THE CONFESSION

Never set yourself ablaze just to keep someone else warm, my love.

***

WARNING: May contain discussions on triggering topics.

CHAPTER LIII

*****

“ARE YOU OKAY?”

I snapped my head back around to look at Pablo, following him cautiously as he took a seat beside me and dipped his legs into the pool.

Daniel didn't move. He stayed right where he was in front of me with his hands on either side of me to keep him afloat. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and my breathing speed up, but none of them noticed it.

I just wanted them far away from me. The familiar ball that always lodged itself in my throat when I cried had made an appearance and I didn't want them to see me wail like a baby. It could've been anybody else, just not them.

I was still yet to figure out why.

Despite my wishes, the first sob tumbled past my lips and I sucked in a breath to try and compose myself, but no go. I was sobbing like a toddler and the tears didn't take long to join.

“Hey, hey, it's okay.”

I didn't know which one said that because my ears were filled with the sound of my own cries and the blood rushing to my face. I didn't know what I was more ashamed of; the fact that I had tried to kill myself in front of everybody and failed or the fact that I was wailing like a newborn in front of people I hardly even knew.

“I'm so sorry,” I cried, trying to compose myself, but I couldn't.

I wanted to get up and walk myself away from the situation, but Daniel was too close and the way he was looking at me made my heart do weird things in my chest

I felt his hand on my thigh which was foolishly exposed because of my tight black skirt and he rubbed soothing circles on my skin. It did nothing to comfort me, but I appreciated the gesture.

“I'm sorry,” I said again, sniffling as I aggressively wiped down my face. I didn't know why I did it, I was soaking from head to toe. “I know I ruined the party. I'll just go now.”

“That's fine,” Pablo said as he got to his feet. “We'll take you home.”

He reached under my arms and lifted me to my feet as if I couldn't get up myself before turning to Daniel who climbed out of the pool. Water dripped from his clothes as he stood to his full height, but it didn't seem to bother him.

“Come on,” he said, before walking away. His voice was never above a shout, yet he always captured everyone's attention when he spoke.

He walked towards the back gate and slipped through, not caring if he was allowed to go out through that way or not.

“Where do you live?” Pablo asked as we followed after him.

I stayed silent, beginning to wonder in my head where exactly I lived. Should I be honest with them or should I lie? I couldn't give them any random address because I doubted they would drop me off and abandon me, but I really didn't want to be telling two guys I didn't know very well about life.

Plus, they were delinquents. What if they tried to hurt me?

“You do have a place to stay, right?” Pablo asked, catching on to my silence as I looked at him with wide eyes.

That was the point where I was supposed to deny, but my voice got caught in my throat and my head came up blank with nothing to say.

“I... I.” Both of them stopped what they were doing and looked to me, making me sigh in defeat. “No.”

There was silence and I felt their heated gazes on my head, but I couldn't look up from my shoes. I felt ashamed. I felt vulnerable. I didn't want to be there in that moment. I just wanted to be somewhere else.

Somewhere better.

Dead.

“I'll take you home,” Pablo said, making me snap my eyes up to him and take a cautious step back. “I won't hurt you, I promise.” He raised his hand in surrender and stared right into my eyes, showing his good intentions. “I'll just give you a place to stay for the night and then we can get you to a women's hostel tomorrow. Okay?”

“A women's hostel?” I asked, feeling confused.

“I mean, yeah. You can't sleep on the streets, can you? You're extremely young and way too vulnerable. Where else were you planning on going?”

When I left the house with only the clothes on my back, where else was I planning on going? Everything was so quick when it happened. I was getting ready for a party and then I suddenly found myself homeless. I still went to the party because I wanted to be happy on the last night I lived.

So much for happy.

“I don't... I just—”

“Come on, let's go,” Daniel said, noticing my obvious discomfort. I looked to Pablo one last time before quickly following after him.

***

“I think I'm pregnant, Daniel. No, that's wrong. Um, I missed my last period and I... For fuck sakes.”

