Not responsible?

The next morning, Antonio woke up in the same familiar apartment as the previous day. He rubbed his eyes and temple simultaneously as he sat up in bed. This time, he noticed he was naked under the blanket. As she slapped his face trying to remember what had happened last night, he noticed dried blood stains on the bed. The spots on the bed were visible and not a lot.

His fingers glided on the dried stains. He cursed when a certain thought crossed his mind. "Fuck! I didn't... last night...I didn't...."

After excessively forcing himself on her until he fell asleep, Lia climbed out of bed and pulled one of the stained blankets to the restroom. Despite the soreness between her legs, she held in the pain and tossed the dirtied blanket into her washing machine.

As the washing machine turned on, she sat on the ground with loose bandages covering parts of her body. She chewed her thumb and watched the blanket spinning in circular motions. "Why...? Why is it so hard for me..? Why are you so cruel?"

Sobs filled the bathroom as she hugged herself on the cold tiled floor. After a while, she got up, removed the used bandages, and poured alcohol onto her wound on the back. Light reddish liquid drained down the sewers, but she didn't shed a tear nor chanted a sob. Her face remained dull as if she was deep in thought.

She rinsed parts of her body without touching her wound before bandaging it to the best of her abilities. When she finished, she stepped out of the bathroom to find Antonio awake. He didn't seem to recall what had happened last night. Nearly mocking him with a smirk, she leaned against her wall to steady herself.

"Awake?" When she followed his line of sight, she realized, she only took away the blanket with a large amount of blood-stained on it. She forgot to remove the bedsheet when he forcibly took her first time.

"Last night, we..." Antonio wanted to ask whether they've formed a relationship or not, but the words couldn't find their way out of his throat. he stuttered as he tried forming sentences to ask her this question. "I was pretty drunk, so I...I mean... There is blood on the bed...Were you hurt last night?"

"Antonio, if you want to ask if something happened between us last night, then the answer is yes. Because of this, we cannot be the same as before. You should leave. I don't want to see you here." Only she knew how much effort it took her to say these words.

Before this incident, she always found time to somehow see how he was doing. And now...Her emotions became a mess. She didn't know what to do at this point.

"Did I..to you...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that to you last night. I...I forced you and I-" Fragments of last night blurred in his mind. He couldn't remember their entire conversation, but he remembered being forceful with her and doing something he shouldn't have done.

"Don't talk about it anymore. Just get dressed and leave. Please. Just leave me alone. I don't know how to face you and I can't face you." She raised her palm, trembling as she recalled what happened the previous night.

"Sorry, I was drunk last night. I really didn't mean it. If I knew it was you, I wouldn't have done it to you." He clarified as he picked up his clothes and dressed under the blanket. Once he was done, he tried talking to her again.

"I know. You were drunk. What? Are you afraid I'd ask you to take responsibility for me? You're afraid I would do this and ruin your chances with Selina, aren't you? If that's the case, then you don't have to be scared because I don't need your sympathy. I don't need someone who doesn't love me to take responsibility for me because he forced himself on me. So, young master Liam, if you are done here, please leave."

Lia walked toward her apartment door and opened it for him to leave. As he approached her, she squeezed herself between the gap of the door and the wall next to it. She closed her eyes until she heard his sigh and footsteps going further down the hallway.

Minutes later, she received a text from Antonio.

A text message from Antonio: I am really sorry for what happened between us last night. If there is anything I can do to make it up to you, let me know. If I can do it, I will do it. But as for last night, please don't tell anyone about it. It will be bad for both of us if someone found out, especially my dad.

She replied: Understood.

Seconds later, her alarm rang and she turned it off. She whispered, "Right...I forgot. I am Selina's personal assistant until this mission is over. Hah...So I will see him more often. What torment. If only I can leave here and go to a place by myself...If only I can be free...How great would that be?"

- 1 week later -

"Oh my gosh! These wedding dresses look too amazing on you two!" Selina and Jessica clapped as they saw Celinda and Kyla walking out in their wedding gowns. The uniquely laced embroider around their waist made their baby bumps barely noticeably. Since both of them were pregnant, they couldn't wear high heels at their wedding.

Luckily, they were holding the wedding together. With all the wedding planning, both brides-to-be were exhausted. After trying on multiple outfits, they practically wanted to sleep on the couches in the resting lounge.

Selina chuckled, "if you two are tired, we can postpone this to another day. Your measurements were taken anyway. They just need to know which dresses you two want to choose."

"Hell no! We've postponed so many times because we slept through the appointment timing like a pig. We finally came here, so everything must be decided today! Besides, we wouldn't want to postpone our wedding!" Celinda smoothed out the wrinkles on her outfit.

"True. Our wedding date is set to be a week or so away. We should really have our outfits chosen today, so it will give them enough time to make adjustments to the outfits." Kyla commented as she devoured the pound cake in front of her.

"I'm surprised you two set the date earlier than planned. Before, your wedding date was around an extra three weeks away from the current wedding date." Jessica sucked on her lollipop as she leaned back on the couch.

"Well, Bryan and Isaac were afraid that we'll be too tired to go through with the wedding. So, we had the dates changed." Celinda rubbed her abdomen as she responded to their questions.

"Hmm, by the way, Jess. Why haven't you touched the popcorn chicken yet? You always loved the popcorn chicken and we went there purposely to get it for you. Don't you normally dislike sweets? You're sucking on a lollipop." Selina pointed at the untouched box of popcorn chicken on the table.

Before heading to the wedding studio, the girls stoped by multiple places to get their preferred foods.

Jessica hummed when she stared at the popcorn chicken. "I think I might have eaten too much oily food recently. My stomach feels bloated and my period is coming soon. So, I think I will save this for later. The sourness of this lollipop makes me feel better, so I'm good eating this."

"Oh.." Suddenly all three of them had a common thought in their mind. However, none of them said it to Jessica.