they zoomed off.

***

Devon had brought her to a beautiful park that had lush greenery and exquisite flowers of various colors all around. The pleasant breeze that touched her cheeks carried a sense of tranquility in it. There were no sounds around, except the pristine sounds of nature.

As they sat on a bench, Devon consciously sat keeping a good amount of space between them.

"I want to go from here," she said looking at the front at nothing in particular.

"I won't let you go until you hear all that I have to say," he said in a determined manner.

Eleanor remained silent and still.

Devon began to speak, "After my mother's death, I felt homeless. I didn't know what to do anymore which is why I got entangled in a lot of nasty incidents while at middle school. When I saw that all of it was making my father's life difficult as hell, I purposely got involved in a lot of wrong acts 'cause ruining my father's everything had become a sort of a mission for me. I'd have gone further down the dark hole but you saved me. By accepting me into your life with all your heart and soul. I wanted to become good again for you. But I failed to respect you."

"I know I'm at fault. I can't explain to what extent I regret it," he went on. "You deserved to know the truth after everything that you have been through since childhood. Because it's not easy to be a kid without a mother and a neglecting father. It's not easy to deal with bullies and also with tormenting nightmares....I should have told you the truth about Alice....I'm sorry that I didn't understand you, Eleanor."

"You're not understanding me now as well, Devon," she spoke. "If you think I'm mad at you for not telling me about Katherine or whoever that woman is , then you're mistaken. I totally get it that you didn't think it right to speak in my family matters. It wasn't your part anyway to tell me the truth but my so called parents'. I'm hurt because, inspite of knowing the truth, you always strongly defended Katherine and never tried to understand the problems I was facing. You weren't there for me when I needed you the most. Your bipolar attitude towards me left me confused and distraught. In short, you made me feel worse about myself. You broke my trust that you'd stand by me, not against me."

A lump of pain appeared in his throat as he heard that. "Can't we begin again? I'm lost without you, Eleanor. Please give me another chance to make you feel secure. Come back to me...."

Eleanor shook her head in response. "You still don't seem to understand me, Devon," she said. "It's not about what you did anymore. My parents proved to me how I was the last thing they could ever be bothered about. I don't feel like I belong anywhere anymore. Whatever love I've received in my life comes across as fake to me now. I feel a constant need to be strong and to be able to defend myself so that nobody takes me for granted. I can't bring myself to trust anyone now. If you had someone else in my place, maybe they wouldn't have reacted so extremely, but I am the way I am."

"I don't want to lose you, Eleanor," spoke Devon hoarsely as the sun could be seen sliding down the horizon at a distance. "You're very important to me."

***

The following day at work, Devon got a call at his desk from the reception. "Someone's here to meet you," the receptionist spoke from the other end.

That somehow startled Devon. He couldn't think of anyone who would come to meet him at office unannounced.

"Who is it?" he asked curiously. As the name was told out to him, he was shocked.

It was Granny Sanchez.