66

AMINA

Morning.

The next day.

I hurried to the kitchen the moment I left my bedroom. I was late for school. I knew because I had woken up with my phone stuck to my face in bed. I met Ivan when I got to the kitchen, he wasn't making breakfast so I looked around to see if breakfast was already prepared and he was just waiting for me but that wasn't the case.

He sat on one of the tall stools in front of the counter where I usually ate and was busy on his laptop. He didn't even bother to look up from the laptop after hearing me walk in. And why didn't he even wake me up? He knew what time I had my classes, he should have come and woken me up like he usually did.

He still wasn't looking up at me so I cleared my throat to get him to. That didn't seem to be loud enough because he didn't stop doing what he was doing on his laptop. I cleared my throat again but louder; I even added a cough to it.

"Is your throat still sore?" He finally looked at me. I almost smiled victoriously but didn't, I just rubbed on my throat and nodded.

"And I thought that I wouldn't have to call back the doctor. She texted me the results for the swab test she ran and you had a cold but I thought that it had disappeared on it's own but if you're..."

"No, don't call her." I stopped him from speaking. Was he seriously going to call the doctor lady back?

"But your sore throat..."

"It's not as bad as you think." I folded my arms."I'm late. You didn't even bother to wake me up. Why did you not wake me up? I have a freaking assignment to submit today, didn't I tell you that yesterday? And here you are, busy with your laptop and forgetting that I have to go to school." I ranted to him.

"I'm sorry ma'am, I didn't know I had a responsibility of waking up the princess everyday for school." He replied sarcastically

"Don't talk like that, I told you about my assignment, didn't you remember?"

"I did."

"So why didn't you wake me up?" I was furious now.

"Like you said, I am busy. Or can't you see?"

"Even though!" I yelled at him.

"Don't yell at me, Jewel." His voice overshadowed mine but was somehow calmer than mine was when I yelled at him just now.

"Or what?!" I wasn't going to be intimidated by him this morning.

I waited to see what he would do after I yelled at him again but he did nothing. He just stared at me for some seconds and looked back at his laptop to resume what he was doing.

"Oh, so you are just going to ignore me, huh? What? Are you going to act like I'm not here and continuing whatever the fuck you are doing on your laptop? Huh?" I questioned him but he didn't react to any of the things I said.

"What are you even doing on that laptop of yours?" I closed his laptop to get him to look at me and answer my questions like I wanted. Again, I got no reaction from him. He exhaled loudly and looked away after.

"Ivan!" I yelled again and he got on his feet so suddenly that it scared me a few steps backwards.

"What did I tell you just now?" His voice was low but gosh was it scary. I know I said I wouldn't get intimidated by him but he was glaring at me right now and I felt my legs weaken. He pulled me to him by the waist and brought his face to mine.

"Didn't I tell you not to yell at me?" He said while fixing his eyes on my face. His stare was making me breathe and blink cautiously.

"What are you going to do? Kill me?" I talked back with a confidence I couldn't attest where it sprawled from. I heard him chuckle.

"No, but I will eat you. I will eat you and you  wouldn't be able to talk back after me; your voice will be too tired to yell after I'm done eating you." His voice was calm as before but intense in tone. I tried to make sense of what he was saying but he didn't give me the luxury to do so before speaking again."But then, I don't eat people like you till I want too." He let me go after that.

He was going to eat me? How? Like eat me? But I'm not meat that could be eaten. What ever did he mean by 'he will eat me'? I was still asking myself all these when I saw him pick up his laptop from the counter and walk towards his room.

My rage was back, I was boiling inside again. I wonder where this rage went when Ivan was here. I took in a deep breath to neutralize the rage and it worked, but then I started to feel frustrated. Ivan had gone to his room now. He seemed not to have my time this morning and it was annoying that I couldn't leave the house without him.

I had to go to school; I had to submit my assignment, I remember telling him that yesterday. I hadn't seen him this uncaring about the way I felt before ever since I met him. Was he mad at me or what? He didn't even make me breakfast. He didn't make breakfast for neither of us actually.

‘Are you sure he isn't mad about you asking him to leave the room so rudely yesterday?’ My mind brought back yesterday to me.

"No, it couldn't be that. He said it was fine yesterday when he left."

‘And you believe that?’

"It's Ivan we are talking of. He hates that I am here with him, probably finds me a burden he has to take care of. I'm sure he was happy when I asked him to leave yesterday."

‘You think?’ My mind created that doubt in my head so I just groaned with my head thrown back as I sat where Ivan was before he left for his room.

"That's enough. I don't want to think of him anymore. He's annoying and bad, mostly bad and mean. He's officially made his meanness top the charts over his annoying self."

‘He doesn't think of you as a burden. Like you just said, he is bad. If he wanted he could have thrown you away long ago.’

"Nah. He can't just let me go. He wants something from dad remember? It's why I'm here in the first place."

'We still have an assignment to submit. Go knock for him and apologize so he can drive us to school.'

"No. What's the point. Time's past for that now. There's no saving to it and besides Ivan is mad at me. Didn't you hear him? He said he was going to eat me. Who knew he was a cannibal. Gosh."

"Who are you talking to?" I heard Ivan and was startled.