Hollywood's Princess [PUBLISHED]

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Tea or Coffee

"Are they out there?" I asked, referring to the other three involved right now.

"Just me," he replied and with a sigh, I stood up and walked to the door. He showed me tight lipped smile, something he was clearly forcing as he spread out his arms, "Sorry if it wasn't who you were expecting."

"I'm not disappointed, I'm just curious," I told him truthfully, leaning against the doorframe.

"Leaving me down there with any of those people would just be plain awkward," he said, "To everyone here right now, I'm the outsider."

"Technically, all of you are outsiders because this is my house," I laughed in an attempt to lighten up the mode. Unfortunately, even I was having a hard time to cheer myself up.

"Valentine..." he trailed off.

I don't know why, but the way he said my name made me crack. It was so gentle and understanding, yet it was clear that he wanted me to just get everything off of my chest. He was asking, but he wasn't prying.

"My dad loved Kate," I mumbled, even though I hate to admit it. I saw it in the way he acted around her, even going as far as choosing her over me. Even if I was mad at him, it was still horrible to see him become so heartbroken for the second time around, "And he was hurt once again."

You know how screwed up this is? Let's do a recap, shall we?

My dad loves Kate, but Kate doesn't really love him back. On the side note, there's still a place for my mother in his heart, and even though they've been divorced for years, mom still loves dad. At some point, they met and shared a kiss - which was horribly engraved into my brain.

So, anyone up for tea or coffee?

He lifted a hand and flicked my forehead, making my vision focus right back at him, "Honestly, Valentine, hiding up here won't solve anything."

"Do you think that I don't know that already?" I sighed, my fingers instinctively went to play with my hair, before tugging slightly on them, "I need to think."

"Says the girl that overthinks everything."

"Have you seen how terrible was my father's expression?!" I suddenly blurted out, trying to get my point across, "And did you see how much it pained my mom to see him again, and worse, he's in that situation."

Sinking to the floor, I once again pulled on my hair, a thing that I seemingly used to do when I get frustrated, "Everything is my fault, I prolonged this."

He bent down to his knees and grabbed my wrists, "It's not your fault."

I looked up at him and gave him a look that clearly states that I didn't believe him one bit. If I only moved on earlier with getting rid of Kate, the damage would have been lesser than this, but no, I did the all scheming process and shit.

"They're like that, because they love each other, you're not at fault," he tried to explain.

And that's why falling in love is a very dangerous thing, my dear Axel.

It was as if he saw right through me, his grip loosened until his arms finally fell to his sides as he drew his own conclusion, "You don't want to love because of them, am I correct."

I didn't have the heart to say yes, but the way my eyes averted his gaze was enough of an answer for him.

"So you're going to live in fear for the rest of your life?" he almost yelled, making me flinch back in surprise, "And didn't you say before that you loved that Brit before we started going out, so that meant that you weren't really strained off of the idea."