INEFABBLE - Short Stories Collection #2

behind the curtains

"Have you eaten, love?" Jeric asked as he looked at me with his loving eyes. They screamed passionately with love and adoration towards me. It's making me melt.

"Yes, I have. You?" I replied back to him, trying to double the same amount of romantic vibe he's giving to me. I wanted him to get the best of my love anyway.

"I have. I'm already full because of your love," he answered back to me, honey dripping with every word coming out of his mouth.

My eyes gazed lovingly at this man beside me. I took in his features. His dark messy hair that fell perfectly in place. His shining brown eyes as he gazed back at me. His tempting lips that's so hard to resist. He's my epitome of perfection.

He held my hand within his and gazed at the skies above us. I followed his gaze and saw millions of stars in front of us. I was mesmerized but I was mostly fascinated by this star-like being beside me.

He's my man for six years. Jeric. We met unexpectedly in June of 2014 back when we're both in high school. He's everything of what a girl would want as an ideal guy: gentleman, funny, smart, supportive, understanding, and, not to mention, one heck of a singer. His angelic voice could melt any woman's heart. His laugh would complete anyone's day.

His ultimate presence was enough for me.

I never knew why he chose me out of all the girls that wanted his attention. He said it was because I stood out. I was different from the girls he knew. He showered me with reasons everyday about why he chose me, about why I was the one for him. He said I was his, and that he was mine.

"You really look good as a couple, you know," one of my friends, Carina, remarked as she watched us from a distance. We were with my friends after all. I was so glad he let them come with us. We hadn't seen each other for months anyways.

I chuckled, "You'll find your own soulmate soon, Car."

"Who knows, it might be one of my friends," Jeric stated and laughed.

I love how he could get along with my friends like that. He could joke along with them. There's no awkwardness and dead air when he and my friends engaged in conversation. I love how supportive he was.

As he went back and forth conversing with Carina about his friends, I stared at him. I was really wondering why I deserved him. I never thought so.

He was an angel. My angel. He saved me from my own version of hell that day in June when he decided to associate himself with someone like me. I wasn't the best person to picture himself with but he still did. He fought alongside with me when people raised eyebrows at our relationship. He never left me alone. We fought our way to become the couple that we had now.

It was all worth it.

"Stop staring at me, I'll melt," he teased and winked at my direction.

I rolled my eyes at him and punched his arm playfully, "You jerk, you're using your pick-up lines again."

"It works everytime," he stated nonchalantly. "I love to flatter you every chance I get."

At this, I blushed the deepest red. He liked teasing me. He wanted to flatter me so much with compliments. I was never the person used to being said such sweet things. Yet here he was, being the sweetheart for throwing really sweet words at my way.

"I really love you," I uttered with a sweet smile plastered on my lips.

"Come on," he said as his arms graced around me in a hug. "We both know I loved you more."

With that, we gazed at each other's eyes. Looking into his eyes made me feel like all the stars were inside his brown ones. I could see the whole galaxy in them. He's like a nightsky. My one and only nightsky.

His gaze fell to my lips and slowly leaned in. Because of this, I leaned in closely to his. I could hear my friends squealing. I could hear Carina's camera shutter. Everything was in slow motion. Like a scene in some romantic movie or play.

It was a fairytale.

And fairytales don't exist in real life.

As soon as our lips inched dangerously close to each other, the deep red curtain in front of us closed. Everything was dark until the lights came on that brought me back to the reality I lived in.

He's still there. His immaculate figure was still with me. But he's different from the angel I thought of him to be.

"You messed up the lines!" he hissed at me with his icy cold glare piercing my soul. "You were supposed to answer differently. You didn't follow the script. You made me do an impromptu dialogue there."

My teeth gritted and my gaze lowered to the ground. Tears were prickling in my eyes as I held my tongue back as I might say something I might regret.

"Not only that, your voice didn't really show sweetness unlike Jeric's," Carina remarked harshly.

The director of the stageplay came to our position and looked at me in disappointment. He had a look on his face that said "you're damned to hell and you know it."

"Vicky, we've been doing this for the past six nights," he started. "And you still haven't memorized your lines? How unprofessional. One more mistake and I want you gone, okay?"

I nodded, preventing the tears from falling but they did nonetheless. Jeric noticed and grabbed my wrist to drag me out of the scene. We went backstage where almost all of the crew left a few minutes ago to clean up the set.

"Jeric, love, I'm so-" I began but stopped when he shot me a glare.

"You agreed to join this," he said, massaging his temple. "You agreed to join this to support me but you're ruining it. You're ruining everything."

"I'm really sorry," I said and reached for his hand but he yanked it away.

"Can you be my girlfriend for once and not mess up?" he asked, his voice dripping with venom in every word.

I nodded my head. With that response, he grabbed the stack of papers in a nearby stool and shoved it to me. He glared at me before turning to a mirror.

I looked at the script and hid my face with it. I could still hear the chants from the excited chatter outside of the curtain coming from the newly-arrived set of audiences. I could even hear some of them admiring the relationship me and Jeric had.

Little did they know they were all lies. Fictive. Never real. Never will be.

All the dialogues were all made up. All the love that was in his eyes were altered. The set up was not romantic. Everything was modified. Nothing was real.

The galaxy did not really show in his eyes. It only showed hell.

And I knew I was damned the first time I joined his stupid stageplay.

"5 more minutes before the show starts again," the director reminded as he moved past us to order the crew.

I felt Jeric's hand touched my shoulder. I looked up at him and saw how his eyes shimmered in a twisted way. A smile so poisonous I could die on the spot.

"Ready, love?" he asked, his grip on my shoulder tightening as if telling me not to mess up this time.

I breathed in and forced a shaky smile at him in return, "Ready."