CHAPTER 48

Genesis's POV

          I trudged back from the library tiredly. It was a Saturday. An uneventful Saturday. One I spent in the college library studying for very long hours. My back throbbed and my feet felt heavy. I could hardly move them across the ground as I toiled back to my dorm to lay my head and hopefully replenish the energy lost.

As I passed by the cafeteria, the smell of freshly baked doughnuts filtered through my nose, instantly making my mouth water. My stomach made a grumbling noise and I was almost tempted to walk in there and purchase a ton but then I was saving up for something more important.

I rounded the door to my room and my hand caught on the handle. I twisted the knob and the door opened. I made to walk into the room when a suspicious sound made me halt. For a split second, I stood with slit eyes and listened with straining ears. The sound was coming from inside the room. It came off like a needy moan coupled with some low, rough grunts tossed with a few curse words. Then it finally clicked. I gasped, completely taken aback.

I rushed to leave the room immediately then the mirror reflected the ripped and stone-carved back of the person on top of her, on her bed, aggressively driving into her and my mouth hung open in surprise and confusion.

How?

I retracted and closed the door gently so as not to interrupt their privacy any further. I hurriedly exited the hall, my mind reeling from what I saw. Lana and...and... I chuckled slightly, shaking my head, still recovering from the shock. Lana sure had a lot of surprises. I never saw that one. No way.

My feet took me to the park which I had come to truly love. It was quickly becoming one of my favorite places to go to, after the beach. It was my first time going alone today. The other times, I came with Dario and we usually spend the day under an apple tree till the sun disappeared from the sky. I went over to our usual spot and sank down on the bench and watched the happenings in front of me.

It was freezing. I shivered and pulled my coat tighter around me. I blinked the snowflakes from my eyes, straining them to to see through the blurred white and black of the winter night. Winter is a true narcissist. A female beauty, wrapped in white mink, so enchanting. Her beauty, destructive. She is the widow of fall. Her frosty breath strips all green from the land. I smiled to myself and leaned back on the chair, resting my head on the bench head.

A memory flashed into my head. I turned my head to stare at the apple tree. Then, I stood up and walked over to it. Once standing close enough, I ducked down. My eyes came upon the small stone-carved letters engraved onto the bark of the tree. My mouth crooked into a small smile.

"I love coming here." I turned over to look at him. His green eyes were already gazing at me with so much glee and a gaiety smile to go along with it.

"Me too." He said, agreeing with me and snaking his arm around my neck as we walked through the green paths.

I placed my hand on the arm curled around my neck. "One of my professors today lectured wildly about love, yelling, 'When you're in love with someone, that person is the lighthouse of your universe. I swear he literally tore his hair out while howling at us. He went on, 'Nothing means as much without that person. One of the guys in the class repeated , incredulous, half-laughing, 'So you're saying you can't enjoy like, a vacation, without someone if you're really in love with them?' 'Of course not', the professor replied. 'Not completely. You recognize beauty, but beauty means less if they don't I witness it with you. Like you see something sublime and your first thought is that they should be there with you. It's not as good without them. I agree with him. They illuminate. They make everything more."

"That's a whole lotta crap."

"You don't believe in love?"

"No." He keeked at me then went on. "It is built on irrationality and I don't believe in it."

We reached our spot and sat down on the bench. I asked, "Why do you say so?"

He glanced at me and averted his eyes almost immediately, "Someone I know killed herself because she couldn't go on living without her husband. She left her only son to fend for himself alone and preferred hurling her body over the balcony of their home to her death."

I winced. "That's horrible. Well, I do believe in love. Love is beautiful, selfless, pure, unconditional and kind. Have you been in love before?"

He narrowed his eyes in my direction, causing me to laugh.

I shoved his arm and he fell to the side. "Tell me."

He chortled and spoke quietly, as usual. "Yeah. I have loved a girl before. Once. But it wasn't...fierce. It wasn't deep. More like an attraction."

