HIP #1: The Ten Weekends

Chapter 55

"Would you mind taking off that... umm, whatever that thing is called... so you can eat properly?" before dinner, I put on a black mask on Nate's face which covers his entire look like he's a robber. We've been sitting here for half an hour already. I bet it's hot underneath that mask. Well, at least there are holes for his mouth, eyes, and nose. He shook his head, "no, I'm actually fine,"

If only it was me and him in here, I could have burst out into laughter. Karma has a way of making things right. Not a fan of it but sometimes it's good. "Okay..." auntie Edna weirdly nods and gets back to eating. While here's me trying to stop myself from laughing.

"Umm, Eros, Britney..." dad calls.

"Yeah?" We responded at the same time. One thing with having a sibling, is you always say the same thing at the same time to them. Which I like. "Well, your mom and I have some business stuff to do tomorrow, we're going to leave early. Probably by six in the morning. Please don't do anything stupid when we're gone," he eyes us.

I want to say you should only tell that to Eros because he's the only one who needs to be told that. But I didn't have the nerve to. The last time when mom and dad left the house together, Eros threw a big party which caused an infinite amount of garbage. Some of the guests even broke a few pieces of furniture in our house. Well, yeah he's nice but when it comes to proving himself, he'll do anything to show people that he's cool and I don't even want to talk about it.

Pretty much like he does everything that he thinks people will find cool. "Noted," he responds and I nodded too. I looked at Nate who couldn't even afford to move. I hope he's okay.

****

Since we got in the room, awkward silence has been wrapping us. When I look at him, he looks away. When he looks at me, I look away. We are playing the starring game. My phone's dead, needs a little charging. I can say that these past few days, I've been overusing it which I don't do then.

Maybe because I use it as a distraction from Nate. I don't like often putting my attention on him, especially at night when we're the only ones in this room.

"How are you feeling?" To break the silence, I reached for the nerve to say a word.

"Good," he responds coldly.

"What about your bruises?" I asked.

"Well, some of them are good and some are not," the lights were turned off but the brightness coming from the moon which was bouncing through the window was just enough for us to see each other. Windows down, because the air-condition's breeze might get lost.

"How long have you been doing this darn thing?"

"Since 7th grade," 7th grade?!?!? When I was a 7th grader I used to study through day and night while he was risking his life to earn money... that's... well, like...

I don't even have words to describe how weird was that. At a young age, he became a fighter.

"What? 7th grade? What the heck? How? Why?"

"As I expected, you would judge me that way," he smirks but I know what he means when he said that he expected me to judge him this way. And this way means what?

"Like what?"

"Like this,"

"Specify this,"

"Like... being confused with the reason why I chose to be a fighter at 7th grade. And I know you think I was stupid," for ten percent, he was right but no, I don't think he's stupid.

"C'mon. Everyone is different you know... I chose to be smart and you chose to fight just to earn money. And Eros chose to be a baseball player. Everyone has their own choice. Me, you, and the others," the quotes I memorized from the books I read before are now hitting my brain.

"I guess..." he whispers and looks down on the floor.

"Well, mind if you tell me the story?" He smirks.

"Fine, just promise you won't tell anyone,"

"As long as you don't give me any reason to." I was joking. I'm good at keeping secrets. Because I easily forget them. So when I remember someone's secret, it means they're special to me considering that I kept their secret locked up in my head.

"How do I start this crap?" he continues, "In a nutshell, I wanted to explore life. You know, teenagers..." I nodded. When he said explore, I understood what he meant. Because I always felt the same way. I also always wanted to do what he did.

To explore.

But the problem was that I didn't have the guts to do it. I was scared of making mistakes, I was scared of being judged by people, I was scared of being hurt, and I was scared of being a failure. I was a perfectionist. So I was scared to experiment with such things.

And now I'm here, a boring 18-year-old high school girl.

"I understand..." I proceed, "the only difference we have is that you're brave enough to explore and I was too scared," I chuckled but he didn't respond and kept watching me stare at the wall in front of me where my TV was hung.

"What if you just think that you're scared when you're really not?" I shook my head.

"No,"

"Why are you scared to break the boundaries then?"

"I was scared of making mistakes," finding myself feeling awkward, I just chuckled through the lines that were not even funny.

"Why?"

"I was scared to be a failure..."

Right now, I'm getting deeper. We are getting deeper. I get to know him more, he gets to know me more as well. My enemy slowly becomes the one to understand.

I've never told anyone about these before. Even Peter, Charlie, or Shane. I can't believe I told him. we get to tell things that we haven't told anyone else before.

Don't judge a book by its cover.

Don't judge someone for what they do without knowing the stories behind it.

I don't know. Maybe sooner or later, I would regret telling him too many things about me and he might regret telling me too many things about himself as well.

Regret comes in the end.

Author's Note:

This author is currently speechless with the scene he did.

Yeah, now we know how Nate became a fighter and why Britney is too innocent.

Love you all so much!!!

>33333 chain!

See you next time! Mwuah!