Diana, a new friend

 

The next morning Sophie wakes up and runs down the stairs to the kitchen in the hope of getting a delicious breakfast. She finds a spinach roll waiting for her on the table. “Mom, why did you make these?” Sophie shouts out loud and says in a shallow voice, “I don’t like them.”

She looks around and finds her mother is gardening out in the front yard. Gazing at her mother, she thinks her mother has done a lot for her, and now it’s her turn to help her in any way possible. She finishes her breakfast and indulges herself in chores. She has changed the entire look of her hall. She is putting up wallpaper when her mother comes in. Her mother stands by the door and glances at her daughter’s work. She slowly makes her way towards the hall. After seeing what her daughter has done, she covers her mouth with her hands, her eyes rolling up and down all around. 

Tears filled her eyes and emotions filled her heart. 

She is looking at her daughter. “My little girl is now a grown-up lady,” she says while hugging her. “Mom, you know, I did laundry too,” Sophie says. Her mother is surprised and doubtful about how Sophie might have used the machine, as she has never had before. “What!” her mother responds in a surprising voice. 

Both laughed out loud.

At noon that day, she reluctantly makes her way towards the bungalow next door. After walking up the driveway, she changes her mind and is on her way back when she hears a voice behind her. “Excuse me!” 

She turns around and sees a tall good-looking man approaching her. Sophie looks at him from head to toe. “Wow! He is hot,” Sophie thinks. A guy comes closer, “excuse me, what are you doing here?” he asks.

Sophie ambiguously replies, “umm mm hie, I believe my friend lives here.” A guy laughs “you think, you are not sure, that’s strange,” he says. “No, no, I recently met her, and all I know is that she lives in Park Place, and this is Park Place so,” Sophie replies. A guy says in an unpleasant voice, “So why do you think you will find your friend here? I am sorry you are at the wrong address.” 

Sophie gets exasperated.”That is because I don’t think there is any other house around. This place has a name, but I don’t get it. There are just two houses around here. Rest, it’s just a dense forest,” she responds. A guy gets closer to Sophie and in a deep manly voice he says, “then why don’t you walk to that house, [pointing towards Sophie’s house] maybe there you find what or whom you were looking for.” Sophie steps back but cannot set herself free from the way he is looking at her, “because I know she does not live there; that’s my house,” she says.

Listening to her, a guy seems like something has gotten into him. He steps back, and his smoldering cunning looks changed into tense. Sophie does not understand why he reacts that way. “What happened to you?” she asks. He turns into an angry young man “then why don’t you go and look for your friend in the woods. Go, no friends of yours live here,” he screams. 

Sophie gets mad, “what to think of yourself, I know my friend lives here and who are you, by the way. Oh, so that car there belongs to you and you were following and annoying me yesterday,” Sophie is yelling. 

As Sophie is still talking to him, he is heading back to his house. He stops after he hears about the car that followed Sophie. He slightly turns back to Sophie, and says, “this car here was following you, [pointing towards the car] and then you found a friend who according to you lives here.” He is trying to connect dots. He walks towards Sophie, “Listen, this is my house, nobody else lives here, so why don’t you turn back and do something you got to do. Stop wasting my time, little child.” 

Sophie finds him hot, hunk but, at the same time, very arrogant and unreasonable. She reverts by saying, “stop following people, do something that you got to do,” and she turns back and starts walking down the driveway towards her porch. 

All of a sudden, she hears somebody screaming by the door of the bungalow, “Hey, Sophie.” It is Daina, as soon as Sophie sees Diana, her anger vanishes away and spins into excitement. Sophie runs towards her, “hey Diana, how are you?” That guy stands there like a sculpture. He gets distraught and tense, he passes Sophie and walks towards Diana. He holds her arm and takes her inside the house. He slams the door on Sophie’s face. Sophie gets scared for a moment by looking at his firm grip holding Diana’s arm and the way he grabbed her inside. But she is not ready to accept what just happened, so she starts banging on the door. “Hey Diana, are you alright? Who is this man and why is he torturing you?” she screams from outside. She tries to hear Diana’s voice expecting Diana to reply. She shouts again, “Diana, I am calling nine one one.” Sophie all of sudden hears Diana saying, “Sophie, go back to your house; please, we can talk later.” 

