Ego's Trap | ✔

15 | Deep Feelings

☆☆☆ Chapter 15 ☆☆☆

Deep Feelings

Right beneath my eyes lying on the bed from food poisoning was Daniel, thanks to both Teresa and I. I know I wasn't the one to make the shady burned pancakes, but I let Daniel eat 'em, and it made me partly responsible for what had happened within an hour of him doin' so: he passed out. Since I was the one that should've eaten 'em, I should've been the one to pass out.

I had no idea what to do to make him feel better, and the worst part of it all was that the only one I could ask for immediate help was Teresa herself. She knows what she could do for him better than anyone else 'round here, and with good reason: she's a med school dropout. It's why my parents are so disappointed in her and pressure me into going to college when I clearly don't wanna be there (and it's also why she's a plain old witch).

So, what's the probability of her deciding to help me out when she was the one to make this all happen in the first place? 2% of a chance? 0.5% of a chance? 0.001% of a chance, if any? ...What if I force her or threaten her with my trusty knife, the one I used on Daniel and always do my best to keep under my pillow (just in case, y'know)? I'm sure the likelihood of her helping out would increase exponentially with that, right? Yes. Yes, it would.

☆☆☆

Just as not expected. Teresa was sitting on the edge of her bed, holding herself tightly, whimpering like a wounded animal with the occasional sniff. A small, light book was by her side. Her college yearbook. A cup of tea was sitting idly on her nightstand. The door to her bathroom was ajar, letting the darkness within it to seep out into her room. Her roommate was not around. I was free from any potential witnesses. Clearly too engrossed in her tears, I managed to shut the door behind me without her noticing. I stormed towards her and grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Help me treat Daniel, he passed out!" I snapped.

Her face finally jerked up to face mine. "No, I'm not treating him. He's all yours."

I squeezed her shoulder as tight as my hand could, glaring right at her. "Just come with me." She refused, sinking her head in between her shoulders, wincing like the animal she is. How can she not help the man she's in love with? I bit my lip and breathed in and out, slowly. As I did so, I let her catch a glimpse of my precious, trusty knife. It didn't make her move one bit. "Enough, Teresa. Let's go," I warned, but she refused yet again.

Looking away, she murmured: "I'm not going to treat him. Anyone can treat a simple case of that so-called food poisoning."

Has she finally lost her mind? "What do you mean by that?"

Teresa gave me a glum smile. "This is a solution of the drug I put in the pancakes I intended to feed you," she said, pulling a small vial of liquid from her pocket. "He's just... drugged, is all."

"What the hell!"

She wiped her runny nose swiftly with her arm, lightly brushing the knife. "Whatever, it was meant for you. If it weren't for Daniel being such a honeybun everyone would've seen the broken, insecure bully that you are, always blaming your problems on everyone but yourself, with the effects of this one little drug." I didn't even want to talk, my trusty knife was all I needed. I slammed her down, with the knife right against her throat, hoping to scare the crap out of her, but it still didn't move her. "I quit my accelerated med and PhD program for that drug... or at least, that's what I tell myself, that's my excuse. I worked myself way too hard to get myself accepted into it, so I can't mentally deal with any other reason yet── I invented it, you see." God! Nobody cares. "Look at this baby, this invention I call Deep Feelings." She held tightly onto the vial. "Through various people I tested it on after recognizing it's relatively safe on animals, I learned that it makes people reveal a handful of things, ranging from deep secrets and inner feelings to any inappropriate behavior of their own. There's no way anyone can resist it. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what I wanted to do by feeding you with it. It was all for the sake of the people I love to remain beside me, even if they fail to notice me."

" ...Huh?"

"Daniel and Honey, my precious jewels. You see, I've been admiring them for ages. It's refreshing, really, to tell someone. But it turns out, no matter what I do, there's nothing that can make either of them notice me. I promised myself to never give up on pursuing them, but── " Her eyes flared up and she raised her head, almost begging the knife against her throat to cut her. "You can steal Daniel from my heart, but whatever you do, don't you dare take Honey away from me, it already hurts for me to lose him and I don't want to be completely heart broken, so I'm pleading you to not steal my Honey, please── I'm begging you! Daniel is already more than enough!"

If I didn't think 'bout Daniel as much as I do lately, I would've made that simple maid friend Honey of hers have me be her object of attention, and Teresa knows it. It's too bad that I can't, really. Besides, wouldn't it be great to see Teresa never be able to get her, without me even interfering? My sister would deserve the pain that comes her way── she didn't save me after all, she's just a weakling. I had to save myself, and then her. Who's living through the pain now? Clearly not her if she's been busy with love interests for the past few years, right? It's only now that I even dared to be with someone.

I felt my hands twitch at the thought of actually cutting her. "Boo~ hoo, such a sad life that you have," I spat, feeling the itch of adrenaline rush through every part of my body, encouraging me, inviting me, to give in. Oh lord, how I wish it could be that easy to just──

"Such a sad lie that you make for yourself," Teresa muttered, tears still trickling down her stupid eyes. If only I had the courage, the small but significantly evil drive to push me over the edge, I would do a certain something to her with my trusty knife, but no, I'm a saint with a perfect personality. I would never dare to really hurt her with a knife. I let her go from my hold, getting myself up from the bed, letting my lungs take a breather. Teresa faintly followed. "Ane, you know that I love you, right? I want you to get better just as much as I want to."

"Shut up, whore. Just tell me how I can make Daniel feel better."

Teresa let out a dry laugh, a painful one. " ...All you need to do is wait until it wears out. It may take a while, maybe a day, maybe not. Don't be surprised if he throws it all up though, some people don't digest it well." I didn't even want to say thank you. She didn't deserve it. I aimed to walk my way out of her room, but she stopped me midway into doing so by grabbing one of my arms.

"What do you want?" It took everything within me to not slam her against the wall. I'm bigger than her; more round and meaty. Height doesn't matter, who cares if she's taller? I know I would have done some damage, and I would have loved it, but I didn't want anyone near to hear it happen.

"I just want to let you know that I'm here for you, no matter what you do to me. I know I can lash out at you sometimes for your behavior but trust me it's for your own good as well as my own."

"Why're you saying these unnecessary things out of your stupid mouth?"

Teresa held herself together, swaying like the retard she is. "People can get chatty and moody with Deep Feelings in their system, especially with someone like me, who constantly stuffs it down her throat in the hopes that someone helps her rather than wait until it wears out. Someone like you, after you get better, maybe."

"You're dumb, to knowingly drug yourself out with that crap. Why don't you hurry up and overdose if that's what you want? Nobody will miss you." I forced my arm away from her hold. "Also, 'bout what you said, that's just too bad. Who cares if you're sad? Nobody. As I said, nobody will miss you," I snickered. "I'm already as good as I can be, anyway, and if that doesn't help you, well, that can only say so much 'bout you."

Once again I left her all to herself without even the smallest intention to look behind.

☆☆☆

On my way back to Daniel's room, I wondered to myself how the drug would affect Daniel once his eyes opened. How will he behave?