Falling in Love : I love you, Today and Forever

0"Did you compare me with a monkey?" Joshua repeated his question when he did not receive any response from Noah. He had not heard a word Aria had said and had watched her depart from the place silently. He was too hurt in the heart to care about anything else.     3

"I think that was what I said. You can check with Ian on the surveillance video." Noah pointed and Joshua felt himself going crazy in anger.     

"You are annoying."     

"So are you. Now, shoo, you are disturbing my rest." Noah waved his hand as though he was shooing away a puppy.     

"Don't divert the topic. I will not leave until you apologize and accept that I'm the most handsome man in the world. You and Ian can take any position after that."     

Noah looked at him as though he was looking at a nincompoop. But Joshua did not care and stared back at him in the eye.     

Not caring to give him a response or even a reaction, Noah closed his eyes, much to the man's dismay.     

"I know you are not resting. Now get up." Joshua lightly kicked the bed Noah was resting on. But there was no response from the patient.     

"Noah, I swear I am going to kill you if you are going to ignore me." Joshua spat and this time, Noah opened his eyes and gave him a bored look.     

"Are you done? The door is over there. You may leave now. Bye." He waved his hand half-heartedly. "I need to rest. Otherwise, my doctor will be angry and I don't want to see her angry." As soon as he thought about Aria's cute and beautiful face, a smile bloomed on Noah's face and he stared into space mesmerizingly.     

"Are freaking kidding me!!" Joshua exclaimed, unable to believe his friend's audacity. "You, Mister, get back to our conversation. Stop with your love story."     

"What if I say no?" Noah rejected, his smug smile not leaving his face and Joshua felt like puking at him in anger. "What will you do then?"     

"I will...I will..." Joshua thought for a moment before he found the only person who could control Noah. "I will complain to Aria. She will take care of you. You wait and watch." He folded his hand and now, it was his turn to smile smugly and Noah shook his head and massaged his forehead.     

"Try if you want. I don't think she will side with you instead of me, her boyfriend."      

"We will see about that. As much as she is your girlfriend, she is also a good friend of mine. I don't think she'll be biased."     

Noah's smile dimmed gradually and he remembered what Aria had told Ian in the private room. Every word of hers was etched deep in his heart and mind.     

'I'm glad I went in search of her.' He thought and sighed softly. 'Otherwise, I would still be stuck in a dilemma and blame Theo and Grandpa without listening to their part of the story.'     

Noah's mind returned to the question Aria had asked Ian, for which he had heard no answer.      

"Do you hate Theo?" She had asked Ian and when he heard this question, the answer he had received from his heart and mind was the same.     

'Yes.' He hated him for leaving them, tricking them, and keeping them in the dark for all these years. He hated Theo deeply for his betrayal.      

But after listening to Aria's justification, his thoughts changed completely. It was then Noah realized that he did not hate Theo at all. Even though his lies and deception hurt him, he did not hate him.      

Theo was his mentor and made him the man he had become. He was angry, Noah realized. The feeling he was having was anger and not hatred. There was a fine line between anger and hatred and he had misunderstood until he heard Aria's enlightening words.     

"Why did you go silent all of a sudden? Cat got your tongue?" Joshua questioned when he did not receive any reaction from Noah.      

But soon, his expression changed when he noticed how serious Noah had become. Although he had his head lowered, Joshua could make out that whatever his friend was thinking was something important and considering the predicament they were in and would be facing soon, it had to do something with Theo.     

"Are you thinking about Theo?" Joshua's voice softened and he took the chair beside the bed.     

"Yes." Noah breathed and crossed his legs as he leaned against the pillow. "I thought I had started to hate Theo after the truth came out."     

"But you don't, do you?" Joshua interrupted him and Noah shook his head immediately.     

"I am deeply hurt, but I do not resent him. I don't think I will be able to hate him until I find out the entire truth, until I find out the reason why he and Grandpa took such drastic measures. Until then, I cannot bring myself to hate Theo or Grandpa."     

"Is that what got you all stressed and worried?"     

Joshua now understood what had made Noah sick all of a sudden. His contrasting thoughts and emotions were wreaking havoc in his mind, stressing him out completely. It had led to him falling sick and his body giving up on his thoughts in defense so that he could get a break.     

"I guess so."     

"What made you come to this realization?" Joshua discerned that there was more to this and Noah had not realized this all of a sudden.     

"Aria. She opened my eyes and I'm glad she did. Otherwise, I would be stressing myself out thinking that I was hating the two men I once admired the most."     

"It's good that you understood. We do not know the complete truth, Noah. Until then, we shouldn't conclude anything. Otherwise, we will be filled with guilt if we are wrong."     

"You are right. I guess I just needed someone to teach me this."     

"Yes, and you also need to learn that you cannot disrespect your friend, especially when he is the most handsome man in the world."     

Noah rolled his eyes, unable to tolerate his nonsense any longer, and laid back on the bed and closed his eyes, blocking out all of Joshua's nonsense.     

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Note:     

Please read the author's note. Very important.