EVE
I stood there with a question hanging in the air. Shall I find him and see if they met? If they did, shall I approach and tell Sophie she's talking to the man I'm marrying? Or do I need to know my real place and just walk away, leaving Xenon with the woman he wanted to marry?
I sighed. As of now, none of that seemed to matter. I… I was alone, standing with a head full of indecision. But as if to answer my question, Xenon went out, rushing. When he passed my side, I stopped him by grabbing his arm.
"hey, Xenon. They already went home."
He responded with a nod. A single nod. His eyes weren't looking at me. They were focused on the ground.
"are you… are you okay?" – I asked because he didn't utter a word. Also, I noticed when he finally looked up at me that his eyes were red.
"don't ask."
And then he withdrew his arm, walking fast towards the parked car.
I licked my lips. Of course, he may have met Sophie inside and had an awkward encounter with her. That's not far from impossible. I followed him to the car. His ample disregard of my concern was appalling but it's Xenon Alister, it's a part of his system to be cold.
However, the cold treatment followed us even in the car. I wanted to ask if I could turn on the radio to drown the deafening silence but I don't know, something's stopping me. The air between us was stopping me. An adverse feeling of some sort. It continued until we reached home. He was the first one to get out of the car and walked towards the door. When he was about to enter the main door, he stopped.
"you met her too, didn't you?" – Xenon spoke up
"who?" – I knew who was he pertaining to
"you know who I meant. She said she ran into you at the bathroom."
I gulped. Since I moved to this house, I haven't had a nice nor long conversation with Xenon yet. Aside from the skipping of our get to know process, the part where we feel comfortable to talk to each other about something was also skipped.
"oh. Sophie?"
He flinched just by the mention of her name. He got it bad, didn't he?
"yeah, I met her."
"you said something to her, didn't you?"
"What? I didn't say anything. I swear."
"how come she knows about the wedding?"
I frowned. I am certain he will not believe it if I say it was the other way around. It was Sophie who approached me first and said something about marrying her ex. That information is irrelevant now, I guess.
"I don't know."
Of all the possible defenses, that's what I said. There was a pause between us and then Xenon looked at me, disappointed. He shook his head slowly, and I fathom he has cursed me in his mind only hesitant to say it to my face.
We entered the manor and went to different rooms where I stayed the rest of the day.
XENON
Even now in my room, my head was going backwards. I couldn't forget what Sophie said when I stood next to her in front of the freedom wall in that restaurant. Our hands lightly brushed and I gulped the tension away. It has been months and I cannot deny that I miss her. My body pulses for every touch of her. She raised her right hand to pick a particular pink sticky note. On it was a sweet quote: "I missed her like the change of the tides. I know she does not belong to me and now I'm with someone else." She read that loud enough for me to hear.
"sounds like someone I know." – she spoke and pasted the note on the corkboard again.
"how are you, Sophie?"
It felt good to finally say that in person. After our sudden breakup, I flooded her with calls which were all unreturned. I went to visit her house on the first months but her mother would say she's not around. I would leave, but I would always notice the light on her room at the second floor. That's how our communication died, and now it felt great to say those questions right to her face.
"never been better… but you seem to be doing well. When will you invite me to this wedding of yours?"
My eyes widened. Who told her?
"how did you-"
"is that important? One way or another, you know I'll know."
"I didn't-"
"no, Xenon. It's fine. Of course. We broke up. It's not wrong that you're now moving on. she looks cute, too."
Has she met her? Right before we were properly introduced, Genevieve was an invisible being to me. None in the school knows or talks about her. Especially by someone like Sophie.
"actually, it's kind of nice to know you're now about to marry. We never spoke about our breakup so I clearly had no idea on how you were coping up. we haven't had a proper closure. To be honest, I don't even know why it exactly happened… but at least, now we know you've completely moved on. I kind of researched about this girl of yours and I gotta say, it was a surprise. Congratulations, though. You've finally put an end to our drama. We're officially over. Maybe this is the closure we failed to give. Have a great marriage, Xenon."
She gave me a light peck on the cheeks and I softened. Before I could react, all I can hear were her footsteps walking away from me. from us. from our promise of forever.
I didn't even speak up to clarify things. I couldn't. I should've told her the truth about this marriage, but then what do I do with regrets now that she said it's officially over? As the old saying goes: there's no need to cry over spilt milk. This is my spilt milk.