A strange Change

"You don't have to try, Alizah. I'm pretty sure they already like you and would spend more time with you. "

Alizah's father sounded confident about Alizah's potentials. He knew Alizah deserved good and everything could be in her favor. She was such a sweet and easygoing girl, no one can hate her. Everyone would want to be her friend. But that wasn't the case, right? Ronan didn't fit in the case. He didn't want to be anywhere near Alizah and talking to her made him near about nauseous. 

"Oh! Dad, you don't have to be so oblivious about my flaws, just to make me feel good. I know, you love me enough,  to make me feel that I'm the best girl ever but that isn't the case, I have my flaws, dad and I don't hate those. I accept myself exactly as I am. "

Alizah's words brought tears to her father's eyes. Alizah's easy-to-cry habit was inherited  by her father, if one was to believe, seeing the emotional pair of father and daughter. 

"When did you grow up so much? I never realized you have grown more than your age to be so crude. I'm so proud of you, Alizah. And I respect everything you say but for me, you're my one perfect daughter and I won't change that fact, even if you argue. "

He said and Alizah laughed wiping off his tears. And he smiled at her. 

"Should I prepare lunch? "

She asked her father while returning from her room after keeping the school items on the table. 

"No need, I've ordered pizza and tacos and your favorite cranberry juice. "

His father said as he laid the items on the table. 

"But why did you order these? I would have made lunch on my own. Why did you waste your money? "

Alizah seemed to be pissed at her father spending money without thinking. She knew, how hard he worked to earn it, so the fact of him wasting it was disturbing for Alizah. 

"I'm not wasting it, Alizah. We didn't get to have any celebration when you were admitted to such a great school, so I thought of calling it a day for celebration and feed you good food, like fathers are supposed to feed their kids. "

"But dad, if you wanted to have a celebration, I would have baked something at home, ordering from outside costs a lot more money. And whatever you feed me, it's always good food. "

That wasn't the truth. Alizah didn't always get good food in her life, especially when she was in elementary school. Her father had to work hard to provide her with basic two meals per day. And if he worked harder than his potential, his heart would not cooperate with him and he would be admitted to a hospital. He was a patient with arrhythmia. 

Her father had a frown on his face and he seems upset. He stopped unpacking the food and settled back on the sofa and didn't say anything. 

"Dad! Okay fine, let's eat it already. It looks delicious. "

Alizah said and her father looked at her as she continued his job of unpacking the food. She knew, there was no way the food was going to be returned for money, so the only thing to be done now was to eat it and make her father happy. 

"Umm... It's delicious. Thanks, dad. "

"Come on, Alizah, you don't have to thank me for the basic things. "

"Yeah, you're right. "

She said and shoved the slice of pizza in his mouth playfully. They both ate the rest meal while chatting and Alizah did the cleaning work when they were done. She went back to her room and did a bit of work on her assignment. 

She left for her part-time jobs on time and today was less hectic than the last day as Alizah was energetic enough to attend to customers and even at Mrs. Smith's home, children didn't pester her much. She came back home, tired and took a shower, then started with her assignment work again. It might have been around past midnight when Alizah drifted off while researching on her assignment. 

The next day she was early to reach school and as usual, she took her place in somewhat middle of the classroom but to her surprise, Ronan didn't sit at his spot today.

 He was sitting behind Alizah and the two adjacent seats to her were vacant. It was quite surprising for her as the girls she has been talking to last day weren't sitting there, beside her. Everything was going just fine with them then why didn't they come to sit with her again today? For a moment Alizah thought it might be because they didn't like her and she felt sad instantly but then she turned back to find Ronan's smirking face.

"What are you smiling at?"

She asked Ronan.

"Not you."

"I know. You would never smile at me and that's the reason I'm asking, why are you smirking?"

Alizah passes the sarcastic smile and Ronan raises an eyebrow.

"I don't find it important to elucidate everything to you."

