ALESSIA
I was forced to wake up early that morning. I May have gotten married already but I have not forgotten the fact that I had other roles in life.
It wasn’t even six o’clock yet when I got out of bed. But Claude was no longer in the room.
He woke up early. I thought that he was only going to the office; why did he wake up so early?
After bathing and getting dressed, I went downstairs and headed to the dining room. I found Claude there with his parents.
“Good morning!”
“Oh! Good morning, Sia! You’re up early, dear,” greeted Mrs. Robinson.
“I’ll be going to school today,” I replied as I sat beside Claude.
“I didn’t know you were still going to school. You got married so young,” Claude remarked.
I glanced at Claude beside me.
Claude raised an eyebrow while looking at me. I knew it was an opportunity for him to grill me with his stare.
“Claude, dear, don’t speak to your wife like that,” Mrs. Robinson scolded.
“I’m just telling the truth. She got married so young,” Claude retorted.
I just lowered my head. I didn’t want to contradict Claude. It would be embarrassing in front of his parents.
“Let’s stop talking about that. Let’s just eat. We all have places to go,” Mr. Robinson intervened.
Claude remained silent, so I ate quietly as well.
As usual, Claude finished first.
“Son, take Sia with you when you leave. You can go together. I’ll follow later to the office,” Mr. Robinson said as he stood up.
Claude didn’t speak, but he gave me a disapproving look.
“No need, Dad. I have a car to use. I might just inconvenience Claude,” I reasoned.
Mr. Robinson shook his head. “Your car isn’t here, Sia. I had it repaired at the garage.”
I was surprised by my father-in-law’s statement. There was nothing wrong with my car except for some paint and minor scratches.
“Your dad had it fixed to make it look new again,” Mrs. Robinson added.
I just nodded. “Thank you.”
My parents-in-law were the kindest, it made me wonder why their son didn’t seem to inherit any of their values.
“If you’re done eating, let’s go,” Claude interjected.
I had to stand up even though I hadn’t finished eating yet. I noticed Claude was giving me another disapproving look.
“We’re leaving,” I bid goodbye. I would brush my teeth and fix myself at school. I knew that it would just upset Claude even more if I would still have to ask him to give me some minutes to do it.
When I stood up, Claude walked ahead. Because he was taller and he moved faster, I couldn’t keep up with him. I was just trailing behind, trying my hardest to catch up. Claude was already inside the car when I got there, and it was already moving by the time I reached it. As I entered, he started the car even though I was still putting my seatbelt on. I just sighed as I adjusted my seatbelt.
There was nothing but silence between us inside his car. Claude didn’t say a thing at all, but his serious look was noticeable. I didn’t bother him, I didn’t want him to get more annoyed with me. I was slowly learning more about his attitude, making me aware of what upsets him and what doesn’t.
“I’ll be going to Crestwood University,” I said.
Claude didn’t even glance at me. He kept staring straight ahead as if he hadn’t heard what I said. As I thought he didn’t get what I said, I repeated it. I felt a slight movement in his head, and I knew that the moment he opened his mouth, he was going to fire cannon balls again.
“I know. You just said it, didn’t you? I’m not deaf to not hear that.”
I felt embarrassed by Claude’s words, so I kept quiet until we reached the school.
“Get off,” Claude ordered as he pulled over in front of the school’s main entrance.
I quickly unbuckled my seatbelt. “Thank you,” I said and opened the door on my side before stepping out.
I had just gotten off when Claude revved the engine. If the road were dusty, I might have been covered in dust early in the morning.
I spent the whole day at school. It was already six o’clock when my last class ended. I had just left my classroom when I remembered I didn’t have my car, and so I was wondering how I could probably go home.
I thought of calling Claude’s mom, while I was about to take out my mobile phone, I heard someone speaking behind me.
“Hi, Sia!”
I turned towards where the voice was coming from. It was Garet. He was my classmate and ex-boyfriend.
“Are you going home?” He politely asked.
“Yes.”
“It seems you didn’t bring your car with you today. Do you want me to drop you off?”
I shook my head firmly. If I were single now, I might have agreed. Even though we had broken up, Garet and I became really good friends, and I didn’t see any reason to be uncomfortable with his presence. Except for the fact that I am now a married woman.
“Thank you, Garet. I’ll just ask someone to pick me up.”
“Why not? We’re friends, right?”
“W-Well…” How could I explain my situation? I couldn’t admit that I got married. In fact, no one knew about it. Even my best friend, Maven, didn’t know about it yet. Fortunately, Maven wasn’t present at school today, so no one pry into why I didn’t come to class last week.
“What?” Garet stared at me directly in the eyes.
“Sorry, but my boyfriend might get mad,” I reasoned as I returned his gaze. He was handsome, tall, and good looking. All my previous boyfriends had those looks, the same features as my first love, Jaime, whom I still couldn’t forget until now.
“Do you have someone new now? I haven’t seen you with anyone,” Garet asked.
