The Presence of Yesterday

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

I was so stressed for the next three days. Terrence would often visit Klea at her condo and brings food, which was outside of our agreement. Klea was starting to notice it, but he seemed not to care. Our plan was to take Klea to their house without informing her. In that case, she will have no choice but to talk to her mom. Pero kung patuloy na dadalaw si Terrence ay baka mabunyag ito at takasan kami ni Klea. Knowing her, she can be stubborn sometimes.

Khalid, on the other hand, kept texting and calling me. He would usually say, 'Good morning, good night, don't forget to eat, let's talk, I'm sorry, and I love you', but none of them would receive a response from me. He also went to Klea's unit, but I told her not to let him in. I would just say to her that we had a small misunderstanding as an excuse and I still didn't want to talk to him.

I was watching a series from Netflix when I heard soft knocks from the door. As I opened it, I was surprised to see Eerials figure. She was wearing a simple jeans, white top and baseball cup. With her bare face, her look was now far from her usual self.

"W-what are you doing here?" I asked out of shock.

"Can we talk?" Banayad niyang tanong.

"Sure." I nodded. We went directly to the parking area and got inside my car. Doon namin napiling mag-usap.

Tumikhim ako bago nagsalita."Anong gusto mong pag-usapan natin?"

"About Khalid." She replied. A loud drum rolled inside, my chest beating nervously.

"What about him?" I asked casually, though deep inside, my mind was thinking chaotically about the possible reason why she wanted to talk to me.

Biglang lumamlam ang mukha niya. It was as if she had done something stupid and regretted it at the end. "I heard what happened, Vivienne. Nagkatampuhan pala kayo ni Khalid and I was one of the reason kung bakit sumama din ang loob mo. I'm sorry, I didn't know that you're jealous of me. It was so insensitive of me to always ask him out knowing na may girlfriend siya." Eerial apologized. I directly gaze at her eyes and I could witness how sincere she looked.

I don't really understand myself. I know it wasn't her fault since she really doesn't appear to be flirting with Khalid. I was just probably too overwhelmed from all the burdens brought by the situations going around these days that I couldn't also be with Khalid so I got jealous for an unacceptable reason. It was my way to alleviate my stress.

I bit my lip and nodded to the woman seated beside me, telling her that it was fine and that there's nothing to say sorry about.

"Ayos na 'yon. Kasalanan ko din naman, I don't have time for him these past few days. May pagkukulang din ako sa kanya. And I should not have gone jealous of you because I know you two are just friends."

"Mali parin ako. But believe me, Vivienne, I don't have any intention of stealing him from you. Ang katunayan niya, ayaw niya talaga sa akin sumama. Every time we were with each other, he was always thinking of you and talks about you. He misses you so bad. Mahal na mahal ka ng gagong yun eh." Ngumuso siya saka napangiwi.

Kahit papaano ay gumaan ang pakiramdam ko. Eerial is such a soft hearted person like everyone thought of her. I just proved that she's not a threat to our relationship. I was at fault for thinking negatively about her when after all, she's my boyfriend's childhood friend.

I exhaled violently. "I know. I just can't help it. You two looked good together and mukhang bagay na bagay kay-"

"Tsk. Yuck, he's not my type!" Eerial exclaimed. She looked disgusted just by imagining it.

"B-bakit, ano bang type mo sa mga lalaki?" Ngumisi ako at iginalaw galaw ang kilay.

"Ikaw." She smiled. Nasamid ako ng sarili kong laway. Hindi ko alam kung totoo dahil seryoso siya ng sabihin niya iyon habang natingin sa akin.