“Yes please,” Luke begged.
“No.” He started walking away as nothing happened. Without thinking, my feet moved to chase him and my hands went to his shoulders to stop him from going.
“You’re not going anywhere Eion. The fun is in this way,” I pointed towards the direction where the rest of the squad is.
Eion looked at me from his shoulders and glanced at Luke. He nodded tiredly and Luke grinned. “Let’s go.”
With Eion dragging my hand, I raised my hand to my forehead to salute Luke. “Save more beer for me, Luke!”
He broke out laughing. Eion faced Luke and said, “No. Take care of your girlfriend next time Luke. This will be the only and last time I will do you a favor with this idiot.”
“Aye aye captain!” Luke replied. I saw him getting farther and farther as we walked towards the opposite direction I had pointed. I pouted. Why are we leaving!
I eyed Eion from beside me. He put his hands in his pockets and kicked a rock, “Why is this stupid even drinking?” He mumbled but I heard it.
“Wait Eion, I apologized! Now apologize to me.”
“There goes that apologizing stuff again. I didn’t do anything. Why would I apologize?”
I stopped in my tracks and put my arms crossed in front of me. “I didn’t get to enjoy this trip your dad gave for free! It’s free! That’s because you were torturing me.”
I pouted and showed him a scar on my feet which was caused by my sandals that day at the market.
He looked at it for a split second before averting his eyes and snorting, walking up ahead of me. “I don’t care.”
I caught up to him, “And then you were away, I didn’t have time to have my payback. Where were you?”
“Business matters.” That was all his reply.
I pouted, “What business?”
“You don’t have to know it,” he responded.
I scoffed at him, “Oh, I know business! An entrepreneur is a person who manages a business. See? And you’re one.”
He just shook his head and rolled his eyes.
Silence passed by. A wind came and hit my body that sent me shivering. I rubbed my arms together. Is Eion really going to put me to sleep? Why is the villa so far? I’m starting to get dizzier and heavier…
“I’ve been wondering…” I started again. “These following days, I really had fun here. And until now, it all sunk in me. It really is your future resort, isn’t it? But why?”
He raised his eyebrows at me in confusion, “Why what? I’m an offspring of the Hudson family.”
“Not that.” I chuckled. “I mean, you’re rich, why did you go to a public school?”
He shrugged. “Why? Luke and Hannah came there.”
From a distance, I could now see the villa as we slowly approached it. “Well, they’re not like you,” I said.
He sighed. “I wanted to continue there. Nothing more.”
“Nothing more?”
He nodded. “Besides, it’s about learning. Not about the school or the money.”
“Hmmm… and your mom?” I blurted out. I thought about how Eion’s mother was, as Mario described to me. I’m sure she’s beautiful.
“What? What are you talking about, Snow?” Eion inquired.
I blinked Uh oh. I’m caught. I told him the truth! Mario is going to bear all the consequences one! “Uhm… someone said to me that…” I tried to lie, but it seemed that he caught on to it.
“Is that someone Mario?” He suggested, and I shook my head, “No….”
He nodded, “I’ll kill that guy.”
“No, I forced him to tell me!” I exclaimed, trying to reason out more but he simply chose to be quiet.
**
We have now arrived at the villa. I went straight to the sofa and Eion turned on the lights.
He went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water and drank it, standing at the doorway and looking out of the window. As my eyes felt heavy, it slowly closed.
“I hate it.”
I shot up straight at the voice. “What?”
“Being rich. Why now when my mom is nowhere. Like they said, aanhin mo pa ang damo kung patay na rin ang kabayo.”
“Mom really loved that shop. She lived for that, she was the one who managed that. But we had to sell it. We were not that rich then. It is all worthless.”
“Oh.” What will I reply to that? “That’s… amazing?” Then I fell back to lay.
Eion walked towards me. “Whose shirt is that?”
I drew patterns in the air as I lay on my back and faced the ceiling. “Luke.”
“It has a stain.” He pointed out.
“Oh?” I wandered out, looking down to see. “Where? I don’t see anything.”
“Yes, there’s a stain. You just can’t see it cause you’re just drunk.” Then he walked away.
I blinked, “Wait, where are you going?”
“To my room.” he simply said.
I tilted my head, “Why?”
“So I can change my shirt.” He said.
Remembering the thing that Mario mentioned to me about ghost stories and “aswangs” or things that eat humans or something like that I panicked. “No. I’ll come with you don’t leave me alone he-” Standing up, I tripped and fell on the ground. “Ooops.”
Not a second, I felt strong hands holding me and slowly helping me to stand up. Eion then guided me gently towards the stairs without speaking.
He stopped at our door and opened it. I was expecting him to gently put me to the bed instead, he harshly dropped me to the bed. I wanted to protest but I don’t have the energy to do so.
I just stayed like that laying on my stomach with my face pressed to the soft pillow when I felt something being thrown at me moments later. I rolled to my side to see Eion standing at the door. “There. Change into that.”
“Why?”
“Don’t ask.”
I stuck my tongue out at him, “What if I don’t want to?”
“Easy. Then I will do it for you.” He said in a low voice that sent a chill down my spine.
He started walking towards me, really serious about undressing me and changing my shirt.