Chapter 7: Aftermath (Faith's POV) Part 2

Why was David waiting in front of Faith's house? What will happen comes Monday when she has no choice but to see Steve again?

Recap:

Faith’s POV:

I sighed as I walked towards my house. I really wished that my mom won’t see right through me. When I looked at our patio, a guy with a familiar built was sitting on one of the steps, his head bowed down like he was dozing off. He must have heard my footsteps since he looked up and stared at me. I gasped when I recognized who it was. His face brightened up and he smiled at me when he saw me staring, but it immediately turned into a scowl when he must have taken a good look at my face. I walked up to him and muttered…

 “What are you doing here David?”

 

Chapter 7: Aftermath (Faith’s POV) Part 2

Faith’s POV:

                “I heard about you and Steve,” he replied not looking me in the eyes.

                I really felt uncomfortable when he brought up the topic that I had been trying to avoid. So I just pretended that I didn’t hear what he said.

                “What are you doing here?” I asked again since he didn’t really answer the question. He must have sensed my discomfort since he looked like he was panicking. It appeared like he wanted to undo his move and take back what he said earlier. He looked… cute. Ugh, scratch that. I don’t have time to entertain this kind of thoughts.

                He shifted his weight from one foot to another while thinking of a good reply to my question. When I was about to tell him to just forget about it and go home, he looked at me, forced a smile and said “I just wanted to know if you’re… uhm, okay.” He sounded so unsure that it came out like a question.

                “What do you think?” I snapped at him. But when I saw the shock that crossed his eyes, I realized that I was being unreasonable. He’s not the reason why he left me, I reminded myself. I smiled bitterly when I remembered the time when we had our first major fight. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I just had a rough night, and, and… Anyway, I’m really sorry,” I continued.

                “Yeah, I understand. I am also sorry. But I truly want you to remember that I will always be here for you even if you and Steve are no longer together,” he replied.

                “Thank you. I really appreciate it. I also don’t want to lose a friend like you just because of what happened,” I told him, and gave him a genuine smile.

                “I’m glad to hear that,” he responded. He fell silent for a while. I noticed that he was hesitating about something.

                “Do you still have something to say?” my tone was encouraging him to speak up.

                “Well, I was just thinking that it would be best if you try your hardest to just forget about him. I’m sorry, but I just can’t help it. Steve can be a jerk and you can do so much better. I’m just saying,” he commented slowly as if he was afraid that I’d snap again.

                “Easy for you to say that,” I sighed.

                “I know it’s hard. Nobody said that it wouldn’t be. But it’s the only way out, the only step after this. It’s like saying you have no way but up now that you’re down,” he explained.

                “I’ll try,” I responded, not wanting to argue anymore.

                “Good,” he grinned. “Just call me if you need my help or you want someone to cheer you up, ‘kay? I promise I’ll do my best to help you move on,” he winked at me.

                “Thank you,” I said sincerely. “And I will take you up on that. I’ll see you on Monday. Goodbye,” I continued, dismissing him.

                “Goodbye then,” he smiled and walked towards a red car that I just noticed now. I waved at him, and he waved back.

                I felt suddenly tired when he left, so I entered the house and called out to my mom. And when she saw me, she asked the question I was really expecting.

                “What happened to your eyes?” her eyes were full of worry.

                “We had a movie marathon,” I grinned at her. I felt guilty for a while, but dismissed the feeling right away. I’m not lying to her.

                “Right,” she chuckled. “I still can’t understand why you and Princess love that kind of movies. I don’t know why you actually love to cry,” she continued while shaking her head.

                When I was about to go upstairs, she called me out again.

                “Oh. I just remembered. Were you able to talk to that guy who was sitting in our patio?” she asked curiously.

                “Yeah. His name’s David, by the way. He’s Steve’s friend,” I informed her and swallowed the lump that was forming in my throat.

                “Oh. So he really waited. He was here since 1 in the afternoon,” she reported to me.

                “What?! He waited outside for almost 4 hours? Did you ask him to wait inside?” I asked, obviously shocked.

                “Of course, I did. But he insisted that he wait outside. I couldn’t do anything to change his mind. I just served him juice. That was all I could do,” she defended herself.

                “Well, if that’s what he wanted,” I mumbled. “I’ll go upstairs now mom. I badly need a rest,” I said wearily.

                “Okay. Rest well,” she smiled at me.

                When I entered my bedroom, I closed the door, locked it and straight away lied down on my bed. I sighed in relief. It was a really good thing that my mother didn’t suspect anything.

Every time I wasn’t doing anything, every moment that happened that night flashed back again to me. So I decided to busy my thoughts by thinking of a reason why it all broke down, why we didn’t work out. I mean, what was so wrong about me? That was all I did the rest of my weekend " trying to figure things out. On Sunday night, reality sank down upon me. Tomorrow would be Monday, and I know I wouldn’t be able to avoid him since he is my freaking classmate! God, help me. I don’t know how to act around him. I slept that night worrying about what tomorrow may bring. Honestly, it felt horrible.

                The next day, I woke up very early again. It always ensues when I feel excited or anxious. It happened the day I entered a writing contest, the day we were about to go to France during a summer vacation, and of course, the day when Steve started to become my friend. I didn’t force myself to sleep again. Instead, I got ready early and when I still had a lot of time, I decided to prepare our breakfast for a change. When I was done, I ate my part and left a note saying I have to go to school early and that I already prepared breakfast.

Two reasons why I suddenly wanted to arrive at school early were first, I wanted to avoid the weird looks from my school mates since I know by that time, the whole campus would have already known about what happened, and second, I didn’t want to have any interactions with Steve, which can happen if I arrive much later. We could have arrived at the same time, or he could’ve arrived earlier and my entrance would get his attention. I shivered as I thought of the endless possibilities. However, when I reached my school, it turned out I was completely wrong about one thing. Today was one of the rare instances when half of the campus decides to go to school early. I frowned at myself thinking that there was no use regretting.

