Chapter 325:
Jake’s POV
I could not truly tolerate it or remain for a single additional second; a sweeping tightness possessed me, almost plundering my breaths and suffocating me. I pushed the wooden chair violently and harshly backward and rose from my place with blind momentum, without turning to Mike or giving him any attention. I carved my way with roaring, wide strides, tensed with nervousness between the tables crowded with the infatuated audience, and went out quickly to the outer courtyard to inhale some fresh, cold air that slapped the features of my face with strength and violence.
I brought out the cigarette pack from my black coat pocket with convulsed, trembling fingers, drew a single cigarette from it, and placed it between my lips with malice, then lit it with my lighter so the flame extended in mere seconds. I took a deep, burning, and long drag from it to permeate my lungs, and exhaled the dense, gray smoke into the air, trying by every possible way and means to forget what had happened to me inside of physical confusion, and to banish that curse and strange shiver that traveled slowly into my limbs because of her provoking, sweet voice.
I rested my entire heavy torso and solid back against the rough outer hotel wall, and tilted my head backward with eyes closed in exhaustion, while my hand holding the cigarette trembled with a slight, hidden spasm as I stubbornly tried to regain my coldness and physical and psychological steadfastness.
After a period of time that seemed long and highly tedious to me, the outer door of the hotel opened, and Mike and Julie came out together with leisurely steps. Instantly, I pushed my body off the rough wall, adjusted my stance, and advanced with leisurely, cold steps toward them while throwing the burning cigarette butt onto the ground and crushing it with the tips of my shoes.
Mike looked at me with surprised facial features and knitted his eyebrows in disapproval, saying in wonder: "Jake... you’re still here? Didn’t you leave and return home after you went out of the hall?"
I rested my palms with coldness inside my long coat pockets, and shrugged my shoulders with indifference, saying with detachment: "No, I didn’t leave... I was out here inhaling the air."
Mike smiled with sweeping excitement and patted my shoulder violently, saying with emotion: "Buddy... you truly missed the most beautiful show! What Julie sang tonight was a creativity beyond description!"
I turned the looks of my burning, strict eyes toward her, and darted a look at her blue dress with intense contempt and disdain. Then a sarcastic, scathing smile sketched upon my lips, and I said with blatant, provoking mockery to break her pride: "Excuse me... her voice looks exactly like the voice of a mountain goat! I truly felt that my eardrum was tearing and bleeding because of her wailing inside!"
Mike’s face convulsed with shock and astonishment at my insolence, and he took a wide step toward me, saying in disapproval and anger: "What is this insolent talk, Jake, by heaven’s sake?!"
Julie turned her sight and her green eyes away with total indifference and detachment, and moved her palm to calm Mike’s terror, saying with a cutting coldness and a stable tone: "Stop shouting with him, Mike... let him say what he wants; his words neither advance nor delay anything."
Her calm and cold features touched me and aroused a sweeping wave of vexation and deep-seated fury in my chest. For my scathing and venomous words did not alter anything of her facial lines, and not a single eyelid of hers fluttered out of pride! I wanted to provoke her at any cost to see her brokenness again, so I tilted my torso forward, gripped my jaw, and ground out in an audible, sharp voice: "Did you hear her response, Mike? She herself knows and realizes that her voice is hideous... and very hideous, just like her face!"
But with utter, detestable simplicity, she turned her entire body and headed toward the car without answering with a single letter, completely ignoring what I said as if I were merely passing air with no existence in her life. My chest constricted with fury and malice at her movement and her ignoring me, while Mike turned to me with eyes burning with anger and sparks, saying in a loud voice: "Shame on you, Jake... what is this insolent talk and base manner?!"
I waved my hand with a petty belittlement and answered with utter, freezing coldness and detachment: "What the hell did I do? I didn’t err; I only said the truth from which you are fleeing."
Mike darted a look at me filled with intense reproach, disappointment, and tightness, then turned with tense steps and went quickly to ride behind the steering wheel of the car with nervousness. I pursued him with rapid paces, opened the door, and then rode beside him in the front seat with indifference.
Throughout the long return road, the atmosphere inside the car was silent, suffocatingly and suspiciously heavy, and not one of us uttered a word or a whisper. I remained watching the road and the darkness with rigidity and steadfastness until Mike braked with power and we finally arrived at the wooden house door. Julie turned her head toward the front with gentleness, a smile sketching upon her lips as she said with gratitude: "Thank you so much, Mike, for the ride."
I adjusted my seating with a grimace of complaint and tightness, while Mike turned to her with cheerfulness and a bright face, saying with tenderness and affection: "No need to thank me at all, Julie... whenever and wherever you wish, I am always here at your service to deliver you to any place you desire."

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