Redemption(Struggle #3) (9 page)

I quickly changed into a comfortable
pair of jeans and a tank top and peeked in Nathan’s work room again. “Babe, is it okay if I visit the college?”

“Yup, sure. I’m busy
with my work, anyways,” he replied calmly.

“The lunch is in the refrigerator
; call me if you need anything.” I waved him goodbye.

“My dear college
, here I come.” I muttered and pushed the gas.

***

“Where the hell are you?” I screamed inside my mind. Chloe was nowhere to be found. I had already wandered everywhere on campus. I even checked the dorm; it was locked.
Where could she go?
I tried her cell and it was switched off; she only did that when she was in math classes.
Hell, where the fuck is she?
I cursed her.

I was
heading to the canteen and I saw Noah coming out of a classroom.

“Hey
, Noah.” I shouted his name. He panicked for a second but then looked at me.

His facial muscles relaxed as he saw me. “Hey
, Eva, it’s been a long time. Where have you been, sweetheart?” Noah was a gay friend of Chloe. I didn’t like him, but Chloe and he were the best of friends.

“Where is Chloe?”

“Oh, sweetie, why are you always searching for Chloe? There are so many handsome boys out there; search for them.” He giggled like a girl.

“Just tell me where Chloe
is.”

“She must be behind some book cabinet in
the library. She got a new, handsome boyfriend. Do you know that?”

“Terry?”

“Yes, he is so handsome that when I see him I sometime pee in my pants.” He giggled again. He was getting on my nerves now.

“Thanks
, Noah, catch you later.”

“Sure
, sweetheart. Come to my dorm sometimes. We’ll catch up on some gossip you missed.” Noah always tried hard to be in my good books, but I never liked him. Why, I couldn’t get.

I walked fast towards the
library, which was the last place I expected Chloe to be. Our library was a deserted place and nobody visited it, not even the studious people because it didn’t have enough books. I peeked behind every cabinet. I found her in one corner. She had locked her lips with a boy and her hands were freely going inside his jeans from behind. He must be Terry.

“No way you are kissing
your teacher in the library,” I screamed silently. This girl was changing so rapidly, I couldn’t recognize her actions anymore.

She separated from him for a second and looked at me. “Hi
, Eva. We were just doing our ritual.”

“Ritual?”

“It’s a long story. But to tell you in short, we daily kiss each other somewhere on the college campus. Terry feels that it keeps our self committed to each other..”

“What?”
I couldn’t understand her at all.

“Yes
, we kiss somewhere alone every day, like the guys’ locker room, the library, an empty classroom.”

She was insane. She was kissing a teacher everywhere
on campus; she would be getting expelled soon. “Still, what the fuck Chloe?”

“Leave it
alone. Let’s go to the canteen. I’m so hungry today.” She smiled and dragged me out. Terry remained inside. I looked back at the door, anticipating he would follow us. “Don’t worry, he will come in five minutes. We need to be good at this or else he will get fired in no time.”

“I guess that day will come pretty soon
,” I whispered.

“Did you say something
, Eva?”

“Nope, let’s go to the canteen.”

When we were walking towards the canteen, we had to cross Mrs. Cooper’s office

I was avoiding any contact with the
office; I was afraid that Mrs. Cooper will come out any time and ask me something. “Is that your mom?” Chloe elbowed me.

I looked
up; my mom was coming out of Cooper’s office. “Yes, it is.” My heart beat skipped its tone by a little. She was the worst thing I could expect to meet at my college.

“Let’s
get out of here.” I dragged Chloe out of the way, but somehow my mom’s sharp eyes caught us.

“Eva, come here
, please,” she asked me in a loud voice.

“I’m gonna die today.”
I cursed myself for coming to the campus.

In a matter of few seconds
, we were standing in front of my mom. She was crushing me with her eyes. I wanted to get away or at least get my eyes out of her gaze, but I couldn’t do that; she had a hypnotizing effect on me.

“Hello
, Martha, how are you?” Chloe tried to ease the tension between us.

“Are you thinking to get some stupid sports scholarship?”
she asked me in a frightening tone.

“I’m not sure.” That was the thing for which
I had come to meet Chloe, but now it seem that Mrs. Cooper already told her everything. I was pretty dead.

“Look
, Eva, I have news for you. I’ve booked one ticket to Canada with your name and readied the divorce papers. Come to my hotel; get them signed by Nathan tonight and then fly to Canada. Or else, I’ll sign the papers to put you out of my will.” She looked away and looked back at me once more, disappointment in her eyes.

Chloe grabbed my shoulder. My mom’s words were slowly entering my system. It was the second time
that day my heart was broken, first by seeing Nathan in that condition and now by my mom.

“Calm down
, dear. We can work on this,” Chloe whispered in my ear.

“Wait
, mom.” I followed my mom.

“Yes?”

“I don’t care if you throw me out of your will or do anything you want. I’m not going to divorce Nathan nor go to Canada for you. I may or may not take the scholarship, but I’m surely not working in your company, either way.” Determination was flowing through my whole body.

Mom looked tense. She surely didn’t
expect that from me. She wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the exact words. She left me without saying a single word.

“That was brave.” Chloe patted
me on my back. “Let’s go to the dorm. We have lots to discuss.”

