.
9
"I do." I pretended that I wasn't afraid of answering his question, trying to keep a straight, emotionless face. It seemed to have been working. Kai's wary expression changed. His brows, which were furrowed, relaxed and he let out a small sigh.
I wasn't ready for his next questions but, of course, he couldn't tell that. But he was silent for a while, looking at me in the eye with something I recognized as confusion.
"There's something…"Kai hesitated, looking for the right word. "…off about him."
And then I felt relief so huge, I thought I was floating. Kai didn't know anything. He hadn't found out the truth about me and Drew. I was just jumping to conclusions. He was just talking about him in general. Instantly, my heartbeat, which had increased, became normal again and I couldn't help the small smile that crept across my face.
"You noticed, too?" I asked him, covering up my smile.
"Yeah." He said, not seeming to notice anything unusual about my expressions. He walked towards me and stopped only when he was a few inches away. "Hillary, I want you to stay away from him."
Although I pretty much did that all the time, I didn't point it out. I noticed that he looked sort of anxious.
"Why, what happened?" Something seemed to have happened.
His lips turned into a frown and his eyes were all of sudden fierce. Reflexively, I took a small step backwards.
"It was him." He said in a whisper. "He challenged me to a match last night and…"
He trailed off but I knew exactly what he was gonna say.
"I won but he damaged Dranzer to bits." Kai continued with a sour expression. "Even Kenny is finding it hard to fix it."
Suddenly, I was angry.
"He did that on purpose!"
"The Dynasties." Kai said, ignoring my suddenly angry response. "It's his team. They're up against us this week, that's why he did that last night."
I took a deep breath, trying to control my surging anger. The Dynasties? That was Drew's team? And we were gonna oppose them this week? It seemed too much of bad luck on my behalf.
"That's not fair." I replied in a low voice but it rose when I spoke the next sentence. "Kai, why'd you battle him?"
Yeah, I was panicking now. I felt my legs shake beneath me as I realized something.
"Hillary, stop that." Kai inched slowly closer before grabbing my wrist in his hand.
"What if tries to do the same to the others?" I asked, looking up at him. "Kai, what if he succeeds? He's trying to mess with your chances of wining—"
"Hillary!" He said nervously, inching so close that it intimidated me a bit. "Don't panic, alright? It'll be okay."
"You can't say that!"
"Hillary, listen!"
He grabbed both my arms before I realized it and almost just as swiftly, he pulled me so close that his breath mingled with my ragged gasps.
"Stop stressing out, okay?" He whispered gaily, tightening his hold on my arms. I clenched my fists, trying to control the panic I was feeling and failing miserably.
"Why'd you do that, Kai?" I asked, blinking a little when I looked into his eyes. There was something there that confused me. He was hiding something again. Suddenly, his expression changed into an angry one and his voice rose just as suddenly as mine had.
"I had no choice." The sudden fierceness startled me and it didn't help that he was standing so near. But I wasn't gonna fall back and let him talk to me like that.
"You could've turned him down!"
"I couldn't!"
"And why not?" I squinted my eyes at him in suspicion. "If this is about your stupid pride of not wanting to turn down challenges, then I hope you're happy!"
"Ugh! Listen to me, okay?"
I looked angrily at him and he looked back at me directly in the eye. That was when I realized that I didn't like what I saw there…questions. Questions I would have to answer. Instantly, my anger evaporated and turned into anxiety.
"Do you think I'm so stupid that I would accept random challenges from strangers just a few days before the preliminaries?" His voice was firm but I could easily read the hidden tone in it; it reflected clearly in his expression.
"I'm sorry, Kai." I apologized immediately when I got the chance. It felt as if something bad was coming. "I'm just…freaked out."
He let go of my right arm only to angle closer and grab my waist. He was so close…his lilac sense took over my senses again, his skin was warm as compared to mine but it felt nice when he grabbed my wrist with the other hand again.
"Stop it, then." He said softly. "And stop making me feel bad, Hillary. I really had no choice."
"I'm so sorry, Kai." I whispered guiltily.
He nodded slowly before smiling a little at me. I sighed a little and, for a while, it was quiet. Then…
"I refused when he challenged me but then…" He said, summing up what seemed like a longer tale. Then there was that questioning expression again in his eyes as he looked anxiously down at me. "He told me that if I didn't battle him, he'd do something that would make me regret that decision."
