Chapter 2
(Sterl’s POV)
“Please tell us if he is your boyfriend!” Vile ask me – again for how many time this past two weeks. I keep my mouth shut about this issue just because my cousin told me so. But not anymore, with this two keep on bugging me about my relationship with Carlo, especially Vanessa. I really thought she would avoid me for thinking that Carlo and I are together, but instead, she was eager on knowing and telling me that she will support us. Though I know it hurts her, I could see it in her eyes every time they ask me about our true relationship. So I decided to tell them, just them. Carlo would kill me if anyone else will know.
“Alright…” I start as I sigh. “We’re not together alright? It’s just him. He wanted me to keep my mouth shut and let everyone guess what our relationship is. He’s my cousin.” I say and they slump their shoulder down as if expecting for a big answer. I grin and nudge at Vanessa.
“At least, you know now that you have a chance. Just make him notice you” I say and a mild blush creeps into her neck till it reaches her face. She was about to protest when the bell signaling our first class is about to start rang. She glared at me but we started to walk towards our first class.
As we enter our class, I see Romero with the name of Capulet – think about Juliet. But he keeps on insisting to be called Romero. I can still see the fading bruise in his left cheek. The bruise I gave him. I would always smirk at him every time we meet, and he would always give me a glare. But he knows well not to mess with me, unless he wants to get more bruises. Talking about our fight, I never got the chance to say thank you to our principal. I felt like what she did to Romero was not because of our fight but because of what he did. As we take our seat at the back, I can still see Romero giving me glares. I glared back at him but he didn’t look away.
“What are you looking at JULIET?!” I snap. His eyes are annoying to stare at. He scowled at the nickname as everyone laughed. His face is fuming with rage but even before he could make a move, the teacher entered the room. I snorted but didn’t say anything taunting to him.
“Standing up against Romero? Pretty brave of you Pearl.” Patrick whispers. I shrugged and gave him a smile. Him calling me Pearl in my whole existence here in this school – I got pretty used to it. Though I feel pity for Patrick, his girlfriend died in the day I entered this school. They say she was murdered, that explains why he was wearing those glasses.
The class soon ended, doing the usual. Study, then lunch, then finds time to annoy Romero, study again, then hang out with friends, then go home. But as soon as Vile, Vanessa and I parted ways. I feel loneliness overcome me immediately; it was like darkness covering me. Being alone makes me reminisce my past, and Carlo is in football practice. I sigh but continued my pace. As soon as I reach the house, it even felt lonelier. I saw a note on the table and reach for it. It says that Karen she had to fly out of town for a business trip. I sigh and put it back at the table. I think of things to do to escape this feeling and memories rushing back at me.
I stay at my bed curling up in a ball as I hug the pillow. I hate being alone, so I resort on making myself fall asleep. Soon, drowsiness engulfs me.
I wake up from a warm body enveloping me. I roll my eyes and push Carlo’s heavy arm out of my body – he’s suffocating me if I may add. I got up and glance at the clock and it says quarter to four. I grab a jacket and my flute and headed to the door.
It’s been long since the last time I came here at my safe place. I call it safe because of the peacefulness it gives me, with just the running water of the river and the sweet chants of the air breeze. It took me a while to walk in the woods before reaching that place. I follow the river till I saw the huge rock I sit on to play my flute, but I see someone there. I instantly recognize it as Patrick. He is looking at the sky with those sad eyes. I’m guessing it’s about his girlfriend, I heard they love each other so much.
I was ready to walk back, giving him time alone. But even before I could turn around, he looked at me and smiled. He motioned me to go sit with him. I nod and walk towards the rock. I sit and just stayed there, listening to the breeze and the water flowing rapidly.
“Will you play?” he asks suddenly, making me shot my head up. I nod and pull my flute out from my back pocket. I breathe in and out before playing. I play it for almost 5 minutes. It was a composition of my mother; she plays it to me every night before I go to sleep. Eventually, she taught me how to play and gave me the chords of it.
“Thanks for that. It relaxes me” I look at him and nodded. He smiled and I returned the gesture. Soon we were talking non-stop, sharing his life as I share mine. Talking about stupid things and such that I forgot what time it is already. Carlo might wake up any minute now. I sigh and look at Patrick.
“Need to go now. Carlo’s going to kill me if he finds out I’m not in bed.” I say. He raises his brow and smirk. I widen my eyes at what I said. Carlo is really going to kill me now that I basically told Patrick that we live in the same roof and are family.
“I see, your boyfriend is such a possessive creature.” I hung my mouth open. Is he really thinking that I and Carlo are together? But then again, it’s better than him knowing. Carlo may be sweet and caring but he also got anger issues, he used to drink pills to calm him down. I shrug and told Patrick that I would head off. He insisted on walking me home, but I refused.
I got home and was face with an angry Carlo leaning his back at the counter table. I look down at the ground and said sorry. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
“I told you to tell me where you are so you won’t worry us. Don’t do it again” he said sternly. I nodded and headed to my room, planning to sleep all day since it is weekend. But that of course is ruined by my dearest cousin. He barge in my room even before I could sit at my bed. I groan as my but touch the comfort of the mattress. He forces me to go with him in the mall and I nodded. I haven’t been to the mall ever since I came here, so why not take a sight of what they got?
