“And now it’s time to build from the bottom of the pit right to the top. Don’t hold back. “
~Imagine Dragons (It’s time)

“Well, I’ve got to go mom, tell Japhia that he can come to say that to my face,” I say before ending the call and tossing the phone on the bed.

I button up my red long-sleeve and nod my black tie in front of my bedside mirror. I pick my band in front of my dressing mirror and band my hair into a bun. Mykeep, beard is coming out and I’m still in a dilemma to shave or keep it so today I’m making them stay on. Once that’s out of the way, I pick my black suit from the bed, my lighter and the packet of cigarettes on the top of the drawer close to my bed. I pick up my phone and slide it into my pocket.

I make my way out of my room and as I walk to the living room and I see Noah sitting down on the couch.

He looks dressed and ready for an early morning in a black suit and trousers, and I wonder if he plans on spending the day at my house. Saying I’m not surprised to see him would be a lie because I am, but more importantly, I’m curious to know how he got into my house.

“You look surprised to see me,” He remarks and I see his blue eyes obvious with mischief.

“What are you doing in my house, and how did you get in?”

“Do I need a reason to visit my twin brother?” a dramatic look of hurt appears on his face as he gets up from the couch, “You know you’re not a good brother, cause I’ve been on a business trip these past few days and you never called and now you don’t even say welcome, how was your trip?!”

“I don’t care about your trip,” I say dismissively.

He gasps and dramatically places his hand on his chest. “Ouch!”

I glare at him and continue speaking, “Because I know mischief follows you everywhere.”

He smirks and takes a bow. “My reputation precedes me. What can I say? And I know you do care, so I’m going to say it was great, thank you.”

“What do you want in my house?!” I thunder, this time louder and angrier.

“I wanted to give you some heads up, little brother. You know Leeds university is large. I don’t want you losing your way like you did when we were younger.”

“I won’t. Thanks for your concern.”

He raises his hands in surrender. “I’m glad you’re doing the march. I can’t stand being you... I can when it’s for doing fun things like messing around, especially with those who can’t tell us apart like Ali-“

My face hardens, and I surge towards him, but he backs away immediately. “Say her name one more time and I’ll knock all your teeth out.”

“Woah! Easy tiger, what’s done is done and besides, she’s already in a better place... At least you think that.”

“You don’t get to talk about her,” I warn again with my teeth tightly gritted.

“Fine, you mind if I take one?” He asks, pointing to the packet of cigarettes in my hand.

I do not answer and he moves closer when he gets close enough; he opens the pack and picks one stick out; he takes my lighter from my hand and lights his cigarette up.

He takes a long but slow drag of it and his eyes close dreamily as he blows it into the air. “Didn’t think I’d ever see you with this again, but when I heard.”

“Heard, who told you?”

I shouldn’t be surprised anymore because Noah has always enjoyed prying into my life and watching me like a hawk, but I can’t help but ask because I thought he’d grown past that after these years.

One of his brows rises as he stares at me. “I have eyes and ears everywhere, brother. It could be any of your employees, and I also know you’ve been eyeing my things lately.”

Noah has always been known for his double-phased words, and I think the thing he’s talking about is Avril. He’s wrong in referring to her as a thing. Things don’t have a choice, but Avril still does. He might make her think she doesn’t, but she still does.

A look of menace comes and stays on his face as I say nothing in response. I guess I finally got to him. “You don’t deny it.”

I smile a little in contentment. “If I’ve been eyeing your things lately, then it’s probably because you don’t own them.”

He waves his finger holding the cigarette in my face, “Be careful not to cross me, brother. Remember bad things happen when you do.”

He doesn’t have to tell me. I lived through those horrible things with him. Noah is the type of person that would physically hurt you if possible just to get back at you, and if he can’t hurt you, he hurts and destroys the things that you love and care about the most.

“Like me being stabbed in the rib and raping my fiancée,” I mumble the last part to myself.