I waited for him to continue…he didn't. Instead, he just closed his eyes and leaned into me, pulling me against him by the waist. I was too surprised to respond but that didn't seem to have been bothering him. I felt his cool breath against my forehead and in my hair and my heartbeat shifted to fourth gear directly from the first.
"Hillary…"His voice was just barely above a whisper but it triggered a reaction I had never felt personally before; lust. I had been wanting to touch him for a while now but that was just out of either curiosity or plain and simple desire. What I felt now was to just hold him and to never let go…to feel the touch of his fingers within mine, to know that he felt the same way, to know that he, too, wanted to hold me close and never let go…to know that he wanted me just as I wanted him.
And I was happy. In my head, everything vanished and then replaced by one, dominating thought: Kai likes me. And not in the friendly-way but as more than a friend. It was just his proximity, the way he touched me so freely…you don't do that to a friend, especially if she's a girl.
"What, Kai?" I asked in a whisper. As much as I wanted to just let him hold me like that till he said what I wanted to hear, I could tell that he had something important on his mind. I couldn't just let myself be distracted like this by my desires, could I?
He pulled back a little till he could look me in the eye.
"He told me he'd hurt you, Hillary."
And I just stared at him in shock. Drew was deliberately dragging me in. DELIBERATELY.
"Me?" I pretended to be surprised, which wasn't hard cuz I already was.
"I wanted to ask you why he did that."
"You tell me!" I tried to keep up the false pretense.
"Why'd he say he'd hurt you? Why were you involved?"
"How am I supposed to know?"
He sighed. I struggled against his hold on my waist, trying to break free. I only managed to take a few small steps backwards, though and Kai just closed the practically unnoticed gap by stepping towards me again. I was now beginning to see that he was just trying to make me feel intimidated so that he could get his answers. Disappointing…
"How'd you know him?" He asked once again, looking down at me with intensity.
"I don't know him, Kai. I just know what his name is and what he looks like."
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me, looking through my lie.
"Look, Kai." I attempted to explain. "I'm the only girl in the team and he probably thought you'd feel more protective of me or something when he said that."
For a while, he was quiet, staring at me with yet the same intensity as before. Then, slowly he let go of my arms and stepped back a few steps.
"I don't even know why I try, Hillary." He said through clenched teeth. "You're never ready to tell me anything I want to know."
His eyes held a sorrowful expression and immediately, I began to feel guilty.
"Kai, please!" I practically begged, walking a few steps towards him. He imitated my strides, though, walking backwards and almost turned around when I pleaded again. "Please, don't be mad, Kai."
He turned his back on me and just as he did so, I wanted to cry. He couldn't be mad at me, he just couldn't.
"Kai, I really want to tell you but I can't!"
"Don't give me that excuse, Hillary." His voice was calm, which made it all the more threatening.
"Kai, please, try to understand. I-" I hesitated, looking for the right words to replace the former. "I can't do this…please."
But he didn't listen. Calmly, he walked towards the door, opened it and walked out before closing it silently behind him, leaving me to myself.
"…and the match will start in just a few minutes."
We sat at the bleachers near the dish, waiting for our opponents to arrive. I looked anxiously up at the benches where millions of faces watched us, waiting for the match to begin. Yeah, we were here for the preliminaries and here were the rules…
There was gonna be a group of four teams that were to compete against one another. In our case, the three (excluding the Blade Breakers) were The Majestics, The All Starz and The Dynasties. We were to battle each team only once, that is, Max will get to battle The All Starz, Tyson gets to battle the Majestics and Ray gets to battle the Dynasties. The two teams with the highest score will be the only ones who'd make it…
So it was pretty tense as we waited for our first battle. Who was it gonna be that'll have to leave? The Majestics? The All Starz? Or maybe even us? One of the three will be leaving today…
I watched nervously as Drew's team made their way in the arena and stood in the farthest corner. I couldn't help the shiver than ran down my spine as I noticed their somewhat smug expression. Immediately, I looked away and back at the arena entrance again…
What was taking them so long? Neither the All Starz nor the Majestics had arrived…the match was to start a while ago. I looked nervously around at the impatient looking announcer and the judges. The crowd was whispering amongst each other, wondering out loud what might have caused such an unexpected delay.
"What's taking them so long?" Max, who was the most impatient of all, stopped pacing and exasperatedly voiced his thoughts.
I didn't say anything to that. Somehow, I had a bad feeling about this. I just watched as, helplessly, Max continued pacing in front of the bleachers where I sat along with Kenny and Tyson. We sat, waiting for what seemed like hours but were only a few minutes.
