"I don't wanna go home!" She yanked her hand from his hold.
"Answer me. Reject me. Anything, but that..... Don't walk away from me."
He turned around heaving a big sigh and both their eyes widened finding a reflection of each other's in their glossy eyes.
"Naiara, don't cr-"
"I will if you walk away."
He stared at her and finally sniffled, batting his eyes away.
"You can't mean that."
"I do, I very much do. I love you, I love you alot, more tha—"
"Why?!" She flinched. "You had no trouble keeping it within you for the past years! Why now?!"
Her breath hitched and his eyes widened before he muttered a low curse.
"W-what?... You knew?"
"Naiara—"
"You knew." A tear fell and he looked away.
Her soft whisper kept ringing his ears and he wished he would have said yes to when Ellie proposed to him.
He should have. Yes, he should have.
But he didn't.
"Keane.... It's good that you knew, I-" she chuckled under her breath and looked at him, "y-you knew? It's okay. Probably you have given it thought then. I-I love you, say now, what's your thought?"
Her big doe eyes had tears brimming but Keane held her stare.
"Nia. We can't."
"We can. We can. Don't think about dad. Mom will handle it. Love me, tell me the truth."
"She knows?"
She broke the gaze and sniffled hard.
"When did you find out?" Her hoarse voice replied, dodging the question.
He took strides towards her holding her chin. "I'm not dense....I have seen the way you look at me. You think I wouldn't notice the way you looked at me when I would walk shirtless. When I would be around girls, how you deemed to kill them with your glares. When you held my hands, kissing my cheeks, your lips lingering. I noticed. I noticed it all."
Her breath hitched when his lips rested on her nose and she panted out.
A soft drop had her squeezing her eyes shut thinking he was finally letting his emotions come to surface, only to realize the drops of water felt too refreshing and not... Sad, per say.
They both looked up and found the clouds opening up and crying with their sorrowful situation and bounds of forbidden desires.
"Let's go, home."
"Tell me." She grasped his hand and brought it to her heart. Her breasts heaving with the coldness and the nervousness of her heart.
"Tell me you don't feel anything. I'll leave. I promise. Just... The truth. Keane, please."
"It does not matter what I feel-" he removed his hand from her chest only for her to grasp it and place it against his.
"You left for Shanghai because you knew. You knew I loved you. You knew you couldn't love me back..... You had feelings for me?"
"I did." Her heart dropped and she pushed him back.
"But I do not anymore... You wish for the truth? It is that I don't have any desires for you anymore. I'm thirty six, Naiara! Fucking fourty almost! You're... You're nineteen!"
He panted amongst the immense drops of rain and swept at his face. His hair dropped to his forehead and stuck to his nape. His shirt clung to him and his lips glossened. Had it been any other day, Naiara would have felt pleasure just watching him, but the poor soul was to busy mending her heart from such a confession right now.
"People have much bigger age gaps- if you're afraid people will talk, they will either way... It's all they do-.. Talk."
"It is not that I'm worried about. You of all people should know I don't give two fucks about people's opinions.... Your parents are a great deal for me, Naiara. They loved me ever since I was a kid..... I-I-... Fuck!.... I watched you when you were just an hour old. Naiara an hour old! I held you! I fed you! I sang to you! I held you when you slept!.... I-I can't be with you knowing we were once 1 and a fucking teenager."
"What about me? My feelings matter nothing to you?" Her whisper was heard and it was then only that they had realized that the nature shower had went to drizzling little drops now and it was just them heaving out and shivering from the cold now.
"They do not understand such circumstances."
".... So what now?" Her laughter boomed. "I'm to go back to college and you back to dating, bedding Ellie?"
"Naiara-" his stern tone cut her heart further.
"You're a coward. A fucking coward. You hear me?.... A coward is all you are. Had you loved me, you would fought for me."
"And I'm not! Cause I don't. I don't have time dallying with a girl seventeen years younger than me!.... It's best you forget this and believe it as infatuation-"
Her jaw dropped before a push was all he felt.
"Infatuation?! Infatuation you say?! You do not. Disrespect. Me. My feelings might be for you to play with! But I'm certainly not! Fine!....Fine. You did it. Just like you always did. You won." She nodded and gulped.
"I'll go back to college and you to Shanghai. We will never talk about this again."
She walked away but not before giving him a punch when he heard her sob.
•••••••••••••
Before the breaks were pulled, Naiara opened the door, slamming it shut and walking to the house with heavy, wet steps.
Keane cursed, parking his car hastily and catching up to rather fast walking Naiara.
"Naiara,...Naiara!...Naiara stop!"
She came to a stop and without turning to him, spoke in a tone that had Keane wincing.
"I will not tell them."
And with that she went in, slamming the door to his face, leaving him out under the harsh bullet like drops of rain.