He grins and nods. “Like that one too. You’re the smart one, do the maths, but you’re welcome to cross me.”

I don’t respond. Instead, I walk over to the door, “I’m going to be late Noah, I need you to leave.”

“A word is enough for the wise and I’d like to think that’s you.” He taps my shoulder before walking out.

It was a threat and maybe he wants me to tremble, but he’s ten years later on that now. I’m not scared of him or what he thinks he can do to me. I’m only worried about what he might do to Avril if he puts the pieces together.

.

“I’m sorry if I’m late,” I apologise, walking into the room and seeing a few faces looking ready to begin.

“Quite the contrary, you’re on time, Luke,” Mr Joe answered, and he hands me a file with written papers in it.

I open the file, and I ask as I glance at it. “What’s this?”

“The ratings of the last march, Luke, we had a 4.5 star on the rating. It was that successful, and the funds were still coming in. Today Laura Jason from Kiss FM will join our march and there are a lot of notable stars, celebrities and TV personnel who would too. Fox TV contacted us yesterday and offered to give us a thirty minutes airtime run of the march with a price so generous we couldn’t refuse. So we are ready to do more this time. This is much more successful than we ever expected, and we have you and all the other sponsors to thank.”

“Well, we hope to do more,” I answer, before shutting the file in my hand and handing it over to him.

He shakes his head. “No, this one is yours. You need to get the statistics right when you speak to the students in an hour.”

I must have heard double or did he just say speak in front of students, “I what?”

“Speak, Noah did last month.”

Noah is a great actor and I, on the other hand, would be a mess if I come in unprepared.

I take him by the arm and we move aside from the rest. “I wasn’t prepared for any speech,” it is the truth, I did not expect any speech coming on or given by me, so I didn’t prepare for it.

“We’ve got that covered.” He assures me with no doubt in mind and before I can ask how he continues, “Avril had a short note drafted in case of an emergency like this one. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to memorize it.”

“Avril.” I try to mumble to myself, but it comes out audibly.

“Yeah, one of the frontrunners for the campaign and one of Leeds’s top students, Noah was quite acquainted and pleased with her last month. You’ll meet her and the rest soon and don’t worry, you won’t have a problem with her.”

He walks back to the rest and points to me before announcing, “Ladies and gentlemen, Luke Castillo.”

I shake hands with the rest of the sponsors, which include two women and three men. Their name is tagged on their clothes just like mine and a few faces look familiar, but I can’t be arsed into reading and finding out. The only thing on my mind is seeing Avril again. I’ve always known meeting her was inevitable and as well as working with her, but being guided by her superseded my imagination.

He hands me a list of names and before I can ask what it is for, he speaks, “They are the volunteer aka the forerunners for the campaign. They are also the top student in Leeds, but we call them that so we wouldn’t draw too much attention to the student and distract them from the major task which is ahead of us. Let’s meet them before we begin.”

He walks ahead, and I follow him, and we soon walk into a small hall. There I see about nine students waiting in the hall, but my eyes search desperately for Avril among them, but cannot catch a glimpse of her.

“Where’s Avril?” Joe asks with a worried tone, after looking about just like I’ve done.

“I’m here,” she says from the back and I turn to see her and I drag a relieved breath as I watch her walk back to stand with the others.

She’s wearing a black long gown with slim hands on top of a pink long sleeve shirt. She’s also wearing black sneakers and there’s a black beanie on her head. I’m not sure if there’s makeup on her face, but she still looks amazing.

“Hello everyone, my name is Luke Castillo. I’ll be heading today’s march and you should all be yourselves.”

Avril introduces every one of them to me, “And she’s Martha,” she says before taking her stand beside her.

I do my best to keep the thought of Avril’s naked body pressed against my skin out of my head, and it’s hard to do as my eyes glance back and forth around her.

My eyes are soon fixed on her, not for once wanting to break their hold on her, but knowing I have to so the students won’t gather up suspicion. I, more than anything, need to put myself together and focus.