Then, a man in the BBA uniform came up to the announcer, Tyler, and whispered something in his ear. What seemed like shock passed Tyler's face and I noticed the tension in the environment build up. The crowd went quiet. Max stopped pacing right in front of me and looked anxiously around.
"Ahem." Tyler said, though he didn't need to. Everyone was already so alert. From the corner of my eye, I noticed the Majestics enter the stadium and stand across Drew's team.
"There has been an unexpected…news." Tyler continued, looking nervously over his shoulder at the judges, then back at the crowd again. "I'm sorry to say that you won't be seeing the All Starz in action today. They forfeited."
There was silence in the whole stadium as everyone contemplated the new piece of news. Forfeited? Forfeited?
"Apparently, one of their teammates is in the hospital due to some severe injury." Tyler answered our unasked question and just as soon as he did, I saw Max shift nervously in front of me, a look of horror clear on his face.
"We're going to start without them, so…can the Majestics come over here, please?"
What the hell was going on? They quit?
"Max?" I stood up to stand beside him. He looked up at me with a fake smile and I threw him a fake smile, too. "Don't be too disappointed."
"I've been preparing for this for so long…"He whispered. It was just the fact that he wanted to battle his friends so badly that seemed to have been upsetting him? Wasn't he worried at all that one of his friends was hurt?
"Do you think something bad happened?" I asked just as the announcer called out for our team.
"I sure hope not…" Max trailed off, a look of fresh worry crossed his face. He looked behind me at the rest of the team, who were, I just noticed, looking directly at the both of us.
I said nothing, nor did I respond to their meaningful gazes. I took a seat beside Kenny and waited for the match to start.
"Blade Breakers?" Tyler called out again, sounding impatient. And then, Tyson, Max and Ray left for their matches. Kai, who wasn't gonna battle today, took a seat just next to me…
Okay…awkward…
Ugh, ever since our last talk, we hadn't spoken to each other at all. I had thought about apologizing quite a few times but then, what was I supposed to apologize for anyway? So, things had been a little uncomfortable in the last two days. He never really looked at me, he pretended like I wasn't even there. It actually bothered me, no need to say that though. Why couldn't he appreciate my personal space? If I didn't want to talk about my problems, he couldn't actually force me to do so, now could he? He had no right to.
I shifted uncomfortably on the seat, angling slightly towards the left where Kenny sat.
All of these situations…it seemed my problems were growing instead of just coming to an end. It was really stressing me out. I hadn't even been able to sleep right what with all these things bothering me so much. There was Drew, as if he wasn't enough to worry about. Everyday I would catch him staring at our table with an impatient gaze. Then, I still hadn't figured out what were the reasons for his unusual behavior a few days ago. And then there were these strange nightmares that kept waking me up at night. Sometimes, I couldn't quite remember why I'd wake up in the middle of the night many times, covered in sweat. A few times, I'd remember seeing ridiculous dreams about crying somewhere…one was about running from something again…The stress was really starting to affect me mentally now.
As if that wasn't enough, the tournament was about to get tough. Even Tyson was worried now that the semi-finals were this close. Everyone had started training now…it starts to affect you, you know, when everyone else is so stressed out about something.
And seriously, the last thing I needed was for Kai, of all people, to be so mad at me. It wasn't the fact that I was crushing on him that stressed me out now that he wasn't talking to me, it was just that I really had started to rely on him. You know the feeling you get when you just want to die, then someone comes to your mind and you just want to live and keep thinking of that person and all the things that had or will happen between you two?…okay, so it was just because I was crushing on him…
I just wish he'd talk to me…I'd love to hear his voice now. I really needed to hear it. I didn't know why but what I felt for him was kinda different than anything I had experienced before. It wasn't that I liked him because he was so good-looking. It sounded cliché but I really didn't care. It was just like adding a cherry on top of an already-delicious cake. His good looks, that is. It didn't matter whether there was a cherry on top or not, considering that it just added to what I was already attracted to.
It was a stupid example, but that was just it. I was addicted to him. I would love to hear his voice, not because it was nice and I would love to see his face, not because it was absolutely perfect, but because both of them were a part of him and I really liked him. It kinda made me happy to have him near, and not just physically, and I really needed the feeling right now.
And now that my personal aid was no longer speaking to me, it just stressed me out all the more. I sighed, pushing some air into my lungs and dragged myself into reality. Tyson was ready to launch his blade and so was Robert…