Strangers

                                     Amelia 

I felt my heart jackknifing against my chest as I bolted up from the bed, letting go of the cold bars immediately.

What the hell happened last night? Aside from the mind-blowing sex, there wasn’t much I could remember from last night. 

The alcohol had done a number on me but the stranger’s face stuck in my memory. He wasn’t the kind of man you would forget in a hurry, his long brown hair and eyes that seemed to shift from grey to black were imprinted in my head. 

I was struggling to remember his name. Darius, was it?

I reached over to the other side but my hands roamed over the cold surface of the metal I was lying on, there was no one there. 

He was gone. He left me here all alone like I didn’t matter to him. To be sincere, I probably didn’t. Going home with a stranger I met at a club was easily the wildest thing I’ve ever done in my eighteen years on earth. 

My eyes were getting used to the darkness and I moved closer to the bars of the cage and gave it a light shove much to my relief, it gave way and I scurried out before tiptoeing through the darkness and pulling back the curtains as rays of light filled the room instantly. 

I looked around the room, it was more of a studio than an actual apartment. My mind had probably been playing tricks on me when we first got here but it was time to head home now. I picked my clothes off the floor and hurriedly put them on before reaching for my purse and retrieving my phone from it.

I had twenty missed calls from Dad and I cursed out loud. I was going to get into a load of trouble when I got back home but that was the least of my worries right now. 

My phone rang, breaking the eerie silence and I glanced at the caller ID, it was Aiden. We hadn’t had the time to speak at length ever since Dad proclaimed us as mates, everything had gotten awkward within the blink of an eye. 

“Hey,” I whispered as I placed the phone on my ear. 

“Where the hell are you, Amelia?” Aiden yelled. 

I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt the tears threatening to fall. Less than twenty-four hours ago, I was Mel to him, one of his favorite people in the world.  

But everything had changed and it wasn’t going to go back to the way it was. 

“I… I don’t—“

“Amelia, you need to answer me immediately. You’ve got Dad freaking out that you must have done something stupid and I’m worried about you.”

“I don’t know where I am,” I replied, choking back a sob as I sank to the floor. 

“You need to find your way back home and I hope you haven’t done anything you’d regret. I won’t be able to save you from his wrath.” Aiden said after a moment’s pause before he ended the call, leaving me to gather my thoughts. 

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hands as I forced myself back to my feet. I had to leave and make my way home, I still had the credit card I stole from Dad. 

Darius’ face flashed in my head and I felt sadness in my heart. I hated the fact that he left me without so much as a goodbye. 

Even though everything I had done last night had been on impulse, I had liked him but I guessed none of that mattered anymore. 

It was just sex to him and even if it hurt that I was jilted as soon as he got what he wanted, I had to get over it. It was pointless dwelling on something that’ll never happen again.

I’ll never see him again and last night would be a secret I’ll take to my grave. 

I stepped out of the studio into the sun. The air was hot and damp, filled with dust and noise. I quickly crossed the express road leaving the honking from the cars littered on the expressway behind. There was a rapid traffic flow of cars on the expressway and people walking fast trying to cross before the traffic eased up. There was constant honking and swerving around the sluggish drivers, the walking people shouted and dodged the car before they got hit. 

Five minutes later, I had managed to flag down a taxi and I was on my way home.

Dad had called me twice after Aiden called but I ignored both his calls. 

I didn’t want to be yelled at over the phone, I had a budding headache that was ringing in my ears. 

But I didn’t care much for that right now. I had to come up with a credible lie to explain my disappearance. I thought about lying about a sleepover at either Leslie’s or Nadia’s house but I would only be getting them in trouble. 

Besides, I was certain that Aiden would’ve been at their houses to look for me and he already knew I didn’t pass the night at either of their houses. 

I spent the last couple of months preparing for my eighteenth birthday. It was supposed to be the best day of my life yet but a couple of hours later, it was my biggest nightmare. 

Everything had gone wrong from the moment I opened my eyes and from the look of things, it wasn’t going to get any better from here. 

There were a lot of questions I had to ask and I didn’t know where to start.

Everything was happening too fast for me and there wasn’t anything I could grab on to steady myself. 

Aiden had always been my rock, whenever I had issues or needed help, he would always be the first person I would run to but now, I couldn’t even speak to him without feeling guilty. 

My dad had made sure to ruin our relationship, it was broken and it would never return to what it once was. I was certain about that. 

In less than a day, I had gone from having a proper family to being all alone and it was all my dad’s fault.