Chapter 6

Natalia comes out of the store to meet her aunt but doesn't find her there

"Aunt...aunt.." She calls but no response, she only got weird looks from shoppers

Natalia calls her aunt on the phone but no response

She starts searching for her frantically around the mall, showing her picture to people and asking them if they've seen her

Soon she attracts the attention of the security

"Ma'am you're causing a ruckus here"

"What do you mean I'm causing a ruckus? An old lady who can't even walk got missing here, I'm trying to find her and you say I'm causing a ruckus" Natalia said

"Don't worry miss, we'll find her" The securiry guard goes in different directions of the mall searching for her

At this point, a crowd of people have already gathered at the mall looking at the distressed girl as she frantically kept searching for her aunt

Kate rushes to Natalia

"Nat what's wrong? "

"Kate I can't find aunt, I told her to wait here while I go get something inside and now she's gone" Natalia said with tears brimming in her eyes

"What do you mean she's gone? She must be around here, let's find her" Kate said

They both searched for the old woman, some people joined them in looking for her.

"Nat look" kate said

Everyone turns their direction to a tall huge man who turns out to be Dane pushing the wheelchair forward which the old woman was sitting

Nat runs to them and hugs her aunt

"Where have you being aunt? How could you leave? I told you to wait for me, how can you keep doing that? " Nat said with the tears she's being holding back rolling down her eyes

Aunt gladys cleans her tears and kisses both her teary eyes

"I'm sorry hun, you were taking long in there so I decided to quickly go get something too for your friend" The old lady said feeling remorseful

Kate smiles as she saw both of them, the crowd dispersed.

"Yo! What happened man? I heard someone was creating a ruckus here" Mateo said

"No worries, its fine now, if you're done shopping can we go home now?" Dane asked

"Yea sure let's leave" They both left

Natalia cleans her tears and stands up to thank Dane

"Sir.." she looks around

"When did he leave?" Natalia turned to Kate looking at the bunch of shopping bags in her hands

"I don't even know the time he left"

"You know what? We've all had a long day... let's just go home" Natalia said

"Sure" Kate replied.

******

"What's with Nat?" Kate whispered in Gladys ears as they both stared at Natalia as she was angrily cooking in the kitchen

"That's what she does when she's upset, she's still upset with me" Gladys said

"Come on Nat, are you still upset over what happened at the mall?" Kate said walking closer to Natalia

"I never said I was, did I?"

Kate sits on the kitchen island

"Your actions prove you are" Kate replied

"Ok I'm not upset kate, I'm fine now" Natalia said faking a smile

Kate rolls her eyes

At school the next day.

After Dane Marcelo taught the lessons, he left the class

"He's even more handsome, look at his torso " Briela said fantasizing over Dane

Kate and Natalia leaves the class

"I'll be right back" Natalia said and walks towards Dane's office

She knocks on the door and entered after she heard a response

"What can I do for you? Miss Merkel" He asks

Natalia takes a good look at Him, his black silky hair combed back giving him a more dominant look

"Miss merkel?" He repeats

"Yes sir...I just wanted to say thank you, for helping me yesterday " Natalia blurts

"Helping you with what?"

"My... For finding my Aunt, I'm really appreciative" She says

"Ok" Dane replies and continues reading the book on his hand

She nervously curls her fingers

"Is that all?" He turns to her sharply

"Yes" she nodded and left

He smirks and turns back to the book he was reading.

"Natalia please.. I wanna go" Kate insisted as she follows Natalia around the house

"Kate, why don't you get it? The bar is not a nice environment, you won't like the smell of alcohol and at times the drunk customers tend to misbehave" Natalia said

"I know Nat, I'm not a kid anymore... I can as well take care of myself, so please stop worrying and let's get going" Kate said already standing at the door

Natalia rolls her eyes "You never listen "

"Ok fine, you can come along but promise to return before midnight"

"Ok I will" Kate nods

****

They both enter the bar, the bartender who was in attendance leaves after Nat enters, she goes over to the bar counter and ties an apron around her waist

Remy comes out from the backdoor

"Oh you're here" He said seeing Nat

"And who's this?"

"Hi! I'm kate, Natalia's best friend" Kate said stretching out her hand for a handshake

Remy extends his hand and accepts the handshake

"I'll like to help out today, I can serve a few drinks if you'd like me to " Kate added

"Yea sure"

"Thank you" She collects a tray of drinks and goes over to serve

"She's quite lovely" Remy says

"I know. She is" Natalia smiled

"When did you start keeping bestfriends? I thought you kept claiming you had no friends and preferred to be alone"

"Well I guess it didn't turn out the way I expected but I'm glad to have her" Natalia said looking at her cheerful friend

*****

At midnight.

Kate had already left the bar a few hours ago, Natalia gets ready to Close her shift.

She sees the time is 1am.

"Oh Its morning, Kate's birthday. She'll be waiting for me home" She says and packs her stuff

Remy offers to drop her home and she accepts.

She gets down from the car and waved Remy goodbye

She hits the doorbell and receives no reply, she hits it twice more before she finally heard footsteps inside

The door was opened and a sleepy Kate was in sight in her cute pyjamas and a teddy in her hand

Nat hugs her

"Happy birthday Babe!"

"OMG, its morning already.. thank you so much Natalia" Kate hugs her tight

"You know I've being waiting for you ever since but it looks like I slept off" Kate said

"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting"

"It's fine... we can do all the fun things now"

They both laughed.

****

It's 10am.

Ding Dong, Ding Dong

"Who is it? I'm coming" Nat said wiping her face and walking towards the door

She opens it and sees a chauffeur with huge boxes of gifts in his hands

"These are for miss Kate, her parents has sent all their wishes. "

"Oh thank you, she's not awake yet. I'll pass them to her" She collects the gifts and shuts the door

"Who was that?" Kate cones out of the guest room yawning and stretching

"Oh you're awake.. Someone just stopped by and dropped all this gifts and said they're from your parents"

"Mom and Dad sent so much gifts again" Kate collects the gift from Nat

"Um kate...I know it might not be much or grand like the ones your parents got you but I also have something for you "

"Oh really? Thank you" Kate opens her arms for a hug

"Hold up! Let me show you the gift first" Nat brings out a small gift item and hands it to her

Kate opens it and sees a beautiful bracelet with her name initials on it "k"

She wears it around her small wrist

"Thank you so so much Nat, I've never received something like this from a friend" Kate hugs Nat

"Get off me silly, you're welcome"

"You know what? To celebrate my 21st birthday, we're going out later" Kate announces

"Going where?"

The doorbell rang.

"I'll get that" Kate rushes to the door and collects a shopping bag from the delivery man

"What's in there?" Nat curiously asked

"We're going clubbing!"