Chapter 5

The moment he finished that sentence, I felt like I froze because of what he said. I thought he would call me Zee all the time? I mean hmm what happened? he's sad because I tend to avoid him as much as I can but I don’t get it? Why would he react that way? I mean yeah I don’t want to assume so maybe I'm just overthinking things and he just hates the fact that someone’s awkward with him, right.

"Mmm? What do you mean?" I asked smiling at him.

"Look, don't try to deny it when you were passing through the corridor, we were supposed to meet at the middle of the corridor but you avoided me many times, I know because our eyes met even for a second. I was trying to approach you but I never had the chance. Tell me, is there something wrong? Did I offend you or something? Come on” he explained.

Okay, I’m right, he just hates the fact that someone’s avoiding him so please Kaye? Stop overthinking things, it won’t do any better for you. I don’t know where I got my strength to tell him the reason but yeah here it is.

“I’m just shy, I mean, maybe you tend to believe what Bryce was telling you about the idea of you and me, you know, I’m just scared,” I said, to be honest, I don’t really want the idea of us being awkward when someone’s there like I don’t want any problems with him.

“Oh, about that, don’t worry, it’s all nothing to me, besides, I know him, he just likes to fool around and I just had to talk with him about that so he would stop” he explained.

Somehow, I felt relieved because he doesn’t care about it but at the same time, I can still feel the pain here in my chest, so all along, he just have to jive with Vince so that, he would stop? Oh, what an idea and one more thing, it hurts so much because he didn’t let me answer. I know I need to stop, this is not nice.

We just talked until Kuya Gene arrived to pick me up, I said goodbye to them and then we immediately got home.

Days passed by and all I did was to think about the upcoming party that will be held at weekends, today is Saturday, meaning, this is the day of our party. Finally, I waited so long for this, actually, I can still enjoy the pool anytime I want but for me, the feeling’s different when you have friends with you.

I told them to come here by 9 o'clock because I think that the maids will be done preparing at that time. I know it’s too early for a party but that’s because we need to enjoy our Saturdays, this is the only time left for us before we do our own tasks.

Tomorrow, they will leave here at 5 pm, we sacrificed 5 hours of our stay here to study, of course, this is our time to relax but we think, Saturday’s already enough and we also need to prepare for academics.

After how many hours, they came one by one, Aaliyah came first, and then Vince and company said that they will arrive a little late because they will go first to Bryce’s place to pick him up.

"Girl omg, I missed your house and as well as Aunt's cooked foods," Aaliyah said.

Yep, they are always here in my house and they were always lucky enough because when they come over, my mom’s always here so she cooks food for us but it‘s all in the past now.

“Lucky you, you only miss mom’s food but for me, I really do miss her, she’s not coming home for almost two weeks now so I have no choice but to stay here in my house alone, oh I mean with ate’s,” I told her.

"Don't worry Kaye, now that we’re here, we'll make everyone happy" she said smiling at me.

I felt so lucky because I know, I have them through thick and thins. Even though my parents are not always here to make me happy, they always go on to the picture just to fill in the gaps. Their presence makes me happy and our laughter makes every time with them memorable.

Time passed by and finally, Vince together with Bryce and our other friends arrived safely. I just said hi to him and then he responded.

The first thing that we did was to eat, we all had kinds of seafood here and yep, the food was decided also by all of us, I asked them about the foods that they want and this is the most requested one.

While we were eating, we were happily talking to each other, and to be honest, it really feels good, meeting them was unexpected, even Danica, Zander, and Bryce are all enjoying it.

After a long series of events, we decided to add the three people here officially in our squad, they say, the more the merrier, I'm not actually against the idea but I just find it really awkward, imagine, we're all in the same circle now and I kinda have something for Bryce, I don't know maybe thinking about these things isn't allowed now because this is our vacation so I just let that passed.

After we ate lunch, we went to our own rooms, we only had two rooms in total, for the girls and the boys one, my room is occupied for us girls white the boys occupy one of our guest room.

We all changed our clothes, we are all now wearing a black bikini, we didn't actually plan this and we all got surprised when we saw each other. Aside from our bikinis, we also have a silk bathrobe, mine is black while their bathrobes are all white.

When I saw Danica in the corner of the room, I got shocked a little bit, she's so sexy, her curve's pretty, it's perfect. Before we go down, Aaliyah said, she's going to the comfort room so Brianna, Audrey, and Leah went down first because I'm still fixing my things, meaning, Danica and I are both in my room, it feels awkward.

I don't know how to approach her so I remained quiet, I just continued what I am supposed to do but after how many minutes, she talked.

"So hi, I want to formally introduce myself to you, I am Danica and I'm an architect student like Vince," she said, and then she smiled at me. I don't want to judge her but it feels like she's giving me her sweet but fake smile or I don't know, am I just overthinking again? Urgh, whatever.

"hmm I am Kaye, my course is civil engineering " after I said that, I just gave him a small smile.

After our introduction session, Aaliyah finally went out of the bathroom so, we all decided to go down now to start the party.

When we all go down, I saw the boys enjoying the pool except for Bryce because he was still seating at the bench, putting on his sunblock. When he was satisfied with the amount of sunblock he put, he immediately removed his bathrobe, and can I just say that he's hot while he's doing that? I mean, urgh, fine, I saw abs. I just removed my gaze I don't want him to know that I'm looking at him.

We played volleyball at the pool and then when everyone got tired, we decided to chill, since his place is so big, we chose our own space here in the pool area. I chose the stairs in the pool, as my area because I did some floating while they are all talking about something.

We just treasured every moment, when we all got tired, we decided to get out of the pool and take a bath. When everyone was ready, we all went to the theater room to watch some movies. I let them pick the movie that we are going to watch because I went out to get some liquors and lemon as a chaser. I chose Cuervo and I also carried some ice with me.

