48
Demir walked out of the studio A, a couple of days later, wearing his usual look on his face. He's formed the habit of going to the studio to sit on Tahti's desk for a while, before heading for home, but that day, he'd just gone to have a look at her table before leaving the school.
Stella was waiting for him, under the school's gazebo and she must have sensed him approaching as she raised her head to lock eyes with him, before she threw him a smile.
"Happy birthday." She said as she rose, when he neared. He couldn't count the number of his tons of female friends who'd began wishing him at midnight, and about fourteen of them had even asked to spend the day with him.
"Thanks." He replied and noticed she wasn't holding a present. "Don't you have a gift for me?"
"Gift?" She repeated and he nodded. "Of course, I do. But I don't know if you'll like it."
Stella picked up her purse and opened it, taking out his customised key holder and handed it back to him.
He smiled as he raised his head. "Did you want this so badly?" He asked. He hadn't even noticed it'd been gone as he'd rather been an emo, of recent.
"I must have lost my mind. I wanted to have it."
He ran a fingertip around the design but stopped when she spoke.
"I lied to your friend, Tahti."
She'd met Tahti? "Lied about what?"
"She asked if we were dating and I said yes." Stella replied, with a smile. "She believed me right away. I didn't know she will disappear like that...I'm sorry."
Demir dropped his head with his sigh, finally understanding the reason she'd disappeared. "She didn't just stay quiet, though..."Stella suddenly added and he raised his head, wondering what she meant by that.
"I was thinking of cutting my hair since it looked all messy and she told me not to."
"What?"
.......
It was a couple of minutes after twelve when Josh and Tahti returned from their morning walk. They had gotten close in the space of a few days and although Tahti loved and cherished the time she spent with him, she just couldn't click with him the way she did the way she'd with Demir.
"Thanks for walking me back." She said, when they arrived her aunt's workshop.
"It's no problem. I'll come pick you up tomorrow." He said and she recalled the workshop exhibition was the following day. Luckily, Demir won't be coming.
"It's fine. I can come by myself." She replied. "Still...I would like to come pick you up." Josh was saying and she smiled.
"I'll think about it."
"Okay. I'll go now." A smile crossed her lips as he raised a hand, to wave at her, a gesture which she reciprocated before he he turned to leave.
Her phone rang once he'd left and she slipped it out of her back pocket and her jaw dropped on seeing the caller ID. Demir Wilson? Why was he calling? She bit her lower lip, wishing she'd switched off her phone.
A message popped into her phone once the call had ended and she raised it to take a look. It was rather simple.
«Where are you? Let's talk.»
Now, that didn't sound friendly. It seemed like he wanted to beat her up.
Sighing, she turned to head in.
Her aunt had returned from visiting one of her customers and was slicing an apple by the time she walked in, and her aunt raised her head to see her drop on the stool in front of her.
"You went on a date with Josh,again?"
"It wasn't a date, Auntie Freya. We just went out on a walk." She told her.
"Hmm...Love starts that way, you know." Auntie Freya said and she sighed again. She had no intention of falling in love for now. "Where are you? Let's talk. That means you are angry, right?" Tahti asked.
"What's this random question?" Her aunt asked, in turn.
"I promised myself I would never date while watching my mum."
Her aunt looked surprised to have heard that. "When did you make such a decision?"
"When I was little. The day before I left for Los Angeles, Mum came here and cried her eyes out."
"Oh, that day...Your mum really liked that guy. It was probably intense. I told her he was a scumbag and that she should break up with him but she never listened."
"But still she dated him." She said and remembered her own relationship with Demir. "There's nothing between us and yet I don't know why I did that." She stopped, recalling what she had told Stella, before she had stormed out of school. "I was so stupid...It was really embarrassing."
"There is always something between people." Auntie Freya was saying as she sliced another apple and Tahti raised her eyes. "I still respect your mum. She got so hurt, but she feels passionately in love with new people." "That's nonsense."
"Your mum said that dating isn't about picking the nicest person. It's about meeting someone who is special to you."
"I think that's why she failed every single time."
"You're wrong about that. If she failed every single time, how would have gotten such a precious daughter?" Auntie Freya asked, picking up a slice to feed Tahti, who smiled.
"By the way, the shelf is crooked."
Tahti's head whipped to the direction of the shelf, she'd worked on early that morning and she frowned as she rose to work on it again. "Oh no, I drilled the holes earlier. Why isn't anything working out?"
