Taking The Plunge (The Puppy Honey Series)

Chapter 5: Erasing Him

Note: Rome tries to move on while Pick is too busy second guessing himself.

x.x.x

Pick made a beeline for his bedroom the moment he reached home, taking the stairs two at a time, declining the helper's offer of preparing lunch for him. He locked the door behind him and dumped his messenger bag on the chair before plopping down on the bed.

Fuck, his head hurt.

What was worse was that Pick couldn't seem to erase the image of Rome's shuttered smile when they had parted. What do you expect? You trampled all over his feelings and rejected him. What do you want? A standing ovation? An award for being the biggest prick of the year? Pick closed his eyes to try and ease the dull throbbing in his head. Nai and Rome appeared behind his eyelids and that further intensified his headache.

Nai and Rome.

The thought of Nai was enough to irk him. Though the other had joined the club for quite some time, their conversations were limited to club-related topics. Without realizing it, Nai had somehow managed to worm his way right into Rome's life. To the point where they were comfortable enough to watch a movie together. When had that happened?

Pick blindly groped for his phone and unlocked it, pulling up the LINE app. His last message to Rome had been one that he had sent last week: Are you home yet? Pick ignored the rest of his unread LINE messages and tapped on his chat with Rome, fingers hesitating over the keypad. What did he want to say?

He finally decided on a simple, Text me once you're home.

There still wasn't a reply by the time Pick was done with his early dinner and a shower, and the tick at the side of the message showed that Rome had read it. It made him regret all those times that he hadn't bothered to reply to the younger male's messages. Without thinking, Pick tapped on the 'Call' option, but just like his text, it went unanswered.

Why was he so desperate to talk to Rome anyway? Did he really need the assurance that things were going to be okay between them?

Desperate to keep his mind off the thoughts plaguing his mind, Pick scrolled through the notifications on his phone and noticed that there was one informing him that Rome had uploaded a new photo on Instagram twenty-five minutes ago. He tapped on it.

And immediately regretted it.

It was a picture of Nai and Rome, with a motorcycle in the background and what seemed like the front gate of Rome's house. The male had captioned the photo with a simple, ''Thank you, P'Nai'' along with a smiley emoji. The sudden jealousy that flared up in him caught Pick off guard for a brief second.

[Flashback]

''Why did you tag me in this photo?'' Pick demanded, referring to his Instagram feed where Rome had uploaded a sort of 'candid' photo; Pick hadn't even realized that his photo was being taken as he looked at something at the side, and Rome had his head tilted slightly to the side towards the older male's shoulder. ''Why did you even upload it?''

''Why not, P'? It's normal for friends to post these kind of photos on Instagram.''

''Whatever. It's weird. You'd better delete it.''

[End Flashback]

Pick had a sudden urge to scroll through Rome's Instagram and it was then that Pick realized that the younger male had deleted all the photos of them that he had uploaded before. Even those that he had uploaded a year ago. There was....to put it simply, no trace of Pick at all.

Just like Pick wanted, Rome was erasing him from his life and going back to how things were before.

If this was what Pick wanted so badly, why did he feel so shitty all of a sudden?