Chapter Fifteen

Valentine

"Lance?" I spat in complete confusion. For a moment, Lance, the person that I don't quite expect to see in five years - not even in ten years, stood shocked and probably couldn't move a single muscle right now.

"Heyyy, Valentine" He greeted awkwardly.

"What are you doing here?"

"Uhmm....."

"Oh, there you are Lance!" I heard a shirtless Vincent who probably just woke up spoke far from behind.

"Fuck" Lance lips read.

"You're leaving already?" He ran quick and until he was already standing behind Lance who just let out a second inaudible curse.

"Oh yeah," Lance responded but did not turn his head to face Vincent. "It's just I have a lot of work to do at home"

I feel like a new statue petrified by Medusa at the doorstep, and while I was deeply contemplating about this suspicious thing that's going on, I didn't even realize that I was blocking Lance's only way out.

"Don't you want to have some coffee first?" Vincent offered and I couldn't keep but taste the angst of desperation boiling from him.

"I'm fine, Vincent. I don't feel like having coffee" Lance nonchalantly turned around to face my brother.

"Then at least let me drive you home" Vincent offered. To me, it sounds more like a last-ditch effort to spend a longer time with him.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Lance answered and then turn around that I moved quickly out of the way to let him step outside of the house. "Thank you for inviting me to party last night, and by the way, I had the best time of my life" Lance then marched.

"Did you just hooked up with him?" I gave my brother a leery glare. This just got fascinating.

"What?" My brother acted as if he didn't hear what I said when it's obviously loud enough for him to hear.

"Nevermind" I spat then stepped inside while my brother stepped outside to follow Lance.

I don't understand what just happened but as I passed through Vincent's bedroom, which was opened wide enough for two skinny people to enter at the same time, that even in my peripheral vision, I saw Yhannie on the floor with no blanket on sprawled up like an eagle hovering up in the sky and is certainly wasted as fuck. I can already imagine her reaction when she will wake up later and then realize that Vincent didn't give a single fuck about her since he got himself a cuddle buddy. What the heck happened to these people anyway? They look like they've had a good time last night as for me I had a horrible one. I just shook my head and brought myself to my room. My bed never looked so attractively inviting. The mattress bounced a little bit when I made the obvious choice to slam myself hard and then hugged my bed as if I was gravely deprived of its undeniable comfort for several months. I closed my eyes for a moment in high hopes of succumbing to sleep in a matter of seconds. Five minutes was already over and then came ten and yet I'm still very much conscious and I just realized that my head is slowly being occupied by this yoyo thought of Dominic. I tried to brush it away but it always finds its way back to me. Man, I thought I'd never see the day that I will see him again. The apparent realization of not totally getting over him sucks and it's even raised to the tenth degree when I saw him still active in the field. Based on what I saw, he's playing like a professional, he's dribbling that scene as if he had earned his Ph.D. in that respective field of expertise.

I have strongly convinced myself for the past year that I'm already over him, that maybe I still hate him but I don't hate him to the point that I'd be throwing some punches when I see him, but that unprecedented encounter last night proved a lot of layers left unremoved from it. And why do I have to see him in that kind of situation? Kissing someone? Really? Yeah, I know we went to a club so that's totally normal and everyone will agree but a part of me wished that that guy he was kissing is still me. Dominic looked pretty much the same though. Yes, he gained a few muscles here and there and he changed his hair drastically but that's just about it. He didn't even age as I did.

I finally woke up late at noon and went downstairs to get an ice-cold glass of water to quench my already dried throat and drown this hangover. I found Vincent and Yhannie giggling on the couch while watching an episode of Sex Education. It was the part where Tromboner or Eric rather, is hilariously conducting an impromptu blowjob tutorial in front of a dumb audience who are mostly women with the use of a long-ass banana.

"That's right girl, you better teach those nasty bullies how to damn do it" Yhannie squealed at the screen when Tromboner began shoving that banana to his mouth.

"I bet you cannot do that" Vincent teased Yhannie who was totally unbothered by my brother's dig.

"Well, you haven't seen me in action yet" Yhannie bartered back and I couldn't help myself but let out a loud ass burst of laughter. It was just a sudden throwback to when Yhannie and I were still screwing each other around. Yhannie is a beast.

"Oh shit, you remembered?" Yhannie spat directly at me and let out a burst of hysterical laughter. I just looked at my brother who was slowly connecting the dots to form the image then I just pulled myself to the kitchen area thinking that I may have just embarrassed myself there.

"No fucking way," Vincent said.

I opened the fridge and poured a glass of ice-cold water. After finishing the tall glass of water, I still feel extremely thirsty so I poured a second one.

"I'm sorry I just can't believe that Lance is your ex" I almost got choked by the water that I'm gulping when I heard what Yhannie just said.

"Get over it, that was a long time ago" Vincent replied.

After drinking water I grabbed a can of coke and went to the couch to grab a pizza that they ordered.

"You didn't tell me that Lance is your ex" I frowned at my brother.

"You didn't tell me that Dominic is your ex" Vincent replied and I immediately glowered at Yhannie who swiftly covered her face with a pillow.

"You just don't know how or when to not spill the tea, do you?" I spat at Yhannie.

"Hey don't put the blame on the woman, she's merely innocent!" Vincent jumped to defend Yhannie.

"Oh if you only knew. She's not innocent, right Yhannie?"

"Oh, you mean when she sucked your dick?" Vincent volleyed and couldn't help himself but laugh at the thought of it.

"That was a long long time ago," I said.

"Exactly" Vincent replied.

"You know what, I'll just shut the fuck up," I said grabbing a slice of pizza and shoved it to my mouth.

The next morning, Ivana arrived for work very late and was evidently pissed at me for leaving without giving her a heads up but as her boss, I quickly evened it out by bringing out the fact that she's two hours late. She told me that the guy she's talking with doesn't even know how to kiss and she was damn disappointed.

"I'm so sorry, you look like you badly needed something like that you know what I mean" I sat comfortably at my swivel chair while Ivana stood in front of me.

"Damn right, I totally need to make my sex life up and active again, it's been dormant for a long time, and I thought I'd be answering that booty call but that guy doesn't even know how to kiss so I have to cancel"

"Don't worry you'll get the right booty call soon"

"I doubt it, I feel like I'm getting old already"

"Don't say that"

The day went normal as it should be for me. I was having a pleasurable coffee break at dusk and took some time to stalk Dominic's Instragam account. I don't usually stalk people like this because I find it somewhat creepy. Looking up at Dominic's photos, I came to observe that he'd been happy with his life. Approximately 60 percent of his uploaded photos were from a club. It's obvious that Dominic has been doing a lot of clubbing and partying even with his time in Singapore. Has he moved on from me? Has he forgotten about me already? I continued scrolling down on his account when Ivana suddenly barged in confusingly distraught.

"You wouldn't believe who I saw" Ivana was breathing almost heavily.

"Who?" I said.

"Follow me"

I stood bringing my coffee with me and followed Ivana towards the dining. She was pointing at someone and when I tried to get a better look, I saw Dominic.