Chapter 208: Something Bad Is Happening
Now I see why Princess was asking if I would get mad if she told me her dirty secrets.
I asked for dirty secrets, not tales about her sex life. To make it even worse, all the stories she had been telling me involved her ex-girlfriend, who also happened to be her partner in the act. Each new detail felt like a physical slap to my face, turning my stomach into a tight, twisted knot.
As she talked, I just sat on the floor watching her explain. I would have exploded by the second story, but I was holding on to the bargain. I wouldn’t freak out. I kept repeating in my mind that it all happened in the past. It was just the past. My fingers dug hard into my clothes, my nails sinking into the fabric as I forced my breathing to stay steady, even though every breath felt hot and heavy in my chest.
I do know that Princess and Kiara are freaky-crazy. I mean, I once saw them making out on top of Eriko’s car bonnet by the convenience store, also making out all the time in school... and now she was talking about how they both made out inside a cinema, buying every single seat just to have sex in there. The mental image flashed vividly in my head, making my jaw clench so tight my teeth ached.
Now, if me and the gang ever go out to watch a movie, my mind would be thinking about that story, my girlfriend having sex with her ex right in front of me, laughing and mocking me. I haven’t even gone to the cinema yet and it’s already playing in my head. The thought of sitting in those dark red theater seats just made me feel sick and furious all at once, the imaginary laughter looping in my ears.
Right now, my mind was playing different kinds of murder scenarios as I stared at Princess. My heart was thumping a wild, aggressive rhythm against my ribs, each beat fueling the urge to grab the nearest item and throw it right at her face.
Even if I wasn’t saying anything, looking at my face was enough to tell her I didn’t want to hear more. But the bitch hadn’t stopped. She just kept going, casually tossing out details like she was talking about some important story instead of trampling all over my sanity.
Princess was talking about how she and her so-called ex had sex inside the Petrova library. As she explained, she finally glanced at me. Immediately, she paused. The words died right in her throat, her lips staying parted as she finally took in the sheer rage radiating off me.
"I thought you said you wouldn’t be mad if I told you my dirty secrets..." she said. She shifted back slightly, her confident posture wavering for the first time since she started talking.
I tried to force a smile, but no matter how hard I tried to widen my lips, it just kept glitching. Even my eyes weren’t helping me. My face wore exactly what I was feeling inside. A tight, unnatural twitch was all I could manage, my cheek muscles stiffening until it probably looked more like a terrifying snarl than an actual smile.
"Oh Sweet Pancake, I am keeping my word. If I wasn’t, I wonder what would’ve happened by the second story..." I said in the calmest tone possible. I squeezed the words out from behind a frozen grin, my voice dangerously level, dropping an octave lower than usual.
"Yeah, what is with that tone? You’re the one who wanted to hear about my dirty secrets..." she muttered, her voice cracking a little. I’m sure she could feel my burning aura. She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, her eyes darting nervously to the side as the temperature in the room felt like it dropped to sub-zero temperatures.
"Yes, you’re right. But I asked for dirty secrets, like mischief, bad habits, or pranks... not stories about your sex life with your ex-girlfriend..." I explained, still keeping my calm. I let out a slow, deliberate exhale through my nose, trying to vent out the heat building up inside me before I completely lost control.
"Isn’t sex life considered dirty secrets?" she muttered, scratching her head as she rethought it. She genuinely looked confused, blinking at me as if she honestly hadn’t realized how completely inappropriate the whole topic was.
This was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life. Even writing exams was never this hard compared to restraining myself from exploding. My insides had already exploded countless times, but I was trying not to show it on the outside. A literal war was going on beneath my skin, my pulse racing while I forced my posture to stay perfectly rigid.
"Princess, I appreciate your honest sex stories, but please say something else that doesn’t involve your ex. Anything but sex." I forced the words out while still staring at her intensely. If my eyes could shoot lasers, I would’ve burned Princess’s head off already. I locked my gaze onto hers, refusing to blink, letting the sheer weight of my annoyance press down on her.
"Okay, let me see..." she muttered, rubbing her chin while trying to remember something. She broke eye contact, looking up at the ceiling as she desperately searched her brain for a completely different topic to salvage the situation. "When I was seven, Leo ate my cookies that I spent hours baking, so I told him the swarm-beast was under his bed and would eat his intestines. Leo got so scared he slept in Mom and Dad’s room for months..." she said.
"Woah, you did that? And you can bake cookies?" I asked. The sudden shift in topic caught me off guard, my intense glare softening by a fraction as a wave of genuine surprise broke through my lingering anger.
"Yes. I had to rewatch a YouTube video over and over until I got it right, and when I finally did, my brother ate them... and the cookies were meant for someone else," she explained. A faint smile returned to her lips, relaxed now that the danger zone seemed to be passing. "What about you? What are your dirty secrets?"
Oh right. I had to share too. The pressure was suddenly on me to match her, and my mind went completely blank for a second as I tried to find something that didn’t sound completely pathetic compared to her wild stories. Obviously I am worse...
"When I was 12, I lied to the school principal that I had a stomach ache so I could skip school and watch an MMA match. I once hid Guru’s car keys so he wouldn’t go to work..." I said, trying my best to remember any mischief I’d done. I shifted on the floor, suddenly feeling self-conscious about how tame my childhood pranks actually were.
"What about your sexual life before me? You can tell me that one so we’ll be even..." Princess said, waiting for me to talk about my sex life. She leaned forward again, her curiosity piqued, completely oblivious to the landmine she had just stepped on all over again.
Apart from kissing Shuga once... and attempting to masturbate once... which ended in total failure because Kaye kept banging on the bathroom door right after we returned to Oakland, I had nothing. Thinking about my so-called sex life only reminded me that this shameless sex maniac right in front of me happened to be the first person I’d ever had sex with. My face burned with a mix of embarrassment and renewed irritation.
I continued giving her an intense look. Just thinking about it made my blood boil again. The stark difference in our pasts felt like a heavy weight pressing down on my chest, making me feel incredibly frustrated and exposed.
"Seriously, why do you always find different ways to get angry? Those eyes of yours look like they could burn down an entire pack. I only asked about your sex life, not for some doom-staring ritual. Should I call an ambulance or an ophthalmologist?" Princess said. I was sure she was scared of the way I looked at her. She better be. She threw her hands up in mild exasperation, trying to laugh it off but clearly unnerved by the absolute silence coming from my side.
Then I remembered something I had wanted to tell her. A sudden memory from the car ride sparked in my mind, shifting my anger into a completely different, much more serious direction.
"Princess, when are you going to add me as one of your emergency contacts?" I asked, remembering Kiara rubbing that in my face during the car ride.
I won’t lie, I was jealous that she was still Princess’s emergency contact. The thought of Kiara being the first person called in a crisis, the one holding that official spot in Princess’s life, made a sharp, bitter pain flare up right in the center of my chest.
After going back and forth, Princess tried explaining that it wasn’t a big deal, but I told her it was to me. Kiara might currently be her friend, but I was her girlfriend, and I deserved that treatment. I told Princess I wanted to be the one aware of her situation whenever something happened. My voice held a firm, unyielding edge this time, making sure she understood that I wasn’t backing down on this.
Princess brought out her phone to change the contact. Her eyes stayed glued to the screen, her thumbs tapping quickly against the glass as she unlocked it and went into her settings. But slowly, her expression changed. The casual annoyance faded from her face, her eyebrows drawing together in a sharp, sudden frown.
"Oh shit... something bad is happening down there in the arena..."
