Mistakenly Eaten

116. Swallowing Love or Pride?

Selena took a deep breath as she mustered up her courage and formulated the right words in her mind to come up with an eligible answer to Salva’s question.

“He does.”

She spoke softly at first.

A loud crashing sound blustered up somewhere inside Salva’s heart, as he wished to have heart not the affirmative but instead the negative. He wished, somewhere deep within the pits of his heart that Nick was simply fooling around with Althea and it wasn’t as serious for him but instead the answer that he received tore him apart.

It only meant that he needed to put his own feelings aside and focus on Nicholas and how he truly felt for Althea because a sensible part of his told him that Althea also reciprocated his feelings.

“And she…”

“Well, I haven’t heard it from her mouth but from what I know is that she also loves him a lot. The two have been quite intimate with each other…”

Salva breathed out and loud, making it obvious to Selena that he had a hard time listening and digesting the truth.

He turned his face towards the other side, as he felt crimson anger flaring up the color of the skin of his face. His red ears, visible to Selena were enough to let her know, that not only was he angered but also sorrowful and regretful that he was too late to the party and Althea had already been claimed by a lover.

“Salva, I really think you should talk to Nicholas and before you talk to Nicholas I think there is someone else that you should talk to. Althea! You should listen to what she has to say first and then you should talk to Nick. But if Nick comes to you, then please don’t shut him down. It is already horrendous enough what we had to see happening today. You two never fought and seeing the two of your fight for a girl, really hurt us. Please, act like adults and don’t take it as a personal vendetta profanity. Nick had zero idea about your feelings for Althea…”

“And it will remain this way.” Salva spoke up, taking Selena by surprise.

“Only you, Mom and Aunt Martha know this and it should remain this way. I am angry at Nicholas but not for loving Althea or having her first but because he hid it from me and that hurt me the most. I can’t ever let him know and that thing is something of the bother for me too because I always share my true desires with him but let it be. Whatever I had for Althea, must remain a mystique clandestine fact inside my heart forever. You knew nothing and so did anyone else.”

“But Salva, Nick would understand and…”

“Things would get awkward and I don’t want that to happen. I don’t really know how far Nick wants to take things with Althea but if either of the two were to ever find out about what I really feel for Althea, they would be hesitant and Althea is already painted as someone who made me and Nick fight, I don’t want anybody else to think the same way and paint her as the bad guy. She doesn’t even know how I feel towards her and only sees me as a good friend. Let things be…”

As Salva revealed his plan to Selena, the door to the room got knocked, making Salva, take a pause in the middle of his sentence and before he could’ve spoken up, the door opened up and Nick walked in.

“Got a minute?”

He asked, observing that Salva had company and before Salva could’ve answered, Selena immediately stood up and walked out of the room.

Nick watched with a shaky head, as Selena sprinted out of the room and then he turned back towards Salva, who looked at him with quite a hazy expression.

Nick, being oblivious to the truth in Salva’s heart, became only slightly awry and was determined to talk things out with Salva.

Once the two were alone, Nick sighed and walked up to his cousin, who also stood up and looked at him square.

“I am sorry for throwing a punch at you.”

Salva remained tacit, wanting to see what Nick really came to say to him.

“I guess I didn’t like what you said about Althea.”

“What exactly did you not like?” Salva inquired, his eyes slightly squinted as he rose the question, actually curious. He was mad with anger and blazed with angst as he spoke those words just to trigger Nicholas, so that he would hit Salva. And once he did, Salva only took the moment and began hitting him black and blue only to have his senses later on revoked and realized that he had been wrong for wanting revenge like a little kid.

“The fact that you disrespected my feelings for her and called her a fool. I really love her Salva and what you said really hurt me.”

Salva fell in to a state of complete dilemma as he heard Nicholas’s words. There was nothing else left for him to keenly inspect or hope upon, since things were rendered to love between two people, in a case where Salva might have been becoming an imposition.

“And what about her? does she also love you?”

Nick scoffed at Salva’s words, “Well, she is the one who actually realized it before than I did. She was the one who wanted more, while I was thinking that I am only fooling around. She was the one who was not just the one to act mature first, but also made me realize that I loved her as well. You may have known about the intrusion on the south west coat of the island, while you were away.”