"So you didn't love her enough to die for her."

"No. It didn't make me wanna rip my chest open and hand my heart over to her, on a silver platter, or jump off a freaking balcony."

My eyes caught on a small stone and a bulb lit up over my head. I bent and picked it up. Dario came at my side.

"What you doing?"

I chuckled, glancing at him, without responding, letting him watch instead. I went over to the tree and crouched. Then I began writing on the tree bark with the stone's sharpest edge. When I was done, I let him see.

He came closer and ducked down beside me, narrowing his eyes to look at what I had carved.

"Genesis was here?" He turned to me and burst out in laughter.

I tossed the stone to him. His brows raised higher.

"Your turn." I giggled. "Write yours."

He stared at me briefly. I thought he was going to decline and shove it away but then he gripped the stone in his fingers and began making inscriptions on the tree right under mine.

Then he was done. I leaned over to look more closer.

                                  Dario was here

I smiled and traced my fingers over the letters.

My phone's ringtone was what snapped me back to reality. I fidgeted and instantly turned around. The park was empty now. Everyone had left. I rose up from the floor. My phone still rang inside my pocket. I took it out and picked the call immediately.

"Hi." The person said. "Can we talk?"

I frowned. "Who's this?" I quickly glanced at the screen but didn't recognize the number.

"I'm sorry. I'm Miranda. We met a few times."

"Oh. Uh, hi."

"Can we meet up? I...I need to speak with you. Please."

"First of all..." I chuckled slightly. "How did you...?"

She replied in a rush. "I took it from Keegan."

"Oh. He gave it to you."

"No. I stole it."

"Oh, you...you stole it from his phone? That means you know him."

She pressed on. "I need to talk to you."

I didn't know what to say, most likely because I had nothing to say.

"Can we meet? And talk? Please?"

"Okay." I agreed. "When and where?"

"Tomorrow. Tomorrow would be fine. 3:00pm at the cafeteria."

"Okay."

She hung up.

I grabbed my things from the bench and started the walk to my dorm, thinking of what she wanted to say to me that couldn't be said over the phone.

***

"So you and Ian, huh?" I turned over to face her, throwing my pillow at her. It struck her on her head and fell to the floor.

"Hey! Would you stop? You're messing up my hair." She complained and began stroking it before going on with her make-up.

"I didn't know you and Ian are a thing." I hurled another pillow at her.

"Genesis!"

I laughed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She sighed. "Because there was absolutely nothing to tell. Who told you about him and I anyway?"

"I saw you too earlier today." I stretched and turned so I could have a better look at her. "I mean I know it was your private moment and all but I bumped into you two. I mean there's no way I should have known you were with someone and..."

"Genesis." She released a breath. "You don't need to explain. That wasn't meant to happen anyway."

"What do you mean?"

She stared at me through the mirror while applying her eyeliner over her lashes. "Ian and I used to be like...fuck buddies while still in high school. My brother didn't know I was sleeping with one of his best friends. He would have gone crazy and called him out. It would have been disastrous. It went on and on and on till I started to date my boyfriend. It was just mindless sex. Then he went and fell for me. Long story short, my ex set us up to catch us red-handed and that's it."

"Wow. Looks like old habits didn't go away."

"Yeah. Today would surely never happen again though so you don't have to worry about me bringing guys to our room. I prefer fucking them in theirs anyway."

My phone rang. It was mom.

"Hi." I cheered. "Mom, how are you?"

"Sweety, did Jace tell you I am planning on coming over to see you? I told him to."

"Oh yes, he did. When will it be?"

She chuckled, "Let me surprise you." I laughed.

We talked a bit more. Then she hung up.

"Your mum?"

I looked over to Lana. "Yeah, she's planning on coming over." I told her happily.

She cringed and stood up, grabbing her purse from her vanity of make-up products, perfumes and body lotions. "Please tell me when she gets here. I could bet on my boobs she still has it hot for me."

