A Dribble For Love [ENGLISH - ON GOING]

Chapter 7

After that epic confession slash rejection, James headed directly to his locker without even saying a single word to Danielle. As she was looking at the guy leaving, she had just realized how to stupid she was. After all this time, her efforts were all in vain. But what to do? She really loved the guy. Maybe people became stupid when they're in love.

She couldn't contain the pain she felt so she was unable to notice herself leaning on the wall weeping desperately. For the very first time, her young heart was broken and the responsible person for it was the guy she had loved so much. The guy whom she had invested a lot of time, effort, money and emotion. She had just realized that when expectations failed, the pain it brought would be triple. How melodramatic but that was true!

"Hey, I really hate to see you crying." Terence said as he was patting her shoulder. When Danielle realized that it was Terence, a friend sent from above, a help in times of distress, she suddenly hugged him.

"Terence..." she sobbed like a child.

"Shhh...It's alright. It's alright." Terence caressed her.

"Why does it have to be like this? I can't stand to see you so devastated." he said silently.

Somehow, he felt guilty. He had a part of this mess. If he didn't tolerate her immature actions, this shouldn't be happening.

"Only if I could beat him, I would. But it's my fault anyway. I didn't expect this to happen. Argh! I'm so stupid! Why did I tolerate all your silliness?"

"N~No, it's my fault. I didn't listen to you. What should I do? He hates me...He hates my guts," she was still sobbing.

He had slowly loosen himself from hugging and earnestly looked at her eyes, wiping those precious innocent tears falling and smiled.

"Hey, lighten up. You look ugly now," he joked around to lessen her emotion. He even tried to do the 'pig's face-look'. Well, it worked because Danielle had slowly started to giggle as she was seeing his funny face.

"I'm not a pig, you jerk!" she kept hitting him on the arm.

"Of course, you are! You're a cute crying pig," he laughed out loud.

"How dare you!... " Danielle attempted to hit him again. This time, it was with a her bag. However, Terence was so quick to cover up himself.

"Alright! That hurts...'' he panted. He held her both arms so she can no longer hit him.

''Since you're brokenhearted, I know the right place for you. Come on!'' he practically drag her heading outside the building. Of course, Terence was not an insensitive guy. He knew exactly what she felt.

"Do you want me to celebrate my failure? Or my humiliation?" she tried to hold back. It may sounded sarcastic but still she asked despite the fact that this best friend of hers never ever did a stupid thing to her.

"No, we'll just go there to release stress. And yes, we will celebrate that finally, you have spoken up. I mean, It takes a lot of courage to do that. I envy you because I don't have that kind of courage. I can't confess my feelings to the one I like,'' he smiled bitterly.

"I suggest not to confess, unless you are really sure that the feeling is mutual. Look at me! So pathetic! Oh gosh, I'm so stupid!" she was started to be dramatic again.

"Alright. Alright. Cut the crap! Let's forget what happened and enjoy. Come on!" he abruptly took her hand and they left the building running.

Terence knew well how to comfort a brokenhearted friend. It was really envying to have such kind of best friend. At least, somehow at some point Danielle was not that devastated at all. Thanks to Terence who was always there to comfort her. How would she ever stand without him? Why she didn't fall for this guy instead of James?

Terence took her into a certain ice cream parlor. He had read an article that ice cream could be effective to lessen anger and sadness. It was believed that the sweetness and coldness of it could change someone's mood, so he took a chance. Well, it actually worked! At least by that time, she forgot the great nightmare she was in. They both enjoyed the taste that they couldn't help themselves but licked the ice cream cone like a child. Then they decided not to go back to the class for they wanted to stroll around the city and enjoy the day.

The next morning, she was not that excited to go to school. She felt that there was no pride left of her at all after such an embarrassing confession. But since she already promised her mom to be a responsible daughter, so she had no choice at all but to attend the class. As she about to enter the room, she looked around to find James but she failed to find his presence. This guy was never been late. How come he didn't show up?

"Hey, you're early. For the record, this is the first time you came early than me," Terence said at her back. Startlingly, she gasped because she felt nervous for she thought it was James. She had slowly turned around and said,

"Oh hi! I thought..."

"You're expecting James. I know, right? Is he not here yet?" Terence interrupted as he walked in.

"Yeah, and he was never been late. I have a bad feeling about this," she followed him in.

"Pffft...Don't think too much. Maybe he's just late for today."
he grabbed the seat and sat.

"I hope so."

She had waited but there was no James arrived. Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes turned to hours. Hours turned to a day. She didn't even noticed that they were dismissed for all she thought was James. She got homed with so many things bothering her mind. She was afraid that something bad happened along the way, or maybe James never wanted to see her face again and left the city. That made her even more worried about the guy.

She was unable to have a good sleep that night, so she got up early and prepared for school. As soon as she got there, the first thing she looked was James. But again, he was not around, neither his shadow. That could be worst! It seemed her fear had came true. But whatever happened to that guy, she felt guilty. She blamed herself about the confession she had made.

And that very afternoon she asked Terence to go with her again at James' house to check. But upon checking, no one was in the house. Where were they probably? Squeezing her mind about the fact made her even more devastated. They left the house with so many questions in mind. As she got home decided to not eat and locked up her room. She needed to be alone and release the pain. Even her mom was shouting for her to regain her senses, but it had no effect to her. So her mom decided to call Terence.

"Hello, aunty? You called," Terence answered his phone.

"Yeah. And I need you to come over right now," Danielle's mother sounded worried.

"W~Why, aunty? Is there something wrong?'' he was starting to be concerned.

"Just come over, please. It's very important."

"Alright. I'll be there in a few minutes," and hanged up the phone.