MY PRETEND BOYFRIEND

Chapter 30

"Akin ka lang, Sophia."

"So don't flirt with anyone."

These words kept repeating in Sophia's mind, playing over and over. His face flashed in her mind, making everything else feel blurry and confusing.

Sophia wanted to curse him, but something inside of her stopped her. For some reason, her emotions just wouldn't let her get angry.

Honestly, she was surprised. Damn! He had pressed his dry lips against her soft ones, leaving her unable to do anything. She didn’t know what to do next. She blinked in confusion for a long time until David placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Sophia, are you okay?"

Her heart raced...

Right now, she was just gathering all her energy to scold him as much as she could.

"What the hell? David! You son of a b***h! Why did you kiss me? Am I a joke to you? What the hell is wrong with me? Damn! I'm so confused!"

Right after those words, her heart started to lose control. She cursed loudly and questioned herself. It felt like her emotions and brain were fighting against each other.

David slowly moved his hand from her shoulder, now holding her cheek, forcing her to face him. He didn’t let her look away.

"Calm down. You know, people say that confusion is a sign of being in love."

BOOM. DAMN.

"You're such an idiot!" She slapped him.

"Come on! You hit me like that because you really like me."

"I don't like you! No way! You're so delusional." She slapped him again.

"If you keep hitting me like this, you're just going to tire yourself out. It's you who's the crazy one."

She kept trying to hit him, her frustration growing, making the bed sheets wrinkle as she threw her arms around. David was right, though. Hitting him was just making her exhausted. She was so tired. So now, she just stared at him.

There were so many questions running through her head, and she didn’t even know where to begin.

Why couldn’t she flirt with Horan? Why couldn’t anyone else mess with her? And most importantly, why did he kiss her? What were they really? Just friends? Close friends? They were far from that word, but why did she feel so... conflicted?

"Oh, are you tired now?" David's low voice broke the silence between them. They just sat there, not saying a word.

"Umm."

"Stupid girl, you heard what I said, right? You’re mine now, and there’s no escaping that."

"No."

"Then I'll say it again. Don’t flirt with anyone and don’t let anyone flirt with you. Just me, okay?"

"..."

Wait a minute! Why was he so confident about this? Damn!

"You understand what I’m saying, right?"

"..." She kept quiet, her eyes fixed on his face.

"If you don’t understand, let me kiss you one more time. You still seem confused."

"No! Damn it!"

BAM! BAM!

She hit him fiercely, hoping to rid him of his stupid thoughts. David stayed silent with a serious expression on his face. They both tried to calm down and process what happened until Sophia finally broke the silence.

"Go back to your apartment now."

"My body hurts. I can't go home." David's eyes narrowed as he lay down on her bed. He was acting like a kid now, and it annoyed her. If his fans saw him now, they'd definitely stop liking him.

Who said David was shy, quiet, and cool? She couldn't see any of that. All she saw was a mischievous, arrogant man. Damn it!

"Stop pretending."

"You hit me so hard, so you have to let me stay the night."

"What? We aren't a couple, and we don’t live together. We aren’t even close."

"Aren’t we close? We already kissed."

"Damn it!"

The room was quiet again for a long time until Sophia finally spoke, even though she had no idea what his answer would be. This was the first time she felt so empty, struggling to breathe.

"I really want to ask you seriously. Why did you kiss me? And why do I feel like you’re not happy when I ask you to help me get rid of Horan, so I can flirt with Benjamin?"

"Umm. I don’t like that."

"Then stop pretending to be my fake boyfriend. You don’t need to care about Horan anymore. I’ll seriously pursue Benjamin, so you don’t have to care about anything else."

"Didn’t you understand anything?"

"You’re the one who can’t understand! I already made my decision."

"I already told you that I won’t allow you to flirt with other people. You can only flirt with me. Only me."

"Why? How can I do that if I don’t feel anything for you? Let me ask you... do you really like me that much?"