"She haven't tried to get to know you. She is only judging you based on what she sees and you always run away from her."

"Yeah, right. You coming? It's gonna be worth it."

I laid back on the sheets and stretched my hands. "Nah, I'll pass. I'm a bit stressed out."

She scoffed. "Suit yourself. You gonna miss a whole lotta fun shit though. And now that you are single, I coulda coupled you up with the sexy ones but oh well."

I hummed in response and closed my eyes till I heard the doors close. Sincerely, that was what I was avoiding. Her, trying to pair me with some guy I have zero interest knowing. She'd tried twice and I simply didn't want her trying again.

My phone beeped while it charged. I tossed and stretched my hand to get to it. I took a quick glance and couldn't stop the gaiety smile that started to form on my lips.

I can't see you around.

I frowned and sat up. Around where?

The party. I don't like the noise. Saw your roomie and I thought you'd be with her.

I smiled wildly. Do you want me to come , over?

He replied immediately. Do you want to come over?

I want to know if you want me to. Do you?

His reply came in a few minutes later, unlike his previous messages which I received as soon as I hit the send button. It was a single reply but it was all I wanted to hear.

Yeah.

***

Beer bottles were strewn across the lawn, waiting for someone to make a disastrous fall. I almost did. I roamed my eyes around. Mostly everyone was drunk or tipsy. I noticed a few people in clusters sitting around outside either making out, dancing somewhere, drinking or just talking. As I stepped over the gut-wrenching mess, I reached the front door and didn't bother knocking. It was left wide open for just anyone to waltz in. It was hot and sticky and jam-packed and smelled of sweat, sex and urine. I cringed badly, squeezing through the slimy bodies of wasted teens and adults as loud, thumping music shoved me into a state of temporary deafness.

I pushed through the crowd, checking each face for any resemblance of Dario's. Then I thought calling him would be easier than trying to find him against the busty crowd. I buried my hands inside my pocket and almost cried out. I had left my phone back in my room, still charging while rushing out. I sighed heavily. Someone shoved a beer in front of my face and I refused it immediately. The person rolled her eyes and went away.

Far off into the lounge, I spotted Lana with a group of seniors, drinking and laughing. I wanted to go hang out with her but stopped. Erika was amongst them. Since our bathroom scene, I have been trying as much as possible in avoiding her totally. I noticed the guy sitting beside her. Ian. They were staring at each other like they wanted to rip each other's clothes off. I smiled, wishing she wasn't fighting it so much if she was really into him. Ian seemed like a good guy, though I haven't had a decent conversation with him but he saved me from almost getting raped. So far, he was in my good book.

I wrenched my nose in disgust of the nasty smell that hung in the air and turned in the direction of the stairs. I decided to go up to Dario's room. The banister was stained with something greasy and the staircase was littered with beer cans and bottles of liquor. I stepped over the pink-haired boy laying unconsciously on the stairs and the girl resting on his chest. I wished people didn't drink like this, up to the point they become useless, even to themselves. Maybe this was fun to them. People had their own perception of what fun should be.

As I rounded the corridor, I noticed the empty space. There were more people down than up, except for the few sex sounds I would catch here and there, from different rooms. I made my way up to the second floor and then I remembered there was an elevator I should have used to get up. It had months since I came here. Breaking up with Keegan, there was no reason to be here anymore. I reached the second floor in no time and was about sauntering further into the hallway when a prolonged, low, inarticulate sound made me freeze. Instinctively, I turned my attention to where the sound uttered from. The dim lights shone down on two people further down the hall, leaned up against the wall, performing the art of sex. I instantly recognized him but what shocked me more was the girl he was thrusting into.

***

I'm so sorry for the late chapter. I made sure this was much more longer than the last. Quick question, who do you think she saw having sex? I would love to know your thoughts on this.

Please, don't forget to vote if you loved this chapter.

Next update might be in the week.

Happy New Month!