I placed my head on the mirror and sighed deeply, completely fed up with my inability to just speak.

I wasn't even sure if I was pregnant. I had no idea why I was freaking myself out about it. I had much more important things to be doing like making sure that my Anna-Banana was doing okay.

I pulled away from the mirror and glared at my image. “Just suck it up, be a woman and tell him.”

“Tell who what?”

I jumped away at the sudden entrance of Daniel's voice in my conversation with myself and quickly turned around to see him walking into the room. He had his suit on without the jacket and his tie slung lazily around his neck.

“Daniel!”

“The tooth fairy,” he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he walked towards the closet. “What did you want to tell me?”

“Who said I wanted to tell you anything?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as I watched him rummage around the closet for his jacket.

“What did you want to tell Pablo?”

I sighed dejectedly and dropped my arms to my sides. “I was lying. It was you.”

He turned around to me with cocky smirk on his face, obviously glad that he had one-upped me. It wouldn't be like that for long.

“So...”

I let the thoughts run through my head, contemplating telling him before shaking it out of my head and walking closer to him. The smirk fell as he noticed my worried expression and was replaced with a frown.

“What's wrong with you?”

“I think I'm...” I trailed off and searched my brain for other ways to say pregnant without saying 'pregnant'.

“Pregnant?”

I snapped my gaze up at him at his words and took a cautious step back as I scrunched up my nose. “That's creepy, Daniel.” He didn't say anything to address my concern. “Plus, how did you even find out?”

“There are guards in the house.” I rolled my eyes because I already knew, but said nothing and let him finish. “One of them overheard you and your friend talking by accident and told me because you didn't want to.”

“What an idiot,” I hissed, crossing my arms over my chest and looking to the side.

I didn't care if he felt his loyalty was towards Daniel, it was confidential. If Anna wasn't allowed to say something to him, then what made him think that he was? For all he knew, I could've been planning a surprise that he ruined. If I ever laid eyes on him, I was going to strangle the—

“I can hear you plotting for here.”

I looked up at Daniel's voice and rolled my eyes at the smirk on his face as he shrugged on his suit jacket.

“So you knew this since last night?” He nodded and said nothing else. “Why didn't you say anything?”

“Did you want me to say anything?”

“I mean... It would have made things a bit easier.”

He turned to me and sighed. “The truth is it's your body. You know yourself better than I ever will and I trust you to tell me if something important is going on like you have. If you don't, then it's nothing I should worry about.”

I stared at his back for a second after he turned around, finding his understanding exceptionally. If I was in his place, I wouldn't have even thought of that. A large part of me would've been salty about the fact that he would take so long to tell me.

“So in other words,” I said instead of showing my gratitude. “You didn't care enough until it was a confirmed problem.”

“Precisely.” He turned around and held his tie up. “Come tie this.”

I walked over to him happily, finding my mood lifted as I took the two ends of his tie in my hands and started working on tying it.

His hands trailed down my stomach and to my pants, but I ignored his movements and focused on the job in front of me.

I cast him a warning glare as he brought his hand into my panties, but he continued on as if I wasn't even there.

“I'm done,” I said, patting his chest with his tied tie before taking a step back.

He wrapped his other arm around my waist and roughly pulled me back into him, smirking slightly at the sound of my squeak.

“I'm not.”

His hand traced past my underwear and he wasted no time in seeking out my clit and rubbing it through the thin material of my underwear. I moaned and pressed my face into his chest, wrapping my arms around his neck as he went on with his torture.

“Look how wet you are for me already,” he chuckled, causing his chest to rumble against mine. His fingers were slick with my wetness, but I was more turned on than embarrassed and I let out another moan again. “You're fucking gushing, sweetheart.”

“Daniel,” I breathed out, running my fingers through his curls as his middle finger teased my opening. As he pushed in, a squelching sound was heard in the room and Daniel laughed lightly at it, holding me close to him as he thrust in and out of me.

