"and what happened next?" Adeline asked. She always loved to hear that story. No matter how many times her father narrated it to her, it always seemed to be fascinating about how her parents met.

"What next?" Jason repeated, scoffing slightly. "Your mother looked at me like she never wanted to see me again." He laughed gleefully.

​​

"Aww, and she married you after all that." She commented, teasing her father.

"That's funny." He remarked. "Don't say that or I can talk about your making." He warned with a glint of amusement in his eyes.

"Ew! No!" She grimaced and got up with her plate. "I'm going to sleep. Good night papa." She received a kiss on her head.

"Go on, I'll switch the lights off." He smiled.

Adeline walked up the stairs and entered her room. Even though her father was switching off the lights, they always kept a small night light on. Conjuring, it, insidious and all other haunted horror movies had left an impression on her.

Bless the conjuring, ring and IT. They ruined her mind.

She walked to her closet and pulled out a cotton night suit. Before that, she went ahead and took her shower. This time it was a long and satisfying one. She used her favourite centre body wash and then her scrub. Giving extra care to her hair along with the good hair mask she rinsed it off.

God forbid if she did not use a conditioner or a hair mask at the end of her bath. Her hair would freeze the hell of an she would look night a person who had undergone an electric shock.

Wrapping herself in a fluffy towel she walked back to her room where she had laid out her clothes. Dropping the towel, she went to wear her panties. The velvet ones were her favourite.

She went in for the top when she heard a whistle. A low, teasing whistle. She was half bending down to retrieve her pyjama top when she had heard it, so she turned her head around when she heard it. Slowly and carefully. No one should see her from the first floor. . Except.

Her eyes found him. Open-mouthed and staring at her bent ass. One could say that he was practically drooling at the sight of it.

Immediately grasping at the situation she dropped down and crawled away from his sight to the door of her bedroom. Eyes widened she cupped her mouth and then her whole face. That was embarrassing.

It was mortifying!

Death could come now.

Or, the ground could swallow her whole.

Hell, an alien invasion would be appreciated too.

Oh god! She groaned. This was the worse that could ever happen. She aggressively ran her hands through her hair, pulling them a bit. What now?! She pulled her wet hair harder for a second before taking her hands back and pulling the wet, broken strands from it.

Why why why why? She chanted continuously in her kind.

"Ahem," he said, making her wince more. She knew that he did that for her attention. Well, you have it now, she grimaced again.

"I am going to shut the curtains and the window, so. . . yeah," he said and she heard the window closing. She was still breathing heavily and his voice made her mould her breath. She was going to die because of humiliation.

Her knees were touching her chest. When she heard the window close, she placed her knees down and sat in Indian style on the floor, staring longingly at it. When was it opening? When was it swallowing her whole?

Her life was over. Someone had seen her naked and . . . . Her unshaved self. The beast mode.

She should have shaved along with shrubbing!

Not trusting it again, She lowered her body down and crawled down on the floor to retrieve her towel like a trainee. Wrapping it around herself, she crawled to the window and slowly raised her head above the window peeped a bit from her window to his.

It was closed. Oh, the relief she felt was unworldly.

She immediately got up and closed her window with the curtains and stood with her back attached to it all while breathing heavily. 'Why me? Why me? Why me?!' she groaned and hit her head.

Hurriedly now, she wore her clothes and laid down on the bed. Then, got up and turned the lights off and went to bed again.

She closed her eyes, wishing tomorrow didn't come.

*******

Tomorrow did come and early too.

Adeline had woken up early. To be honest, she had not slept the whole night. She was just twisting and turning around and for the first time, the night had passed away too quickly. Too quick for her liking.

Now, she was sitting on the couch at six in the morning, showered and dressed wondering whether she should fake period pain or not. Or maybe a cold? It was pretty cold here. She was sure that her father would readily give her school or call for the day if she felt that she was coming down with the cold. But given the trust, he had in her adele always found it difficult to lie to him.

Or maybe just die. Given the mortification, she had gone through last night.

Jason sniffed as he came out of his room and walked straight to the coffee maker not noticing her sitting on the sofa and watching him.

He stood there as the machine worked and the steam came. He immediately poured the coffee from the container and sipped the liquid. Delight.

Turning around something caught his eye, Ah!" he jumped in fear as he saw someone watching him. Someone was in his house at six!

"You wake up six?" She asked disregarding the reaction he had after watching her. She was sure that she did not look that bad as he tried to portray.

"Yes, I do." He said with his hand over his chest. He breathed and tried his best to calm down. "Why the hell are you up?" He asked. "You are never up until 7 am." He checked the clock again, thinking that he might be at fault here and had woken up an hour late.

"Just woke up. Couldn't sleep." From the mortification. "and since it was already the morning, I just showered and got dressed for the day." She answered his question with a shrug as if it was no big deal whereas on her mind were running thousand different questions on how she was going to take for the day.

"Alright." He sat down with her. "Wanna go for a walk with me?"

She frowned, "You go on a walk daily?" She didn't know that.

"Jogging," he corrected as he sipped his coffee. "Do you even know what goes on in this house?"

Adeline shook her head in all seriousness, "Not before 7 am, I don't." She had no idea what happened in her sleep much less her house.

"Go change and wear a thick jacket." He instructed as he went to his room for a change.

"Alright," she sighed and got up to her room.

Wearing a pair of tracks and her sport shoes, she wore a thick jacket above it. Her father was ready and waiting for her outside the house. Locking the front door they started walking along with the houses.

"So, how's school?" He asked wanting to start conservation. He knew that he could not be as involved as his daughter as he wanted to be but he wanted to know what was going on in her life daily at least.

"Good." She squeaked, her mind remembering what had happened last night.

He nodded. "Yeah? When are the mid-terms starting?"

"Around a month." She informed him.

"Alright. I hope you have started the preparations already." He assumed.

And for the first time, she had to lie because she had not even started to prepare. Midterms were after three months. One month, she had focused on Xavier and the second, she had on her new friends.

Now, it was just one month more to prepare for the dreaded exams. How was she suppose to prepare for them now? In just one month?

"It's tough." She found a lousy excuse. "But I will do good. So don't worry." She gave him a nervous smile in the end. Her priorities had changed and to get into the school of her dreams, she had to do better.

"Good." Her father squinted his eyes at her. He knew that was happening, she was lying. "If you have any problems, I am perfectly fine with hiring you a tutor, okay?"

"Yes," she breathed out and flashed a smile at him. The walk was making her huff and puff.

"Ah looks at that!" She heard her father mock. "That's the pizza and taco's talking. The fat." He pointed at her tummy, teasing.

"Hardy har har," she sassed back. "Uff, I am so tired." She whined.

"It's not even one block." Her father grunted. "Come on, at least one mile!"

"Papa.." she whined and dragged her feet forward. She should have just stayed in bed!