To be honest, it's almost a month since I went to the bar and drink, I don't even know the taste of the alcohol by now but let's just see. When I get back, Vince was operating the projector, he knows how to do it since he's always the one preparing it even just before.

They chose to watch my ex and whys, I already watched that a couple of times but I just let them pick that. While watching the movie, I can't help but to look at Bryce, he's extra quiet today so I'm a bit worried for him.

When the movie ended, all of them are still teary-eyed while I'm just laughing at them. After the movie ended, we didn't want to watch another one because we got bored immediately so we just played the truth or shots thing. A good thing, there's a piece of bottle furniture here so I didn't have to go out to grab some bottle.

Zander was in charge of spinning the bottle, on his first spin, it landed on Danica's place and the person opposite her is Leah so Leah would be the one to ask Danica.

"Danica, do you have a crush on anyone here?" Leah asked.

She didn't answer, instead, she drinks the shot in the glass, Anyway, after her, Vince and Audrey took their shots, anyway, we're allowed to drink anytime so maybe they want to have a hangover so I just let them do what they want.

Vince immediately teased Danica about the shot, now, he thinks that Danica likes him, which is not true so her face now is so funny, she's cute even if she's not cringing.

When Zander made another spin, it was now landed on my place and the person opposite me was Bryce so he will be the one who would throw a question to me.

"Do you already have a first kiss?" He asked grinning at me. I felt some heat on my cheeks, meaning, I'm a bit shy, I hold the shot glass, they thought I would drink it but I just answered the question, I'm not afraid to answer it because the answer is none.

The question and answer portion went well, the topic was a bit SPG so I didn't listen to them because it's kinda awkward for me to hear about those things though I know that what happens here, says here, I don't know, I'm not really open about things like that.

When they realized that it was already late, they stopped the game, they are all now drunk except for me, Bryce, and Leah. Leah and I were rained about the alcohol tolerance so mine was a bit high while Leah's tolerance is higher We just accompany them to go to their respective rooms because for me, I think, they're going to collapse anytime.

When we arrived at my room, I fixed first where they would sleep, of course, we can't all sleep in the same bed because it's not good enough so I had to prepare the foam for them so that they will also have a good sleep. When I finished everything I'm doing, Leah and I just talked, I told her about the introduction thing about Danica and as expected, she said that I'm just overthinking things.

I went down to fix the theater room, it was really messy and for sure, my mom would kill me when she sees this mess. After I fixed everything, I just went to the bathroom to do my skincare routine and then I changed my clothes, I'm now wearing my sleepwear. When I went out of the bathroom, I saw Leah already sleeping, she didn't make it to go upstairs anymore so I woke her up.

Since I know that even though I'll go to bed by now, I still won't be able to sleep that fast, I went to the kitchen to get some low-fat milk and after a few seconds, I felt someone walking, when I look at it, it was Bryce, he went to the pool area. Since I got curious, I went to his place and I also brought some low-fat milk for him.

When I arrived at his place, I saw him sitting near the pool and his feet were on the water. I sat down beside him and then I offered the milk, he immediately gets it without looking at me, later on, when his gaze turned on me, I got shocked because I saw his lonely eyes.

"Are you okay? Is there something wrong?" I asked.

He let out a deep breath before giving me a small smile. I don't know but I felt like his problem is really heavy, I can see that through his eyes.

"You know what, I can't just say that it's okay when in fact I know that your problem is something deep, so come on Bryce, tell me your problem because I'm very willing to listen" I genuinely told him.

He looked first into the skies before turning his gaze on me when I met his eyes, he began telling me his problem.

"I'm just thinking a lot of things," he told me, I thought he's already done but I'm wrong so I just remained quiet.

"Well, we're a squad, and that squad consists of 5 members, 3 guys, and 2 girls, the 2 guys is me and Zander while Danica was one of the girls, I won't give the names of another people, I hope you understand. Well, I liked the other girl, I even confessed my feelings towards her but after a few days, I knew about the other guy's feelings towards her, in short, we both liked her" he said.

"I noticed about their closeness, I didn't care at first because, for me, it's normal since we're a squad, when I got the chance to talk with the other guy, I told him about my feelings and then, he also confessed, at first, it was like a competition, he even said "may the best man win" to me" he added.

"When I saw how happy they were, I know, that was the sign for me to stop chasing her, for me, what matters the most is that the person I care is always happy, they're both my friends so I don't want to be the hindrance for their love story, besides, who am I to stop their story" He continued and let out a painful laugh.

"I avoided them as much as I can, I gave them their alone time and I wasn't wrong, they did enjoy each other's presence even more. The girl on the other side of course did not reject me but she made me feel that I'm not the one she chose. With the pain I'm feeling, I lost my basketball career, I gave up because I cannot concentrate, my coach was so tired of me" he said.

"I fell in love with her but she chose my friend instead" he added while his tears were falling on his cheeks.

"I don't want to feel this pain anymore, I just want to move on and live my life to the fullest, I'm hurt because of romantic love and I'm also hurt because I was the reason why our squad now is broken and to be honest, up until now, I'm still blaming myself for what happened," he said

I'm also hurt because he's not okay, I know that feeling, I've done that, I've been there, we both want our friends to be happy without considering our own feelings, yes, I fully understand his pain.

I grabbed his head on my shoulders, letting him feel comfortable.

"Come on Bryce, cry, it's okay, let it hurts, until it hurts no more," I told him.

He continued to cry and I admit, when I heard his sobs, I also felt like my heart was being cut into pieces, it just hurts because I cannot do anything to make him feel better, I just offered my shoulders to him but I didn't expect what he said next.

"Kaye help me, please help me forget everything that happened in my past"

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