He said in his usual calm tone which wasn't calming  at all. It was deadly and dangerous and filled with warnings and the clear fact that Ronan hated the person with whom he uses that tone.

"Fine!"

Alizah said with another sarcastic smile and turned back to her seat. Ronan had expected her to go on and question more about his weird behavior but then Alizah never acted as Ronan expected her to.

The class started and Alizah didn't pay any attention to Ronan. She was just sad because of being left alone again. She scanned the classroom to find Kyle and Jenna, the girls with whom she has been trying to bond with last day. They were seated at the left corner of the classroom. They were together and talking like they usually did. 

'What did I possibly do wrong that they are sitting so far away from me?' Alizah thought. And when both the girls caught Alizah looking their way, Alizah smiled and waved her hand their way but they both exchanged a look and pinned their eyes to the textbooks and pretended to focus on what the professor was teaching.

Alizah was stunned at their weird behavior but she couldn't say anything to them instead she blamed herself and her confidence was degraded yet again. This place was no good for her. At every point, she was made to feel bad about the things she wasn't even responsible for. 

After the teacher left, Alizah decided to stay in the classroom rather than going out because it made her feel more lonely  in the crowd where everyone had companions and topics to chat about and she was the only one who always was left alone and even in the crowd she walked alone.

"Are you gonna get glued to your seat like that?"

Ronan's irritating voice reaches Alizah's ear after most of the students have already left the class.

"What do you care?"

She asked not bothering to turn around and look at him.

"What if I tell you that I do."

Ronan's statement made Alizah turn around and face him. He was playing mind games with her again and she was aware of the fact.

"Leave me alone, I don't wanna talk to you."

Ronan hopped to the seat beside Alizah's and she rolled her eyes because she knew Ronan would only try to intimidate her and all his efforts were vain over her. 

"That's what I want sweetheart, you should not want to talk to anyone."

His words left Alizah perplexed. 

"What do you mean?"

Alizah questioned.

"Do you respect me, sweetie?"

Ronan pulled the chair closer to Alizah's, so close that now Alizah's knees were between Ronan's thighs.

"No, I don't."

Alizah said without any thought and she looked straight at Ronan's eyes while answering. This made Ronan smirk for his own insane reason.

"Good. Tell me, sweetheart, do you fear me?"

Ronan's questioning and his closeness were so annoying for Alizah. she wanted to deny his question but before she could speak, a question arose from within her. Alizah wasn't frightened of him but there something that got Alizah's mind and her whole state conscious. He held that intimidating power that Alizah wanted to deny but couldn't to herself.

"No."

She squared her shoulders and sat upright to look confident but Ronan's closeness was only intimidating him.

"You can't lie to me, sweetheart. Admit it."

"Don't call me that."

Alizah warned.

"Or what? What will you do sweetheart?"

Slowly, Ronan was decreasing the gap between them and now they were sitting so close to each other that they could even sense each other breathing. Ronan was only doing this to get under Alizah's skin and have the impact on her...intimidating impact.

"Ronan, you can't do this. Stay away from me."

She warned again but her voice was merely a whisper than a warning.

"And that's what I'm asking, what if I don't?"

Ronan challenged.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because it's fun!"

"Torturing someone is fun for you?"

Alizah was clearly disgusted and when she decided she couldn't take it anymore, she pushed Ronan and stood up from her chair. To Alizah's surprise, instead of getting angry, Ronan was chuckling at being pushed.

"Are you a psychotic freak?"

She said with a disgusted look on her face and attempted to move away from him but he grabbed her hand.

"Yes, sweetheart, I certainly am."

"Why are you acting like this all of a sudden? You didn't even like to glance my way till yesterday, why are you so interested in torturing and playing mind games with me today?"

Alizah was beyond perplexed now because she didn't realize the fact that she had pushed Ronan Morris which nobody ever dared to. She already was a hateful creature for him and now Ronan being the egoistic jerk would want to make her suffer for the mistake which wasn't even worthy of being considered as a mistake.