Sophie gets worried, but now she has no choice because Diana herself asked her to go back. She steps down and is returning back, she hears Diana shouting from inside, “Sophie, you are my friend.” 

“Yes, Diana, I am, and I will be with you; please do not let him hurt you,” Sophie replies. Sophie stands there for a moment in a hope to hear Diana replying back, but she does not hear anything. She runs back to her house. She immediately rushes into her room and starts writing blogs to distract herself. She thinks a lot about what to write, “should I write on panorama, Abuse, supernatural.” She keeps thinking and ends up writing on “emotions.” It is around 6:00 pm, and her mother calls her for dinner. While they are having supper, her mother notices Sophie is lost. After her mother asked so many times what had happened to her, Sophie did not say a word. Her mother understands that she was going through some phase, so she does not force her daughter to talk much. After some time both wishes each other goodnight and Sophie goes to her room.

She gets ready to go to bed when she sees the light emerging into her room from her backyard. She gets scared for a moment, “what is that?” She stands up and looks out from the window. She looks at Diana in her backyard waving at her to come outside. Sophie quietly walks outside to see her. She did not want her mother to wake up. 

“Hey Diana, I was thinking about you; are you okay?” Sophie asks. 

“Yes, I am fine, and you do not have to worry about him, he doesn’t hurt me; he is just overprotective.” Sophie is not ready to hear her and asks her who he was and what he was to her. Diana does not reply as if somebody is forcing her not to tell anybody. 

“Is he your partner?” Sophie asks. Diana laughs and replies, “no silly, he is my family.” Diana comes closer to Sophie and whispers, “he is my brother.” Sophie is done with any other surprises, “wait, he is your brother, then why is he treating you like that. I mean, he doesn’t love you or what?” she asks. Diana replies in her gentle voice, “It is a very long story, but in short, he does love me, and I love him too. All he is concerned about is his family. After our parents left, he was the one who brought me up and made me who I am today. I was 12 years old when I lost my mother and after 6 months of her death my father passed away. It was not easy for us, but my brother did not let us break apart.”

“Oh! I am so sorry to hear that, I lost my father recently. I understand how tough it could be, but life and time does not stop for anyone,” Sophie says. 

After listening to Sophie, Diana looks sorry, “I am sorry. Do you mind if I ask, “What happened to your father?” she asks. “My dad was coming back home from a project meeting that was held here in Buford. He was on his way back when he met with an accident and passed away,” Sophie says. Dripping down her cheeks Sophie wipes off her tears and changes the topic, “well, why are we talking sadly.” 

Diana continues asking her, “I am sorry, Sophie, when did you say this tragedy happened?” Sophie looks confused as to why Diana was so curious to know, “It’s been a year now, why do you ask?” asks Sophie. Diana cannot say anything but acts normally, “I am sorry to ask, I think I should get back. My brother must be wondering where I am.  I will see you tomorrow,” Diana says. Sophie is still confused, but she does not push Diana too much about why was she asking what she asked. “Sounds good, see you tomorrow,” Sophie says.

Both return home. Diana keeps thinking about Sophie’s father, and on the other hand, Sophie tries not to think about Diana being so concerned about how and when her father passed away. 

 

Now, Who is the man, and why does he act so differently? Why was the car that followed Sophie parked outside Diana’s house? Whom does the car belong to? What were Diana’s emotions behind Sophie’s father’s death? Was she sad or guilty? Why was she feeling so exhausted after Sophie told her about her father’s accident? It seemed like Diana knew her father, or she had something to do with what happened.

Comeon, we have a lot to find out, let’s go.