"I don’t even understand my own feelings. All I know is that I want to kiss you, cuddle you, hold you tight. Sometimes, I want to bite you until it leaves a mark. I want to punish you until I’m satisfied."

"Are you a psychopath? What a bastard! That’s not what liking someone is. You should ask yourself again."

"..."

"Maybe the reason you kissed me and you’re saying you like me is because of your friends. They told you to tease me, right? You don’t need to be serious about it. Also, you mentioned that you’re writing a love song. I think you should find a girl that you really like. Using me won’t help you at all."

It is strange that an introverted person like David would dare to do that kind of thing with Sophia. She guesses there must be something behind this. If this were a novel, maybe his friends challenged him to flirt with her and then leave her afterward. Or maybe she's just thinking too far?

"Are you done?" he asked.

"Umm.."

"Then matutulog na ako."

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Stop bothering me. You talk too much."

Holy s**t! He’s not listening to me. Wow, this person is really something. Sophia decides not to ask again because she is sure he won’t give her a clearer answer than this.

And oh, she talked too much because he kissed her! He made her confused, bastard! She wants to know everything, but he only answered, "stop bothering me"? Seriously...?

With his shamelessness, he still refuses to return to his apartment. So, she just lets him rest on her bed while she plays with her phone. Eventually, she can’t stand it anymore, so she pokes his shoulder.

"When will you go back? I'm sleepy."

"I will sleep here." His answer really makes her want to beat him up. Her heart...

"How can you have such a thick face?"

She raises her hand, ready to hit him hard. But before she can, he immediately looks at her with his scary eyes, accompanied by a short sentence that terrifies her.

"Do you dare to hit me?" She immediately lowers her hand.

Er... no... she doesn’t dare to... Damn it! She doesn’t know why the hell she's afraid of him.

"How do you type correctly?" he suddenly asks. How can he change the topic so fast? Damn!

"What?" she turns to the person lying next to her. His eyes are fixed on his cellphone.

Sometimes, David is a person who’s so difficult to understand. If the girls knew his real character, would they be mad? Because if it were Sophia, she would feel betrayed.

Making her fall in love with his silent side but turns out he’s an abnormal person.

"I've never typed anything correctly. What should I do?" he asks again.

She adjusts the pillow on her back to the most comfortable position before responding to his question.

"Putulin mo na lang 'yang daliri mo. As easy as that," she answers with a serious face.

"A very stupid answer."

"Check everything first before sending it. If something has been deleted, then type it again. Now, try typing your full name."

Is it too difficult for a gago like him?

Moreover, what kind of finger is that? Is that a finger or a paw? It’s covering the entire screen. Damn!

Sophia watches David tapping the screen, pressing the characters one by one. He looks like a sloth. She now understands why he’s not using social media.

And typing just his name took almost five minutes. Damn!

To be honest, she forgot that he was typing. Damn! She thinks taking a shower would be faster than him typing his name. If she told him to type a full paragraph on his phone, she would probably die and reincarnate before he finishes.

Anyway, David is always David. As soon as she reads what he typed, she discovers a fact...

“Natenwhwheiel Horan.”

Wait a minute. Give her time to recover first. When she first reads it, she thinks it’s like a foreign language.

"Damn! This is all wrong. Listen, if you finished typing, you have to check it first. Tapos click mo ‘yong ‘delete’ kapag mali.”

He just nods before tapping his phone screen again.

"I can't." She immediately turns to him.

This time, she knows that he literally can’t do it.

David has huge fingers. When he was typing his name, he tapped on E instead of T. And when he tried it again, he tapped on S. He continued to make the same mistake. In short, correcting the words he typed is harder than typing a new one.

Extraordinary!

"Just tap again on the word that you want to correct. There will be a magnifying glass that will pop up on the screen."

"I tried, pero ‘di naman gumagana."

"Okay! I have an idea. Try downloading an application that has a big keyboard. That way, you will be more comfortable typing."

"Where do I download it?"

