Chapter Six

Yhannie

I will never define my final days in high school to be the best days of my high school life. Clearly, it's an utter fiasco that almost emotionally broke every one that is involved. If there is someone pleased and satisfied with their own final days to the point where they define it to be the best chapters of their high school journey, that would totally be Valerie and that little shit club that she created. After that inevitable heartbreaking night at the Valentine's Ball, there were a lot of lines drawn in the sand, in fact, the lines were drawn pretty visibly, and ultimately, in a day, a wall was built providing unwanted divisions. Dominic made his mind to cut off everything that is between us completely, friendship no more, telepathy gone, connection cut. He strictly stopped talking to me, not even be alone in a room with me, and would only bat a hateful eye-roll on me whenever our paths cross in the hallway or at the field. As his best friend, I tried approaching him a few times with the sole purpose of hoping to return the shattered pieces back together, but he just decided that the bridges were burned and there's no way to rebuild it ever again possibly. I didn't want to force him into talking things through at such an early stage of the aftermath when he's not yet ready. I know he's not yet ready at that time, but I was sure he would be before the graduation, but I was totally wrong about that until now we haven't talked yet not even exchange messages. I know he has his own shit at Singapore right now.

I fully understood everything that has happened. Valerie gave Dominic the gun, Dominic aimed it perfectly towards Valentine and then pulled the trigger. Everybody knows that Valentine is hurt, but nobody knew there's also a recoil towards Dominic. Both parties were hurt and that being said, I know I did not want to rush Dominic considering the fact that I also have played a significant role in the early stages of this whole avenge scheme. In my defence, though, I did not know it was going to the point where there's no return. It sucks to be me wandering alone at the field in the aftermath of that event. Seeing Dominic and not able to talk to him, not able to comfort him, not able to shed some tears with him, makes my heart sink. And then there's Valentine on the other side of the trench painfully perishing from this disastrous affair. Valentine almost took his own life as a result of being unable to cope up with everything that has happened to him. I honestly feel like I was the horrible person who started it all, who struck that magnesium into that flint that sparked an ember and over the short course of time grew quick into a fire that eventually burned everyone. I was the dumb person who overdosed on the wrong medicine inadvertently enraging Dominic and forcing him to accept that motherfucking contract. I want to do some damage control at least, put some bandage on the wounds, but I didn't know where to start, and the only thing I did was doing nothing. I regretted the mere fact that I couldn't even muster the right courage to confront Dominic whether he likes it or not and save our friendship from sinking.

I hang out with Zach and Ivan for the remaining days of high school, and even though the friendship that I have with them had not sunk, I still felt there was a line drawn. Prom was a total disaster, not the Carrie type prom where there are blood and crazy stuff but it was something that I don't want to revisit in my memories sometimes if I'm already old and sickly. Both Valentine and Dominic opted not to attend the prom, which really isn't a shock for us but a total miss for a big chip in their high school life. Valerie was voted the prom Queen and Lance was the prom King, quite an unlikely pairing but I did not give a shit about it. I really thought I was going to be the prom queen, but I guess the anxiety and exhaustion I've been showing dimmed my light. Graduation was pretty awkward for some of us. Dominic did graduate as the class Valedictorian, which I'm super proud of, and yet he seemed unhappy about his lifetime achievement. His speech was well-written, but it was delivered as poor as fuck.

I went to college, completely cutting off everyone from my high school life. No Dominic, no Ivan, no Zach, no Valentine, no Valerie. It's just the stupid ass Yhannie Thomas fending for herself. It was basically kindergarten all over again. I had no friends at all, and I'm petrified to enter the room. The only positive side of it was like having a reboot, a fresh start to really think carefully and not commit the same mistake I've made before. I gutted and killed the old Yhannie, poured kerosene on her sexy dead body and set it on fire, sometime later I've let a new one rise from the ashes. I made a lot of close friends during my years in college, but no one has ever really come to par with the friendship that I built with Dominic. I temporarily stopped going out on parties and directed my focus to my academic performance to the point where I began to understand Dominic.

Vincent and I arrived at my unit just in time for lunch, and I haven't eaten anything since yesterday, so I was famished. The food at the station where I was detained looked exceptionally disgusting that I didn't want to touch them, let alone smell them. Vincent insisted on heading to his unit after walking me to my unit which is at the second floor, and he was at the fifth floor, but I forced him to come inside my unit because 1; I needed someone to talk to for distraction, 2; I'm itching to get some news about Valentine and 3; I ordered pizza on the way back and realized that I had nothing on me.

"Finally!" I exclaimed the exact moment we set foot inside my unit, and I had the entire room and time to remove my stinky clothes and get out of my heels.

