~Aaliyah's P.O.V.~

"You wish."

"Well most girls do actually wait for my call." He said with a hand on his chin. 

"Most girls? Who said I was most girls? Pfft I'm unique" I said with a pinch of sass, and he then looked at me like he was trying to figure something out.

"You sure are something else Aaliyah." He said under his breath and turned away, but I heard it. Something else? Sure I am! I pretended not to hear it though, it might just give me answers to the questions I haven't asked. Yet.

'Wait till he calls on the rejection hotline' Smart Aaliyah snickered. Ha! 

I'm so waiting for that moment. I mentally smirked. I followed Nathan to the racks that he wanted to show me. After looking at Nathaniel's face, I thought again. I think I smirked, but just not mentally.

"Why do you look like you're going to practice a Satanic ritual on me?"

'If falling in love is a Satanic ritual, then I could practice it a hundred times on you Nathaniel'

'Gosh love-struck woman, would you shut it with your cheesy stuff for a while? We do not want a repeat of last time'

"What? Satanic ritual? Me? Pfft no." I played in the clear.

"Well you sure don't look too innocent at the moment"

'If only he knew, tsk tsk tsk. He won't even have the most vaguest of ideas of what's about to happen'

"It's obvious that you're stressed, is there aything I can do?" and with that, I walked off to the racks, with a trace of a smile playing on my lips, thinking about the deal I had just made with the devil.

His girlfriend? What would it be like to be his girlfriend? He sure does look like a popular guy, and he has the looks, and is also smart, intelligent, and literally the whole package! But that kind of a thinking is too... desperate maybe. My mother always wishes for me to love someone who has the thoughts of long term relationships and the willingness to protect their partner. And obviously I didn't listen to her and ended up getting hurt. I shouldn't really dwell on the past, what's done is done anyway, there's absolutely no use crying over split milk. Yet, I am not too keen on this ... whatever we were going to have after a year. I just accepted the deal and I already regret doing it.

My desperation to get into that college has actually clouded any traces of rational thinking that I had.

'What if you actually fall in love with him?'

I won't. I refuse to. It's going to be another relationship that would end as fast as it started. It won't be a long-term relationship. Don't you see? He looks like a playboy! 

'Maybe he isn't what you think'

 Maybe he is.

~Narrator's P.O.V~

 Little did Aaliyah know, that he isn't at all what she thinks. Aaliyah doesn't know about how he was bullied, how much stronger he has become. He isn't just any playboy, he respects other's feelings because he knows how it feels to be abandoned, hurt, disrespected, and bullied. He'd never do that to someone. Aaliyah isn't aware that what he feels for her isn't something simple. It's complicated. Very complicated. Well, what's love without complications? 

Love is a force of  nature. However much we may want to, we can not command, demand, or take away love, any more than we can command the moon and the stars and the wind and the rain to come and go according to our whims. Love is bigger than you are. You can invite love, but you cannot dictate how, when, and where love expresses itself. You can choose to surrender to love or not, but in the end, love strikes like lightning: unpredictable and irrefutable. You can even find yourself loving people you don't like at all. Love does not come with conditions, stipulations, addenda, or codes. Like the sun, love radiates independently of our fears and desires.

As Aaliyah was looking through the racks, she stole  a few glances at Nathan, secretly hoping he'd look at her. To her dismay, he didn't. Or so she thought. She suddenly felt a weird feeling in her stomach. She named it as hunger, but the world knew it as disappointment. She wouldn't admit that she didn't feel a similar feeling when the girls were staring at him and giving him seductive winks and smiles, no, she won't. She wants to protect herself. 

Is she actually protecting herself?

On the other hand, Nathan, was hoping she'd look his way too. He didn't know what was going on in her mind, heck he didn't know what was happening to him too. He thinks he has taken a special type of liking to her. Has he? He knows he has something for her, he just cannot put his finger to it. What's going on in his mind is - 'Am I doing it wrong? Is this an infatuation? Do I actually feel something real enough to last a lifetime?' He's been hurt enough during his childhood. If love brings hurt, he doesn't want to fall in love, no he doesn't. 

Aaliyah then started thinking about how he would help her because well, first things first. That's the reason they even became friends. She finds it difficult to think about her dream college. She's been wanting to go there since she came to know about it's existence.

She was a little girl back then, dreamt of the world as a beautiful place ~

"Momma , momma, look what I found!"  A five year old Aaliyah beamed at her mom. 

"What is it sweetie?" Scarlett replied with a smile, looking at her young daughter.

"It's a protecting shell!" Aaliyah said with excitement as she showed her mom a seashell she picked from the shore.

"Awh wow this is so pretty! But who is this shell protecting?" 

"Momma this is for my baby brother, he'll always be protected. I even prayed! Noone can hurt him, and  only I am allowed to kiss him goodnight on his forehead like you do to me" 

Aaliyah looked proud of what she had done for her unborn brother who she wanted to protect from the blue, bad fairies, or so she thought.

"Baby, I am so proud of you! Who will you protect him from?"

"From the big, bad, blue fairies momma, they hurt us. Only the pink fairies are good, which is why I brought a pink protecting shell for him" she spoke in her baby voice.

Her mother was touched. Touched would be an understatement for what she felt at that moment. She felt the sudden need to protect her daughter from the actual world. The big, bad, blue fairies weren't the only bad things in the world!

"Sweetheart, the world isn't filled with only big, bad, blue fairies, there are worse things in this world. Always remember to never let any man control your life. You're going to be an independent and strong woman when you grow up. You'll have control over your actions and you'll never have to look back."

At the time, all Aaliyah did was nod, pretending that she understood.

It is now that she actually knows what her mother meant at that time. Her mother's voice rings in her head whenever she feels low, whenever she get's hurt. Her mother and she aren't too close anymore, because their family had a new addition a month after this incident. Her mother's attention towards Aaliyah was no more undivided. She had to share the attention many-a times.

Jason, her brother grew up to be a very protective brother. Even though he is young, he still knows what to do and what not. He is quite mature according to his age. He even learnt self defense to protect his sister, he's only twelve! This four year age gap, doesn't actually mean anything to the sibling couple, they still share every thing, every incident with each other, and are actually quite close.

Jason is more of the emotional, selfless guy whereas Aaliyah couldn't be called selfless, but she wasn't selfish either. She could be rough at times, playful, cheerful, disappointing, helpful, but she was still good at heart. She never had a wrong intention behind any move that she made nor at any stage of life did she ever badmouth someone because they hurt them. She did want to do so a couple times, when life had really given her lemons, like now, but she never did want to hurt someone.

Jason, was a different boy. He is of the kind that kept their emotions to themselves, never really expressed their feelings, but he is probably the most caring person you'd ever meet. He wishes to fulfill his family's dreams but he can be a little shy sometimes. He is dominant over those who are weak, but isn't as bold as he wants to be. 

His favorite sport is cricket, and he actually has quite respectable skills at the sport, and even takes part in his school games, usually making his team win. This year too, he had his matches and hence couldn't fly to Dubai, along with his family but he'll be flying tomorrow. Let's see where that gets us.