FicWad

10. Nearing the End


YANI


‘What the hell is going on here?’ its not fun to be yanked out of a great kiss.
Especially not fun when it’s by an ex-boyfriend that hurt you badly.
‘What are you doing?’ I glared at Matt.
‘Answer my question first!’

‘She doesn’t have to answer anything,’ Diego took a step in front of me.
‘Get out of my face!’ Matt pushed him.
‘Do that again, and you’ll understand what Colombians are infamous for.’
‘I don’t think threats are going to help anything,’ I said, stepping in between the two boys (not the easiest things to do) and pushing them apart, ‘Diego, can you go home, I want to talk to Matt.’

Diego stared at him.
I stared back at him, pleading with him.
It was late at night, I doubted anyone in my family would like to be woken by two brawling guys.
With my luck, someone probably kept a gun in the house.
Diego took a step back, whispered ‘/Idiota/’ to Matt and left into the darkness.

‘Matt, I don’t know why you’re here,’ I said, turning back to him.
If I waited until later I might have lost my nerve again.
‘I’m here because I know that I made a mistake.’

‘But Matt,’ I gaped at him, ‘you cant just come here uninvited and try and pick up where we left off—things don’t work that way.’
‘But I—,’
‘Did you even ask me what I wanted? I mean, I was hurt when you tried to run my life and broke up with me—but I’m happy now.’
‘With him...?’
Thank God he was looking like he was starting to get the message—I nodded.

‘And you want me to go home?’
‘PLEASE.’
He smiled sadly, but at least he wasn’t trying to convince me like I half expected him to.
‘So I lost my chance huh?’
‘No,’ I replied thoughtfully, ‘I think we had our chance and it just didn’t work out.’


RACH


It was the final week.
There would be a thank-you dinner at the main base in five days and then we would all be going home.
I felt like I had run out of time—I wouldn’t see Poppo again until the teams met up again and that meant five days of not being able to do anything.

I watched a couple of kids playing with a $2 soccer ball had been brought over by one of the would-be doctors.
There was some talent there, and some equally uncoordinated kids.
There was a little girl of about three or four, kicking stones next to me.

‘Hello,’ I said.
She looked up and smiled.
‘Why aren’t you playing?’ I asked, pointing at the field.
She looked at me with sad eyes and said something while pointing at her feet.
She then proceeded to kick a stone and missed and almost instantly she looked like she was about to cry.

‘Hey,’ I reached for her quickly, ‘don’t cry—it’s okay.’
I offered her a smile, and just like an uncomplicated child, she smiled back.
‘Don’t give up, you’ll get better,’ I said, and helped her by guiding her foot to the stone.
She kicked it and looked up at me excitedly.
After awhile she was hitting them with accuracy and with a gentle nudge I pushed her into the game.
She stayed there.

‘Kids don’t give up easily do they,’ I looked up to find Rusty, quiet and handsome in his own right (and actually a red-head!) smiling towards the game.
‘Yeah, I think it’s because they don’t take rejection personally,’ I said matter-of-factly.
‘Unlike adults, who with education and experience should know better?’
I smiled.

Would I let my crush on Poppo be just like my crush on all the other guys in my life?
Or would I just keep on trying even if I got hurt?


EMI


It took us two days to get into Rome.
We managed to get to the hotel at the foot of the mountain, which wasn’t that far—not with Armaud there to entertain you—Monday morning we got a replacement for the rental and then we drove around little towns in Switzerland before taking a sleeper train from Zurich to Rome.
It would be good to see Camille again, and even better to have a mediator between me and Armaud.

‘This may be a stupid question, but why are you holding my hand?’ I asked him as we stepped out of the Roma station and into busy Rome.
‘This is Rome, I may lose you—though with your tendencies, I’ll probably just have to look for the nearest jail to find you.’
‘Ha ha,’ I responded drily, cursing the blush that came up.
It was almost as bad as the inexplicable ‘MARK ARE’ blush.

‘Where did you say your friend lives? The sooner we get there the better, I’m starting to feel smelly and I still need to get a place to stay for the night. Too bad that its the height of summer,’ he said, feigning sadness and I could almost imagine the violin music playing behind him.
‘You can cut that out,’ I snapped at him, ‘I already told Camille about you and she said that you’re fine to stay just as long as I can guarantee you’re not a killer. And since you didn’t murder me when you had the chance in the mountains, I said I could.’

