Chapter 37: The Bet *Secret and Lies

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Chapter 33 Part 2 *Secret and Lies*

~Drake

“Tsk,” I mutter.

“What?” Andre asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Someone’s knocking,” I answer, “I’ll call you later.”

“I’ll just wait,” he says quickly, before I can sign out.

“Whatever,” I say, rolling my eyes.

He really wants to know what Parker and I talked about. Taking my headphones off, I get up from my seat and walk hastily towards the door. I wonder who’s knocking. Who will it be? It’s the middle of the night! Opening the door, I see my father, still in his suit, standing awkwardly at the other side of the door.

“What?” I ask, breaking the silence that forms into a thin ice.

“I heard you talking,” he says, putting his hands in his pockets. “Is there someone with you in your room?”

“I’m alone,” I mutter a bit defensively. Does he think that I brought a girl with me? I’m not stupid!

“So you’re talking to yourself?” he asks bemusedly.

“I was talking to Andre,” I say furiously, walking out of my room and shutting the door behind me.

My respect for him dimmed a little since I learned his secret. The secret that changed my life. The secret that puts a hole in me. The secret that—

“Drake,” he says, interrupting my thoughts, “I’m sorry about—“

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I interject, crossing my arms over my chest.

He sighs and puts his hand on my shoulder hesitantly. I fight the urge to slap it away.   Why can’t he leave me alone? I don’t want to face him because images from the past comes rushing back. I shove them at the back of my mind.

“Drake,” he starts again, “I made a lot of mistakes, and now I’m paying for them. Mistakes are experiences to learned from.”

“They are still mistakes,” I mutter scornfully.

“I regret them,” he admits, looking away from me.

Regret them? “That’s a shame,” I utter, “because you shouldn’t have done that in the first place.”

“I’m still your father,” he says disapprovingly, taking his hand off my shoulder.

I bite my tongue before I can say: Then act like it.

“You should respect me,” he continues.

“Respect?” I repeat incredulously, widening my eyes for emphasis that I can’t believe what he said. “Respect is not just something you give easily. Respect is earned.”

His eyes that are the color of the ocean, the same shade as mine, are staring at me intently. “I understand why you’re acting like this,” he replies quietly.

“Well thank you,” I say sarcastically. I can’t control my emotions when I’m annoyed. I’m just like this when he’s near.

“I learned from my mistakes. I hope you won’t repeat them.”

“I won’t,” I snap.

“I’m sorry,” he says quickly, looking worried because of the damage of the words he said, “I didn’t mean—“

“Stop,” I order. My voice is kind of shaky because of the anger I feel inside me. “I’m sick of your sorry. I don’t want to hear it again. No matter what you do, I won’t forget what you did.”

He’s clearly taken aback by my words. He wipes the sweat on his forehead and says, “I hope you can forgive me.”

“Only time will tell,” I mutter.

“I miss talking to you, son,” he whispers.

At that, he turns his back to me and walks towards his room he shares with my mom.

I am like a robot, going inside my room without feeling anything.

“Who’s that?” Andre asks as soon as I put my headphones.

“My father,” I answer methodically.

I can’t even call him dad since I knew it. It’s incomprehensible. I can’t call him dad anymore. I don’t even know if I can.

“Is something wrong?” Andre asks, studying my face through the screen.

“Nothing.”

“You haven’t talked about your dad like before,” he observes.

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

Andre used to spend time with my father and me before I learned my father’s secret. Andre’s dad died when he needed him most. It’s the start of being a teenager. He visited us every now and then and talked to my father about boy’s stuff and other things. Sometimes I joined their conversation but most of the time, I just listened. He also talked about business. Andre’s already intelligent at a young age. He studied more when his dad died because he knows he will be the one to manage their business in the future.

My father who was my hero, the person I looked up to, who would have thought he’d do something like that? Not me, his child. Being a sensible man, he has an image to build. Fortunately for him, I’m the only one who knows his secret.

Of course, I won’t tell. I don’t like my family to get hurt as much as I did when I found out. Now I’m still having nightmares about it. I don’t want them to experience those things.

“Hey!”

I flinch at the shout of Andre. The volume is up, it’s so loud, and I almost rip my headphones off my ears.

“What?” I ask, shooting him a glare.

“You were so deep in thought,” he states, staring at me like I’m from another planet, “you don’t look like you’ve listen to the words I said in the past few minutes.”

“I was just thinking,” I explain.

“About?”

“About what Parker told me,” I lie.

“Uh huh,” Andre chants, wiggling his eyebrows.

I don’t know if he believes me or not. I’m glad we strayed away from the topic of my father.

“So what did Parker say?”

“Something about their culture in the Philippines,” I answer. “Did you know he’s half Asian?”

