"What's wrong?"
Bea asked, closing the door of Jia's locker and grabbed Jia to look at her.
It's a humid mid-June afternoon and training has resumed for the Ateneo Lady Eagles. Now that U-23 competition is done, they are back to their normal lives.
Who would have thought that so much would happen in one year? They have gone from being enemies, to partners, then bestfriends.. Until they fell in love, but chose to run away from that love. How their love story ended as quickly as it started.
After that day when they almost gave in to their feelings, neither of them spoke about that awkward incident ever again. Both of them made their choices, and they walked around each other as nothing more than teammates, as how they were just a little over a year ago.
As just friends.
"What? Nothing!" Jia rubbed her hands together, as if trembling, and tried to walk quickly away from Bea.
"Stop!" Bea ran behind her, touched her shoulder and turned her around. Placing her hand under Jia's chin, Bea lifted her face so that she can look into Jia's eyes.
"You've been crying..." Bea's brows are furrowed as she stared at Jia
"It's nothing"
"Jia, I know it's not nothing. People don't just cry for no apparent reason."
Jia turned away from Bea as she sat on the bench across from her.
"Just having some problems.. But I'll be ok"
Walking towards the bench, Bea knelt down in front of Jia as she gently took Jia's hands out of her pockets. Inspecting her wrists, Bea took a deep breath and closed her eyes. By the way her lips tensed, Jia knew that she was angry.
After a few seconds, Bea spoke but kept her eyes closed
"I was hoping it wasn't true. I wanted to believe that the gossip I heard, was exactly just that.. Gossips.."
"Bei?" Jia asked confused
Bea opened her eyes with tears brimming in her eyes. She gently kissed Jia's wrists where her bruises started to form.
"Mich told me that she saw you and Miguel fighting, and that he hurt you. I didn't want to believe it... But ... here is the proof.."
Bea stood up and punched the locker behind her.
Jia rushed to her and hugged her from behind to stop her from further hurting herself.
"It's my fault Bei. I guess I pissed him off with my nagging. I just got a bit jealous.. And I shouldn't have"
"He didn't have the right to hit you"
"He didn't hit me!! It's my fault coz I didn't want to shut up, so he just grabbed me to talk somewhere else. He didn't mean it, I swear"
"Why are you giving excuses for him Ji?? I've seen how he treats you, and we've all been telling you that he's not the one for you!!" Bea screamed at her
"He loves me Bei. He's the only one who loves me. You guys don't understand because you all have your perfect relationships, and your perfect girlfriends. And just because my life isn't as perfect as yours, doesn't mean ours is wrong.." Jia defended but her whole body was shaking as she cried.
Bea walked up to her and held Jia to stop her from crying.
"If he truly loves you Ji, then he would't hurt you. Nobody has the right to hurt you. And as long as I'm here, I wouldn't let anybody hurt you" Bea whispered as she kissed the top of Jia's head.