‘How sweet of you,’ he reached over and kissed me on the cheek.
‘Hey! What was that for?’ I pushed him away.
Passers-by were looking at us indulgently, as though we were... lovers or something.
I tried to distance myself from him but as though oblivious (or purposefully doing so) he edged even closer and put his arm on my shoulder.

‘Well is this Miss Emily all grown up?’ Camille was standing in front of her apartment building so that we wouldn’t miss it.
I tried to shrug him off, but Armaud latched on.
‘And you must be the Prince Charming, saving our little Emily from her locked tower.’
‘More like, locked prison cell but yes. I’m Armaud—it’s nice to meet you,’ Armaud reached over and smiled.

Camille looked at me and with a stage-whisper she said, ‘This one’s a keeper.’
I sighed heavily.
So much for Camille being a mediator, I was beginning to realise I was wrong with thinking things were going to get normal.


CAMIE


‘Hello.’
I nearly closed the door at the same time that I opened it.
Johnie was standing outside and just one look at him said to me that he wanted to talk.
Armaud and Emily were in the living room arguing about something (as they’ve been doing non-stop—so cute!) and Sergio was with them making matters worse.
This probably wasn’t the best time for a heart to heart.

‘Johnie, hi—uh... what are you doing here?’
He began to speak then heard the voices, ‘are you entertaining?’
‘I have a few friends over, one that you might know...’ I didn’t mean to sound abrupt, but I think that’s how it came out.
I flung the door open and left him to follow after me.
I had yelled at Sergio already but hadn’t yet about Johnie—who could have done better and told me that his cousin lived at the same apartment.

‘John!’
‘Sergio!’
‘What are you doing here?’ they demanded at the same time.

‘Uh, I think this is a good time as any for us to go grab dinner from across the street,’ Emily said, trying to pull Armaud upwards.
‘But its getting interesting,’ he whined although he let himself be led out the door.

I turned my attention back to the two cousins—who looked eerily similar—who were staring at each other.
‘Didn’t I tell you that I was friends with Camille?’
‘I think you forgot to mention it,’ Johnie bit back.
‘Well, that’s you do when you disappear without a trace for weeks at a time.’
‘I’m sure my girlfriend told you that I needed time to think.’

‘Camille did,’ Sergio allowed, ‘so shouldn’t you be thanking me for keeping her company? It seems rude to leave her alone when she’s come all this way...’
‘What are you trying to say?’
I stared back and forth between them, ‘Okay guys—please stop. Johnie, Sergio’s been very nice to me—which you haven’t.’
‘So it’s MY fault,’ Johnie looked angry.
‘Are you saying it isn’t?’ Sergio shot back.

‘Is this how it is?’ Johnie asked, stepping up towards me until we were very close.
This wasn’t supposed to be how it was, when I imagined him finally facing facts it wasn’t supposed to be angry, ‘I take some time so you throw me over?’
I slapped him.


KEI


It was a week since Jed kissed me.
He didn’t say anything about it and even more he’s been treating me like a friend.
It was worse than him hating me (because that was kind of hot) and worse than liking me.
And now, I seemed to be catching him with a different girl every day.

‘Bloody hell, if he didn’t like me then he should’ve just said so,’ I said to myself.
But there was no way I was going to confront him—no way at all.
In a few weeks I was going to go home to Melbourne anyway, and I could start back with my life.

I wasn’t watching where I was going though, and found myself walking towards where Jed was talking with yet another girl.
They were just laughing but when he saw me, his smiling face changed and then he turned back to the girl and kissed her.
Of course, she didn’t look outraged or slapped him—but I knew she was surprised.

‘I GET THE MESSAGE!!!’ I yelled out loud, causing people to look at me—including the kissing couple.
The girl looked confused but Jed wasn’t.
I stomped off heading into my room—if I got into trouble again Jed would think it was me trying to get his attention.
The best way to give him the message that I wasn’t going to turn into an obsessed stalker on him was to avoid him.
But no more dating—we saw how that turned out.

‘Kei!’
I turned around to find Jed walking towards me.
‘What?’
‘What you just saw...’
‘You mean the twenty-fifth girl that you’ve paraded in front of me just to prove you don’t like me?’
‘You were counting?’
‘No I wasn’t counting!’

‘Well about them,’ he said, ‘I wasn’t trying to prove anything to you.’
‘Don’t lie!’
‘I was trying to prove something to me... that I could find someone other than you, because... you’re leaving in two weeks.’


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A/N: its been awhile since updates but not too long. i think we're finally nearing the end of this. as i said in KeiCed, it'll be the penultimate next time :D xKei