The Bet (Just The Way You Are)

The Bet *Storyteller

Happy Reading! (:

Chapter 49 *Storyteller*

~Sophia

“Do you really want to know?”

“How many times do I have to say yes?”

“Until you forget the reason why you’re asking,” Draky says amusedly.

Rolling my eyes, I sit on the edge of my bed. “You already said you’re going to tell me, and now you’re backing down.”

He gets the chair beside the desk and sits across from me. “Where will I begin?”

Smiling, I suggest, “Why not from the start?” I realize that I’m the one who’s always telling stories. Now it’s the other way around.

He returns my smile with a wry one. “Okay.” He pauses and takes a deep breath. “My father cheated on my mom.”

“What?”

“My dad had an affair.”

“I-I’m s-sorry,” I stutter, looking everywhere but him.

He sighs. “I’ll never know why people say sorry for the bad things that happened even though they didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I-it’s called sympathy,” I murmur, finding the floral blanket really interesting.

“He had an affair with my mom’s friend,” he continues, ignoring my explanation. “I saw him a year ago. He was with her.”

“How do you know they were together?” I whisper, looking at him behind my eyelashes. It’s hard to fathom he carries a huge burden. I feel guilty for hurting him with a game.

His blue eyes pierce through mine. “I just know. I even followed him before. The nights he didn’t stay in our house, he went to his mistress.”

“Oh my,” I breathe. My hands involuntarily clamps over my mouth. I’m sure my expression is filled with shock. I can’t believe his dad can do something like that.

 “I was astonished to see him with another woman,” Draky says through gritted teeth. “I thought he loved my mom! I looked up to him. He was my role model, and when I saw him. . .” His voice is full of disdain and venom. His words are distinct from one another. Just by listening to him, you’ll know he kept this for long.

I put my hands on top of his, to comfort him. It’s hard to see Draky hurting like this.

“When I was sure he was cheating on my mom,” he continues, “I confronted him and told him that I knew. He was shocked. He said a lot of things to me but I didn’t listen. As if I’ll believe him again after what he did!” His mouth sets into a thin hard line.

“Are they still seeing each other now?” I whisper.

“When I talked to me he said he broke it off,” he says ruefully.

“What about basketball?” I ask, because I don’t know the reason why he quit. And I still can’t form sentences in my head regarding his dad.

“I didn’t like basketball at first,” he replies. “My father likes it. It’s a sport and a hobby he enjoys. And I want to make him proud of me so I joined. But when I found out about his affair, I lost interest. Its like: What’s the point of playing anymore? So I quit.” His hands are balled into a tight fists. Opening them slowly, I interlace my fingers with his.

“I think it’s not just your dad,” I say. “You grow to like basketball as well. Without knowing it.”

“I don’t know.”