Officially Blake's

CHAPTER 12

“Reika …” he paused again and let out another audible breath. “She was the best.” 

He rubbed his palms together. Smiling, he looked straight ahead in the field. I decided not to talk in between his emotional speech. Yeah, I think this is going to be one of those heart to heart talks. I heard him sigh. And right then, I felt his sadness.  

“Reika was everything I’ve always dreamed of. She’s half Japanese half Filipino. Reika’s… Reika’s beautiful. I love her face. But more than that, I love how she easily gets irritated, how cute she looks when she sulks, how happy she gets when I bring her in the park, how… how she made me feel loved. I loved her.”  

Andrew wiped his tears with the back of his hand. I never saw him cry. I have never seen him this sad. Maybe he really loved this Reika. He sighed once again and continued with his story.  

“I met her when we were freshmen. I liked her ever since. We grew closer and closer to each other until I came to my senses. I came to the bottom of it. I completely fell in love with her. I decided not to tell her that since I don’t want to ruin our beautiful friendship, but I can’t help it. I told her everything. Everything about how she makes me happy, how she makes me smile with the simple things she does, how good she was in driving me insane… how she made me fall in love with her more and more every day.”  

His voice was sad. Clearing his throat, he looked at me and gave me a weak smile. He managed to smile even at his saddest moment. What a strong man. 

“She did not speak. She just hugged me and she started to cry. She told me that she’s been waiting for ages for me to say those words to her. She loved me too.”  

I smiled.  

“The next 2 years were just as wonderful as her. There were times when we just wanted to freeze and stay happy, there were times when we fight, there were times when we make up, there were times when we just wanted to stay in each others’ hands. Those were the greatest 2 years of my life.”  

Silence.  

“But then she told me, we have to break up. She told me she has to break up with me. She told me she has to get herself together. She told me she has to get me out of her life. I don’t know what I did. She just had to break up with me. I loved her so much. I loved her so much that I let her go. I loved her so much that… that…that I didn’t…force her to give me another chance. Then I cried. The next day, she was gone. She left me without a single word.”  

He breathed deeply and smiled at me. My eyebrows scrunched.  

“Why are you telling me these things?”  

He sat straight and he looked again in the field. I was looking at him expectantly. There was a blank expression in his face. His eyebrows were still furrowed. I don’t know what’s going on in his mind. I don’t even know if he’s still going to answer my question. But one thing is for sure. 

Andrew really loved Reika. 

My thoughts were trained to Perez. These two almost have the same situation. Being involved in a perfect romantic relationship with the girl of their dreams then experiencing the most painful thing... the person you love breaking up with you and not hearing the reason why. Even just the words ‘hey, I’m breaking up with you because you suck’ or ‘hey I’m breaking up with you because you cheated on me’ or ‘hey I’m breaking up with you because people change and I don’t love you anymore’. They just broke up and there was no explanation why.

The only difference that comes between Andrew and Blake is that Reika totally gone and Tracy was not. And it’s way more difficult for Blake to forget.