Rainbows after Hurricane

24. |p r e s e n t|

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Asher feels like someone just blew a punch at him from nowhere and sucked out all the life from him, leaving him with without energy and little shred of hope. That little shred of hope is what willing Asher to keep going as he desperately waits for doctors to bring some good news about Dianna.

It's been exactly three months they'd started dating. To others it might seem a very short time to fall hopelessly in love with someone, but only Asher knows what he feels for Dianna is something he hasn't felt for anyone until then. Falling in love with her was the least expected thing in his life. Never in his dreams had he ever thought he will one day fall in love with a girl who he'd practically raised up.

It took him a lot more convincing from his own inner self and his granddad to accept his feelings for Dianna. When he started to feel something more for her that he shouldn't be feeling at all, it's expected of him to be frightened. He was terrified of the things she'd started doing to him by just one look. No matter how much he tried to push those feelings away, it kept coming back, knocking him out of his senses until he couldn't fight it any longer, and at last, he did what he'd wanted to do for a very long time.

He surrendered.

It doesn't matter if being in a relation with her was wrong and inappropriate. He was surprised to know that he didn't care—because it all felt so right like he'd always belonged to her.

The night where he finally mustered enough courage and claimed her as his was the most beautiful night of his life. Asher had been terrified as well as elated when she told him that she'd loved him all her life. The fact that he felt a flutter of happiness in his chest when she'd said those three magical words terrified him the most. He thought he was betraying his best friend all the more than he already did by developing a romantic feeling for his sister, but he couldn't help himself except to fall for her hard and fast.

His heart had broken into pieces when he witnessed the amount of pain in Dianna's eyes when he told her to move on but it literally killed him to witness her kissing someone else that was not him. That was when he decided that he cannot do this anymore—to him and especially to Dianna. So, he did the thing that felt the most right thing to do. He confessed and claimed her as his girl.

These three months had been the happiest months of his life in last three years. Few days ago it felt like he was the luckiest man in the world, now it felt like he was the unluckiest man to ever being born in the whole world.

If he had known something this terrible would happen to her, he'd have made hers a long time back. As he laid back his head against the wall, he promised himself to love her all his life through all hardships even if he had to give up his own life.

***

Zach's hand hovers over the hospital telephone for the tenth time, until the nervousness comes back overshadowing the little bit of courage he'd mustered up, forcing him to retract his hand back and shove it into his trousers pocket to hide it's tremble.

Since the doctor informed him about Dianna's latest complication, he's been trying to act calm and collected and brave, but whenever his eyes swiped to Asher, the nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach would bite him hard, and he'd to force himself to look away. But, the feeling remained....biting him...teasing him....taunting him.

To escape from those haunting turmoil of emotions, he excused himself and without any thoughts, he found himself standing before the telephone. He knew he had to tell his mother about Dianna's latest downfall in her health condition, but for the entire thing that is human, he couldn't bring himself to pick up the phone and call her.