His brows furrow in concentration. “The thought that he’s Asian came to my mind,” he says thoughtfully.

“How?” I ask dubiously.

“Because of the color of his hair.”

“That’s it?” It’s just the color of his hair?

“The hair colors of Asian are different from the usual dark hair here,” he says dryly. “And there’s something in his eyes that makes him unique. But I didn’t know for sure so I let that thought go. It’s a shame I didn’t tell him myself. If I know he’s Asian, I’ll ask him a lot about where he came from.”

“He’s from Philippines,” I repeat. “You’re not paying attention!”

“I know he’s from Philippines,” he retorts.

With this talk about Parker, I remember our first meeting. When I thought he hurt Pie. And then my imagination ran wild, daydreaming that I fought with him. I laugh at the memory, not believing that I did that.

“What’s funny?” Andre asks warily, looking at me like I’m crazy.

Maybe I am because I’m laughing all by myself, after arguing with my father. “Nothing,” I say between chuckles, “I just had a nostalgic funny memory.”

He shakes his head slowly and asks, “What did Parker tell you about their culture?”

“He taught me some Filipino words,” I say smugly.

“Whoa!” he exclaims, clearly amazed. “He’s really rooting for you to be with Sophia.”

“I know, right.”

“What would he do when he finds out that you’re just playing with her emotions,” he wonders aloud.

I cringe inwardly. When I act and do something, I don’t think about the bet anymore than before.

“What else?” he asks curiously.

“I don’t like talking about it over the internet,” I say, not in the mood to talk.

“Why is that?”

“I’ll just tell you tomorrow,” I say evasively, “besides, I want to sleep now.”

He glowers at me. “You made me wait for nothing!”

“I didn’t tell you to wait,” I say amusedly.

“Before you sleep,” he says quickly, “you have to answer this question.”

“Let’s see,” I reply, smirking slowly.

“Will you still con—“

The knocking of the door interrupts him.

“Why can’t they leave me alone?!”

“What?” Andre asks, confused.

“Someone’s at the door,” I grumble, “again.”

It's kind of ironic and funny because there are a lot of interruptions going on here.

“Your dad?” he guesses.

“I doubt it,” I mutter, remembering his facial expression earlier. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“But you haven’t answered my question yet!”

“Tomorrow,” I repeat, “Got to go.”

Knock. Knock.

So impatient.

Signing out my skype, I turn off the laptop and close it. Getting up from the seat, I make my way towards the door and open it.

“Hi,” Driana says.

“What do you want?” I ask.

“I heard you talking—“

“I’m alone,” I tell her, repeating what I said to my father a while ago. “I was talking to Andre earlier.”

“Oh,” she murmurs, twisting her fingers nervously.

“Why are you here?” I think it’s something important because it’s the middle of the night. She’s just not here to greet me a goodnight.

“I heard you talking to dad,” she admits.

“You listened?” I accuse.

“Of course not,” she says indignantly, scowling at me. “I woke up because of your loud voices.”

“Sorry about that.” I forgot that her room is across from mine. I have to be careful next time.

“That’s okay,” she says, shrugging it off.  “Did you two have a fight?”

“No,” I say, with a shake of my head.

“You’re lying,” she says matter of fact.

“How do you know that?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at her.

“I just know,” she states, putting her hands on her hips. “Remember, we’re twins?”

Why is she asking these things? She can’t know! I have to do something to stop this talk. “Thanks for reminding me,” I taunt, “I forgot.”

“And you’re dodging the topic,” she says, ignoring the tone of my voice.

“I’m not,” I insist. I’m getting impatient. If a wrong word comes out of my mouth, I’ll be doomed.

“If you don’t want to tell me, I’ll do everything I can to find out about it,” she threatens.

You’re better off not knowing!

She’s your twin; she has a right to know.

“Whatever,” I say to both of them. “You’ll just waste your time because it’s nothing.”

“If it’s nothing, you won’t hide it.”

She doesn’t want to budge! Maybe because she heard something. She heard what my father and I talked about, that’s why she wants to know all the details.

“Do whatever you want,” I say evasively. “I’m going to sleep now. Goodnight Driana.”

“Goodnight!” She storms off to her room and closes the door behind her.

Walking inside my room, I hope no one will interrupt me again. I don’t have energy to open the door anymore. Yesterday I was happy, today. . . I’ll start my today when I wake up.

It’s funny how your life can turn upside down in a matter of minutes.

Laying on my bed and closing my eyes, I ask God to forgive me for my sins and to help me bury the secret in a deep pit.

*****

I'm so happy ~ The Bet is 100 pages already :D :) :> =]

The song is All I Want by A Day To Remember. The sketch on the side was made by Tintinz Awesme Mangsat :)

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