Warming a Frozen Heart

Revelation

CHAPTER 5

Revelation

-Kyousuke-

"Hey man," Luke said, sitting beside me while drinking canned milk tea. "JC told me about your fight." We were all back in the school to spend the rest of the vacation there. "She seemed mad about it, really. Care to share?"

"I wasn't myself that night. I was the one wrong about everything. I just couldn't accept my defeat when JC mentioned something about being fair. Now I don't know how to apologize to her."

"Pride problems." He scrunched up the can and threw it into a bin beside him. "The sad truth is, every person knows that the longer you think twice about apologizing, the deeper your fight becomes over time."

"Says someone who knows a hell lot of things about her."

"What do you mean?"

"I met her best friend a few days back. She said you're just not telling me everything."

"Fine. I'll tell you. You know what? The reason why we keep everything about JC confidential is because she doesn't want anyone to know."

"Spill it already."

"Buy me a drink from the snack bar first! I want something new, like a a glass of cold lemon tea mixed with soft, finely whipped--"

"Luke."

"Alright, I'll stop messing around and acting like a beverage fetishist-- which by the way is the name JC gave me." He took a deep breath and sat straight. "When we were freshmen, JC used to be really outgoing and free spirited, as if she didn't care about what shitty things were happening around her. This earned her many admirers, and yet she still didn't care and focused on studying. Erin and I became her friends and we spent a lot of good times with each other. Several months later, the school held their traditional anniversary festival and JC didn't think twice about going alone. That's when the horror came in. A group of seniors who were her part of her many admirers got drunk, ganged up on her and raped her while the festival was ongoing. I heard her scream Erin's name, then mine while I was walking by. I immediately followed her voice and found her buck naked on the floor, blood on her head as if a bottle was slammed on it and was about to be stabbed with broken glass when they saw me standing before them. Before I could say a word they recognized me as the headmaster's son and pleaded with their lives, asking me not to tell everything to my mom. I lied and said I won't, and watched them go as I approached JC. Erin arrived at the same time and saw how JC backed away when I approached her. She deduced that JC was afraid and told me to just pick her clothes up and Erin would assist her to her feet. A day later I told my mom about it, and she immediately expelled the latter. A few weeks later JC began to throw up and become dizzy at random times. Then a month after that, the nurse at the clinic said she was pregnant. She began crying every day and night, shutting herself in my room for a solid week before letting me back in- only to find her unconscious and blood all over the floor. This was the second death threat she had, because she lost the baby and was about to lose her life herself. Good thing Erin knew how to perform CPR and brought her to the hospital next to the school. Since then, she grew cold, and the old JC we knew suddenly disappeared out of thin air. However, this news that had happened didn't reach her admirers and she remained popular all the way. In our sophomore year, she became emotionally unstable and we were forced to send her to therapy. After three months she was released out of the mental hospital and refused to speak to anyone. A few days later, she began talking to me and asked me if I could be her rooommate until senior year. My mom didn't agree and said she should learn to move on, so that's why she placed you in JC's quarters. Thanks to you, she stopped crying at night and is now currently a little talkative. That's it."

"S-she... s-she had a baby?" I asked nervously.

"Apparently, yes. It's not like I could defy a nurse's statement." He sighed and leaned back, his hands behind his head. "Her 'dark past' goes even more deeper than you think. Her father is a drunkard who would attempt to rape her and her other relatives, and her mother is a whore who would often force her into the trade. Both of her parents committed suicide after fighting, so my mom adopted her and considered her as her own. That's why I consider JC important to me. She's like my little sister or something."

I stood up involuntarily and began to walk slowly towards the dorm. "Hey, where are you going?"

"I just... gotta go to JC..." I bursted into a run and overheard Luke say, "Yeah, go. But don't forget you owe me a drink!"

I arrived at our room in two minutes, panting and exhausted. I bursted through the door, but found no one inside. I looked in the kitchen and the shower, but there was no sign of JC anywhere. I saw her laptop with Microsoft Word open in one of the windows. I looked at it and saw two words typed on the sceen.

I'm sorry.

"JC?" I nervously called. I ran back to Luke, and I found him worried as well. "Luke! Did you see her?"

"No, but Miss Nina texted me and told me she saw JC leaving the school grounds."

"Shit," I muttered. Luke ran with me to the gates and to the pavement. He went in the opposite direction after telling me the places JC might've gone to. I first checked the coffee shop, but she wasn't there. Second came the bookstore, then her old house. Next to the old house and on the road, however, was a mess of clothes, an open trunk and a crowd. I excused my way through and found an ambulance taking in a young girl. I never saw her hair or her face, but I thought it was JC. The crowd dissipated as I muttered her name.

"Did you seriously think I got hit by a drunk truck driver?" a voice behind me asked. "You sure are a stupid dog."

I turned around and saw JC, her arms crossed and staring up at me with an icy glare. She was wearing a navy blue sweater, a blue skirt, blue high cut sneakers and black, hip length socks. "God, I was so worried!" I hugged her out of the blue, earning a gasp from her. "You shouldn't have left like that!"

"Hey...! You're too... close! Get off!"

"I don't care if you murder me after this. I heard your story. And I'm sorry for not listening to you back at the vacation house. I was wrong."

"F-fine, whatever! Did you forget I'm afraid of-"

"Nonsense. Why didn't you react when you held my hand?"

"I-It's not like I consider you special..." She looked down. "And... I'm sorry, too."

"Stop being so cheeky." I let go of her and held her shoulders. "Apology accepted. Isn't it about time you forget what happened?"

"I can't. It's been two years and I can't forget it yet."

"We'll find ways to make you forget, okay?"

"Like what? Hitting me with a car and wishing I get amnesia? With the drama you just did, I'd actually welcome amnesia."

"You shouldn't really think like a pessimist."

"And why?"

"Because YOLO."

"Bitch please."

"Well, well, looks like you found her first." Luke punctuated his every word with a clap. "I didn't think you were her tracker. Don't run off anymore like that, JC."

"Why were you here, anyway?" I asked.

"To revive a few good memories, is all."

I gave out a breath of relief. "Come to think of it, I don't know what 'JC' means."

"Really." She sighed. "Maybe it's about time you and Luke know what it means. It sounds the same like its first letter. It's kinda shitty, though. Don't react."

"Fine. Tell me what it is."

"My name is..."