HIP #2: Summer Of Love

Chapter 40

It was a pleasant time I had with Shane and Britney together with my boyfriend. The last time I and my two best friends saw each other was already a month and a half ago. So, it's making me happy to see them all together. I know who's the one behind all this. He's to thank for what I'm feeling right now. Imagine if I refused to join the pageant, then I might be not this glad for everything.

Peter's the one who I should run into and hug. "I'll catch you guys later, I just need to get something," I waved my hand away from the three of them and walked away as they watched me walk back to the building where my room is at. After they told me they were starving, I left them at the restaurant to get food for themselves. I don't know why I don't want to tell any of them I'm going to thank Peter. When I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I ran through the stairs with my hands sliding up through the cases. My heart is relaxed inside me right now. "Hey!" I called after seeing Peter standing with his back leaning on the wall of my room and hands inserted in his pocket while his blonde hair is being blown by the wind.

I smiled and walked toward him, but suddenly I thought he would face me. Instead, he looked away and took three steps to avoid me. "Peter, why are you walking away?" I walked toward him for the second time and he did again what he did earlier.

"Are you avoiding me?" The more I get closer to him, the more steps he takes to walk away. Is he mad? He looks frustrated and disappointed at the same time. I don't get it. Just an hour ago he looked like the happiest person in the world and now he looks like this?

I shook my head slightly and grabbed his arm. "Charlie, please just leave me alone..." his voice was calm but full of chilly pain. Yet, I don't know what's going on with him. I wanted to let his arm go but I can't, because I still don't know what was up in his head. "Not until you tell me what's with your face."

"Nothing. It's nothing, okay?" As his best friend for years, I know when he's okay and when he is not. He tried to get his arm off my hands but I didn't let it go.

"Charlie, please just let me go." He begged but I didn't do it.

"Tell me what's going on," I calmly said.

"I told you, nothing. It's your choice whether you'd believe it or not but I know it's true." He won't complain about it if it's true. He would let me find out about the problem if ever there is one.

"And I don't believe it's true." The answer came from my mind, not from my heart.

"Then don't" I've never heard him speak that harshly before. It's like a very loud silence making me feel deaf.

"If it's nothing then why are you walking away from me?"

"As if you would understand." He rolled his eyes.

What is up with him? It's like I don't know who this Peter in front of me is. I don't think I know him. The real Peter I've been with for several years is the person who's polite no matter what and the one who keeps secrets for good only. So is this for good? "I will try to. Like what I've always been doing."

"Just leave me alone." This time, he's able to get his arms unattached from my hands. He opened the door of his room and shut it.

Before he can lock it, I hurried to open it. I don't want anything bad to happen to him. I feel like something's wrong. How can his mood change that fast? There's a reason why he became this frustrated and disappointed.

"Charlie, please stay away from me! I don't want to see you yet!" When he screamed, I was stunned but still, I yelled back.

"Peter, what the heck is your problem?" He didn't seem to get bothered by how I yelled. As if it was normal for him.

"You! You're my problem. Because you love someone else yet you're out here giving me motives that I can have you! You always make me feel that I'm just your best friend and that's all! And I will never be your lover. You just don't know but it hurts me. When you sleep at night, I'm wide awake thinking if you ever dream of me, if you ever know how I feel for you. Yes, I love you and you never knew it! Now that you know, I hope you're happy, so please just stay away for me." The way he screamed at me; was like a verse of a song I wrote but can't remember that I did.

He immediately shut the door, I still tried to open it again and keep him away from closing it but he was too fast. I missed it.

That's it.

He yelled, he confessed, and he doesn't want to see me. He wants me to stay away from him.

He... he...

Does he love me?

Does he think about me at night?

Different thoughts rushed into my mind and I couldn't take them. Instead, I let a teardrop drip down from my eyeball. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in with the wind blowing me sending chills to my nerves and giving me goosebumps.

He just confessed what he's feeling. I leaned back on the door of his room and slowly slid down until I reached the floor. I didn't just ruin our friendship, but I ruined what he was feeling. Well, I had no idea that he was thinking of me. I thought that the way he was staring at the wind with a frustrated face was something that had to do with his father.

But then I realized that not everything in his life is about his dad. Sometimes, it's about people who he loves. I couldn't think right anymore. I looked up at the sky filled with stars watching me cry with my arms wrapped around my knees. "I love you too," I whispered in a teary voice. I never realized until now that I'm mentally cheating on Chance.

I didn't mean it. The archer was just too stupid to think that a triangle always works. It never does. If this is love, then I want to give it to someone else. Why do we always have to sacrifice things to be happy?