Feather After // Chapter 50 // Flowers And Cigarette

Aria's POV

AnI tried my best to keep my tears at bay and do not cry for a guy like Ignatius. To not cry for a mother who did whatever she did, so that she could get the fame she wanted. I wish she could have just asked me once if I was okay with the idea of her, to introduce me to the world like that.

I was on the television yesterday and I didn't even know about it. I didn't even know that I was god damn famous now until I saw the magazine. That's why my mom was not staying next to me, but I was stupid too. I shouldn't have posted when my mother asked me to. I could have done something, oh god.

While trying to walk as fast as my legs could take me, I collapsed into someone. With looking at them, I said my sorry and started walking again. I knew tears were streaming down my face and I was an emotional wreck, I didn't know what else to do. This all happened so soon and I didn't know how to take it.

"Aria-" before I could hear anything else, I was pulled back and in no time I was face to face with the guy who made my heart leap. The guy who drove me crazy and the craziest part was, I let him do it to me. I let him treat me like he was treating me and for a very strange reason, I don't know how it was possible. I couldn't even come to explain it.

Like for me, I knew no one deserved to be treated like Ignatius treated me. I kept going to him because when he looked in my eyes, I believed that he could become better, that he was capable of endless love. Love; had the power to heal the sins of any individual. I just wished that I could make him fall in love with me. Make him realize that what he had been going is wrong and that he just had to give himself a chance, a chance to see how beautiful and great the world was.

"What-" before I could say anything, I started crying, I wanted to control it but as soon as his eyes met mine, I lost it. My world collapsed and tears started flowing down my face,

"Come here," he said and pulled me towards the same direction we're going to. He put his hand in mine and I let him lead my way. I continued to sob. I saw people look at me because they thought I was a mad woman who was crying her eyes out while Ignatius was pulling me in the other direction.

I don't know where we were going but I as soon as we have entered the football ground, I didn't want to go to the terrace because that was the place where I had caught Ignatius making out with some girl and I didn't want to be there. He took me to the other side of the football field opposite to the terrace and we went behind one of the sitting stands. This was a new place.

I looked at him. He turned around and I realized that he was still in his sports jersey. His tattooed sleeves were visible and he had his lip ring on. He wore a bandana over his head to keep his hair from falling on his face. His cheeks were red and his jersey was covered in patches of sweat or water.

"Why are you crying?" He looked at me, his eye fell in my body, he was checking if I was hurt.

"I'm famous," before I could say anything else I cried harder. I mentally cursed myself for being so weak at the point but I couldn't help it. It was my worst nightmare. I didn't want people to know that I was famous. It would create loads of problems. And I wasn't ready to solve them because I had many problems.

"Oh come here," he said and pulled me towards him. I felt some hard muscles against my cheeks, and as soon as I was enveloped in the welcoming warmth, I pulled away.

"What happened now?" He was surprised. He expected me to burst out crying and do things like that. His hands didn't leave mine, and I didn't have the energy to full away.

"Because you gave Misty the flowers," gathering all the courage I had I stepped back. There was no way I was going to let him to that to me. That's what the problem was. He was the wound on my body and his hands were the bandages around them, and I still wasn't sure how that was supposed to work.

"What flowers?" He asked, I wasn't sure if he knew what I was talking about or he was just making it sound like He didn't. He looked puzzled.

"The flowers, you brought yesterday from the meet gala! The same flowers! Do you remember now?" I screamed. I was so very frustrated with him. He had the nerve to act all innocent, "now don't ask me which flowers or which meet gale!" I continued.

"I swear on my life, I bought the flowers to school, but I didn't give it to her!" He raised his hand up in the air and ran his palm through his hair.

"Then how did she get it?" I asked him again, I felt angry at myself for reacting the way I did. I didn't know what I had done was right or not but I knew Nanna had raised me better. And while life was testing me in the meanest ways possible, I was losing my morals. The morals and the manners which were supposed to be the solid straight lines which I was not supposed to cross no matter how bad the situations were.

"We'll have to find that out," he huffed and sat down on the floor and continued, "come on," he patted the space next to him, "have a seat, I'm pretty sure the ground won't engulf you."

