RAINSTORM

Ch. 14

After finishing their coffees and snacks — the coffee, Rachel thought was indeed the best she has ever had — Ricky says, "Feeling better?"

Rachel smiles. It seems her bad mood hadn't escaped Ricky's observation.

Rachel wonders if everything that happened between her and Hector is nothing to be bothered about and she's simply being too emotional over nothing.

She liked hanging out with Hector, and the two of them had a moment. That's all.

"Much better," Rachel says, feeling a renewed self confidence.

———

When Hector arrives home late at night, he hears loud noises from his mother's side of the house. Noises of things breaking.

"She has had only a few drinks. Nothing to worry about, young master," the maid who welcomed in Hector says.

Hector doesn't respond and heads for his room.

After washing up he sits down on his bed and takes out his phone.

He pulls up Rachel's number and stares at it.

He knows she saw him with Sabrina, both in the morning and at lunch. He knows she must be detesting him now.

That's why he did it.

After coming home that day, when he had almost kissed Rachel, Hector thought he had made a mistake.

He's scared after all. To like someone that much. Kissing Rachel is not just about kissing. It's much more than that.

After he got cold feet Hector pretended to show interest in Sabrina so she would hang out with him at school where Rachel can see them.

Everything happened just as he wanted.

So he doesn't know why it feels even worse than before.

Is it because he might have erased whatever little feeling Rachel might've had for him, or because he saw her leave with Ricky after school? Perhaps a bit of both.

But if all it takes for Rachel to hate him is him getting any attention from another girl, and that if that's all it also takes for her to run into someone else's arms, Hector thinks, then it's better he stays away from her.

Hector puts his phone back into his pocket. His fingers rub his forehead. Feels like a headache is coming on.

He leaves his room and goes to the kitchen. Out of the wine cupboard he takes out a bottle.

It isn't the first time he had held a bottle like this in his hand, but it's the first time the dark brown bottle feels this heavy as if something is pulling it down through his palm. He holds it tight to not let it go.

"Master."

Hector looks up at the maid — an old woman who had practically raised him in place of his mother since he was young. "Master, I can make you something to drink, or eat," she says and reaches for the bottle to take it from him.

But the bottle doesn't leave his grasp when she pulls it. "Master," she says again, looking at him. Her voice is pleading.

Hector's phone rings, and his grip briefly loosens, and the maid takes the bottle from him and leaves with it.

Hector takes out the phone. It's Rachel. He slides the call on and places the phone over his ear.

"You know what," Rachel says, "I just called to say you are a selfish cat loving jerk."

The call ends.

Hector lowers his phone, smiling. He is indeed everything she had said. But somehow the guy she described seems much better than the guy he was a moment ago. 

End of chapter