Chapter 207 - Recovering (8) - Shelly's POV

I studied Alex for a long time, wondering if he secretly went to salons just like me. Before he turned to my direction, I pretended to admire my nails decorated with pretty colours and designs. I could tolerate him as long as my mother pampered me with all these gifts and visits to the salon. My mother paid more attention to me more than she did to my older brother ever since my engagement.

"Do you have something to say?" one of his eyebrows was raised.

"Do-does your mother and you also vis-sit salons of-ten?" I stuttered.

Alex was a bit scary as he stared at me with no emotion. Back then, I didn't know it meant that he was confused at what I was asking him. I started to regret asking him the question. Alex only showed a bit of friendliness when I asked him some questions about the class material we learned. He immediately stopped what he was doing and took out his laptop to explain the answers.

"Salons?" he tossed the question back at me.

"A place where people do your hair and give you special treatments," I reluctantly continued.

"My mother is too busy working to go to these places or take me there," Alex recalled his mother's schedule.

"Oh… ok," I looked down.

His mother was naturally that pretty. The staff said I would become a beautiful princess once I polished my features, but Alex appeared like an angel without any of it. For the first time, I didn't feel like going through the numerous dresses in my closet. I closed the closet door and opened the textbook as I could spot Alex's slight smile in approval.

Time flew by as mounting complaints started to pile up inside my chest. I went to the salon and smiled with my mother while trying to forget Alex's warning about not placing my shoe in the doorway at a ninety-degree angle. There was only so much I could handle nowadays without punching a hole in my pillow. All the common etiquette I learned from my teachers before my engagement became part of my identity since I didn't want to even hear Alex's voice anymore.

All my actions were calculated as my mother praised me that I was starting to become a perfect lady. Even my mother was surprised how I always sat in a ninety-degree angle while I drank my favourite chocolate milkshake and made sure I never spilled anything. There was no time to breathe or rest under the watchful eyes of Alex. I had to be perfect at all times if I didn't want to hear another complaint from him.

"There's no one watching, you can rest now," my mother whispered into my ear, afraid I was overdoing it.

"There will be once I go back to school," my grip on the cup tightened.

"Is school that hard?" My mother had a hint of worry in her voice.

How could I tell her it wasn't exactly the school, but my partner? He was the reason why my mother was spending all her time and money on me. I decided to fake a smile and enjoy the free time I had with her. When Rika revealed her strained relationship with Luke, I couldn't help but join in, "It's the same with Alex as well. He just keeps on telling me to study to acc.u.mulate more points! Helena has it lucky with Allan. Allan doesn't tell her to do anything."

It was then, I finally felt my heart becoming free. Nothing compared to having my true feeling flow out instead of locking them in. Not even those frequent visits to the salon nor those beautiful dresses and shoes. My shoulders felt lighter as I frequently met with Rika in this café that served the most delicious chocolate milkshake.

I was never close with Ellen before meeting Rika. We considered ourselves as fellow allies as we were a part of the same fraction. But we soon became close as Rika introduced us to sneaking out of our rooms in the middle of the night. I finally laughed from my heart as we ate desserts together in our nightgowns.

The more I talked with Rika; I realized my family wasn't that powerless in the first district for me to comply with every one of Alex's demands. I started to shout back and fight with Alex whenever I disagreed with him. And surprisingly, he tried to compromise instead of telling his parents. I couldn't ever live a life without Rika, to go back to those terrible times where I locked myself from acting the way I truly wanted.

Rika was the first real friend I ever made. A person who was always on my side, no matter who she faced. She bravely confronted anything that stood in her way and nothing stopped her, not even the school dean. So she couldn't die now. I couldn't lose my best friend who freed me without knowing it. We still had to go to that café together to complain about what our day was like. Unknowingly, tears filled my eyes from the thought that I may never see her again.

I opened another bottle before my ears perked from the sound of the door opening. The familiar steps clacked onto the floor in a rhythmic beat as I poured the next medicine onto the boy. Why was she here?