酷视

Chapter 27: He knows (Cassie\'s pov)

Even though she hadn\'t known Peter for all that long, she already learned he wasn\'t the type of person to destroy his phone just to keep others from reaching him.

\'But so he wouldn\'t end things off... like that...\'

Tears squeezed out of the corners of Cassie\'s eyes as the reality slowly started to dawn on her.

Her hand free-fell down her side, the phone nearly slipping out of her fingers.

\'He broke up with me?\' she thought, swallowing down her tears... only for a fresh batch to report in her eyes right away. \'He?! Broke up with me?!\'

Cassie\'s soul trembled. The girl felt as if her insides were pulled in every direction by all sorts of different emotions.

The anger and humiliation of being broken by a mere phone call. The shock of something like this ever coming to pass, especially with how calm and collected Peter always was...

And then, the immense weight of realization of what actually transpired.

"He knows..." Cassie whispered, her face suddenly turning blank.

The one secret she hoped to keep hidden forever... was now known by the only person she didn\'t want to share it with.

\'I guess I only deserved this...\' Defeated, Cassie suddenly shrunk down, squatting and wrapping her hands around her knees as she hid her face in her thighs.

"Cassie?" one of her friends noticed the sudden change, stepping away from the veranda of the mansion their class rented out for the party. "What\'s wrong?"

\'Wait, what did he tell at the end? About finding a stud to replace him?\' Cassie ignored the call, her thoughts speeding through her mind as she tried to piece the puzzles together.

"Cassie!" this time, Irene\'s voice was far louder and stricter. And just by changing the tone of her voice, Cassie\'s friend managed to force her to pull her head up and look back.

"What?!" Cassie cried out, her tears messing up her make-up while her lips slowly curved into an ugly grimace of anger.

\'It\'s her! Her and that bitch Louise!\' Cassie finally recalled where she last heard the keywords Peter brought up during the call.

There was only one instance when words like dare, party, and stud floated next to each other. A discussion Cassie didn\'t pay much mind, taking it as the usual bit of her friends\' acting like usual. A bunch of silly jokes meant to poke fun at Cassie for her lack of courage to go and ask her crush out without the added push of a dare.

\'But he didn\'t know this was just a bunch of jokes... And if he somehow heard that conversation...\' Cassie thought, gulping her saliva down... Or rather, trying to do so, only to realize her throat tightened too much to let even a single drop of her spit flow down.

Cassie took a deep breath.

\'If he heard that conversation... Just how awful did it make him feel?\' Cassie thought, her eyes turning watery again.

"Cassie! Snap out of it!" Irene spoke sharply, even going as far as to grab her friend by her shoulders and shake them while shouting right in her face.

"Snap out of it?!" Cassie finally spoke out, somehow relaxing her throat enough to utter some words. "Out of how I\'m at the venue of the party everyone but my boyfriend was invited to? How I\'m in a place where he heard you and Louise claim you will find someone to replace him with? How I never got the chance to invite him to come?!"

With each word, Cassie\'s voice grew louder and more desperate... Only for the girl to fall right down to her position from before, once again cutting herself off from the world around her.

"He knows everything. About the dare, about the party, about how you two claimed you would find someone to replace him with here..." Cassie muttered, struggling to produce even the tiniest voice...

Only to suddenly follow her friend\'s advice and stand up.

Her face was now clear, showcasing that she indeed snapped out of the moment of desperation.

"I need to go and meet him," Cassie announced, only to look down at the phone in her hand.

Normally, all she would need to get in contact with Peter was to call. And because she was too shy and scared to push their relationship any further, they only ever met in the city or at her place...

Which didn\'t mean Cassie didn\'t know where Peter moved in to. She simply has yet to pay him a visit there.

"Girl, hold your horses!" Irene cried out, funnily prolonging her accent. "He just called to break up with you, didn\'t he?" she guessed before shaking her head. "What kind of message would you send if you came running right away?"

"This is exactly what I need to do if I want him to believe I wasn\'t just playing with his feelings!"

Now that Cassie has made up her mind, she suddenly grew far more combative than normal.

"You stink of desperation," Irene countered with an ugly grimace forming on her lips. "I\'m not joking right now so listen to me well. If you go after him right now, you will not only miss this party but show just how desperate for his attention you are!"

"And what does it matter to you?!" Cassie exploded a little. "I fucked up every step of the way. I confessed to him because of a dare. And even if those were my real feelings, I didn\'t bother to think how he would feel about it once he found out!"

Tears once again appeared in Cassie\'s eyes... Only for her to sniff two times to pull herself together.

"And then there\'s the topic of what he heard us talking about..." Irene\'s voice suddenly mellowed down... Only for her to shake her head again. "But he dropped the call and didn\'t pick up when you called him back, did he?"

Somehow, even though she was quite a bit away when it all happened, Irene could guess how things happened without fail.

"Yeah, and?" Cassie pulled her eyebrows together, too furious at what her friends\' words caused her to pay much mind to them again.

"Do you really think he wants to see you right now?" Irene pointed out while going as far as to raise her hand and poke at Cassie\'s collarbone. "No, right now, you are the last person he wants to see. And you are too desperate."

Irene shook her head again.

"I\'m not saying you should just forget about him," she said before heaving a deep sigh. "I know better than anyone that you won\'t. But rather than acting desperate now, you can just have fun at this party and then meet up with him once you both calm down."

"Hey girls!" one of their classmates called out from the veranda. "What\'s the hold-up?! Come on! We are about to begin!"

Irene looked over her shoulder... but didn\'t bother to respond. She then moved her eyes back before heaving another sigh.

"You\'ve heard him. You can bet it would only cause unnecessary drama if you were to up and leave now, right as everything is about to begin," Irene spoke, her voice softening even further.

She then walked up to her friend and pulled her into a tight hug.

"I\'m not telling you to forget about him. But for now, relax, have as much fun as you can, and once you are both ready, go pay him a visit so you two can talk in peace and clear the misunderstanding," Irene calmly presented her friend with a plan that had some semblance of logic behind it. "And who knows," Irene\'s face suddenly turned all smiles as she pulled back and looked directly into Cassie\'s eyes.

"Who knows, maybe you will find someone even better than that loser boyfriend of yours here?"