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“Hey Carlo” another girl said. That girl must be the hundredth of them. Ever since we step inside this mall, all I could hear were hey here, hey there. Is my cousin really that popular? But aside from those girls (even guys) saying hi and flirting a little to him I would always get a scowl or a glare. I would just roll my eyes to them and walk away, and soon Carlo would notice and ran to me. It was fun, especially when I am far away from him and is able to hide. He would panic in searching, asking someone while describing me, and always, he would show them my height as a description.
Strolling here in the mall is fun. Window shopping, go to arcades and play, buy ice cream and such. Soon we were tired and sitting at one of the benches here when a tall pretty blonde girl stands in front of us, hands on her hips and a glare directing to Carlo. I eyed them both and Carlo was sort of fidgeting in his seat while looking everywhere except to the girl. After a minute or so of the girl glaring at Carlo, she turns her attention to me and I blink innocently. She smiles and wipes her hands in her mini-skirt, I thought she would shake hands with me but then I was wrong. Because as soon as she’s done wiping her hands, it came crossing my cheeks making my mouth to hang in shock and pain.
“You slut! Whore! Bitch! Boyfriend stealer and a fag! Stay away from my man and go to hell! …” she started screaming like an insane person while pointing her finger at me. Carlo grabbed her and pushed her away from me, making her stumble to the ground.
“Shut up! You have no right to do that!” Carlo yelled and looked at me, cupping my face in his big hands, looking over my entire face asking if I was alright. And no I’m not, I’m hell of confuse as to why she did that. I don’t even know her. I look at her and she was crying in the ground. The crowd was watching the whole while. Carlo started to drag me away from the crowd after glaring at the girl who’s still crying her eyes out. My cheek is still stinging from the slap she gave me. I glared at Carlo the whole time we arrive at the house, he knows something about it and I bet it has something with the ‘act-like-we’re-not-cousin’ act…
“Who is she and why did she do that to me?” I ask. He looked at me and prop himself in his sit.
“That’s my ex.” He says. “She told me that I act so gay in our relationship because I don’t want to have sex with her. It’s just because I don’t want to do it without being sure that she is the one… and then one day, she ranted about our relationship and insulted me of not being the ideal boyfriend in front of her friends and everyone at their school. I was so hurt by what she did. I thought she loved me… So I worked hard to make sure she will regret what she did, I became a quarterback, got muscles, became popular, a top student. And so far, my plan worked. It was when we met at the mall with her new boyfriend, she didn’t recognize me at first and gives me wink all the time, after a while she recognize who I was. Then she followed me and told me that she want us back, I told her that I’ll think of it, then you came, so I told you not to tell we’re cousins and I’m sorry for that, knowing you might get offended. She wanted me back and would always flirt so I told her that you and I are boyfriends. She got mad at that and became all possessive and telling me I’m hers. Then she transferred at our school two days ago, and saw us together…” he finish.
I narrowed my eyes at him and wanted to be offended but I don’t know how, so I laughed at his child-like attitude for getting revenge. And to think he would use his own cousin.
“so you used me…” I say while pouting and making my eyes water acting like I am about to cry. He scurried to his feet and kneeled in front of me, wariness written in his face.
“No! I would never use you, I mean I like you Sterl… I like you more than a cousin should.” He barely whispered the last part. And I was stunned by what he said. He likes me more than a cousin should? What does he mean? I stare at him longer than I intended to, and I was drawn to how serious his eyes are. He starts to move his head closer to mine as my breath becomes shallow. Just inches more and our lips would touch but the doorbell rang, putting me back to realization. I push him away from me and he sat at the floor, his eyes showed emotions; anger, pain. I hurry to my feet and opened the door and greeted by my friends. The guilt was starting to build up on me for almost kissing Carlo. And the guilt burrowed deeper when I saw Vanessa, I feel like I betrayed her.
I took deep breaths before smiling at them and ran to my room. We mostly just played and fooled around. But the whole time, I can’t keep my mind from what happened a while ago with Carlo.
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“So, we meet again.” Patrick said as he got closer in the rock. He showed up after I was done playing my flute. I notice he wasn’t wearing any shirt on and I blush, thanking the gods out there that it was still dawn hiding my crimson face. He sits beside me and we begin to talk a lot more and know each other. And soon, we headed home to prepare for school.
At school we had the same routine but with Carlo constantly following me behind, waiting for me to talk to him. Some would ask me what happened between us but I would just tell them that he’s busy.
At lunch Patrick would also join us and meet my friends. We would talk non-stop even in class. He decided to change his seat and would sit beside me and we would talk. We were like best friends in an instant. He offered that he would drive me home and I agreed, since Carlo has a football practice today and considering the situation we’re in, I’m going to be alright walking.
We arrived at my house with him laughing and chatting all along. He said he hadn’t moved on about Alyssa, and he would love her until he finds his mate. I laughed at him of how very twilight he sounds and he laughed nervously.
Surprisingly, even though I was alone. I never felt the darkness engulf me. Maybe because I thought of Carlo all the time and thinking of what I would do with him. I sigh and let sleep take over me.