KEVIN
As per regulations, I should not be allowed to enter the track but I was never the one to play by the rules. Security was restraining me while the medic was attending to Reena and safety cars were deployed on track. Andy and Carlo were behind me.
"I fucking know her! Paraanin niyo ko!" Tulak ko sa kanila, I dont really care if a hundred of them come and try to stop me, they're welcome to try.
"Sir, pasensya na po. Hindi po kayo pwedeng pumasok. Hayaan po muna nating mag-rescue." pakiusap niya pero kailan ba ko nakinig? I pushed them off not meaning to make them stumble to the ground and immediately rushed towards Reena.
I know that there are protocols and they are very well trained for this kind of incident but if Reena's involved, that's a different story.
When they got her out of the car, she was unconscious. I immediately looked at her chest; relieved to see that she's breathing. I released a deep breath I didn't know I was holding. She was immediately rushed to an ambulance. I didn't even had the chance to get near her.
Lumapit sa'kin yung isang lalaking medic.
"Kakilala niyo po ba yung naaksidente sir?"
Why did they have to take her immediately, was it something serious? I didn't even get to check on her, fuck. But I don't have the time to argue. I just want to get to her fast.
"Yes, what hospital are they taking her?" I can feel the adrenaline through my veins. Reena's going to be the death of me.
"Rodriguez Hospital po sir." Sagot niya at hindi ko na inantay pa kung may sasabihin pa siya.
Nagpunta ako sa direksyon nila Carlo at Andy who were waiting for me. I just told them kung saang ospital saka ako nagpunta ng parking lot. They were still behind me. I unlocked my car and they both got in before I did with Carlo in the driver's seat.
"Aren't you using your fcking cars?" I asked them, annoyed.
"I'll drive. You're not to get yourself in an accident after what happened to Reena." sabay hablot ni Carlo sa susi ng sasakyan ko nang di inaantay yung sagot ko.
Andy's already on the backseat of my car at may kausap sa phone. She may be updating the others to meet us at the hospital.
I didn't fight Carlo off because as much as I hate that he's right, I really might crash my car while rushing to the hospital.
"Fine." I answered and got into the passenger seat as Carlo started to drive out of the parking lot.
"If you so much as put a scratch on my car I'm going to punch you." I half-threaten him as he scoffed.
REENA
My head was pounding when I tried opening my eyes. It was blurry for a moment and it took me a minute to finally have a clear vision.
"Reena.." it's Kevin.
Why is he here? Why am I here?
"Are you okay?" Kevin asked me.
Kevin and Andy are both on my sides and as I looked around, there are white curtains and I'm lying on a hospital bed.
"What happened?" I ask them.
"We're at the ER, Ree. How do you feel?" Andy asked me.
"Did I crash any of the cars behind me?" I asked as I closed my eyes. My head is banging but I open them again.
"You're not really in the position to worry about that now." Kevin answered annoyingly.
His face is painted of worry, his brows creased. He looks like he's looking for something to punch and my subconscious is forcing my body to dodge a punch from him but of course it doesn't come. I can't point his emotions but wait, is he mad?
"I'll go get a doctor." Andy said and went off.
"What happened?" I ask the only person on my sight.
"You crashed on the track. Hindi mo ba naaalala? Who fucking drives like that?" He's annoyed for sure.
"I know that but what I'm asking are the details. Did anyone else get hurt?" I asked back feeling more annoyed. How hard is it to directly answer me?
Pinapaglitan niya ba ako? I can't help the smile on my face right now. I had an accident and I'm smiling while I still can't paint his expression.
Okay maybe I shouldn't be smiling like a teenager having confessed to by her crush. You can't blame me though, this has only been the time that he's shown his concern ever since I saw him again.
"Naka-drugs ka ba? Did they inject something into your veins for you to smile like an idiot when you just gave everyone a heart attack?" he spat.
I should be answering him back like a machine gun defending myself but I can't bring myself to and I had the audacity to laugh and wince. May masakit sa may bandang taas ng tiyan ko. Are my ribs broken?
He scoffed, "I don't believe this." he said and turned his back on me.
Carlo appeared in my line of sight with Mike.
"Reena, are you okay?" Carlo asked me.
"She's laughing now so I think she's fine." Mike answered for me.
Wala pa akong sinagot sa mga tanong nila kung ayos lang ba ako. Maybe I'm just dreaming because the way Kevin was talking to me would only be possible in my dreams. He hates me, but then and again he's not made of stone. Maybe he's decided to forgive me knowing I might end up dead before directly hearing from him that he's accepted my apology.
Dumating si Andy at may kasamang doktor.
The doctor flashed a pen light to my eyes and put his stethoscope to my chest to check my breathing before saying anything.
"She suffered from a mild concussion, and two of her ribs are fractured from the impact of the crash but aside from that, she's okay." the doctor said reassuringly.
"Maybe you should check her head. She's clearly loosing a few screws for laughing like that." Kevin said and I laughed again and winced again. Damn broken ribs.
Andy shook her head while smiling, "Thank you doc. Can she go home or will she be admitted?" she asked.
"You can take her home, I will prescribe her with some meds to help with the pain." the doc explained.
