Heartbroken, she found herself in her room, and shut the door behind her. If Tyson wasn't sleeping over at her place, that door would have been slammed shut so hard, it would have made the glasses shatter in her room. She wanted to scream curses at the top of her voice, but helplessly swallowed it all down. This Rosa chick was constantly appearing in her mind, even though Hilary tried her best not to think about it. Why did Tyson have to show her the picture.

Hilary threw herself on the bed, and choked on a pillow. She just wanted to take her stuff and relocate, some place faraway. She wiped the tears of her cheek and fetched her diary. All the anger she had channelled were now being poured into songs, a way to ease her pain.

Next morning,

Hilary groaned from her slumber. Her fingers were paining from all the writing. She was awestruck on the amount of pages she had filled. Tiredly, she trudged towards the bathroom for the daily preparations and returned back into her room to present herself for the day.

She made her way down with a new found energy and found Tyson in her kitchen, wolfing down on some cereal.

"Hey," he greeted, with a smile. "Sorry I started breakfast without you. I couldn't find anything so settled with some cornflakes. Hope you don't mind."

"Don't be silly," she chuckled, "I'll get some eggs cracking and make some omelette."

Once the table was spread with some more bread and omelettes, Hilary took a seat and began her chat with Tyson only for it to be interrupted midway -

ring ring ring ring ring !

"Oh, sorry Hil it's mine," he fished out his cell phone, and left the room after realizing who the caller was. Hilary could hear what he was saying. "That girl again..."

The conversation was tiring and Hilary could see that it was being painful for Tyson.

"Yeah okay... Coming ... one hour. Yeah, I know... Me too. Bye."

Hilary gasped before washing down a glass of orange juice to pretend she wasn't eavesdropping.

Tyson re-entered the kitchen, the stress of the call clearly visible on his face, "That was Rosa, I gotta go Hil. Sorry I couldn't stay longer."

"Alright. I guess I'll catch you later Tyson." She forced a cheerful smile.

"Sure. Thank you for everything Hil, you're the best!"

"I know, I know."

"Well, I'm on my way. good bye Hilary," he stole a hug from her which turned her face bright red.

Releasing he smiled genuinely but his eyes called for help. Not wanting to make things anymore awkward, he coughed. "Okay…umm…So, let's catch up again sometime."

"Sure…"

He grabbed his luggage and left the house.

"Good bye..." she whispered, closing the door behind him and leaned her back on it, "She doesn't deserve you, Tyson. Why don't you see it?"

Next Thursday

"Alright, let's go over it again. There's pasta in the fridge, I got you a bottle of mustard and trash is taken on Saturday." Hilary reiterated, "And if I find out that my plants aren't watered, I'll kill you."

"Hey now!" Max laughed nervously, "You can bank on me. I got it covered."

"And don't bring strange women in my house, Max!"

"Not after last time Hilary," Max gulped, rubbing his sore shoulder that Hilary had broken.

"Alright then! Bye Max." Hilary beamed, before whipping around and dragged her bag on the driveway, to head towards her waiting car.

"Good bye Hilary, careful on the road."

"Don't worry Max. I'll let you know when I reach Shanghai."

Meanwhile, Tyson was driving towards the airport as well from a different route. He grumbled for two reasons, one the traffic, and other, the constant rambling of his girlfriend next to him in her Latino accent. To cut her out, he put on some music.

He didn't know whether to call the song his saviour from boredom or bringing of disaster, but his mood began to butter out and a smile was spreading on his lips. After all the song belonged to his best friend, Hilary. His fingers began dancing on the steering wheel. The lines on his forehead disappeared as he buoyantly turned on the volume.

Rosa's pupils squinted in suspicion as she took her eyes off her phone, noticing the sudden change in Tyson's demeanour.

"You seem to be enjoying this a lot," she noted coldly.

"Yeah…this is one of Hil's big hit!" Tyson cheered.

"Hil?" Rosa scoffed, "That chica you bring up every time!"

"What are you even talking about, Rosa?"

"Don't even think of denying it," she warned, fuming and turned her head in other direction.

Exhaling, Tyson tried to placate her, "Look, we have fought enough in two days. I really want this to work out, Rosa. Which is why I am taking you for a nice vacation in Shanghai where there'll be just the two of us."

"Hmmm…you aren't doing me any favor," Rosa dismissed.

Tyson clenched his teeth at the failed attempt yet chose not to react. A vacation would repair everything. Sometime passed, one after the other Hilary's songs jammed in series.

"You have made a playlist of her songs, haven't you?" Rosa threw him a dirty look.

"She sings very well, I didn't know that! when we travelled together, I never heard her singing ya know," he joked.

"Agreed...", Rosa answered, annoyed? She paused and bit her lip : "Tyson."

"Yeah?" he hummed; eyes fixated on the road.

"What do you feel about Hilary?" she interrogated directly.

"What? Why do you ask that?"

"Because you just light up at the mention of her name."

"Rosa, trust me," Tyson refuted, "She's my best friend, and that's…all she'll ever be…" he thought sadly, while his eyes were glued to the road.

"It's too late now…" he whispered, hoping it was all to himself.

"Did you say something?", asked Rosa.

"Huh? oh no, nothing. hey look we're almost there," he answered quickly, as the dome of the terminal appeared at a distance.

Thank You. I don't really write much author notes but third and final chapter will be soon.