Intertwined

Chapter Six

A week after the University Week, there was another activity that involved the writers and actors. This time, it was a small play. I was grouped with Xazelle and a guy whom I never saw before. He had a messy short black hair and a pair of jet black eyes. He had a tall stature and a sturdy, muscular physique. He seemed shy and looked a bit of a nerd with those beanie and eyeglasses. I thought he'd never talk to me and Xazelle, but then he stretched out his hands and introduced himself.

"The name is Jay Phillips." He shook mine and Xazelle's hands and showed us his beautiful smile. He's not shy after all. After we introduced ourselves we went to a café near the school and started brainstorming ideas. Xazelle hanged her foot on one armrest and her back rested on the other armrest. Jay looked lazy sitting on his chair with his legs spread out. My head was lying on the table. We hadn't agreed on one thing yet.

"We need to have a happy ending," Xazelle blurted out. Both Jay and I shouted, "Boring!" We gaped at each other and broke into a high-five. Jay and I were laughing and Xazelle, looking pissed, rolled her eyes.

"We were just kidding Xazelle." I explained to her before she decided to storm out of the café leaving Jay and me alone. When the teasing subsided, my phone rang.

"Charles?"

"Vie, where are you?" The jerk finally decided to call me probably after following Amanda. I told Charles that I was in a café doing a group assignment. I thought he wanted to go out with me but it turned out that he just called me to say some good news, well at least for him.

"You're going out with Amanda? Wow! That's...uhh a miracle and also great!" I tried my best to sound excited for him when on the inside I just wanted the entire underworld to devour me. I ended the phone call when Charles said goodbye. I looked back to my partners who were looking at me like a lost puppy.

"Who's Charles?" Jay asked while he took out his beanie to fix his hair. He looked handsome and I couldn't help but gawked at him.

"He's Vie's boyfriend," Xazelle stated. She eventually found out my unrequited love for Charles and decided to stop crushing on him because she didn't want to hit on her friend's crush, which was totally ridiculous and useless because Charles didn't want me anyway so what was the point?

"He's my bestfriend." I said to clear that out.

"Whom she happens to love more than a bestfriend," Xazelle added. I gave up on that statement. I leaned back to my chair, closed my eyes and groaned. How could Charles make and break me at the same time?

After three hours, we were done with the script. It was magical watching us work. I could already see my future and I loved that vision. I went home after that. On my way to my room, I passed by Nana carrying groceries. I hurriedly helped her. She planted a kiss on my cheek once I got her groceries in the kitchen.

"Charles is not with you dear?" Nana was astounded when she saw me going home alone. I told her that Charles was on a date with Amanda.

Nana said, "When Charles started talking about a girl again, he was happy and he described her like she was the best girl in the world." I know right.

Nana continued, "I thought it was you." Wait, what? Nana saw the shock on my face. I laughed it off and Nana added, "It turns out to be just the girl who left him broken before." I could see the disdain on Nana's face. I didn't want Nana to make Charles feel unsupported. And so I told her, "Well if he's happy, we're happy." Nana and I just smiled at each other. After that, I bade goodbye and started to head out of the door. Before I was out of sight, Nana said to me, "Well Charles is definitely missing out on someone." Nana was just looking at me and I only responded with a smile.

When I arrived to my room, I opened my laptop and found out that Xazelle had already sent me a copy of the script. I got out some frozen pizza in the fridge and put it in the microwave. When I got out the pizza, I sat on the couch with my laptop resting on top of me and I reviewed our script. Minutes later, Charles arrived in my room with his hands stretched up and a smile probably as wide as the Pacific Ocean. I wondered what he did with Amanda. I wondered what he did TO Amanda. Oh wait, I didn't want to know that. I would rather just kill myself. He jumped to my couch and draped his arms over the backrest.

"Woah, Prince Charming is looking high!" I tried to mock him but he was oblivious to that. He told me everything about his date with Amanda. Apparently, they went to see a movie. While he was sharing what happened when they were watching the movie, he looked gloriously happy. I didn't even want to imagine that. I tried to look uninterested by just reading the script in my laptop.

"C'mon Vie! Look at me!" I looked at him with one eyebrow raised. He looked euphoric. Whatever he was trying to say next must had been special.

"She kissed me." He looked into a void trying to reminisce that moment. What the fuck?

"On the lips?" I was curious.

"Just the cheeks." He was still smiling.

"Well did you kiss her?" Charles was the biggest coward. And as I expected, he didn't kiss Amanda. But she kissed him. What a slut. I groaned internally. I promised to myself to not hate Amanda because it would hurt less. If I couldn't have Charles then at least he would be with someone whom I like as a person. But every time I saw Charles happy fantasizing and telling stories about Amanda, my hatred would start to build up until it was as long and as wide as the Great Wall of China. I couldn't help it. I looked back at my laptop. Finally, Charles noticed how unenthusiastic I was with the date.

"Hey you're being rude," he barked at me.

And that's when I snapped.

"I'm being rude?! I am busy Charles! Go tell someone else about your stories!" He looked shocked and pissed. I didn't want to know his response and I was not in the mood to argue. Fortunately, Julia opened the door. She texted a while ago that she wanted to visit me at my apartment. I was still looking at my screen looking pissed. Charles slowly backed out.

"Whatever. I'll call you when you're not...busy." I watched Charles go and then looked at Julia as she was closing the door. I felt bad for what I had done. I closed the laptop and stared at the ceiling for a moment. When Julia asked how I was feeling, that's when I started to sob and buried my face on the couch. Julia tried to stop me crying.

"Hey Vie. Look at me." I looked at her radiant beautiful face with my ugly crying face. Julia continued, "I came here expecting you to be happy. Can you do that for me?" She flashed to me her sweet smile and I couldn't help but smile too. I wiped away my tears and tried to be happy. Julia and I cooked dinner and just tried to catch up with each other. I told her about the project that involved the writers and actors.

Julia commented, "I couldn't wait to see that! I hope your group gets paired with Daniel so I wouldn't be torn between two talented beings."

"I know! He's a great actor, Julia. You're a lucky girl!"

Julia asked me, "If you hadn't seen your actors yet, how would you know that there are enough actors for the characters in your script?"

I answered her, "Well we were told that in a group of actors, there are five girls and five boys. We were instructed to make the play as small as possible."

We were silent for a moment and Julia trailed off, "I hope Daniel is not on the same group as..."

"...Amanda." I finished that sentence for her. We both hated this girl. I knew this was wrong, but I couldn't be happier to have someone to share this hatred with. I needed to stop hating on her. She was not worth it.