Mistakenly Eaten

99. I Love You

Althea laid down straight on her bed, looking up at the ceiling. Her actions though seemingly aimless, to Selena and Fiona, both of the two who stood by her door and looked at her in confusion, held much importance in the girl’s life.

The clock had struck six in the evening and the very sun, whose rise she enjoyed every morning at the south west coast, had already drowned at yet another side of the island.

Althea laid still ever since the incident in the morning had occurred. It was a bizarre day for her, for very sure.

At first, she woke up with a heavy heart, knowing that the guy that she loved did not feel the same about her.

Then the incident at the south west coast and then… Nicholas not only taking a bullet for her but actually shooting someone for her.

She didn’t even know if the preparator was dead himself or survived.

By that point she didn’t care and only wished that the monster had died, who had tried to hurt and torment her.

She was glad that she was safe but on the contrary she was left feeling stoically perplexed.

Just a few hours ago, Nicholas told her that he didn’t consider himself to be that serious with her and then just as the night passed away he took a bullet while trying to save her.

She wondered if a miracle occurred over the night that made Nicholas change his mind or if he just was fulfilling his duty as the director of the society and making sure that none of his contestants were hurt, who were entirely his responsibility.

She sat up straight as the thought crossed her mind and Fiona and Selena both gasped, as her sudden insurgence and action.

The two had been extremely worried about Althea, who had gone entirely mum, ever since she was brought back in the mansion, from the south west coast and knew that the girl must have felt traumatized and her behavior could also get erratic.

The two took careful steps towards the subject, who got up from her bed and began pacing back and forth in the room.

“I don’t get it!” she scratched her scalp, making both Fiona and Selena once again share a skeptical look.

“What exactly do you not get?” asked Selena and Althea groaned in agitation.

“Why would Nicholas take a bullet for me? Why would he even jump in such a situation? He knew that there was danger and he didn’t have to do anything. I mean, Gigi was there with a team of guards, right? Things could’ve been taken care of. Why did he just have to do what he did. And he shot somebody. Is it okay for him to do so? Is he used to of shooting people like that… ugh! My head is literally going to explode.”

She complained, running her hands through her hair and pulling on to the strands of her scalp, once again rendering Selena and Fiona entirely silent.

Everyone around the entire house had the same questions burning through their minds, that Althea did.

Why would Nicholas, somehow who puked at the sight of blood and got sick for days, with his mind and body both paralyzed to not to function properly, ended up not only taking a bullet but also shot someone.

“Well…” Fiona opened her mouth to tell the truth to Althea but Selena held her hand and squeezed it. Prohibiting her from speaking any further.

Fiona looked at Selena, who shook her head with her eyes widened.

“Well, I think Nicholas was just extremely worried that a contestant would get hurt.” Selena immediately covered up Althea’s concerns with her lies.

Althea looked at her and turned silent for a minute and simply nodded her head at Selena.

“I think I should just rest.” She told the two girls, who got out of the room, leaving Althea behind, who perched down on the bed and pressed her face in her hands, feeling heaviness inside her eyes.

She didn’t know why, but tears began streaming down her eyes and soft sobs escape her lips. She tried her best to clear her mind at once but nothing seemed to make sense to her.

Everything was just so hazy. The scene of Nicholas getting hit by the bullet over and over again. For some unearthly reason, it disturbed her that she was the reason behind Nicholas getting hurt and she didn’t enjoy that sinking feeling in her heart.

If Selena was right and Nicholas did only take a bullet just because he did not want a participant to get hurt than it was even more hurtful to Althea, that Nicholas yet again did not care for her feelings and perhaps, in his heart, he only looked at her as a mere contestant on the island and nothing more than that. for him, he only enjoyed the s*x and the things that Althea wished, he would give her, were still a trouble for Nicholas, who pursuit, he did not wish to follow.

“Why are you crying now?”

A voice startled her, making her snap her neck up and look at the source of that very similar voice, that gave her butterflies deep within her abdomen and at times, gave her chills down the spine, when that voice would be coarse and hissed in to her ear.

She looked up to find Nicholas standing by the door of the bedroom, with his one arm behind his back and the wounded one, hung on an arm sling, that supported his stitched up arm, making sure to immobilize it and secure it, ensuring quick recovery.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, getting up on her feet, wiping her tears off her face with the back of her hand.

“I thought of you…” he shrugged. “Felt like seeing you.”

Althea felt muddled by his sudden appearance, that rendered her silent.

“But why are you crying?” he asked taking a step closer to her and she also stepped towards him but immediately halted, not knowing what would be appropriate in that situation.

Nicholas noticed her hesitation, which brought slightly knot between his eyebrows and made him wonder, if Althea was being hesitant in terms of showing affection towards him.

“Why were you crying?” Nicholas pressed on his question, startling Althea out of her confused daze.

“Uh, nothing! Just missing home.” She lied right away and Nicholas could tell that she wasn’t being entirely honest with him.

He simply hummed back in reply.

“Hmm, I assumed that today might had been a bit much for you and you might be feeling disturbed after what happened today.”

Althea bit her tongue inside her mouth, realizing how lousy and lame her excuse and her reasons were. She could’ve blamed her tears on the incident that occurred in the morning but it wasn’t even on her mind. That’s why she couldn’t lie about it as well. The only thing in her mind was the bandaged wound on Nicholas’s arm and seeing him in that state, brought tears to her eyes, that she tried her very best to hide and the reason why she was even crying before Nicholas came in to her room, was the same damned injury.

He was hurt because of her and that sinking feeling in her heart was simply eating her up on the inside.

“Yeah well, today was a shitty day.” She admitted and Nicholas nodded.

“Shittier for me, who got shot, don’t you think so? Yet, you don’t see me crying.”

