Chapter 17 Meet Asher

Chapter 17 Find me in your heart A few minutes after eating, we immediately reached the address that Elise s classmate had pointed out. I was easily amazed at their house. Well, you also can t deny their state in life because her father is a senator. Their house screams elegance. I hardly recognized the materials used, nor yet of the ones we have studied. "Wow, the Engineer of this house is great! Bet!" Even before I could speak, Zoe had preceded me, and there was only one in our mind. I was shocked when there were no guards other than a gardener who greeted the car. "What do they need, Ma am?" The gardener faced us with a wide smile. "We are Elise s friends, and she invited us for a hangout. Is she already there?" Zoe answered. The man immediately smiled, "Ah, you re with that Joaquin Cervantes? They re already inside, Ma am." My heart almost went out in shock. We were right in our suspicion. Something is going on with them, and they are fooling me. Zoe turned to me seriously, mouth-watering, weighing my reaction. She finally thanked the man and guided us to the parking lot of the house. We slowly descended, remembering the plan that the two shouldn t know we were here. I immediately prepared myself for what might happen, so we were brave enough to go further. I was almost startled by a shout. It was the voice of the woman we assumed to be Ellise. We looked again at the man who was there earlier, and he was busy arranging the plant. "Here, Alessia, hurry!" Zoe found a place where we could hide while listening to the two talks. The trembling of my hands and the weakness of my knees were obvious. I did everything I could to erase every pain that I ve felt before, but it also just casually comes back because of what we are doing. "What the heck? What do I have to do to make you believe?!" Every woman s utterance in words was loud, but her voice s hoarseness was so clear that it seemed as if she had been crying for a long time. "I don t care, whether it s mine or whose man. Abort the child." My palm automatically went to my mouth. Joaquin s words stained my heart. Abort? So. . . there s a child? Ellise is pregnant? "Fuck! Joaquin, I am carrying your child! You re so stupid to act like that! And one more thing, what now if you accept this? Alessia has left you, and she won t want to come back to you, especially when I told—" I could hardly follow what was happening, but we sighed when Joaquin suddenly pulled Ellise with her hair. There, I stood up, thinking that no matter how angry I was, I had to help Ellise. Maybe Zoe also felt my decision, so we went straight to the door to stop them. "Joaquin, stop! Ouch, please, I m pregnant!" "If you don t take that away, I ll do it for you." "Oh please. . ." Even before we could enter, Joaquin had already pushed Ellise to the door, causing her to complain of pain. "Joaquin!" Joaquin was shocked when he saw me standing in the doorway as if he had seen a ghost — a ghost of his deception. "Alessia. . ." His pitiful eyes glanced at me. Earlier, his eyes were furious. He approached me, so I forced him to retreat. "Alessia, it s not what you think—" I cut him off. "It is what I think!" I shed tears because of the memory. I thought that something bad was going to happen. I thought there was a good chance I d get hurt going, but I kept going. That s when I realized that it wasn t someone else playing with my feelings or the one who was torturing me — all this time, it was myself. I m hurt because I let myself be hurt. "And you ll take the child away?" Zoe immediately stroked my back, calming me down. "Ma am! Ma am Ellise, what happened?" The gardener climbed up, going straight to Ellise, who was already stained with blood on her thigh. Her moaning did not stop, repeatedly saying she was in pain as we rushed the woman to the hospital. My mind was so drained for today. Even though I know, I was cheated on, and I still find it hard to accept. Joaquin was always fooling me, and I had nothing to expect about that. Today is just different. If we hadn t insisted on going to Elise s house or if we had been late for a few minutes, a child would have been affected. "Ellise Sarmiento?" a doctor called after coming to the Emergency room door. I didn t immediately stand in awe. "Doc!" Zoe led us, and I couldn t see how the friend felt. "We are her friends." The doctor nodded and approached us to speak, "She s fine, the baby s fine. . . It wasn t that affected, but it was good that she was caught right away, and she didn t lose that much blood." The conversation was quick, and the doctor left immediately. "Wait! Let me contact her parents. They d better be informed about this. I ll let you be with her first." Zoe glanced at me, and I knew what that meant. I know we really need to call Elise s parents, and we should also be able to talk to Joaquin. He is a good man. I know he knows right and wrong, but maybe because of what s going on, he still doesn t think about it. He s stressed, and we understand that, but there s also time for him to realize what he is doing. I quickly turned to him. This is not the good place for this conversation, but I have ignored that. He licked his lips as things seemed to be tangled in his brain, and he couldn t figure out where to start. I took a deep breath before speaking. "You should be responsible for the child—" He immediately cut me off. "If it s my child, I can be responsible for it, but that doesn t mean I m going to acknowledge Elise s feelings for me, Alessia. We can t be together. You know right away, you re the one I want." I just looked at him sharply. The anger I had ignored in the past few days was brewing. "If you don t like Ellise. . ." I hardly swallowed. My system can hardly accept what I am saying. ". . .Why did you have sex with her?" I can say it weakly, but the emphasis can be heard. "Why did you fool me. . . huh?" He turned a blind eye. I can sense his regret. He thinks maybe if he didn t do it, it might still be possible for us to get