Feelings Incarnate | ✓

32 | Feelings Makes Us Human

Kiara࿐

"So, Jay, what're you majoring in?" Irene asked, taking a sip from her cup of Sprite.

"Just computer science," he replied.

She arched her eyebrows in surprise. "That's cool! You must be great at math," she commented and shot me a pointed look.

I widened my eyes at her and shrugged. "Hey, don't look at me! Not my fault, math makes my brain scrambled."

"Math isn't a frying pan, dummy!"

"It was just an expression, knucklehead!" I shot back at her.

"Knucklehead," Rose snorted from beside me.

The four of us continued to guffaw at random remarks, and soon enough, all of us were clutching on to our sides, groaning in pain.

Rising up to my feet, I wandered outside to the patio and sat cross-legged on the white bench, switching on my phone and blinking at the bright screen contrasted against the darkness of the night. Scrolling down my contacts, I clicked on the dial icon beside his number.

Holding the phone against my ear, I exhaled in exhaustion when the same voice message that I'd been hearing for so many times now, kept repeating.

"The number you dialled is not reachable . . ."

"Idiot, did you really think it'd work?" I rebuked myself softly.

"Why are you talking to yourself?"

I looked up to see Rose striding towards me, with her hands in her pockets. Her eyebrows were furrowed together as she sat down beside me and peeked over at my phone screen curiously.

"Just tried again." I shrugged.

"And?" She tilted her head, waiting for my response.

"No use."

She pursed her lips together and lowered her head, nodding to herself as she clasped her hands together. After a moment, she started, "I'm really sorry for all that happened, Ki. And, Hayden, I seriously never thought he'd leave the country. But, I think you should know--"

Placing my hand on her thigh, I stopped her in the middle of her ramble. I didn't want to hear apologies anymore knowing that I was mostly guilty for everything that had happened.

She looked up at me, eyebrows arched in confusion as I uttered, "It's fine, Ro. Really. Plus, I'm sorry too. In the midst of everything, I had been so caught up with myself. I feel like I haven't spent as much time with you," pausing, I gave her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry for not being the best version of a friend. You were always there for me and I just . . . I want you to know that I'm always here for you too, okay? I'll do better to prove it to you from now on."

A smile played on her face at that, her eyes glinting happily. "You don't have to prove anything, you sappy idiot," was her response as she hit me lightly on my arm.

Laughing and immensely grateful for her presence, I glanced up at the star-studded blue-black sky, stroking the cold dog paw pendant lying between my collarbones. The stars shone like sugar that had been spilt over black marble, sparkling haughtily. The crisp, night breeze blew through my hair, ruffling it into a tousled mane.

With a sigh, I stood to my feet and turned to Rose. "Come on, it's chilly, you'll catch a cold . . ." I trailed off when I noticed her gazing somewhere behind me, a smug smile on her face.

She scoffed, still looking out at the distance. "Well, that took him forever."

"Huh?" Confused, I was about to turn around, but stilled--my mouth parting in alarm--when I heard the voice.