Garet was my most recent boyfriend. We ended our relationship six months ago. Now that I’m married, I could not introduce Claude to other people as my husband-for a year, at least. Claude might get angry if I spread the news that we were married. I don’t know, there was just something about his reactions that made him looked discussed by the thought that he, unfortunately, had married me.
“You don’t need to meet him. He’s a very private person,” I referred to Claude.
“Oh, is that so? Isn’t he a student here at CU?”
I was about to answer when someone called my name. When I turned, I saw Claude walking towards me.
“I’m leaving, Garet. Thanks for the offer,” I said before Garet could react. I turned away and went to meet Claude.
“Who were you talking to?” Claude’s tone was filled with anger as he approached me.
“Oh, he’s just a classmate. Are you here to pick me up? I was just about to call your mom.”
“She asked me to pick you up, so here I am. But you haven’t answered my question yet. Who’s that guy? What’s his name? Why was he talking to you?”
“That’s Garet. He was just asking me something. Let’s go. Let’s go home,” I was about to hold Claude’s hand, but he quickly moved away.
“Stay here. I’ll talk to that guy,” Claude said and quickly approached Garet.
I panicked. I already knew how the next few moments were going to unfold, knowing him. I tried to grab Claude’s hand to stop him, but he brushed me off. Before I could catch up, he was already close to Garet.
“Whoever you are, stop bothering Sia. She’s not for you. She’s mine,” Claude said bluntly.
“Sure. Congratulations, bro! So you’re Sia’s new boyfriend. Take care of her. She is worth keeping,” Garet said and extended his hand to Claude.
Claude ignored his hand hanging between them. He just glared at Garet before turning away. We had already taken a few steps away when my ex suddenly shouted.
“Bro, if you don’t want Sia anymore, can you just give her back to me! After all, I was the first one before you!”
My eyes widened in shock. I gasped. I was about to ignore Garet, but I didn’t expect Claude’s reaction.
My husband clenched his fists and without a word, he walked back towards Garet. I nervously followed. But before I could approach the two men, my husband’s fist had swiftly landed on my ex’s face.
Garet couldn’t retaliate because Claude threw another punch at him in the stomach and pushed him away. My husband was about to kick him, but I quickly grabbed his hand.
“Claude, stop!”
Claude remained unfazed. He still went after Garet, who retaliated with a kick. But Claude managed to dodge it. My ex attempted several times to hit my husband, but he couldn’t land a blow because of Claude’s agility.
However, it didn’t take long before the three men nearby intervened. That was when I noticed that these were actually Garet’s friends. They also approached Claude.
“Claude, let’s go!” I tried to pull my husband’s hand, but he ignored me.
He faced the group of me men, as they moved swiftly and surrounded Claude.
My heart raced as I watched the scene unfold. I was worried for Claude. Garet’s friends were known troublemakers at CU. What if my husband got hurt? Just the thought of it was already making me sick, getting my husband hurt because of me on our third day of getting married.
“Please, stop! Have mercy!” I screamed. But it seemed like everyone around was not interested in paying attention to me. No one wanted to intervene; even some of the bystanders seemed to be enjoying the scene, catching every scene with their camera phones.
I was on the verge of hysteria, a mix of fear and worry. When I saw two of Garet’s friends approaching, I screamed. But I was surprised when Claude met them with punches and kicks.
It was like watching a scene from a Hollywood action movie. Claude was no different from the lead characters from an action movie, fighting up against a multitude of enemies. I could hardly blink as I watched my husband engage in the fight. In just a few minutes, the opponents were knocked down. Then a security guard approached and restrained Claude.
Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief.
“Hey, man, if those guys have any problems or complaints, here’s my number. Call me, and I’ll talk to them with my lawyer,” Claude said, handing his business card to a security guard.
The guard’s eyes widened, and he nodded at my husband.
Claude turned to me, grabbing my hand as we walked towards his car. Once inside, I noticed that my husband didn’t have any bruises on his face or on his hands.
I did not want to assume, but having seen how he knocked down everyone, I was sure he was used to it. Was he also a troublemaker like the ones he had a fight with?
“Can you please not flirt with other men next time? You’re married now, so forget about those guys. If this happens again, I might forget you’re a woman and deal with you inappropriately, Sia.” Claude’s eyes were almost ablaze. He gripped the steering wheel tightly.
I was almost deafened by what Claude said. So, was it my fault that the fight happened?
“What? I wasn’t flirting. Garet was just talking to me earlier. We weren’t doing anything wrong. I even tried to stop you earlier.”
“Huh? Really? You were just talking? That’s why I was surprised to see you almost kissing each other because you were so close?”
“We’re just friends,” I argued.
“Friends? Maybe more than friends. Is he your boyfriend?”
I shook my head vigorously. “We broke up. A long time ago. If I had a boyfriend, I wouldn’t have agreed to marry you.”
He told me he didn’t believe me, and he brought out the issue of me having eight exes again. He was as if trying to support his accusations of me flirting and almost kissing Garet, and was trying to make me feel like I was that kind of woman that he believed me to be.
I wanted to slap myself. No matter the argument, I couldn’t win against Claude. His mind was closed, and it was hard to reason with him. D*mn!