"What in the name of hell is........ Why are you stripping in front of me?" Vincent shot at me, quickly turning his head away from me so he won't catch even a glimpse of every single curve and crevice that composes my womanhood.

"What? You are fucking gay right? You don't have anything to do with this body-yadee-yadee" I shot back at him solely thinking that I want to get out of this body-hugging shit that I am on for almost sixteen hours and just let my body breathe some air after that trouble I got myself into. I comfortably unhooked my bra successfully releasing two of my best friends for the world to see. Vincent is gay anyway, and he'll be okay with being alone in a room with a naked woman.

"Yeah but I still don't want to see it" Vincent replied, sounding disgusted by my naked body.

"Oh please Vincent, these kitties won't bite you," I said, shaking the two mounds on my chest.

"Yeah they won't but.... who knows, what if your pussy got some teeth."

"Na ah, you did not......, you did not just say that."

"Hold up. How did you know that I'm gay?" Vincent asked suddenly. I just remembered that he actually doesn't know that I already know he's gay and I believe that this is the first time we have actually met in person. "Did my brother told you that?"

"Oh yeah. Valentine talks about you a lot of times" I blurted out. It was a flat out lie which I hope he does not notice because I'm a terrible liar, I wish I got better at it. I actually learned that fact from Dominic's mouth and not exactly from Valentine. I was never that close to Valentine that he'd talk so much about his older brother. I mean, I slept with him back in high school and all, but that's just about it. "Do you want to know the thin........"

"Just put on some clothes" Vincent spat cutting what I was about to say.

I took twenty minutes in the shower, and when I got out, Vincent was already talking to the pizza delivery guy who just arrived.

"Here's your pizza" Vincent shot at me.

"Great! I'm really starving" I said and just stared at him without saying anything.

"Aren't you going to pay for this?" He asked when I didn't make any movement at all.

"Yeah about that. Can I ask you another favor?"

"Of course, of course," Vincent nodded as he fished his wallet and paid the delivery guy. This isn't very comfortable, but I have to deal with it, I don't have any other choice.

"I am really sorry for all the trouble I have caused you" I sat beside Vincent after changing into some clean clothes and finally feeling fresh for the first time in almost twenty-four hours.

"It's okay, you're going to pay me, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I just have to do some phone calls and stuff to get my cards back."

"No pressure."

In the next few days, I successfully paid what I owe to Vincent. He's really a good person, even better than I initially judged him to be. I thought that he is nothing but a mirror to Valentine's fuckboy attitudes, but it turns out he's way far from it. He's a soft-hearted, really likeable, well-spoken person, sure he's really sarcastic most of the time, but overall, he's a nice person to be friends with. We had developed a closer relationship since then. He always comes down to my unit, and we binge-watch horror movies, order some pizza, drink beer and criticize the government for whatever reason they should be criticized. I've learned from him that Valentine is now managing some of their father's restaurant, which is an excellent achievement for him. Valentine totally stepped up his butt from being that futureless person I came to know in high school to this future business tycoon, and he's almost making me feel like I only did ten baby steps when he did five giant leaps towards great success. Sometimes I go upstairs to Vincent's unit and help him with his readings, play scrabble with him, and basically eat everything that he cooks. He's actually a good cook as well which sometimes makes me want to date him, but it sucks that he's gay, so I have a point-blank zero chance at him.

One time while I was about to knock at his door and bring him some of the ingredients he asked for the pasta he will be cooking, I heard some loud shouting inside. It made me nervous, but I stayed calm outside and listened for some moment. I clearly distinguished Vincent's voice as he was arguing with another guy, but I just can't tell what they were fighting for. I was about to open the door myself and interrupt whatever's happening inside when it opened for a hot guy to show up. He looked frustrated with tears on the edges of his eyes. He just stared at me briefly before deciding to leave.

"Who is that?" I entered the room with curiosity kicking my head. I haven't heard Vincent this violent before at least in words as what I've heard from the intense shouting.

"No one" Vincent replied almost inaudible. He's somehow pissed as well, I can tell by how he's looking away from me.

"Is that a hook-up gone wrong?"

"That was Keiran. My ex-boyfriend" He replied. I was gagged after hearing him reveal that. He never mentioned anyone or anything about an ex-boyfriend to me before. To be fair, I never really asked that type of question because I don't care about the past anymore, but it still surprised the heck out of me.

"It looks like you were still seeing each other," I said softly, a bit careful not to offend Vincent when he's already that emotionally triggered.

"Is it wrong?" There was a long moment of silence before Vincent spoke up again.

"Wrong? What's wrong?"

"Is it wrong that I still love him even when he doesn't love me anymore?" He looked at me with tears starting to cascade down to his cheeks.

"Oh my god, is that blood on your nose?" I immediately saw his nose bleeding. "What did he do to you?"