“Mr Joe told me you are the top students of Leeds,” I say, with a thrilled tone of voice staring at all of them. My eyes land on Hadid, and I’m reminded that he’s also here. I see him glaring at me and I avert my eyes from him. “But you’re the best?” I ask, looking at Avril.

“She used to be the best amongst us, but since she’s got a boyfriend, she has fallen back on her academic performance.” The girl introduced as Cassidy earlier blurts out and the eyes of everyone in the hall turn to her. “It’s true!” She defends herself even though no one says anything.

“Shut up Cassidy. She doesn’t have a boyfriend!” Martha shouts at her.

“She does. This march should be done with honesty, so she shouldn’t lead the march.”

“Who’s now the best amongst you academically, then?” I ask, wanting to help ease the tension around.

“Hadid Mina is.” She says, turning to Hadid, who seems taken aback by her answer.

“Keep me out of this bitch!” He fires back. “You want to lead? Cause I sure as hell don’t!”

“Can I have a moment with Ms Good?” I request loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room.

The next minute, the students make their way out of the hall, leaving me with Hadid and Avril.

“I won’t do anything stupid, I promise,” I assure Hadid, who looks like a hawk ready to attack in case of danger.

He doesn’t move or respond, but when she finally looks up from her feet, which she’s been silently staring at for the past five minutes, nods and says, “I’ve got this,” he walks out of the hall.

“He cares a great deal about you,” I tell her, although it hurt me a little to admit it.

“What do you want to talk about?” She asks, finding her voice and ignoring my remark about Hadid.
“And I hope it isn’t about my grade.”

“If it is?” I cock a brow at her.

She shrugs, “I’d say you’re not my father.”

I chuckle and I have to agree with her. “You’re smart, I love that, but aren’t your grades important to you?”

“They didn’t get me what I wanted,” her voice is low as in a mumble, but it’s loud enough for me to hear her.

“The scholarship?” I ask, walking towards her.

Her brows furrow, “How did you.....? Forget it, you are just like your brother, prying into people’s lives without a shred of respect.” She spits out in disgust, trying to move away from me, but I grab her by the arm.

“I respect you a great deal,” I say and she scoffs in pure disbelief, which hurts, and she tries to yank her arm from my grip. I won’t let go, though. She needs to hear the truth. “I wasn’t prying. William McQueen, the organiser of the Oxford scholarship scheme, is my best friend. He told me you came fifth place.”

“Did he tell you it was because I wasn’t good enough?” Even as she speaks, I can hear the pain in her voice and I can hear her voice cracking underneath her boldness.

I let go and reach for her face with my hands and I feel the shudder her body gives out. “No. On a contrary, he told me you had great potential, considering the condition you were in.”

She peels my hand off her face and asks, “What condition?” I watch her chew her bottom lip as she awaits my response.

“He said you had a major family emergency and came late. What I’m saying is, I get why you made the deal with Noah, but whatever it is, your grades shouldn’t pay for that.”

“You think I’m doing this on purpose?!” She demands to back off from me and I must have struck a nerve because she seems to get angry with me and her voice rising.

“Avril I.......”

“Your brother forces himself on me whichever way he likes even if I’m not comfortable with it and he beats and hits me for fun, but since it’s in the contract I signed, I can’t do anything about it until the contract elapses. Most mornings I can’t find the strength to get up or even walk, so I stay home and heal and in a week I can only make one or two classes because that’s just how I hurt.”

I gasp, feeling guilty and wanting to apologise for blaming her, even without knowing the fact for sure. “I’m sorry, Avril.”

She wipes the small tears rolling down from her eyes. “Forget it, but so you know, you know nothing about me.” She slams the piece of paper in her hand against my chest and walks out of the hall.

“I don’t, but I want to.”

She turns to me, “Why? So you can judge me and make me feel worse than I already feel?”

“No, because I love you.”

**