Chapter 39: Inevitable Past
JADE:
I was stunned by what I heard from my best friend.
All those years that we were together… All those times and memories – they were all shattered with just some drunken confession she made just now.
“So that was it? You hated me? You acted as my friend when you really hated me all along,” I spat bitterly back at her.
“Yeah! I hated how charming you were and how kind you still were even to those who were mean to you! I hated you for being a complete idiot! S-So when the madam said I should ruin you, I did!... I knew you went to Kix’s house. You and Kix must have done the deed then, right? All I needed was some photoshopped pictures of you and Kix… You were so easy to ruin!”
“You were wrong! That didn’t happen between me and Kix! I went to his house, but we didn’t do whatever filthy thing you had in mind.”
“S-So what? I was there when Kix shouted back at his parents. He said he was going to marry you and make you some luna or whatever. He said he will run away with you somewhere and never return. Do you know how hard that was for me to hear? Did you know how my heart broke itself into pieces?”
By this time, tears had streamed down like waterfalls over Dianna’s eyes. I was teary eyed too, but my tears wouldn’t fall out of spite. I clenched my fist firmly as I answered Dianna’s accusations.
“How about me? Do you know how I feel now? Do you know how hard it was to learn that Kix never gave up on me after all this time? Even worse, it was you! You were the one who started it all!”
Dianna was drunk, and I probably shouldn’t yell at her, but I just can’t stop myself for resenting her.
“Well, so what if you knew now? I tried my hardest to get over Kix. Now I like someone else, and you have to go and get him too! You’re really a slut, Ja-!”
Before I could control myself, my palm went flying towards Dianna’s face.
She staggered back a bit, perhaps surprised that I have hit her.
I looked back at my own raised palm. Why did I hit her?...
Was it because after all these years, I learned that she betrayed me? Was it because she secretly harbored ill feelings towards me and framed Kix for it? Or was it because she called me names that I didn’t deserve?
No… It was because her lies had made me give up on the one person I had loved for the past four years…
“You’re mean, Dianna… You’re mean… You don’t even know what you’ve done…”
This morning, I accepted another boy’s confession, and I quietly told myself to give up the love I had tried so hard to bury for a long time…
Now, I can’t go back to a promise I’ve made just because I learned this truth from Dianna.
“So, that’s all that happened,” I told Kix.
I simply told him Dianna got drunk and sprinted to the fire exit. I omitted the part where she confessed everything that had happened back in high school…
“Was that all? It was all that had happened, Jade?”
“Yup. I couldn’t leave Dianna here… She’s my best friend,” I said faintly, trying so hard not to look at Kix’s concerned face.
All those things that Dianna confessed, I will just take them all with me and bury them alongside my love for Kix…
This was what I thought, but maybe fate had a different idea.
“Hey, Kix… Now that I told her, you won’t be able to tattle on me, okay? I beat you to it now,” Dianna said from her stupor.
“What did you say,” Kix asked at Dianna who started rolling against the floor once more.
“Since I already told Jade that I started the rumor, you better make it up to me, okay?... Don’t tell me you’d kill me if I do something to her, okay?...”
Kix looked at me with eyes full of questions, and that’s when I knew I couldn’t deny it anymore…
**********************
KIX:
I looked at Jade, and based on the guilty expression on her face, Dianna’s words must be true…
Jade knew the truth now. She could be able to forgive me back then, right?
The bullying started a day after I invited Jade to my house.
We have been in a secret relationship for four month then. I was sure in my heart that I liked her, and she liked me…
The quarterly tests were coming. I offered to coach Jade with Math, while she offered to help me up with an art project; and so it happened. I invited her to my house and set up the planned review inside my room.
I was young then, very impulsive and very much in love. I veered away from the original purpose of our meeting and kissed her.
“K-Kix,” Jade said, out of breath from my kiss. I didn’t plan to become this intimate with her, but I can’t help it. Just one look at Jade, and I was sent into a wild frenzy.
“I-I’m sorry… I was an idiot…”
“No… This isn’t just your fault,” she said, straightening the glasses she was wearing at that time. “Um, let’s go back to studying, okay?”
I looked intensely at Jade’s flushed face. How can I possibly go back to studying after looking at her all so cute and embarrassed expression?
Maybe it was Riley who had already recognized her back then, or maybe it was just my burning desire to be near her. Anyway, I tried to listen to Jade’s advice, but as soon as my hand brushed at her fingertips once more, I ended up kissing her more fervently again.
“Ahh, Kix… please…”
My left hand started to travel to Jade’s black and silky hair, combing through its lengths as I removed her ponytail. My other hand snaked around her waist.
Before I knew it, my hand was coming inside Jade’s sweatshirt.
“I’m sorry, Jade… Forgive me…”
She was far too red. She covered her face in embarrassment.
I wanted to take my hand back away from the bare skin of her stomach. She was warm and soft to the touch that I wanted to squeeze at her tightly.
I wanted it… I wanted to mate with Jade.
“Oh God, no… I’m sorry,” I said, trying to get a hold of myself as Riley cried with the pure desire to be with her.
The mate bond hadn’t been in effect yet, but it would be in a couple of months when I turn nineteen. Jade was barely eighteen at that time. So why was Riley so adamant in marking her? Why was I feeling this way?
Jade was human… She can’t possibly be my fated mate. I’d have to part ways with her once I discover who my mate was…
And yet, I can’t imagine it. I can’t imagine falling in love with someone else or falling more intensely than I already was with my Jade.
Before I could completely pull away from her, she hugged me by the neck and returned my kisses.
I was filled with the nicest scent of lavender and baby’s breath. It felt like I was a wolf rolling in a field of flowers as I make out with my girlfriend and the love of my young life.
“Jade… will you allow me to do something today,” I said, swallowing shallowly in between our kisses.
“W-What is it,” she said nervously.
“Will you… Will you allow me to mark you?”