“Did you really take a bullet for her?” Salva asked the question, his heart feeling heavy and his heart filling with moist, as he was rendered feeling remorseful that it wasn’t him but Nick, who took the bullet and got a chance to prove his love for Althea.

Nick nodded his head.

“I even shot a guy down for her.”

“Wow! You shot a bullet! Only if Uncle Alejandro would know about it, he would be beyond confused. He wouldn’t even know if he should be happy that you finally took a bullet and shot one or if he should be sad that you never did it for him or his blood but for a girl.”

Nicholas couldn’t help but snicker at Salva’s words.

“I guess, Dad would be pissed.”

“Anyone would be…”

Salva stated with a heavy heart, feeling defeated in the situation that he was too late to the party and Nick already took the victory in the matter and his first love was left incomplete, a story he would have to live with the rest of his life, keeping it embedded within his own heart.

“Anyways Salva, I really love her. I am sorry you had to find out this way but we were keeping it a secret from everybody. Only Uncle Anthony and Selena knew so far…”

“Wait! Nobody else knew?” he asked with quite the confusion, remembering it quite well that Serena had informed him about Nicholas and Althea.

“No! I didn’t want to keep it a secret but then Selena and Uncle Anthony found out and the two asked me to keep things a secret for the sake of what Althea assumed things to be.”

Salva fell tacit to that information.

He felt muddled for a minute but decided to keep his focus on what Nicholas had to say more than focusing on how he found the truth out.

“Things between me and Althea are already very fragile and complicated as they are based on what she assumes of me to be or who she knows me as. But the reality is far from the delusion that we have create and that’s why I am only making sure to love her as much as I can.”

“You really are scared of losing her, right?”

Nick nodded to that question.

“I don’t think, I have felt this alive in such a long time. I have never felt this way. I have never felt like a completely different person, indifferent from the world and levitated above all the other messes. It feels real. Real than any other thing, I have ever felt.”

“What if you are just confused? Are you sure, that what you feel for Althea is true love?”

“I thought what I felt for Cheryl was true love, can you believe that and I would never take a bullet for her, Salva. I was devastated that she left me on the altar but now I am glad that she did because I met Althea. I was in the darkest phase of my life, when she came and brightened up everything. She brought me back to life and I don’t want to lose her. the mere thought of losing her makes me go crazy. I guess, Cheryl was the girl who had to straighten my mind up and had to make me realize that I was ready for love but she couldn’t bring me to love her beyond any commensurations and stipulations. I loved her because I believed she was perfect for me but I love Althea because…”

“She makes you feel perfect and you have finally realized what true love actually is…”

Salva completed Nick’s words, taking him by complete surprise.

“Exactly.” He laughed out loud, tapping Salva’s shoulder, glad that his cousin understood him, all the while remaining oblivious that Salva had actually shared his own personal feelings with Nichoals. Having inadvertently and simply confess what he truly felt towards Althea.

“See, you still understand me.” Nick looked at Salva with his eyes filled with hope and seeing the wide smile on Nick’s face, Salva gulped hard, swallowing his ego and his heartfelt feelings, knowing that it was the only sensible thing to do in that moment. He looked down at Nicholas and realized that he was truly in love with Althea and wanted nothing but Salva to understand him and no matter how much Salva also wanted Nick to understand his feelings as well, he couldn’t bring himself in the situation because at the end of the time what truly mattered was the fact, whom Althea loved and she only had one guy in her heart and that was Nicholas.

Salva had to understand that it was not his place to fight and that’s why he decided to take a step back.

“If you really do love her and promise to never hurt her, than I don’t think I should be fighting with you on this.”

“Hurt, Althea? Dude! I would kill my own self, even if the thought of seeing a tear in her eyes because of me, crossed my mind.”

“Wow! That’s too much.” Salva scoffed and Nicholas simply pulled Salva in and hugged him tightly.

“Thank you for understanding.”

Salva blinked his eyes, that were heavy with tears, but he decimated his own sorrows and tears away by blinking a bit too hard and proscribed himself from crying because more than his own sorrows, what mattered to him was his brother’s happiness that was of much value and in his perspective must be celebrated more than anything else.

The door to the room dashed open, making the two break their hug and turn to find Fiona standing by the door, panting and huffing, with her eyes filled with tears and her condition distorted as she looked at the two and spoke the words that shocked the two men to their core.

“Althea… she is missing from her room and all of her stuff is gone.”

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What do you think Althea is up to now?

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