I was wearing a white shirt and a light blue top, which had small hearts on it. No wonder, my mother had asked me to wear a skirt. I had my hair in a waterfall style or whatever it was called. Nanna did it, usually, I was running late for school, tripping on things, packing my bag in the morning, while trying to eat breakfast, bathe and look presentable all at the same time. I was asked to wake up early today.

I wanted to sit on the ground but I couldn't afford to get my white skirt dirty with two patches of dirt right on my butt. The school hasn't started and I was already an emotional wreck. That's was one of the problems of wearing white. I looked at him and then looked at the place he had patted. I raised my eyebrow at him in hope that he would understand my problem.

"Fuck," he said when he saw that I still wasn't convinced with the whole idea of sitting on the ground I looked at him and he started removing the bandana from his head and he spread it on the place next to him. "Ma'am, please have a seat now."

I smiled don't get me wrong, I tried my best to control it but I couldn't. Although Zachariah was rich and he was a cute person what Ignatius did for me affected me deeply. His small actions touched my heart deeply. Apart from Nanna and Manchurian, he was one of the only few people who could make me feel like I was at home.

I walked and sat next to him, "so you're crying because people know you have money? Is it because your mother didn't tell you about it?"

"How do you even know that my mom didn't tell me about it?"

"You're a fuçking shy person Aria. It's really hard to get what you're thinking. I don't know you much, but I know, you wouldn't dress up to get attention," he looked far away on the left side and my eyes followed his.

"I'm getting married in twelve days," I shrugged and continued, "things get a little overwhelming at times."

"Tell me all about it."

We sat there, in comfortable silence. I didn't know what he felt but I knew that I was okay with us not speaking that much. It was quite yet peaceful.

"Y-you want to get married?" He suddenly asked.

"I-oh yes! I really want to marry someone I don't love and then give birth to hundreds of babies who'll then fight for the company which will be built when Zachariah and I get married."

Ignatius smiled, he gave a genuine smile. "Never thought you wanted to become a member of 'I'll pop hundreds of kids out of my vagina factory,' club."

I'm pretty sure that it was sarcastic, it had to be. "You make it sound so dirty and almost very vulgar," I crunched my nose upwards.

He smiled, "it's all words love, it's all words. For instance, some people say that they are giving to have a baby, but in other words, the woman is going to pop a kid out of her vagina and then scream the shit out of the hospital."

"Where did you learn these words? Shit out, fuck and all," I asked him and my eyes found a spot on his hand. There was a tattoo of a bunch of flowers. But they looked very peculiar.

"They are just word, if fuck would have meant something nice, your parents would have named you fuck, just imagine them saying, this is my daughter and her name is Fuck Rhett," he changed his tone when he said the words, this is my daughter. He moved his head from one side to the other and raised his eyebrows up.

"Then at least my parents will acknowledge me," I shrugged. No matter what the topic of conversation was it almost ended with my talking about my parents and then feeling sad about it.

"Hey, at least your parents treat you like a human even if they don't acknowledge you, they treat you better than the rest," he said and I knew he was hinting it to himself or the people around him.

He went on his back and pulled out a cigarette from his back pocket of the jersey pants, he lit the cigarette and took a big gulf. Smoke escaped from his nose and his mouth. If there would have been anyway, I'm pretty sure the smoke would have escaped from his ears as well.

"Wow, I never thought the back side of the jersey pants had pockets, where did guy gets them?"

"Fuck, I'm smoking a cigarette and you can about the pocket on the back side of my jersey pants, way too go Miss. Aria Rhett," he says with the cigarette clenched in between his teeth.

"What did you mean when you said that my parents at least acknowledged me?" I knew I had to be careful. There were rare chances of Ignatius being nice and almost polite and I didn't want that Ignatius to evaporate. I wanted him to stay. I wanted him to help me survive through the things we were going through.

"I mean that you see these," he said and pointed at the single tattoo that had captured my attention a few minutes ago. I nodded and he continued, "They are cigarette burns, my son of a bitch dad did it when I was even too young to think about it."

I reached out to touch them and he flinched. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," I hesitantly said and pulled back. I didn't want to push him into anything that he didn't want to do, "but you're rescued right?" I continued.

"Yes but till then it was too late."d now, for the ending, I hope you enjoy it, In honor of fifty chapters of Feather After,