Chapter fifty-seven: "Good Actor"

Cloud dragged me all the way to the parking lot before I could pull my hand away from his strong grip "What is wrong with you?!"

He turned around to look at me and I was met with green eyes that were filled with anger that almost glowed menacingly with the lights from the buildings around us, I felt a shiver down my spine and he noticed my slight fear that he changed the look in his eyes to me. His eyes soften as he rakes his fingers through his hair with a frustrated sigh "What am I gonna do with you?" He mumbled quietly under his breath

"I should be asking you that question, what am I gonna do with you? It always seems like when I'm with Aiden you always become angry" my feet took a few steps forward to him meeting him closer eye to eye

"And because of your overreacting, our friends will think that there is something wrong between Me, you, and Aiden"

He scoffed "God Angel you're so dense" he chuckled lowly, leaning at the front of his car and not breaking eye contact with me

I leaned forward to him "I hope you don't act like this in front of my family this weekend or else this deal will be off if my parents noticed that something is wrong" he smirked and put a hand around my waist pulling me closer

"Don't worry love, they love me"
He said that with so much confidence, he's not wrong though. My parents loved him

I raised a brow at him "love? You gotta be shitting me if you are gonna use that to call me, I'm more ok with Angel than love" my hand went to remove his hand around my waist and pulled myself away from him

We went back into the arena to find our friends talking to the team, Liam was on the phone and was far away but the look on his face spelled bad news

He walked up to both of us and informed Cloud that "Dad will be here by next Tuesday"

Cloud was not too thrilled at the news either
Do they hate their dad that much?

I wondered what kind of Dad that they have that made them act this way

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It was a quiet ride home, this is more unsettling than Mom's death aura and all of my sister's murder threats combined. He didn't talk or even eat dinner, he just went straight to the terrace to be alone

After I washed the dishes I walked and sat beside him on the outside couch, my hand patted my shoulder "Do you want to talk about it?"

He rubbed both of his hands on his face "Yeah"

Changing my seating position into a crossed leg seating position and he started to talk

"He is just not a Dad to all of us in my eyes, he only saw us as tools to pass down his wealth, fuck, he didn't even care what happened to my sister" his voice held so much anger and disappointment to the man that was supposed to be his role model and the one who is supposed to understand his pain
Is this sister what Nick is talking about?

"You have a sister? I don't remember seeing her when we visited your home"

He stood up and went to the library and walked out holding a photo album, Cloud opened the album and pointed to a beautiful little girl who was in a flower dress

"Her names Meghan my older sister"

It was the exact same girl that was almost erased at the burnt picture, her forest green eye and chocolate brown hair was a lovely pair with her cute smile

"She died in a car crash along with my 2 cousins"

I raised my head instantly to glance at him, his face was sullen and he was deep in his thoughts. The next picture was Meghan in the middle of young Mason and Oliver that is in a tuxedo, all the pictures in the album has one thing in common
The Dad is missing in all of them

Even in this one huge family photo, he wasn't in it, young cheeky Cloud was beside his eldest sister who is taller than him. He was smiling widely and has Dustin in a chokehold

"How did the crash happen?" I asked him gently as I closed the album and gave it to him, he took the album and laid it on his lap

"It was after our Christmas party that 2 of our older cousins asked us if we wanted to go to a fun place and we agreed along with our young cousin" he stopped for a moment to catch his breath

I quickly put my hand on his chest to feel his heart beating fast, if there is one thing I do, to sum up, what is happening to Cloud
Panic attack

"You know what? Don't tell me, I'm fine if I don't know the full detail" I rubbed his shoulder, his heart rate was still fast and he was catching his breath
He is remembering the accident

He was trying to change his attention to the buildings, the view, or even the noise that is made by the cars. Cloud was having a hard time that cold sweat appeared to fall at the side of his face, I cupped one side of his face to face me "I'm here"

He nodded to me, his chest keep rising up and down for the next 10 minutes before he finally calmed down. He rested his head on my shoulder with his eyes closed, I pulled out my handkerchief to dry his cold sweat. It turns out he dozed off on my shoulder after his panic attack

My body was starting to get tired so I lay my head at the armrest of the couch and slowly put Cloud's sleepy head on my chest, the night sky has never been more pretty than today. The stars are so bright along with the glow of the moon

Cloud moved a bit in his nap and nuzzled himself more at my chest, I was wearing a thin fabric t-shirt right now and my bra was the only thing that kept the distance between him and my breast. I sighed deeply and I bit my bottom lip after
This is too weird

Cloud's peaceful sleeping face is the only thing that is keeping me to shove him off of me and the couch, if he didn't have a panic attack I would have hit him at the back of the head for even trying to nuzzle himself more at my chest
He must have a hard time dealing with his sister and 2 cousins' death because he was there who witnessed it all

Those three souls could have been saved if it wasn't for the storm, he suffered in that car for 2 hours hoping that someone would help
He hoped

Suddenly, his 5-year insomnia that happened to him is now clear. He was not accepting the death of those he hold dear, more specifically his older sister. I could never imagine how did he even cope
But I still don't know why did he suddenly act hostile to me when we were little and is now an egotistical jerk, he used to be a very sweet person

If the accident happened 5 years ago then that means he was 13, we met again when we were 13 on our first day in high school

The way we met made it seem like it didn't happen to him but then again, this is Cloud Josiah Marshall we are talking about here

He is a goddamn good actor