"On the App store. You idiot."

"Please download it for me." He gives her his cellphone.

Her? Again? Why is it always her? But she doesn’t mind and immediately takes his phone so she can download the application for him. At the very least, she doesn’t need to be bothered by his typos.

"What's your Apple ID and password?" she asks.

"What is that?"

"The password you made when you bought this phone."

"I forgot."

"Damn it! Then just keep typing like that." She leaves this to fate and time. She has no other solution.

Sophia stopped paying attention to David and let him practice typing. She lay on her bed, closing her eyes, forcing herself to sleep. She didn’t care how loud the TV was or if the light was still on.

All she knew was that it was almost one o'clock, and she needed sleep now. She couldn’t get rid of David to leave her room, so she just let him do what he wanted. She was pretty sure he wouldn't do anything weird, like taking advantage of her or touching her inappropriately in the middle of the night.

Wait! Or maybe, he would. Right?

A few moments later, David bothered her again by poking her arm.

"Umm? What's wrong?"

"Look at this, I can't type properly." Sophia reached out her hand to take his phone and looked at the screen with the wrong words on it.

‘Matulog ka nsndg mahimbing’

Have a good dream, right? He couldn’t type in English and now he tried typing in Tagalog.

"That won’t work tonight. I’ll have a nightmare for sure."

"That means you’ll dream about yourself."

"Quit bugging me. It’s because I’ll dream of you."

"Good. Just dream of me tonight."

"Tangina mo talaga!"

David and Sophia went silent for a long time, until he said something in his softest voice ever.

"Ang saya saya ko ngayong gabi kasi kasama kita."

"..."

That sentence made Sophia’s face hot as if it would explode. Even though it was just an ordinary sentence, she couldn’t understand why her heart was beating like crazy. She wouldn’t have the same feelings as him, never!

Then, she subconsciously smiled. Wait a minute... She was smiling... Why was she smiling?!

She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Yvonne’s voice.

"Sophia, are you listening to me?"

"Wh... What?!" Yvonne was yelling at her, trying to bring her back to her senses.

Sophia didn’t know why she kept thinking about David. She didn’t even hear anything about what her friends were saying.

"Damn! I’m asking you, why did David come here?"

Look at that. She could finally stop thinking about him, but they were still asking her about him. Damn! When could she avoid him?

"Erm... He came to pick up his football shirt. He asked me to wash it."

"Why?"

"How do I know? Stop asking me."

"We’re just asking, but it looks like you’re hiding something."

"What? I’m not hiding anything. Nothing at all."

Well, there's nothing between her and David.

Really! If they didn’t believe her, they could look into her eyes. They were the sincerest eyes anyone could ever see.

"Why are your eyes like that? It looks really suspicious."

Damn! Sophia really wanted to kick Kath right now.

"Shut up!"

"Alright. If there’s nothing between you, then it’s good. I just saw David being possessive on i********:, that’s why I asked you. But it’s nothing, right?" Sophia nodded excitedly.

"Right!"

"It’s normal. Friends always do that. Right?"

"Right!"

"Anyone who thinks there’s something between you guys is wrong! Friends can sleep together, right?"

"That’s true!"

"I know friends can be jealous. They can cuddle on the bed when they’re drunk, and they can follow each other everywhere. They can even look into each other’s eyes without blinking. Those are real friends' actions. Right?"

"Exactly."

"And the most important thing is, you can blush until your ears turn red every time we mention the name of a friend. Right?"

"Yes. Yes."

"So..."

"What?"

"You still don’t want to admit it? If you guys like each other, just say it. If you’re dating, say it. Don’t wait until the two of you have s*x before telling us. It’s not interesting anymore."

Her words froze Sophia’s entire body. Seeing those three friends turn around sassily made her want to kick all of them.

They were all so annoying, but Sophia couldn’t do anything... Because everything they said was true.

She immediately pulled out her phone to search something on Google.

‘How do I stop blushing as much?’