To Pay The Price (Belle Ville Series #2)

Chapter 27: The rise

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The rise

"ARE you sure you don't want me to come?" Bakas sa mukha ni Trev ang pag-aalala nang ihinto niya ang sasakyan niya sa tapat ng girls dormitory ng DGU.

I flashed him a reassuring smile. "You should go back. They must be waiting."

Bumuntonghininga siya at muli akong tiningnan para siguraduhin kung ayos lang ba talaga ako.

"Alright. But if something goes wrong, you have to call me," bilin niya sa 'kin at agad naman akong tumango.

Humalik ako sa pisngi niya bago ako tuluyang lumabas ng Wrangler niya.

Nakita ko na agad ang sasakyan ni Bell na nakaparada sa gilid kaya agad kong binuksan 'yong pinto sa may passenger seat at sumakay sa loob.

Naramdaman kong nakatitig siya sa 'kin pero hindi ako nag-abalang lumingon o tumingin sa kanya. Nanatiling diretso ang tingin ko sa labas.

"Thanks for comi—"

"I'll give you three minutes to talk, Bell. I'm in the middle of our team dinner when you called," I cut him off and glanced at him. I want to tell him that I'm really glad that he called, but I also want to keep the distance between us.

I don't know if I'm just seeing things, but I saw disappointment in his eyes. Why is he even disappointed? He should be glad I'm making our talk short. I'm doing him a favor.

It's been three months since the last time I saw him, but I could still feel my heart aching for him as I saw pain in his eyes.

"Gonz came to see me last night," panimula niya.

Natigilan ako nang marinig ko iyon. Bakit naman siya pupuntahan ni Gonz?

"He apologized, but I ended up ruining his face. About that, by the way, I didn't do that because I wanted to. He actually told me to punch him until it satisfies me so . . . I did. Madali akong kausap." He shrugged nonchalantly.

And that suddenly reminded me of the bruises I've seen on Gonz's face earlier. So that explains why he had those.

"And we're good after that," dagdag niya kaya lalo akong natigilan.

"Maybe that's the good thing about us, boys. Throwing out our anger through a punch to make things work between us."

Tipid akong napangiti nang sabihin niya 'yon. Totoo nga siguro. Gano'n din kasi ang napansin ko sa iba ko pang mga kaibigan na lalaki. Lalo na doon sa mga naging kaklase ko dati no'ng high school.

"You know what's even more funny?" he asked. Oh please, nothing's funny about anything right now.

"Sana gano'n na lang din sa 'ting dalawa. Isang labasan lang ng sama ng loob, okay na," sambit niya saka siya mahinang natawa.

"Crissia isn't the person you think she is."

Nang banggitin niya ang pangalang iyon ay muli akong napatingin sa kanya.

"She's just a friend." He paused. "A really great one."

Tumango ako. "Y-Yeah. Feem told me about her."

"I know you're aware of how hard things work as a medtech student. I didn't even had friends in our class. All my life, it's been always the volleyball team. I hang out with volleyball players. They're my friends, my family."