Chapter 13

Eva

“Are you sure you want to go back home? If you ask me, you should spend the night here with me. Your mom freakishly kicked your ass today.” Chloe was insisting
that I spend night in the dorm so we could talk more. With her, I could always share everything my heartfelt. Years of friendship were behind the bond between us.

We spent hours talking about my condition after mother left me
at school. We discussed my scholarship and Chloe was leaning towards taking that option. After bailing out on Mom’s offer, I had pretty much only one option left; the scholarship. The only issue for me was that I couldn’t make that decision without consulting Nathan. We loved each other very much and we were married, so his opinion was important to me.

“I can’t
, Chloe. Nathan is alone and I brought his car and he might need it. If he wants to go somewhere, he would be stuck without the car.” I checked my cell; there was no call from him.

“He is not a baby
, and if he wanted the car he would have called you. Stay here. Terry will be coming soon and we can have a fun night.” She winked.

And that was the reason
I didn’t want to stay there. If Terry wouldn’t have been coming, I would have just stayed.

“Sorry
, dear, but I’ve to go. Maybe some other time.” I smiled at her and picked up my bag. “We will plan it for sure. And thanks for the talk. I needed someone level-headed to talk to after the whole drama.”

“Any time
, sweetheart.” She blew me a kiss. She had changed a lot after meeting Terry. He seemed to be an interesting character.

***

I peeked in Nathan’s workroom when I entered the house. Nathan was sitting in front of his laptop, as expected. Not a single light was on in the house or in his room. First thing I did was to switch on the light in his room.

“Hey
, when did you come?” He asked without looking at me.

I really wanted to talk with him about what
had happened today, but he looked so distant that I couldn’t say anything about the drama that happened with my mom. “I’m going to order pizza. Do you want some?”

“Yup sure. Anything without
pickles would do for me.”

“Okay.”

I was about to throw away my iPad when I received the same message for the fifth time. ‘Your Credit Card is declined. Please try another one. 'My stomach had started making sounds and that stupid iPod refused to pay for me. There was no way my credit card had some issues; it was the stupid iPod.

Finally
, I gave up and decided to ask Nathan. “Babe, can I use your credit card? Mine is not working on this stupid iPod.”

“Take it from my
wallet. Password is ‘Eva143.’”

“How sweet of you.”
I liked that he kept my name as his password.

Pizza was my favorite food when
I felt sad.
Maybe it’s my saddest day ever.
Still, choosing the scholarship remained a tough decision for me. The second thing I always did when I was upset was to drink some vodka and shop online.

When
I opened the refrigerator, the only available choice of alcohol was Jack Daniels.
Should I? Heck with it.
I picked up the bottle and started drinking from it. The second thing was the shopping.
What should I buy for myself? Shoes? Or some clothes?
Nathan’s card was lying nearby. I didn’t remember how much I bought that night.

Nathan

“Sorry, sir, but your card is not working.” The salesman from the gas pump returned my card in a polite manner.

How could it be?
The card was linked to my savings account and there was no way I’d run out of the balance. Two days ago, I had deposited my royalty from the boxing fight in it.

I dialed my bank
’s phone number and asked them what was wrong with it. After verifying my details, I could speak to a customer care representative.

“Yes
, sir. I understand your issue. Give me ten minutes to check your details.” The lady from the customer care didn’t sound American.

“Yes
, please do it fast. I’m standing at the gas station and my card is not working. If I don’t get it working, I would have to walk back to my house.”

I
’d had a one-on-one meeting with the client this morning. And while returning home my car gave up. Fortunately, a gas station was near, but then my card stopped working.
This is harassment from the credit card company. I should change it.

The lady
returned. “I can see the transactions on your card, sir, and there are two purchases last night. One is at a shoe merchant for three thousand and few other stores for four grand. So by this way you are already in overdraft mode and that’s why your card is not working,” the lady replied after a minute in soft voice.

“But that’s not my…” Then
I remembered I had given my card to Eva and these could have been her purchases.
Damn, what did she get me into?
My financial condition was already worse and now she’d spent more than five grand on my card.
What should I do? Why is she behaving like Samantha?
Samantha maxed out my credit card many times. She even exhausted my overdraft limit lots of time. I’d had to spend my weekends doing extra work to pay that money.
Please don’t behave like Samantha, please don’t.

I’d no other choice but to walk back home.
I didn’t have a penny inside my pocket, so I couldn’t think of going by bus. The world started looking brutal; people were trying to get to me through all means. Lobo, Martha, Steve, everyone worked hard to bring me down.
I was good in my old ways, booze, girls and more booze. It had been a fantastic world of self pity and selfishness.
Yes, selfishness. I was selfish when I lived like the king of my heart and attitude. I did whatever I wanted and felt like doing.

I would be doomed sooner or later if this continues like this.
I’d no money, my home was getting auctioned soon and there was no job waiting for me.
Why is this happening to me, God, why?
Even he didn’t have the answer to my questions; the burden of the whole world fell down on me. My shoulders went down under that burden while I started walking back home.

A car stopped near me. “Hey
, Nathan, where are you going, buddy? Where is your car?” I looked up; it was my friend James.

“Hey
, buddy.” I felt ashamed. I was broke and now one of my friends was here to witness that. “Nothing, buddy, I lost my credit card and my car is left with at the pump a couple of miles back. So here I’m walking to my home.”