Intertwined

Chapter Five

So the girl was Amanda. And Charles spent two weeks talking about her. On the night before the big production, Charles went to my room.

"You should talk to her," I suggested as I glided my way to one side of the couch trying not to look at Charles.

"I mean... I pfft, I don't think so. I'm over her." He's such a bad liar. I looked at Charles and raised my eyebrow.

"Charles, my two weeks were filled with your fantasies about Amanda. We both know you want to talk to her." I was getting irritated of Charles' stories. Yeah yeah, she's perfect and she's the Juliet which also makes her great. Ugggh. There was no way I could compete with that.

As part of the writers' guild, I was just chilling throughout the University Week. We had our busy moment, brainstorming for the script two weeks ago. Since all were done, we could just enjoy the big production. I still went to the auditorium during the preparation to accompany Charles. Their guild was assigned to capture the whole thing in all angles, up close and afar. I found out that Julia was part of the music production and Daniel was the Romeo. Of course, Charles was jealous.

"Isn't that the guy that went to the apartment? What's his name? Was it...Danny?" Charles was sweating all over his body and I handed him a towel. As he was wiping himself I couldn't help but marvel at his glorious six-packs sticking to his shirt. I hurriedly averted my eyes. After that, he went back to his teammates. He almost fell from the pedestal a moment ago when he was testing a camera. The camera was focused on the center of the stage and Juliet over here happened to pass by the center sending Charles flipping. Charles gave me a mini heart attack back there. Gladly, one of his teammates caught him. I rolled my eyes and looked down to my thumb that I kept on circling with the other. I didn't want to see Charles looking at Amanda. I wanted to get out but Julia appeared on my side.

"Hey Vie!" I was so happy seeing Julia radiant. I responded back to Julia. I really wanted to leave but it would be so rude. I kept on shifting my body and I was looking all over the place. Well, I guessed talking to Julia would divert my focus from Charles.

"So your Daniel is Romeo huh?" I opened a topic.

"Well," she giggled, "Yeah."

"How does it feel like seeing him with another girl?"

"Well, it's just a school play." She's right. It was just a school play. When the lights went off, Daniel would feel nothing for Amanda. But as for Charles, the spotlight was everywhere. He still obviously loved Amanda. When he talked about her, he made her look more beautiful than she already was in real life. And I am nothing more than a friend. Julia and I were silent for a minute. I didn't know what to say nor did I want to say anything. There were million things swirling inside my head. Why did this Amanda, this epitome of perfection (at least for Charles), had to exist. She was a bitch for hurting Charles before and she's still capable of hurting him because he still loved her, leaving me with nothing. There were probably plenty of fishes in the sea. But in a school of tuna, there's this one goldfish that went with them. And I was attracted to that goldfish. Charles was my goldfish. And Amanda was his. No wonder Charles and I got along so well. We're both chasing for someone who didn't want us. I was probably looking rude to Julia right now but I was not in the mood to talk.

"Are you okay Vie?" She asked.

"I'm sorry Julia. I uhh," I paused and my eyes landed on Charles. I continued, "I was just excited about all of this." I gave her a weak smile. Julia didn't believe my story.

"You're lying." Okay. Maybe I should get real with this woman. After all, she opened a lot of herself to me anyway. I slowly started speaking, "What do you do," and looked at Charles, "when the one you love doesn't love you back?" Charles was laughing to something his teammate had said and occasionally stealing glances of Amanda. I looked back at Julia.

Julia then went off saying, "First and most of all, he's an idiot for not noticing a wonderful and beautiful woman like you. Second, you deserve so much better. Just get over him." She's right. I, a high-class rational primate with breed, beauty, and sass, totally deserve way much better. I was supposed to be grateful for what Julia said about me and agree to her general point but I was somehow focused on three words that she said and ended defending Charles. "He's not an idiot or blind. He's just in love...with someone else." I looked down. That was so stupid of me. I expected Julia to be irritated of my stubbornness and then leave. But instead, she stayed. We both smiled at each other. Seconds later, Daniel appeared to Julia's side. Julia then stood up and Daniel wrapped his arm over her back and planted a kiss on her forehead. They both bade goodbye and I was alone again. I was waiting for Charles who was still talking to his teammates. Amanda was still on stage dedicatedly continuing her practice. I stood up and summoned Charles.

"Are you coming Charles?" Usually he would hurriedly come to my side. But ever since he saw Amanda, he seemed to hesitate on going out with me on public.

"Just go ahead Vie." And so I was walking alone along the busy corridors that were plastered with banners and filled with numerous colorful exhibits. I bumped into Xazelle Williams who was also a Writing major. She had this pale skin, long black thin hair, black eyes and rosy lips. Also her eyebrows are on point. I was so jealous of her eyebrows. She's the kind of girl who people deemed innocent but actually had a very wild side. But she's very good to me and very smart. We got pretty close lately because we both knew how boring History classes were. It's also because we were Writing majors who had nothing to do during the University Week. Xazelle and I went to a café nearby. We talked mostly about educational stuff.

"So you and Charles are just friends right?" Xazelle asked out of the blue.

I mean, I had a crush on the guy but that didn't matter so, "Yes, we're just friends," I told her.

She then proceeded, "Could you like introduce me to him?"

Oh no. She couldn't possibly.

"I have a crush on him. Don't tell anyone, but yeah," she said.

I internally groaned. I was about to tell her to forget about crushing on Charles because he was totally in to Amanda and there's nothing she could do – there's nothing we could do. But I didn't want to be rude.

"Are you sure you don't have a crush on him? It looks like though, sometimes," she told me. I didn't reply anymore. That's not the kind of topic I wanted to talk about at the moment. I just laughed it off and changed the subject. I actually enjoyed talking to Xazelle but not the kind of enjoyment I always felt with Charles.

Back in my room, the night before the big event, Charles continued talking about Amanda.

"You totally need to talk to her." If only Charles could hear the contradicting note back there, life would be easier. This was hurting me but he was also my best friend. I decided this was the best thing to do. But all I really wanted to do was to shout at his face that I loved him. I loved him more than a bestfriend or a sibling. I...loved him. But he loved someone else. And here I was also encouraging him to love her. Call me martyr or stupid, I just didn't care anymore.

***

It was the day of the play. I sat beside Xazelle and we had a laugh about the guy who was wearing brown leotards and tights. He was probably the tree. Xazelle pointed out how bulgy his lower part was. It was disgusting and I didn't want to look at it. I looked above searching for Charles and I found him manning the camera at the center. Charles was already looking at me and when our eyes met I gave him a thumbs-up and flashed my widest smile. He did the same. Minutes later, the stage came alive.