Tragically Yours

| 31 |

A few hours of eating and discussing the prospects for the theatrical play, all six of us exited the diner. Once outside the diner, all three of us-Ethan, Gail and me-decided to have one final chat with each of the three of them. Ethan with Jerico, Gail with Aileen, and that would leave with me and Declan. Declan and I watch as our friends laugh with one another. A simple smile builds up on my face as I see Ethan and Jerico having some casual talk, while Gail and Aileen simply laugh alongside them.

I turned my head ever so slightly just to see Declan's expression, but to my surprise, he wasn't looking at his friends. He was staring directly at me as if he's assessing some kind of laboratory subject. Turning my entire body to face him, the corner of his lips lifted into a smirk. I suddenly had this nagging feeling to ask him what he's smirking about. So, I did oblige to that nagging feeling once I've found my voice. "Why are you smirking like that?" To fully reinforce my question, I instinctively cross both my arms over my heaving chest.

He shakes his head, though the smirk on his face is still there. Mocking me every second until I figure out the reason he's smirking. "Nothing, I was just thinking about how you remind me of myself." After saying those words, he suddenly flinches and a rush of red paints his cheeks in a second. "Well, you're more... focus than I am. I'm too preoccupied with my thoughts to even try to focus-" He waves a hand in the air, "-You got the point. But anyway, yeah, you kind of remind me of myself." The smirk on his face grew bigger and wider, and it's making me irritated that he didn't elaborate his words.

"Care to elaborate any further on that subject, Declan. Or I'm supposed to immediately hit a semi-truck in my mind to understand what you're insinuating." I speak in a calm voice because I couldn't just show him my annoyed tone. It'll risk the opportunity to recreate his novel into a theatrical play. If I show my impatient self-much like how I show it whenever Ethan's tomfoolery fly around my vicinity-I might lose that opportunity and will never have any chance to salvage it.

The smirk on Declan's face had fallen into something serious. Okay, maybe I may have gone in the wrong direction. Because a suddenly serious Declan standing in front of me is quite intimidating to even be near him. Damn, I should have just laughed it off like it's some kind of joke or something. "Okay, let's stop beating around the bush here, Vy." Bush? What bush? All I can see is a dancing elephant. "I have a hunch you and Gail is something more than meets the eye." He kept speaking in idioms, and I have this giddy feeling that I'm up for this kind of conversation. Just imagine having a full-fledged conversation just using idioms. Oh right, I have to be focused since that was what he thought of me. "Tell me, right now, that I'm wrong."

I watched him cross both his arms over his chest as both his eyes and eyebrows shot at me, the most serious expression I have ever seen on a person. Oh wow, I'm now imagining what would happen if Declan and Favian met each other. I don't know about other people, but I have my bets on Declan if ever that happens.

Oh right, I have to answer his question. It's hard to act focused when every single thought flies around my mind. "Your theory about me and Gail being more than meets the eye is interesting. So interesting that your intuition is entirely correct." I watch his lips form a triumphant grin, but I raise a hand to halt his success. "But I also have a hunch that whatever sadness that occasionally flashes in your eyes is much more scarring." Now it's my time to flash him my smirk while still crossing my arms. "Now, tell me if I misunderstood it."

"I see. So, I was right then, that you noticed my sadness." Declan closes his eyes for a second before opening them up, momentarily letting me see the glimpse of his sadness. "I can't deny that you're right, since you have already seen it with your own eyes. But I can't also just tell you about it, not until the theatrical play is in order." A heavy sigh escapes his lips as his arms falls to his side, "Once the play is done, from the beginning to the end, I will explain to you the source of my sadness."