                I bowed my head and walked swiftly to avoid catching any attention. However, my heart sank when I heard a distant voice saying “Faith’s here.” This was then followed by hushed whispers. There were also girls who commented loud enough that they were happy that Steve’s single again. I tried to ignore them and went straight to my classroom. I sighed in relief when there was no sign of Steve in the room. Princess also had not arrived yet. I sat on my chair and leaned on its arm so that I won’t be tempted to look at the entrance of the room every time I hear the door open. Just when I was feeling comfortable in my position, I heard footsteps getting closer to me. I didn’t know why but my heart started thumping fast. I jumped in surprise when a familiar voice called out my name.

                “Well, hello there, Faith,” she pronounced my name in a way that is full of contempt and disgust, but her tone was mocking. When I looked up to look at her, I caught my breath when I saw who she was with. She was holding his wrist and pulling him towards me. His eyes were blank as if he didn’t really care of what was happening around him. I tried to look away from his lifeless eyes.

                “What do you want Vanessa?”I gritted my teeth.

                “Don’t be too tight Faith,” she started teasing. “I just wanted to let you know, since you were my rival, that Steve and I are back together,” she scoffed at me.

                “Guess what? I don’t care,” I lied. I knew that I was such a bad liar, but still, I didn’t want to sound so desperate and admit that in front of them, especially her. I glanced at Steve and saw him standing still, staring into space as if he was unaware that we were just beside him, fighting.

                “You know what? You’re really funny. How can you even attempt to lie when your face says otherwise,” she responded. When she didn’t hear anything from me since I didn’t really want to fan the fire, she made more comments that really made me furious. “I don’t know why you two broke up, but I think I have an idea,” she smirked. “Maybe you weren’t that good in bed and you bored him to death that he had to come back to me,” she laughed like an evil witch. I saw Steve shuffled uncomfortably at the corner of my eyes but still remained silent.

                “Or maybe I rejected him since I found out that he got STD from you,” when she was taken aback by my reply, I continued. “So… do you still want to continue making theories of why we broke up? Oh wait, do you even know what a theory is?” I asked, trying to look shocked. My voice was full of sarcasm. I was astonished of how strong my voice came out, even though inside, I was already shaking. Vanessa always scares the hell out of me. Truth be told, that was the first time I ever went against someone. I braced myself for a deathly comeback, when out of nowhere, a voice interrupted our heated argument. I looked behind me to see David standing there. Princess was beside him looking like a predator that was ready to attack her preys. Julian was also standing beside her. Did they arrive at the same time? The thought crossed my mind, but I knew that I could always ask her later. In the meantime, I still have some fighting to do.

                “Get lost, Vanessa. We don’t have time to deal with your crap.” David’s voice was low but venomous. His glare bore into Vanessa’s eyes. I heard Steve scoff, but I didn’t even glimpse at him. At that time, I hated him. I hated the fact that he easily moved on and that he’s being a jerk " acting like he didn’t really care at all.

                “Oh so now, the best friend? Really, Faith? It’s clear that you still haven’t learned your lesson, and you still don’t know your place,” she hissed at me. But before I could even respond, she continued “We are so far from being done.” And with that she hurriedly walked away, towing Steve with her. However, as Vanessa was about to leave the room since she’s from another class, she grasped Steve’s collar and kissed him full on the mouth. Her back was in front of me, so it was Steve who was facing us. I saw his gaze flicked towards me, and his eyes met mine. I badly wanted to look away since my tears were already threatening to come out. But before the tears could even fall, a hand covered my eyes and tried to contain them. The next thing I knew was that I was being pulled outside the room and into an empty room beside our classroom. It was the school’s stock room.

                “Are you okay?”David’s face was full of concern. I breathed deeply.

                 “Yes, I’m fine now,” I tried to smile, but it came out weak and fake, so I just dropped the act. Tears started flowing silently on my cheeks. Ugh, I hate myself. Why did I have to be such a cry baby?

                Princess handed me her handkerchief, and gave me a reassuring smile. “I know one way to relax. Just follow me, ‘kay?” she told me. I just nodded. “Close your eyes,” she started, and I followed her.

                However, as soon as I closed my eyes, I realized that it was a wrong move. Memories of Steve and I’s first major fight came flashing back to me. I can’t believe she won, I admitted bitterly.

 

Author's Note

Yay, another chapter done! David is such a sweetie. So did you like it? Is it kind of slow? You may think so since I still haven’t gotten to the moving on stage (makeover and stuff). I’m thinking of delaying it some more since when that happens, the series of events that will lead to the climax will then start. Aaaand as you may have guessed, next chapter/s will be a flashback on their first major fight. I hope it’ll still be interesting. Don’t give up on me, please? :D

Reviews

[Tai Ryens]

This is probably only a spark for drama in the school, I liked Faith's comeback. To me, she won that argument, and David seems awfully different in this chapter. I don't know, he just seems different from the previous, then again, I look at every small detail sometimes, so it might just be only me that spots that. Great job.

[No name]

David is a sweetie, great chapter. Yeah don't think i'm going to give up on this book till it's finished.

[Lonnie Paul Johnson]

another good chapter, David is cool and I like the cat fight. The chapter in my opinion don't read slow, I guest when writing it take so long that maybe you thinks it too slow, but the story is moving well.

[Bridget Murphy]

I love David i want that guy to be my friend!!!!!!!!!!!

[SwagMaster]

I love it!!

Please mark this constructive!

[x0void]

Go David! I loved him in this chapter. :)

[xxxxSweetDreamsxxxx]

Loved this chapter!!