Blurry Nights

Chapter 8: The Conversation

As the day breaks and sunlight slowly crawled by not forgetting to brighten up the day with its amazing glow, Peter’s eyelids twitched before his eyes opened. He looked around the room and remembered where he was, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was the room next to Olivia’s room. She must have helped him to get into the apartment which he doesn’t have a memory of and the next sigh from him was a sad one as he thought of how he must have troubled her while he was drunk, but his whole being froze for a moment when he recalled the reason why he got drunk in the first place and the conversation or more like the argument that he had with his father came flooding his mind without omitting any part of it.

He remembered as his father leading him into his office and asked him to sit down and with no patience at all he decided to speak first, "Dad, I know that this party is one of your schemes to hold me accountable for your dirty works, just go straight to the point and stop wasting my time"

"Son, you don't have to be in a rush because we don't have much to discuss" Mr. James replied with an evil smile plastered on his domineering face before continuing, "You just have to make Olivia fall in love with you" 

"What?" Peter asked with a bewildered expression on his face, 'this man must be really crazy'. Peter thought.

As if clearly hearing what his son was thinking, Mr. James said, "Son, I'm not crazy" he thought for a while before adding, "And you don't have a choice but to listen to me."

"No, you are not crazy but sick" Peter retorted harshly making Mr. James to stand up from his chair and walked round his desk to stand inches away from Peter with burning anger evident on his always calm face but Peter couldn't careless and so he continued, "For so many years, you treated me like a trash and your one night stand mistake that doesn't deserve any love at all. Have you not had enough already? Can't you just give me a break for once? She is the only thing that gives me joy and I can't think of messing that up". His voice finally broke into a pleading tone.

Being the manipulative and selfish being that loves turning opportunities to his advantages, Mr. James hugged his son to his chest before spitting his sly words, "She is important to you son and that's why you should make her yours, so that you can always have that happiness with you. You have to do anything to win her love because she is very important to us."

Peter who thought that his father was consoling him jumped out of his embrace and stared at him weirdly before asking, "How?".

"Oh! good question son" Mr. James smirked. "Well, you still desire my love for you and this is your golden opportunity and I need her help as my daughter in law to become the number one that l have always wanted to become in this country".

"I don't need your sick love anymore" Peter spat. "So what makes you think that I would accept your so called 'golden opportunity'?".

"Of course you need my love son because if its dies completely from my heart your mother's stupid ashes goes down the drain with it" Mr. James finished without any expression on his face as he left his son there in his office after patting his shoulder. 

    ****

 “Oh!…why couldn’t I just forget every details of it?” He whined in his mind before closing his eyes. Who knows, he might forget everything by the time he slept and woke up again.

 “If you are awake, just get up and freshen up. You still smell of alcohol” Olivia’s voice came from nowhere crashing his thoughts making him to sprang up from the bed but that was a wrong move as he held his head with both hands and gasped in pain.

She had woken up earlier than Peter and knowing that headache was inevitable since he had stuffed himself with more than enough alcohol the previous night, she decided to take a pain reliever to him. She saw him open his eyes and then closed them after sighing for a while which made her to speak up but what she never expected was for her voice to startle him to the extent that it made the headache to hurt him more. “Sorry, just take this and the pain will be gone in no time” She offered him a pain reliever with a glass of water which Peter gladly accepted.

 “Thanks” Peter appreciated before swallowing the tablets. He got out of the bed and made his way towards the bathroom.

Olivia figured that there were lots of things bothering her friend and so she said, “Make it fast best friend because I can’t wait to hear the details." Peter just gave her a warm smile before closing the door behind him.

 Olivia walked out of the room and went into the kitchen to fix a breakfast for the two of them. Since this was the second day of her off, she had enough time to take care of her family; Peter wasn’t just her friend but the only family she had. Even though her heart felt hurt for him, she was still happy to be there for him at difficult times because that’s what family is supposed to do.

Peter stood under the shower as the cold water fell freely from his head to toe while he tried to calm himself down. He thought of ways to avoid the questions that Olivia would definitely bombard him with, and there seems to be no escape route at all? What should I do? How can I tell my best friend that my father wants me to go after her? He kept asking himself over and over again until Olivia’s call to come out and have a breakfast interrupted his train of thoughts.

The two ate in silence as Olivia tried to hold herself back from asking any questions too soon while Peter wished for it to remain that way as he wasn’t ready to open his mouth yet. He tried to look at Olivia differently from the way he had been looking at her, from the perspective that his father had mentioned and so he tried to define her beauty.

 Even though it was still morning with Olivia still in her pajamas pants and white tan tee and her hair tied in a messy bun, she's still the perfect definition of beauty with her milky white skin and baby blue orbs. But to him it made no difference at all, he couldn’t see her in any other way but as his sister and there was no way he was going to let his father’s manipulative ways get to him. 

He doesn’t have the heart to mess up the life of the only person that clearly treats him like a real family. With all this thoughts running in Peter’s head he got up from his chair and zoomed out of the apartment ignoring the calls and pleas to stop coming from Olivia. He just have to get down on his kneels and beg his father if that would change his mind, any other task was okay by him because he just can’t betray the trust that Olivia had in him and turn their relationship into something else.