Althea looked up at Nicholas and before she could’ve controlled herself, tears burst out of her eyes and she began crying out loud.

Nicholas’s eyes bulged out, who immediately shut the door close behind him and rushed towards Althea.

“Hey! Hey! Why are you crying?” he asked her trying to reach out for her and hold her but one of his hands was behind his back and the other one was held in a sling.

He tried to extend his hand out that was held in the sling but Althea stopped him, grabbing his wrist.

“Don’t move your hand.” She told him, as she sniffed through her sobs and tried to control her weeping but it only made her shake up a bit, since she felt great difficulty in holding back herself from crying.

Her breaths broke down in loud intervals and Nicholas felt disheartened, seeing her in such a schism.

“Why don’t you just take a seat first?”

Nicholas pushed Althea and dragged her back towards the edge of the bed, where Althea perched down and Nicholas sat next to her, still keeping his good hand behind his back.

He held Althea’s hand in his, that was fixated with the sling.

“Just tell me why were you crying?” he pressed her hand and Althea looked up at him, her eyes still full of glisten and moisture and she only looked up, as a tear escaped down her cheek, still betraying her involuntarily running down her face.

“You got hurt because of me…” she cleared her throat, trying to grasp her voice as she spoke, “… and I didn’t know why would you take such a big f*****g risk. My stupid heart wants to believe it is because you love me but I know that…”

“You know what?” he asked with a monotonous tone and Althea remained indifferent as she looked everywhere other than Nicholas’s face, as she further spoke.

“I know that you did it only because you thought you were fulfilling your duty as the director of the society and protecting a contestant that you thought was your responsibility, while you didn’t have to go so far and even get hit and…”

“Wait…” Nicholas scoffed a little as he heard Althea’s words.

“You think, I would do that for anyone else?” he asked Althea, who by that point got awry of Nicholas’s tone, that seemed offended by that point.

She didn’t want to say anything that she assumed would upset Nicholas, as he already sounded so, given to his words and tone.

“I don’t know, okay? Last night we had a fight on something as such as you were not willing to give me anything that would make us assume the status of girlfriend and boyfriend and then what happened today. Nothing seems to make sense to me. I am just as confused as anyone would be and…”

“I am someone, who used to get sick at the sight of blood.” Nicholas spoke up, attaining Althea’s complete attention and making her go sheerly silent.

“I used to puke and get fever, even if I would ever see blood and today, I not only took a bullet but also shot someone, all the while bleeding my own self. The scene, if anyone would think of, in fact, if my old self would think of, would consider it to be grotesque and incredibly bizarre and it is but the scene is the last thing in my mind because all I know Althea, that for you, I would take a bullet and even kill someone, if I have to. That’s how much you matter to me.”

Althea’s eyes filled with tears once again, as she heard Nicholas’s words, that hit straight and deep within her heart. She could feel the glacier of her core, that was settled there as a burden within her heart, melt right away. The strings of her heart that were in incredible pain, suddenly started to feel exuberant and invigorated.

“I was horrified when I heard that someone might be anywhere near the place where you could be. I wasn’t even sure if you were in danger. Just the thought of you being in a hurtful situation, made me run blindly towards you. That’s how much you mean to me Althea. There is no other truth but the only that I love you.”

Althea’s eyes widened, as more tears ran down her cheek, listening to those words that floated out of Nicholas’s mouth, sounding like the sweetest melody to her.

“I was afraid and I am not ashamed of admitting it at all. I was afraid of how haunting my past was and that’s why, I ran away when you told me that you wanted something serious and I just wasn’t prepared for it. and even though, I know, I don’t deserve any apology and I wish that getting shot would somehow compensate for the d**k that I was. And I really, really want to say that I am sorry for how I acted. I should’ve been better to you but from now on, I promise that I will always love you and things that people give to each other in a relationship don’t even mean anything to me now because I want to give you bigger and better things. I want to give you my everything. That’s how much I love you.”

With that, he finally brought his hand to the front. He held a bunch of freshly plucked sunflowers, that Althea could tell that he had plucked right out of the garden of the mansion.

“Did you just pluck them…” she said through a soft whimper, that came out of her mouth followed by a small laughter, in between her tears of joy that continued pouring down her cheeks.

Nichoals couldn’t help but laugh, as he nodded and realized how lousy yet adorable his own little mindless gesture was, that he didn’t put much effort to when he plucked those flowers because all that his mind was thinking about was what he was going to say to Althea when he would see her.

He pushed the flowers towards Althea, who grabbed them and held them closer to her chest, sniffing them vehemently.

“Well… this is the part where you tell me that either you hate me or you love me.” Nicholas reminded Althea, who finally breathed away from the flowers and cleared her face off from the tears for the very final time.

She mustered up every ounce of courage that she could find her in body and smile delicately as she looked at Nicholas and chimed back at him.

“Well, I don’t have anything to say but except that I love you incredibly and deeply, Nicholas Santiago.”

Nicholas smiled back at Althea and grabbed her neck with his fine hand, pulling her towards him and captured her lips in a loving and longing kiss.

Althea closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around his neck, as she kissed him back but stopped when Nicholas slightly moaned and pulled himself back.

He pointed towards his arm and shrugged sadly that it was getting pressed and hurt slightly and Althea only giggled in amusement, as she planted a soft peck on his cheek and pulled him back on the bed, placing his head on her chest.

She planted a soft kiss on the top of his head, as she ran her fingers through his hair and Nicholas also felt satisfied and somehow, he felt that feeling of sheer gratification and contentment that one feels when they reach a milestone in their life, that tells them that their life was complete.

It was a very different feeling, nothing like he had ever felt before and with Althea, he indeed felt at home, as he closed his eyes and finally slept, holding Althea close and dear to his body.

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