Never in a Month of Sundays

002: Her Achilles' Heel and Metamorphosis

"You know how much I love Ashley!"

All I could do was to cry with him. Seeing him weeping like this was awfully heartbreaking. How could a man like him cry a river like this because of a woman?

"I still love her despite all these... but how can I have her back... she's already with Jerwin." He was sobbing in between his statements.

I had tried to convince him countless times that Ashley wasn't the kind of girl he had thought she was but he never listened.

Ashley, our celebrated campus queen who possessed features of a goddess, had a magical spell that could effortlessly captivate a man's heart with just a flip of her hair. But there wad more to her than meets the eye.

She had mastered the art of sham long enough. She was an expert in pretending to be as nice and sweet; vulnerable to all the harmful forces this world could ever offer. But her personality was rotten and faux. Behind her mask was a good for nothing, skillful social climber using people for her advantage. In short, she was a human leech sucking victim's blood without them even knowing it.

And sitting beside me was the devastated Zennen. I was no expert in comforting people with fancy words or kind gestures to display act of humanity. But believe me, I was trying my best here with my own inept ways and minuscule psych knowledge that I had learned on understanding people to help him get over this.

Before all of these happened, he was one hell of a guy. Hell as in literally since he had personified the god down under and made himself as the bulliest of all bullies in school. Now, as fragile as a baby who would cry for a broken toy, it seemed nobody could pacify him except Ashley. I hated that thought but that was the unbearable truth. Who would have known that the beast we all knew would be pathetic like this? Crying his heart out because he caught Ashley cheating on him.

Zennen was my best friend. He was a year ahead of me and destiny had written our fates to come across even before the day we were born. His house was only few blocks away from ours and our parents were best pals since their youth. We had each other's shoulder since the day we had learned that Gumamela produced bubbles, and that Santan had nectar as sweet as glucose.

The tribulation he was enduring was all because of me. If only I could take the pain away I would willingly snatch it from him.

Regretfully, I had played an important role in their romance. I was the matchmaker who introduced two strange bodies to get to know more about each other's life. But it wasn't something I did out of my own will. Ashley was my classmate but never been my friend. Zennen persistently asked me to set him up on a date with the loveliest girl in school. Annoyed with his eagerness, he left me with no choice but to do everything as he requested.

Zennen had introduced me to every girl he had dated so I knew that the admiration he had for Ashley was far different from the rest. At first, I was hesitant that he might only get hurt. But when they officially became the most envied couple and their relationship sailed smoothly, I trusted Ashley had totally changed for him.

He was never been that happy with any other girls. It wasn't a secret that he was head over heels in love with her.

Even I knew it had been killing me softly.

I knew that the feeling I had for him was way more than just friendship. I loved him and the love I had for him grew more each day. I couldn't express my feelings afraid I might only break the trust he had given me. I didn't want to put our friendship to waste.

I was in the Friend Zone but I was fine staying there for as long as I could. It was unrequited love and I wouldn't be tired admiring him even he couldn't reciprocate the affection in the same way that I did.