Rancorous

Chapter 25

PRESENT

Herlina

"Herlina! Wait!"

I look over my shoulder after sending a text to Haley letting her know I have to leave. Daya's jogging toward me.

As she stops in front of me, I take a step back watching her warily.

"Are you okay?" Her eyes scrutinize me with what seems like sincerity.

"What do you want?" My guard solidifies. She's acting abnormally kind and caring.

Her eyes cast downward. "He's going to hate me for this," she mutters words I can barely distinguish under her breath. She hesitates before saying, "it's more like what Brevin wants. He wants me to make sure you get home safely."

My lips part and I look behind her.

He's walking a far distance ahead, already watching me.

Brevin wants to make sure I'm safe.

He said he'd always protect me. And I smile fondly at the memory. At him. I feel this tenderness for him yearning to wrap him up in protection. And even after everything he's done, I can't decide whether that's a vice or a virtue.

Brevin looks away.

My smile drops.

"And I always thought I used to just imagine it." Daya stuffs her hands in the back pocket of her jeans.

My smile drops even further with an added furrowed brow.

She glances back at Brevin, then at me. "I don't know what happened between you two, but it's still there."

"What's still there?" I grip the straps of my backpack.

She stares at me. "This connection between you two."

I blink at her.

"I noticed it ever since you saw him." Daya presses her lips together as she thinks. "I remember back in Kindergarten, the first time you saw him you just kept staring at him. He'd stare at you exactly the same when you weren't looking."

He did? I never noticed he did.

She sigh. "Ever since you guys became friends, it became more apparent. It's like he'd walk into a room and there it was, this invisible string. You guys gravitated toward each other like pathetic magnets." Daya rolls her eyes.

I scowl. "He's my best friend. Why wouldn't I always want to be around him?"

She raises a sharp ginger brow, and crosses her arms. "So when you make a new friend, do you just forget about your old friends and leave them behind?"

"What? That's not what I said."

"But you did it, or did you forget?" Daya tilts her head to the side as she stares down at me miffed.

I shake my head and blink. When Brevin left, I never forgot him for a day, not even a second. Even after Presley and I became friends. If she's insinuating such, she cannot be further from the truth.

It pains me that she's trying to defend Brevin from me. I'd never do anything to hurt him. My letter five years ago was completely sincere, I never meant it to wound him.

"Brevin—"

"I can't believe this. Will you stop thinking everything is about you and Brevin for once?" She sticks her hands out in exasperation.

I take a deep breath. Okay. If this isn't about him, then is she talking about... herself?

As soon as she sees the clarity behind my eyes, Daya drops her hands and looks away.