I pressed my face into his chest more at the embarrassment I felt, but it soon dissipated and I found myself begging him for more.

He spun us around and pressed me into the wall before raising my leg up to wrap around his waist. I was more open to him and he took full advantage of that by speeding up his thrusts and letting his thumb rub me.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I moaned, pressing my hand against my mouth as I felt my orgasm hit. “Oh.”

Daniels fingers fucked me brutally, not caring about the fact that I was gripping them so hard they were probably conjoined. The squelching only got louder and I felt more gooey wetness leave me after I had finally calmed down.

He brought his hand out of my pants and I felt myself cringe at the sight of my cum covering his fingers and half of his palm.

“Shit, sorry.”

“Why are you apologising?” he asked, grabbing the back of my head and pulling me closer. “You're going to clean my hand, aren't you?”

I nodded my head and wasted no time in sucking his fingers into my mouth, making direct eye contact with him as the taste of my cum flooded my taste buds. His pupils dilated at the sight and a sense of pride washed over me, but I only continued cleaning up his hand obediently.

When I was done, he pressed his lips to mine and slipped his tongue into my mouth, tasting me before pulling away. “When I get back,” he said, staring right at me with dark eyes. “Be ready for me.”

“Okay.”

He smirked and placed a small kiss on my swollen lips before he made his way towards the door.

“Good.”

***

“Wake up, Banana-head!”

“Uh, shut up, Araceli.”

Anna turned away from me onto her other side, just missing the way the sun streamed into her room once I had pulled the curtains back. She groaned again before pulling the cover over her forehead.

“Don't you dare fall asleep on me again,” I said before going to the foot of the bed and yanking the covers off her.

She let out some sort of demonic scream before picking up a pillow and sending it firing in my direction. Thankfully I was able to dodge it, but the second one she sent my way smacked me right in the face.

I closed my eyes and shook my head from side to side before picking up a pillow and glaring right her. “You did not jus—”

“Oh my God! Did you bring me breakfast in bed?” she asked, cutting me off as I frowned and dropped the pillow to my feet. She got up out of the bed and brisk-walked towards the tray of breakfast food I had placed on the dresser for her.

So much for iconic pillow fight.

“You're such a good friend, Ara,” she said with her mouth full of sweet bread.

I stared at her as she picked up the tray and walked over to the armchair in the corner of the room, unknowing of what to do. With a shrug, I decided that I would beat her up some other time.

“How are you doing?” I asked, walking over to her and perching myself on the arm of the chair as she looked up at me.

“I'm better,” she nodded before looking at me with a huge grin. “As you can see, no tears or mental breakdowns.”

I cringed and reeled back. “Close your damn mouth, caveman.”

“Call me caveman again,” she challenged, making me cross my arms over my chest and match her stare.

“Bitch, I will.”

“Do it.”

“Cave-man.”

She glared at me for a second before shaking her head and turning back to her food. “You see? You're a pussy. If you had guts, you'd say it the exact same way you said it before.”

I couldn't help the snort that escaped my nose at her words. Anna was always willing to talk her shit, but when it came time to put actions to words, she'd find an elaborate excuse and run away. The girl really didn't like fighting.

It's why I loved her.

“So you want to talk about last night?” I asked, making her gulp harshly and look up to me with a cringing expression frozen on her face.

“Do I have to?”

“Not if you don't want to,” I said, making her beam and wrap her arms around my waist.

“You really are a good friend, Ara.”

I grinned and looked ahead. “I know.”

“Bitch, if you don't stop with this cocky bullshit—”

“You'll do what, hoe?”

*****

This book has been a lot of activity for some reason but I just want to say thank you guys for voting and commenting. I see all of them and even if u don't reply I just want yall to know that I honestly appreciate you guys.

Anyway, the next chapter is the last one with a flashback and... The last happy chapter so take this as your warning and prepare yourselves.

:)