by M.G. Marquez
CHAPTER TEN
MAGGIE
I was crying at his dying side, and making promises about me not beating him up again, and shouting at him again, and trying to kill him again, when I caught him making faces at the people behind me which happened to be his friends. He’s pretending to be asleep, damn it.
“OW!” the boys reacted as I hastily grabbed Guji’s dextrose, which would mean him a lot of pain. He’s making fun of me while I’m having a serious emotional breakdown here!
“YOU BASTARD! Are you making fun of me?!”
“N-no! Let go of the fucking dextrose, SEAWEEDBRAIN!” He’s biting my hands, and I’m reeling in pain. I punched punched punched him, while he bit bit bit me. We’re rolling over ourselves in the bed, when Fred spoke. He said stop. We glared at him. He let us be unwillingly.
“I take back all of the things I’ve said!” I said, choking him.
“Don’t take them back! Touch move!”
“Do you want me to make your death a reality, huh? There’s a window right there and I could push you down so you could die for good!”
“JUST TRY.”
Without having second thoughts, I jumped out of his bed, grabbed his shirt, and dragged him along with me. I heard him choking, coughing, and desperately catching his breath, while I heard his friends pleading for his life.
Yvan caught my arm which made me stop midway. I turned to face him and said, “I just hope he’ll suffer an eternal damnation somewhere you guys can’t protect this damned hell-sent,”
I released Guji’s shirt from my grip and walked back inside. Then something cold crept into my spine, devouring the power I have a while ago. My heart’s pounding so hard, I could hardly breathe. My hands are trembling, and I swear I’m dying in fear. I can’t believe I just did what I did.
I can’t believe Guji let me do those things to him.
I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.
Yvan and I have been close since the press conference, which made everything great for me. We talk, laugh, and eat together. Being close to him is the new definition of ‘being happy’ for me.
But what bothered me most right now was the fact that Guji and Yvan knew each other – best of friends, I may add. I got confused and asked him why. He told me that “…the opposites always attract.”
I’m a girl, you’re a boy, we’re opposites and I’m attracted to you.
Okay. That seems reasonable.
“You want some?” Yvan sat beside me, putting the Lays he was eating into view. I hesitated. I pressed myself against the cold door of Guji’s room while I fumble with my fingers. “It’s okay to speak,” he said.
“Yah,” I weakly said. He asked if I want to know little things about Guji, I said no, I’m not interested. He said he knows Guji’s secrets and I told him I needed him to do me a favor.
“What’s that?”
“Shut up.”
He laughed at my coldness and said, “Okay, I’ll shut up. But let me stay here beside you,”
When I said I don’t want to talk about Guji and that I wasn’t interested, I lied. So I said, “He’s NGSB. Why?”
I felt him twitch at my question. I added, “Is he gay?”
“No, it’s not that,” he laughed at my ridiculousness. “He just can’t take the pain of people leaving, walking out of his life,”
“He never had a girlfriend so how much does he know about pain –”
“His mom died,” It was like someone had punched me straight in the chest, I gasped for air. “Ten years ago. On his 8th birthday,”
I was lost for words that moment.
Yvan walked me home.
He’s teasing me something about my messy hair and mismatched slippers and something else I didn’t mind. When I got irritated, I punched his stomach that he yapped in pain.
“Is that how you treat your friends?” he complained, his arms around his tummy.
“Friends? I don’t want to be your friend,” I want to be your girlfriend.
“I don’t want to, either.” He looked at me deeply I swear I could’ve died a thousand folds. The moment of silence might’ve been awkward if it didn’t start to rain.
Both of us don’t have any umbrella on our bags so we started running. He held my hand so as not to be left behind. He held my hand and my lips curved into a wide smile. His warmth envelopes my skin, I felt ecstatic.
I can’t remember the day when he started to affect me in the smallest way possible.
And that effect wasn’t uncomfortable. I liked dwelling on it.
We took refuge under the Mister Donut store. Both of us were panting but we’re smiling. I put out my hand into the rain and felt the droplets of rain touch my palm. It’s cold but I felt warm.
“That was fun,” he said as he copied my gesture. “It’s fun running with you,”
He turned to me and gave me a smile, I blushed.