Chapter 15
1439 Words
"I'm sorry." Zyrus muttered out of nowhere.
I bit back a sob before I peered and saw him gazing ever so serious at me. He may have read the confused and questioning look on my face that urged him to elaborate further.
He shrugged his shoulders and tightened his arms around me. "You know...for that night. You don't know how many times I wished that things turned out differently for the both of us."
I wiped the remaining tear stain on my cheeks before I took a step backward, putting some breathable space between us.
"Why are you telling me this now." My voice quavered a bit but I still stood steady and firm in front of him.
He stared at me directly, all guards down and he's nothing but vulnerable.
"Because I wasn't able to tell it to you years back."
I gulped down the choking feel in my throat. My heart pounding eratically in my chest. I shook my head to dismiss the building idea. This isn't the time for us to play the flashback card.
"It doesn't matter. If that night didn't happen, Warren and I wouldn't be together."
"I was thinking the same thing. If that night didn't happen, you and I should've ended up being together."
Silence hung heavily between us. I don't know which should I feel first; guilt because I know how things will end up if we ever continue this conversation or confusion because he's going down the path I managed to bury years ago.
I wasn't the Divina anymore.
I am Thea.
Thea, who's engaged and shouldn't be playing dangerous game with a man who gave her bittersweet memories, a man who she then considered to be a part of her future, a man who she permitted access to her ridiculously boring world, a man who had lead her heart for the first time.
I got lost in his tantalizing coffee brown eyes as I searched for an answer to his statement. But I was left with no words. Not one. And just like before, with him, I always lose.
"Won't you, at least, ask my side of the story?" He probed.
Would I want to know?
NO!
I close my eyes, "I don't know."
"Vinang—" Then he started to walk towards me again.
"Zyrus, just stop." I said, holding my hands in front of me, stopping his words and his tracks. "Whatever this macho fantasy you have that keeps you fuelled into pursuing me , I suggest that you should stop it now. Before I'm never going to go down the road that with you again, I've been there before and nothing good came out of it."
All the warmth in his eyes disappeared in an instant, as if it was never there in the first place. His eyes went cold and icy and his stance went guarded.
"Is that what you really want?"
"I told you. What we have was never a real thing." I said. Quoting the words I used as a trap card against him. But this tike it wasn't me who turned and walked away.
My heart clenched at the sight of him gone.
This is what I wanted. This is the right thing to do. But why does it feel so fücking wrong?
I closed the door and stared into space.
I should be thinking about Warren and no one else. He's my priority. He's my one and only. He's my future-to-be.
But one smile from the guy from my ugly past and all those things about Warren started to blur out.
I sighed. I was still debating with myself whether to visit Warren or not when my doorbell rang franctically. Without peeping through the small hole I yanked open my door and found Zyrus with a determined looked etched on his face.
"Let's make it real this time." His voice was throaty and nothing but a whisper. "It's never too late."
And before I knew it, he crushed his lips against mine.
My reservations, the conflicts, the problems in our situation was swept away with the overload of emotions embedded in that kiss.
His hands were holding my face in place as he deepened the kiss. I clutched on his shirt tight, afraid that if I let go he might disappear.
"You can say stop." He murmured against my lips before he rested his forehead against mine.
I should really say it.
I closed my eyes, feeling my rapid heartbeat and his rapid breaths. I swept my hand across his chest and stopped where his heart lies. And just like mine, it was pounding ridiculously fast against his ribcage.
I peered at him, reading the intensity of his emotions on his face.
"And if I say stop?" I whispered.
"I won't listen." He replied immediately.
Despite the rollercoaster feels of that day, I found myself smiling with what he said. He too grinned then he wounded his arms around me again.
"Zyrus, hindi biro itong gusto mong mangyari." I started. I know we will have The Talk soon, but it won't be any different so better if we have it now. "Hindi ko—"
He hushed me by putting his index finger on my lips. He smiled warmly at me before kissing my forehead and looking at me again.
"I told you.I won't listen." He muttered with a smile. "And whatever it is you have to offer me now, I'll take it. We'll figure it out, I just need you to be with me."
"That's the point Zyrus, I can't he with you while I'm still with Warren." I tried to pry away
from his hold but he tightened his grasp on my waist.
"Technically, you're not with him. Not what from what I heard." Then he cleared his throat. "I learned from the guys from the quarters that he got in an accident on his way to Dreamer's Bean a few weeks from your actual wedding, leaving him in a coma for months now."
I creased my eyebrows together, knowing exactly where he was heading. "No, Zyrus. Alam ko na ang lalabas diyan sa bibig mo at sinasabi ko sa'yo 'wag mo ng ituloy." May diin na banggit ko.
"Paano kapag hindi na siya gumising?" He continued anyway.
My eyes started to get misty again so I punched him on the chest before shrugging away from his hold. "You're a fücking asshole." I hissed.
He sighed, desperation and frustration written clearly on his face. He looked at the ceiling, as if finding the strength to continue this conversation with me.
"You know, that night at the party, I was planning to ask you to be my girlfriend."
I hastily looked back at him and scowled, shooting daggers with my eyes. "Please stop making things up, it won't help your situation."
"I don't care if you'll believe me or not, but I'm going to say it. Like I told you, Divina. I won't listen." He matched my eyes, letting me know that the next words would be sincerely and utterly true.
"Totoo 'yong tungkol sa pustahan. That I don't deny. But the thing about me liking you was true, too. I don't know why the hell I agreed to that stupid bet, peer pressure maybe? Or I was just looking for reasons to be close to you albeit your well-known hatred towards me. And when I was able to shatter your walls, that's when I realized that you are that someone. My someone. Breaking the news to my friends was an easy thing, calling the bet off did too, or so I thought. You know Andi, alam kong alam mong may gusto siya sa akin noon. But maybe the fücked up scene at the party never managed to signal your rational thinking. But I don't blame you for it, it was all on me."
He took slow strides until he was only inches away from me.
"And now that fate had worked its magic on us, I'm not going to back down without a fight. I don't care if Warren is steps ahead of me. What I want you to know that I get fussy when I want something. And I get extra fussy if I want someone."
I scoffed. Not giving him the satisfaction of seeing me get affected by what he said, but truth to be told, my knees were turning to jell-o's.
"Sa tingin mo maniniwala ako sa'yo ng ganon-ganon lang?"
He shook his head, then the devilish grin, hia signature grin made its comeback. "Hindi, pero tulad nga ng paulit-ulit na sinasabi ko. I won't listen."
- Writer
