The Painful Kiss of Augustus
Chapter 15
Days passed so fast. Activities in our school started to roll ever in our schedules as our free time started to deplete. Sion and Karla started to date however, I seldom caught Karla looking at me while she was with Sion. Gladly, Sion was there to help me— or be of use to my advantage to help Karla get over her irrational admiration for me. Karla was nice— almost a goody two shoes person. Nonetheless, I knew to myself that I could not reciprocate whatever she was about to give to me.
A prism of light cut through the window as the searing yellow light coming from 2p.m. sunlight started to graze through the it. Looking out of the window, I saw some junior students lurking around the soccer field. At the back of my head, I wished Ivy would he there. But knowing her, I knew that she will never just go around without any purpose. The mellow whisper of mischievous longing purposely swirled within me as my eyes stared at the upper branches of the Narra Tree where I usually spot Ivy. The whole tree was blocked by a building which made it impossible to tell if Ivy was there.
So this was what the call 'so close yet so far', huh? It was just a few steps away yet it was so hard to spend much time with her. The yearning of quality time alone with Ivy was making me dizzy. This oddity was hard to explain. She was just my friend yet I was craving for a longer and more time with her. We did see each other almost every night but last night, I wasn't able to see her due to some errands I needed to attend. Our company boomed to the peak of the Industry and I didn't expect that my designs would be the reason of it. Hence, last night I was obliged to design a parure— a set of jewelries.
"Your designs are the most in demand in the market, August!" Mama exclaimed in a high pitch perfect tone. "But we must expect of the greater volume of small businesses to sell faux jewelries out of your designs!"
"Is there any problem with that?"
"Son! They are making faux jewelries out of your design! They are gaining money out of nowhere—"
"Mama, it's just small businesses. As if they can step on our business by just using mineral pyrite, iron pyrite and moissanite?"
Mama sighed irritably as she pushed the line sheets on the table, "These are the line sheets of some brooches, rings, necklace, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks that were passed by some of our interns. Our board likes your eyes in designs, August. Now that you have established your name at an early age, it will be easier for me to pass to you the company."
Shrugging, I took the line sheets and skimmed every pages, "I'll check these out later."
"Okay,"
As my designs reached the highest pinnacle of jewelry sales this month, praises were all thrown at me every time I visited the company. Board members congratulated me in any perfect way as though I was the gem of the business. At an early age, I was a bit pressured of their expectation. Honestly, I think the sales I got for my designs were all about luck. It might not be equated to how great and astounding my designs were.
"You're silent," Karla whispered as she softly nudged me
I clicked my tongue and glanced at her, "We were in class, Karla. What to expect?"
"I mean, you're spacing out. Something wrong?"
Shaking my head, I fixated my eyes at the board where our professor wrote the scope of our upcoming exam. Fuck! I tried to scrawl down all the scopes written on the board but our professor abruptly erased it because the other side of the board was already full of notes that needed to take in. Swearing under my breath, I pushed annoyingly the ballpoint pen and reclined indulgently on my seat. Karla, on the other side, scoffed and shove her notes at my side.
