When Everything Fails (De Chavez #2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

WE TOOK hours to finish our tents. We were grouped by five— girls and boys were not allowed to be in the same tent. When we finished our tent, a sigh of relief rumbled out of my throat as I looked at the result. Napatingin din ako sa mga kagrupo ko na ngayon ay hinihingal na nakaupo sa damuhan. I rocked on my heels as I wiped the trickling sweat through my cheek. Due to excessive sweating, there were some bullets sat on my lashes. I immediately wiped them off to avoid contact with my eyes.

The whisper of the wind sashayed down into my ear, the warm touch of it crawled through my bare skin. The golden glow from the sun bathed the whole vicinity, making every bare skin in my body pink. The chirps of the birds placated the agitating monster in my stomach. I was hungry and thirsty but all of my girls were so busy doing their own business. Hindi ko nga rin alam kung saan makakabili ng pagkain.

My eyes wandered around— with the sole purpose of spotting Kei de Chavez. Ease settled in my gut when I saw him with his friends. They were already finished doing their tent and were now whistling a song under the shade of a tree. They were laughing at something Justine showed to them on his phone. Kei was talking while pointing to the phone as if he had forgotten that I was in here. My forehead creased as the conclusion started to cloud my mind. Teen boys tend to talk about hot girls they see on social media— some were worst because they were shamelessly objectifying them. Though, I knew that Kei will never do that.

When his eyes flitted to me, the air seemed to vacate my lungs. I stopped breathing as I stared at his eyes. I was meters away from him but I could see the glint in his eyes. He mouthed the question: are you done? I just answered him with a tacit nod of assurance. After that, he regally trudged toward my part with a clean face towel in hand. Despite the sweat seeped through his tee-shirt, he still looked so fresh and addictive. I thought I could even sniff him despite the sloppiness of his neck due to sweating.

As he got closer and closer, my ability to breathe seemed to wane. I dragged a ragged breath, fisting my hand, biting the bottom of my lips. When he reached my part, he carefully wiped the bullet of sweat breaking out on my forehead. I could feel the eyes of every student in the campsite, watching Kei and me doing PDA. However, I wasn't embarrassed at all, per se. Instead, I felt more elated that I already opened up with him, that I can openly hug him and hold his hand even with the presence of every student. This might have been the result of my unwarranted jealousy toward Sue. I shoved down the thought again and settled my attention solely to Kei.

"H'wag ka masyadong magpagod..." Kei mumbled softly.

"I need to help my group."

He nodded and finished his business by gathering the locks that were dangling over my forehead and placed it behind my ears.

"Tapos naman na kayo..." He trailed off, "At saka mainit."

I looked at my tent companions and when I saw Angela silently motioning me to go, I just nodded at her and mouthed my thank you. After that, I looked at Kei. He got the message as he claimed my hand and ushered me under the shade of the Narra tree. Pagod na rin kasi ako at pakiramdam ko ay kailangan kong matulog. Setting a tent was exhausting; I almost lost all my energy at some point. Gumawa sila Kei ng bangko na puwede naming upuan. I sat next to him as he threw his arm around my shoulder. Napatingin ako sa kaniyang mga kaibigan. They seemed to no care much about the PDA we were doing. I craned my neck to look at Kei and I saw him looking at me.

The soft sultry wind crawled up my skin but my eyes were all fixated on Kei who was seriously looking at me with the soft waving of his hair. I snatched the face towel from his hand that he used to wipe my sweats minutes ago. I saw the trace of the sweat that trickled down to his chin. I saw his Adam's apple bob as I wiped the traces of sweat on his face.