I just thanked him as he left.
"I already called Jean but I didn't call your house. I figured your mom would worry and you know.." paliwanag ni Andy.
"Don't tell my mom, pati kay kuya wag mo nang sabihin. I'm fine. I'm staying at the condo anyway so I don't have to explain to them." I tell her and she nodded.
I don't want to worry my mom anymore given her condition.
"You should've thought about your mom before driving around the track like that." Kevin again and all eyes on him.
"I didn't die, did I? Wait maybe I did, am I dreaming? Why are you worrying?" I roll my eyes at him. His worrying flutters my heart but I would have to talk back to him or else I might really be crazy if I ended up smiling and blushing again to his worries.
He scoffed, "You have to hear me forgive you first before that happens."
"Indeed, so maybe I get to live forever since you aren't forgiving me anytime soon."
"Back to being a smart mouth. I should report you and get your driver's license revoked." he spats again.
"You wouldn't." I'm kept my eyes on him because he really just might do it.
"It would be a piece of cake actually." his lips twitched and now my brows creased as he closes the distance between him and my hospital bed.
"Why do you even care? You made yourself clear that you don't want anything to do with me anymore so what the hell is your problem now?"
My head is still throbbing and he isn't helping.
"My problem? You're my problem, you made your life my business the moment you entered my life and there's no way you're going out. You're going to have to spend the rest of your life making it up to me."
And if I'm shocked now, Andy, Carlo and Mike's faces actually mirrors mine. And my headache isn't helping me process his words because as much as I understood his every word, it's not getting in. It's not.. it's not.. what the hell did he just say?
"Excuse me?" my hearing isn't impaired from the crash right? But maybe because of my headache I'm really just imagining and hearing things. But the look on everyone's faces tells me otherwise.
"You may go." he gestured towards the emergency room exit.
Is he being sarcastic right now? He's got that much time on his watch?
"Huh. Maybe I'm not the one who got her head pounded by the crash. Baka ikaw yung may sira sa ulo? Andy, paki tawag mo nga uli yung doktor just to check on Mr. Villarama here." I answered him back. He's not to be sarcastic with me and not get it back.
"Uh guys, can we just chill?" Andy tries to lighten the atmosphere.
If I'm not lying here with a headache I might just smack his head with a pillow to make him come back to his senses.
"Why? You don't like hearing these words from me? I'm being brutally honest when you don't deserve it for lying to me."
"Lying to you?"
"Yes!" he shouts.
"You're unbelievable. You're really going to pick a fight with a person who just got into an accident? I could have died and this is how you welcome me back?" I answered him with all the energy I have left. My adrenaline isn't lost.
"It's good that you know you could've died so how dare you put your life at risk like that?!"
"I didn't put my life at risk! I'm not suicidal! I was just driving! It happened in a race track where in your vocabulary a race car driver should slow down and drive like a fucking turtle! Of course I drove fast! Accidents happen Kev!"
"Guys, please." Awat ni Andy because I can already hear the murmurs of people in this ER with our shouting.
But he isn't Kevin Villarama if he listened.
"You don't get to die on my watch. You don't get to give me a rush when I ran like fucking Tarzan on that track. You just don't." his tone is firm and domineering.
"Ran like fucking Tarzan, huh? Do you even realize what you're doing right now?" my head's all over the place. I don't need him giving me false hopes and confusing me like this.
"I'm about to start something that you ended with me. I ain't done. I'm just about to press the green light."
"Aren't you forgetting something though?" I taunt him. He's engaged to another woman. He's promised.
"I'm not forgetting anything. I'm just about to go and settle it. So get your ass treated until I get back." he smirked at me as he raised his finger at me to make a point and I'm so close that I want to break it.
He dismissed me but I won't let him leave like that, I removed the pillow on my head and threw it at his direction on his way out and cursed at him.
Nagpaalam din si Carlo at nagbilin na magpahinga ako saka sumunod kay Kevin.
By the time they were gone, my breathing is fast and unstable. He will always have that effect on me. I want to punch that smirk off his face.
"This is going to be interesting." Mike laughed.
"Babe not you too." Andy warned him.
"What? Don't tell me you didn't miss the bickering of these two? Nabibingi na ako sa hindi nila pag-uusap eh."
"How did he know where I was?" I asked Andy because he said he was watching at the time.
"Well, he was on the phone the entire time we were talking at the resto." she bites her lip in guilt.
"What?" he heard our entire conversation? Maybe I should've smacked the pillow on Andy and not on Kevin.
"Well you two are not talking! You both needed the push especially you, Reena. Don't tell me hindi ka nakahinga ng maluwag ngayong alam na ni Kevin lahat?" pagpapaliwanag niya.
"Yes but that doesn't make any of this right. I told you Sabrina doesn't deserve any of this." my mind goes off to nowhere when I realized what Kevin had just told me what he would do.
"One way or another it's gonna end. If they haven't realized it yet, they soon will. And you're much more stupid if you think Kevin's really in love with her. If this goes on like this, hindi ko na alam kung saan ka pupulutin. You love Kevin and he loves you more than anything so why are you being stubborn when you know him and Sab wouldn't be happy no matter how much they try?"
