Five thousand.
Five thousand.
He slowly carried her to her room and dropped her on the bed. If he meant to look, he was sure going to see how exposed her chest was but that wasn't his problem at that moment. Nothing else mattered to him as he tucked her into bed and sat by the edge of the bed to look at her face.
He had a really sad look on his face as he brushed some loose strands of hair away from her face and used the duvet to properly cover her body.
He buried his face in his hands and sighed deeply. Everyday, he got to know her more. He got to know her deeply and it was obvious she had a really tough life.
How did she survive it all?
When he heard earlier that she was 23 and still in her final year in school, he hadn't been surprised because his sister was also 23 years old. But their cases were very different.
Chloe had spent her two years after high school setting up her business. She had told her parents she wanted to own a business first and with the help of everyone, they had set up a shopping mall for her. Since she was still a bit young, his parents and older brother had done most of the things for her while she followed them about to learn a thing or two. Once the mall was set up and commissioned on her 20th birthday, she finally returned to school but went to the mall once in a while to supervise. But Mia's case was worse. She wanted to go to school but couldn't because not only could her family not afford sending two daughters to college, she also had to work really hard to support her family and pay for her older sister's tuition. How worse could her life be?
He turned to look at her one more time and saw a single tear slide down from the corner of her eye.
His eyes suddenly began to blink uncontrollably and he frowned as he wondered what was suddenly wrong with his eyes. He got the answer quickly when a liquid began to trail from his eyes down to his face and he quickly wiped it off with the back of his hands.
Mia had lived a tough life. No wonder she always had mood swings. He remembered Mira had told him about finding some antidepressant drugs with her. No wonder she had those.
He remembered Mia saying something about wanting to kill herself but the first thought was always about her mother and he felt his heart squeeze in pain. He knew before it got to the point where she wanted to die, she must have suffered a lot but then she always liked to look like a strong girl on the outside when she was so fragile inside.
"It's going to be okay Mia... I promise." He said in a soft voice as he touched her face.
He stood up from the bed and looked at her one more time. He would have loved to stay with her and watch her sleep, but he didn't want things to turn awkward for the both of them by morning so he walked to the door, looked at her one more time, and left the room.
*************
"You are late!" The teacher said to Mia when she tried to sneak into his class through the backdoor.
Mia felt all eyes on her and froze on the spot.
She had never been faced with such awkwardness before because she always made sure to arrive early for all her classes but today had been different. She woke up late. The class was supposed to start by 9am but she woke up around 8:30.
She hurried to the bathroom.and by the time she came out, it was already 8:45. She thought about taking the taxi but thought it was going to delay her the more because of the traffic and turns they would have to take when she only need to cross the road and run to her school.
As she hurried, she noticed the pedestrians were crossing the road and raced so she could catch up but unfortunately, the light changed immediately she got there and cars began to file through, leaving her frustrated.
Now she was in class and for the first time, she was 30mins late for a class which was scheduled to last for an hour.
"I'm sorry, Mr Henry." She apologized.
"Yea.. Be sorry outside." He said as he gestured towards the door for her to leave the classroom.
She knew arguing or begging him was pointless so she turned to leave and didn't fail to see Jeremy's worried eyes as he watched her. It was strange how they suddenly became friends out of the blue. Really strange.
Mia sighed as she stood outside the back door with her back on the wall. She was embarrassed beyond words.
Her phone began to vibrate inside her backpack so she quickly took it out and saw it was a call from Mr B. The dance instructor.
"Where are you Mia? Why is it so difficult keeping touch with you?" He asked in an irritated voice.
"Sorry. A lot has been up."
"Then fix it but get your ass over here!" He said angrily but stopped to catch his breath before saying in a more quiet voice.. "Come over here by 1pm okay?"
Mia frowned. She wasn't even surprised. Most humans were like that and she had met a handful. They didn't care about whatever was up with anyone else and just wanted the person to be at their beck and call.
"I already told you I do not like it when you talk to me in that manner." She said in irritation.
"I don't have the time to be coming to rehearsals and dancing about. I am looking for money. Big money."
"Do you know how much we are going to get from this?" He asked her and from his tone, she could guess he was trying his best not to blow up at her.
"It's going to take long and I need the money urgently." Mia said.
"How much is it? I will lend it to you if that's going to make you come here today. Mia we need to do this. We have to do it!" He said in a pleading voice.
"Five thousand bucks." She blurted out and heard him begin to cough.
"Five.... five thousand? What are you going to be doing with such amount?"
"It's private."
"Private? If you are going to be borrowing such amount I at least need to know what you need it for. Besides, I don't have such amount on me. At all!" He added for emphasis sake.
"You see why I can't come over. I'm sorry but you would have to search for someone else. I'm really not available." She said in a sad voice.
She would have loved to do it plus she felt bad for giving him hope that she was going to do it and now turning him down.
"I'm sorry. But I have to go now." She moved to hang up but he called her immediately to stop her from doing so.
"I only have two thousand. I can lend it to you." He said in a convincing voice.
"Really?" She asked hopefully. If she could get two thousand from him, then she only need to look around for three thousand. She could ask around for it and put in all her might to win the street dancing and school's talent hunt competition. Both amounts would sum up to six thousand and she would be able to pay up her creditors before she would start searching for more to pay up Mr timothy again.
"Really. So just come over okay?"
"Okay." Mia said immediately before hanging up.
When she turned around, she jumped in shock to see someone standing behind her.
'How long had he been standing there? How much did he hear?' She wondered as she looked at Benjamin's face.
"Sorry I startled you. It was not intentional." He said with an apologetic smile.
She looked at him awkwardly, surprised they were both having a conversation other than the usual 'Hi—Hi'
"Uhm... it's fine." She managed to say with a small smile.
He turned to look at the window beside him and noticed a class was ongoing inside.
"Why aren't you in?" He asked her curiously.
Mia bit her lower lip awkwardly before saying.. "I came late. He asked me to leave his class." She said truthfully.
"Oh.. sorry. Must have been embarrassing." He said to her and shot her another smile.
This was awkward for Mia. Very awkward. She was too uncomfortable having a conversation with him.
"Was here to see Kelvin. I guess I just have to wait till the class ends." He said before resting his back on the wall beside her.
Mia decided not to say anything. Her heart kept skipping beats and she wanted nothing more than to run away from there but as she turned to leave, he said to her...
"Are you dating any of the King brothers?"