Chapter 31: Chapter 31

David’s P.O.V.

“Ah, Paula might have seen it. She is my personal assistant, but she was on leave by the time you went to our house. I rarely opened my social media accounts nowadays,” she explained while her eyes were only focused on what was in front of her.

Oh, if that’s the case, then I can still delete the message. I guessed that Paula might not have told Helena about it yet.

“So, could that mean you are not the one who accepted my friend request?” Oh, please answer that it was you!

“Of course not! Why would I even accept you?” she refused while batting her long lashes. “But anyway, I think you are forgetting something here, Cristoff? Let me remind you that Mrs. Cheng’s blatant sermons were all your fault!” Helena shouted when we reached the sink to wash our hands and faces at the same time.

And her mood changed too quickly. But I must admit, she was getting prettier whenever she was annoyed at me—most especially when her green eyes were glaring at me. As such, I abruptly forgot that she was not the one who accepted my friend request.

“Wow, really? Why do you always have to put the blame on me, Helena? Who fed me with chocolates all of a sudden, huh?” I mockingly smiled before playfully sprinkling little amounts of water on her face using my fingers.

She did the same thing because she was not the type of girl who would only sit in the corner doing nothing in return. “Hey, here you are… starting again, Cristoff!”

Her voice was full of threat, but she was smiling all along. “It was truly your fault, dude! Wanna know why? If I didn’t distract you, and if I didn’t wake you up with what’s the truth, you will only be in a bad mood seeing those two traitors around. You might lose yourself again, then what? Our obstacle race will suffer later because the male organizer was so affected over his previous heartache and will end up cranky to give the game mechanics to the players?”

She paused for a while before she continued, “Duh, I can read you, so don’t lie to me! It was all over, Cristoff. You couldn’t do anything about what happened. Even if you give them all your deadly stares, even how much you wanted to punch the other guy’s face, nothing will ever change. It still doesn’t change the fact that she betrayed you—” then, she stopped.

Guessing, Helena chose to cut her sentence off when Vanessa came to us. I even saw how she obnoxiously looked at the latter from head to toe before she drastically looked away like she felt so disgusted.

I could even see her mouthing the words, “Speaking of the devil!”

“D-Dave, can I talk to you? It has been three months already, and yet, we still didn’t have a formal closure…” Vanessa spoke as she asked for permission.

When I saw her a few days ago, I knew within myself that I had fully moved on, but from the moment I saw her with that Drew today, something ached again. It was vague that I could not explain it. Maybe because of my ruined ego. I wanted to confront them and burst everything that I wanted to tell them. Now could be my chance to do so, but in contrast, I chose to remain silent.

It might not be late to realize things, so I could tell now that she doesn’t worth my time. I was trying to feel if there was still the same attraction that I felt for her a few months back, but I could not feel anything in my heart.

“I’ll go ahead, Cristoff. It suddenly seems like there are so many leeches lurking around here, and my delicate skin felt so itchy. Excuse me,” Helena mumbled before she left to give us some privacy.

“So… how are you?” Vanessa asked when Helena was gone. I wasn’t sure if she got affected by what Helena had remarked.

“Better,” I simply answered. I mean—best without you. I wanted to continue and make Vanessa feel ashamed, but I didn’t do it.

“A-Are you still mad about what I did? I’m really sorry. I didn’t think about how you would feel. I am so selfish that I only thought about myself.” She apologetically bowed her head.

Pressing my lips together, I did not say anything. I was sure as hell that I didn’t feel anything about her anymore, but why am I still bitter? Was that because my ego could not accept the fact that she only used me, and I was just a fool that I allowed myself to be used by her?

“Apology accepted, but I don’t want to see you anymore. This is the formal closure that you want, so I’m now giving it to you.” I emphasized each word before turning my back on her.

“W-What about Helena, Dave? Is there something going on between the two of you? No one had ever called you using your second name, but why was she calling you Cristoff? And you even allowed her to use that endearment, huh? I mean, what for? D-Do you like her?” She threw me a series of questions as if she didn’t mind what I just said.

That made me turn around to face her. Helena’s name doesn’t deserve to be dragged here, and she should be out of this topic. “You think you have the right to ask those questions?” I narrowed my eyes on her while creasing my nose out of disbelief.

Vanessa swallowed real hard with her eyes somewhat pleading. “It’s just that… Drew and I already broke up. I broke up with him two weeks after you’ve found out. I realized that my heart really belongs to you—that it was you I truly loved. I am so sorry for hurting you, Dave. All this time, I was wrong. I thought I was happier with him, but I guessed we were only fooling around, and what we felt for each other was just lust.”

Then, she started to cry. “I—I know it was too late, but I only realized that when we parted our ways. You can still forgive me, right? We can just forget about what happened and treat it as a challenge to our relationship. I just pretended to be sweet to him today because I thought you might be jealous if you see us that way, but you know what? It was me who got jealous of how well you are treating Helena. I wanted to change position with her because, in the first place, it should have been me.”

If she thought that I would allow myself to be used by her again, she was wrong. Once was enough. I would never let myself be fooled again by her charm.

“I’m sorry, Vanessa… but I don’t love you anymore. You just wasted everything that we have. I truly cared for you, and you know that! I was so proud way back then that I had a girlfriend who was such a beautiful and famous cheerleader! In my eyes, no one can ever match you, and for that, I was willing to do anything for you, willing to trade anything for your time, even my grades just to edit your pictures and make you satisfied!”

Then, I could not help myself but growl at her—and that made the other students who would like to go to the sink and wash their hands not to push through anymore. “But what did you do, huh? You have been fooling me for a long time! You made me feel like a rag, and that was one thing I would never accept. And please, take Helena out of the picture because she has nothing to do with what happened to us. It was all your fault, Vanessa.” For the second time, I turned my back on her and took my steps away.