along. "Joaquin, I don t know what you re thinking. I m not sure. But, I want to point all these out on you. We. . . we have no hope. If the way you came back to me was to get rid of the child? I ll hate you more." At that short span of time, I was stunned. I can t figure out the root of it all. How did he fool me? And how he thought of taking the lives of others just to get me back? "You ll stand up for the child. You ll be a great husband and a father. You ll love your family." I looked up at him. His bloodshot eyes scowled at me. I didn t like what was happening either. Yes, I wanted him to lose me, that he would no longer love me and choose me because of the pain he made me feel, but I didn t think this could happen. "That s all you have to do, Joaquin. Because when something happens to the child, I will never forgive you." He washed the palm of his face, and I felt little pity for the man in front of me now. I know he also doesn t like what s happening, but he has nothing else to do but accept it all. I tried to walk away from there, and he didn t stop me either. I didn t know what I should feel, but I just forced myself to forget everything. * * * * * After what happened to Joaquin, Ellise, and me, I decided to study, especially in the second semester, because more units are needed here than in the first sem. "Alessia, you ll not believe this!" Zoe yelled at me one afternoon. I had just finished lunch and was on my way to my next subject when I saw her. We didn t eat together because I had to take care of something at the library where I was assigned to be my student assistant. "Calm down, Zoe. What s that?" He took a deep breath as he walked with me before speaking. "Do you still remember the man you texted before? Recently, Alessia!" I stared at her. I still have to dig into the mind to remember who she might be referring to. "I met her, Alessia! He is Asher, 'isn t he? I m not sure, but it looks like he is. I feel like he is, Alessia! And oh my gosh, we re just in the same school! They are only in the College of Criminal Justice Education!" I don t know what I can feel. If it s Asher, then what can I do? "Here, here is my proof!" Smiling like a dog, she picked up her cellphone and showed the picture to me. They are a group here, but I immediately saw what she was saying. I know he is because I still remember his profile picture there on Facebook that I found. In the picture, he is only half smiling, as if he is even embarrassed. His hair was cleanly cut, one of the proofs that he is a criminology student because it is also required in their program. He was also with other men who were also the same age. He seems dangerous, maybe because of his intense gaze. "Oh, it looks like you re going to have a boyfriend, ah?" Zoe laughed at my reaction to the picture. I quickly rolled my eyes at her. Yes, he is Asher, but I have no other business to him. My previous relationship with a man was excruciating, so I was sure to be filled with fear and doubt. Another thing, I will never let myself be hurt again. "It s just that, Alessia, he s a graduating student." In the picture, you can see we really are not his age. Maybe he s older by a few years. He looks mature, but his smile is completely heart-melting. I just laughed to myself because of what I was thinking. "So, we must act now! I ll let you guys meet, Alessia!" * * * * * I left Zoe in that place because of her relentless teasing, and when she went home, their driver picked him up. I didn t keep up because I had to go back to the library again. I ll be out here at five o clock in the afternoon. It s good that I got in as a Student assistant because otherwise, I don t know where I can get tuition. On my way home, I hurried down. At five o clock, it was a bit dark, so I was nervous, especially when getting the tricycles as well as on the road. Turning into a hallway, I stopped to see what I could possibly encounter there. The distance is still far, but I can already see his face. I panicked. I didn t expect that only now would I know, and only now would I meet him. To my great surprise, he passed at me. I don t know what got into me to follow him further and talk. I poked the man, and he turned around immediately. His eyes met mine, so I immediately became nervous. Even if I wanted to back off, it seemed like I didn t have time. "You are Asher, aren t you?" He looked at me for a long time, then nodded. I laughed awkwardly then immediately thought of the possible conversation. "Y-You know, I just found out you re here–" But before I could even finish what he was saying, he walked away. Shame and annoyance gripped me. I rode a tricycle in a rage and never looked back. The embarrassment I feel now is overwhelming. It was as if I hated him so much that I would pray for gods and goddesses every day that I would never see him again. But fate seemed cruel to me because no matter how I avoided him, O can almost every day I met him in the corridor after that had happened. "Alessia, maybe he was just in a bad mood that day, so he didn t feel like talking." Zoe had explained to me a few times about that and said we needed to pursue the plan, to make us close. . . friends and the next. . . it can be more than that. "No way! I ll just look for someone out there as long as he has good manners!" I was overwhelmed with emptiness as we walked towards the canteen. "But, Alessia, that s really how it is with women! They say that he s snobbish." I just made a face, trying to avoid the topic. "Then he can consciously get mad at you because you didn t talk all of a sudden, like that." Her explanation still did not affect me. True enough because when we entered the canteen, I immediately saw Asher with a woman and her friends. His two hands are in both pockets. The woman with him was about to hug him. He remained stiff. He looks like a pole that doesn t pay attention to the woman who looks like a leech if hugging him. In the end, I just ordered something to eat while torturing that man mentally. I hate him!