Rancorous

Chapter 25

PRESENT

Herlina

"Herlina! Wait!"

I looked over my shoulder after sending a text to Haley letting her know I had to leave. Daya was jogging toward me.

As she stopped in front of me, I took a step back watching her warily.

"Are you okay?" Her eyes scrutinized me with what seemed like sincerity.

"What do you want?" My guard solidified. She was acting abnormally kind and caring.

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

My lips parted. I looked behind her.

He was 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 smiled fondly at the memory. At him. I felt this tenderness for him yearning to wrap him up in protection. And even after everything he was putting me through, I couldn't decide whether that was a vice or a virtue.

Brevin looked away.

My smile dropped.

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

My smile dropped even further with an added furrowed brow.

She glanced 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 gripped the straps of my backpack.

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

I blinked at her.

"I noticed it ever since you saw him." Daya pressed her lips together as she thought. "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 sighed. "Ever since you guys became friends, it became more apparent. It's like he'd walk into a room and there it was. You guys gravitated toward each other like pathetic magnets." Daya rolled her eyes.

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

She raised a sharp ginger brow, and crossed 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 turned her head to the side as she stared down at me miffed.

I shook my head and blinked. When Brevin left, I never forgot him for a day, not even a second. Even after Presley and I became friends. If she was insinuating such, she couldn't be further from the truth.

It pained me that she was trying to defend Brevin from me. I'd never do anything to hurt him. My letter five years ago was completely sincere, I hadn't meant it to wound him.

"Brevin—"

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

I took a deep breath. If this wasn't about him, then was she talking about... herself?

As soon as she saw the clarity behind my eyes, Daya dropped her hands and looked away.