Chapter 10: The Echo of Others.
1070 Words
Chapter 10: The Echo of Others
The nights after Holy Thursday felt different. Elena walked around with a quiet, secret hum of joy in her chest, convinced that Julian shared the feelings she had been hiding for months. But the fragile peace of her illusion was about to be tested.
It happened during one of their usual late-night calls. The room was dark, and Julian’s voice was a low, comforting murmur through her earpiece as he spoke about life at the seminary. The conversation was flowing effortlessly until Julian casually brought up the interactions he had with people outside the seminary walls.
"You won't believe how intense some people can be, El," Julian chuckled softly, his tone completely innocent. He went on to mention the number of girls who had recently approached him, confessing that they were deeply in love with him.
He spoke about it as if it were just an occupational hazard—a strange side effect of his path toward the priesthood. But to Elena, every word felt like a physical blow.
A sharp, hot wave of jealousy rushed through her veins. Hearing that other women looked at him the same way she did, and that they actually had the courage to say it out loud, made her stomach twist into painful knots. The warm bubble she had been living in burst instantly.
"Julian, I want to sleep," she interrupted, her voice dropping all its previous warmth and turning completely flat.
Julian paused on the other end of the line. He was too attuned to her moods not to notice the sudden shift. "Elena? Is everything okay? What’s wrong?"
"Nothing," she snapped gently, staring at the dark ceiling. "I’m just tired. I want to go to bed."
"But it's barely midnight," Julian countered, his voice laced with confusion. "We’ve spoken way later than this time before, El. Why do you want to go to bed so early tonight?"
The jealousy bottled up inside her finally leaked out. "Why don't you just go and meet the girls that told you they loved you?" she retorted, her voice thick with irritation.
There was a brief moment of silence on the line. Then, Julian let out a soft, low laugh—the kind of laugh that meant he finally understood what was happening.
"Elena," he called her name gently, his voice dropping into a tone so tender it made her chest ache. "It is normal for people to speak out and express how they feel. They see someone they like, and they say it. But I only listened, El. I never said I loved any of them back."
Elena bit her lip, her heart fluttering frantically between anger and hope. She squeezed her pillow tightly against her chest. "Are you sure?" she whispered into the microphone, hating how vulnerable she sounded.
"Yes, Elena," Julian said softly, his reassurance steady and absolute through the speaker. "I am sure."
Julian then sighed, his tone turning a bit more reflective as he continued. "Actually, El, it reminds me of something that happened when I was home for the Christmas break. There's this girl named Mirabel and her sister clara. Mirabel called me out of nowhere and said she urgently needed to talk to me. She sounded so serious that I told her to meet me right after the Wednesday evening mass."
Elena listened intently, her grip on her pillow tightening. "Did she show up?"
"No," Julian said. "When the day came, she didn't come to church. Instead, she called later and invited me over to their house to talk. Since she had sounded so desperate before, I went. When I got there, we all sat outside in the compound—Mirabel, Clara, and me. But after some time, Clara excused herself, and Mirabel made it clear she just wanted to be alone with me."
Julian paused for a second, and Elena could hear him shifting on his bed. "Then, she took my phone from the table. She was scrolling through it and stumbled upon all those videos you always send me. She looked at me and asked, 'Julian, I asked if you had any videos of me and you said no... so why do you have all these videos of Elena on your phone?'"
Elena’s heart skipped a beat. A sudden, warm flush of pride and happiness rushed through her. He kept my videos. He saves them.
"What did you say?" Elena asked, trying to keep her voice level.
"I didn't answer her," Julian said simply. "I just stood up and told them I wanted to go home. Mirabel insisted on accompanying me back. When we finally reached my gate, she suddenly stepped close, pulled me toward her, and tried to kiss me."
Elena gasped, her happiness instantly evaporating into a hot, biting wave of jealousy. Her hands clenched into fists under her sheets. "She did what?"
"I dodged it," Julian went on quickly, sensing the shift in the air. "I pulled back and told her flat out that it wasn't good, that it was wrong. She started begging me, asking me to just give her a chance, but I refused. I turned around and walked away into the house."
Elena sat up in her dark room, a chaotic storm of emotions swirling inside her chest. She was incredibly happy because Julian valued her enough to keep her videos close to him, protecting them like a secret treasure. But at the same time, she was deeply jealous, her chest aching at the thought of another girl standing so close to him, trying to touch the lips that belonged to a future priest—the lips she secretly wished were hers.
Julian heard her sharp, ragged breathing through the phone. He let out another gentle, knowing laugh, his voice dropping into that smooth, comforting register that always had a way of grounding her.
"Elena, relax," he murmured softly, calming her down before she could even voice her anger. "I’m telling you this because I don't hide things from you. Nothing happened, and nothing ever will. You don't need to be upset."
Elena let out a long, slow breath, letting his words soothe the rough edges of her jealousy, though the possessive ache in her heart didn't quite disappear.
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