"It's not that I'm being stubborn. I'm just so fed up with guilt and now I'm adding more to that plate. I started this and she got tangled along with it. How can I be truly happy knowing that I have to pay the price for it? Somebody's going to get hurt." my head is throbbing more and more. I need those pain relievers soon.
"Somebody's bound to get hurt kahit saang anggulo mo tingnan, Reena. You just have to find the ones worth suffering for." she says.
If she isn't the wisest woman in my life besides my mom I would consider all of what she said bullshit but that isn't the case and I know it.
"I'm going to hell." I closed my eyes in realization of what's happening.
"Don't worry, I'll be right there with you." she winked at me and we both laughed.
Mike was smiling, "I'm going to get you ladies something to drink. We should get you discharged soon and let's get dinner on the way."
KEVIN
"Anong plano mo?" tanong sa'kin ni Caloy habang nag dr drive ako pabalik sa field para ihatid siya sa kotse niya.
"A thousand of ways are running through my head but only one would work." I tell him.
He nodded, "Talking to Sabrina?"
He wouldn't be my brother and my right hand if he didn't know me, "yes." I answered.
I dropped him off and went to Andrada's Construction & Co., where Sabrina is the managing director - the same position as mine in my dad's company.
Dumeretso ako ng opisina niya knowing how late she finishes her works. She always does.
Kumatok ako at binuksan yung pinto.
Nakatutok siya sa laptop niya kaya hindi niya ako napansin.
"Hey." I made her notice my presence.
"Hi, I didn't expect you to be here." she smiled.
Yeah well, that makes both of us. I'm an asshole for doing this but I took Reena's accident today as a life warning that I should make a move soon because I may lose everything in a snap. I'm being awfully selfish but I will end up hurting Sabrina more if I keep this up.
"You don't usually come to my office especially in the middle of the night, what brings you here?" she asked me and I can't find the right words to tell her.
She must have read it in my eyes because her beaming eyes turned to sorrow in a second.
"I--" Fuck, this is harder than I thought it would be.
"Change of plans?" she asked me, a tear already forming in her eyes as she turned her back on me.
She's probably embarrassed pero ako dapat yung mahiya eh.
"Yeah." there's no point in dragging this out because we both know how this is going to end.
She doesn't say anything, "I'm sorry." my voice is soft. She's been nothing but kind and loving, she doesn't deserve any of this. But at the end of the day, we are all at fault here. We have our own lives and we always have a say in our decisions. She made hers and now I'm making mine.
She nodded her head in recognition, "What took you so long? Why did you have to keep my hopes up that you could love me too?" her back was still facing me.
I would have to ask Carlo to spar with me tonight to beat the shit out of me.
"It took me long enough to accept it. I'm just sorry that I couldn't do it sooner. You don't deserve this."
Better late than never, my subconscious talking back just proves how shitty of a person I am. But that's not news to anyone, I was never a good man. I never claimed to be. But for Reena, I want to be better for her. I only see her, I missed her so much that I want to get this over and done with and get the hell out of here but Sabrina doesn't deserve it that way.
I didn't know how long I waited for her to talk, because I am shitty in making conversations, if she's waiting for an explanation, there's only one; I love Reena more than life itself and I'd give everything right now to be with her. But I can't do that to her. I can't do that to my dad. And I can't do that to the company. So I will do my best to keep everything in place and I hope to God Sabrina is still up for negotiations on those lined up projects. I'm a fucking asshole.
"Okay. Wala akong magagawa. I can't force you, but are you ready for the consequences that this would do to your company?" she wiped her face and turned to face me.
"No, that's why I'm here. I know that I'm asking for too much but I can't let the company and my dad suffer. These contracts, these projects.. it's a breakthrough for the company. If you don't want me near those projects that's fine with me. I'll resign and let Carlo take over, but please set the personal matters aside for this." pakiusap ko sa kanya.
"You got these contracts on a personal way too. It was our engagement that binded these so why would I set those aside?" she isn't a businesswoman if she didn't do this. And as a businessman, I'd say she's right. But I won't take a no for an answer to this matter.
"I know," I nodded, "but I can't let my dad suffer for my mistakes and shortcomings. There are a thousand of employees in that company. I can liquidate all my shares and transfer it to your name if that would suffice for you." I am desperate but enough is enough. I want to keep Reena and I want to keep those projects to the company and to not disappoint my dad along the way.
She smiled sarcastically, "That would leave you with nothing."
"I've been through worse but I can't let those people suffer the consequences of my actions. I can put it in writing now to assure you." I offer.
She shook her head in disbelief, "You're really unpredictable Kevin Villarama. You can keep the people guessing, but never would they expect you to do this."
I didn't say anything because I already said everything that I need to.
She looked at me straight in the eyes, "You can keep the projects. I'll talk to my dad." she said dismissing me. She sat down on her chair like nothing just happened and resumed on working.
I took that as a goodbye from her. When I got into my car, I wanted to go to Reena as soon as possible but I need to clear my head first. So I drove to the cliff that Reena used to go to. I need the air and the view.