An Orchid in a Plumeria Tree

Prologue

The moment Prish saw the envelope on my coffee table, she gasped. "No way..." She snatched it before I could stop her, flipping it over until she saw the logo printed across the front, her eyes says it all. "Khit!" She turned to me so fast I almost laughed. "This is them!"

I rubbed the back of my neck, trying not to smile. "...Yeah."

She squealed and hit my shoulder. "I knew it! I freaking knew it!" She hugged the envelope against her chest like it was the most precious thing in the world before shoving it back into my hands. "Open it again."

"I already did."

"I don't care, open it again!"

I sighed heavily, making her roll her eyes. "You've already memorized every word in it!"

"I know, but I want to hear it from you." I couldn't help smiling like a child that's given a dollar or two.

I unfolded the contract while she sat cross legged on the couch in front of me, staring at me like an excited kid waiting for a birthday surprise. "We are pleased to offer Mr. Jiraphat Srisawat..." I read aloud.

She clapped both hands over her mouth before I could even finish the first sentence. "Oh gosh..."

I laughed, "You haven't even heard the rest!"

"I don't need to." She jumped off the couch and grabbed both of my hands. "You did it!", Her voice came out calmer this time, "You actually did it.." There were tears in her eyes, "You crazy- you actually made it." She threw her arms around me without another word.

I hugged her back. For a second, I almost forgot why I'd been avoiding this conversation. She pulled away with the biggest smile I'd ever seen. "So.." She pointed at the contract. "When are you signing it?" The smile on my face faded.

"I'm not."

She blinked. "What?"

"I'm not signing it." She laughed, it was the kind of laughter when someone finds your answer ridiculous.

"Stop messing around."

"I'm serious, Aki."

The room went quiet, "You.. you're joking. Right?"

I slowly shook my head, "I'm going to finish college first.. this can wait"

Her smile slowly disappeared. "Khit."

"I've already decided.", I said shaking my head to convince her.

"No.", She frowned and pushed the contract back toward me. "No, you haven't. Sign it."

I took a deep breath. "I'm not going to."

"Jira." Did she just called me by my real name? I only heard her use that when she's mad.

"I'm serious."

"So am I!", She sat down across from me, still smiling like she thought she could talk some sense into me. "You can study in the city while being an actor at the same damn f*****g time!"

"I know."

"So what's the problem?"

"It's far.", She frowned. Her brows knotted.

My heart started racing, she laughed. Not that she finds it funny but because it doesn't make sense to her. "That's it?"

"I don't want to leave."

She sighed, still looking at me like I'm a psycho telling her some nonsense. "You'll come home."

"I'll be busy."

"So?"

"What if something happens here?"

She looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"What if something happens to you while I'm gone?" She stared at me for a few seconds before laughing. Not because it was funny, I know.

Because she honestly couldn't believe what she'd just heard. "You're refusing the biggest opportunity of your life because you're worried about me?", She get closer at me and pointed at her chest. "I can handle myself."

I looked down at the contract. "I just don't think it's the right time."

Her smile finally disappeared. "No.", She shook her head. "Don't do that."

"I'm not."

"You are.", She pushed the contract against my chest. "You've dreamed about this since we were little."

"I know."

"You made me sit through every audition."

"I know."

"You cried after every rejection."

"I know.", That is the only word that kept coming out of my lips, I couldn't just answer her straight looking at her eyes makes me feel helpless.

"And now that you finally got the role...", Her voice cracked. "...you're saying no?" I swallowed hard, like there's a big lump in my throat. I couldn't tell her the truth. I couldn't tell her that the thought of pretending to love someone I'd never met felt wrong, or that leaving the only person who had always stayed by my side felt even worse. So I lied. "I just want to finish school with you."

She stared at me, long enough that I started looking away. "So you think I'm the one stopping you, huh!?", She said raising her voice. Not once did I ever expected she'll do it and I never heard her, I never seen her getting mad like this and that it's starting to scare me. I know she'll do something reckless again, that's how she acts whenever she's angry. Then she whispered, "Then I'm giving you a f*****g reason to freaking sign that piece of paper."

Her words hit harder than anything else she could've said. The moment the front door slammed, something inside me dropped. The flower vase on top of the small table beside my apartment door fell and shattered but I didn't even have the time to think about that. "Prish!", I yelled as I rushed outside following her. I'm just in time to see her red Chevrolet Corvette shoot out of the parking lot. The rear tires spun against the pavement before the car disappeared around the corner.

She never looked back, not once. A cold shiver ran through not only down my spine but my entire body."No...", No, no, no. I knew that look. I had known her for almost my whole life. I knew when she was tripping or joking around, when she was pretending to be okay, and when she'd already made up her mind.

That look she just gave me before walking out, I never been more afraid of it. I ran to my car so fast I nearly tripped over my own feet. My fingers shook as I shoved the key into the ignition. "Come on..", Come on!

The engine finally came to life, I slammed my foot onto the accelerator. The tires screeched as I sped out of the parking lot after her, every second felt too long. What if she think of something crazy and does it? What if she decided to disappear on me? What if..

Every red light I flew past, every empty street felt like it was slowing me down. My heart pounded so hard it almost drowned out the sound of my own engine. Please... just stop.

The moment I turned onto the highway, I saw her. Her Corvette was already tearing through the empty road, its taillights glowing like two tiny red dots in the distance. She was flying, it was not new to me. I felt like seeing her won a race for the first time again, I still couldn't forget that day and now it gives me a different kind of adrenaline.

The highway was almost deserted this late at night. Long stretches of asphalt disappeared beneath us, lined only by tall streetlights that flashed overhead one after another. I pushed harder, the speedometer climbed. I knew I would end up in an accident.

100. 101. 102.

I didn't care, I just needed to catch her.

The wind howled against my windows. My hands tightened around the steering wheel until my fingers hurt, I kept flashing my headlights, honking and begging. She never slowed down, It was like she couldn't even hear me or maybe. She didn't want to.

Adrenaline burned through my chest, fear sat heavy in my stomach. If others had butterflies in theirs I have a f*****g wild animals in mine. Every time she changed lanes without warning, my heart nearly stopped, she wasn't driving anymore. She was running, running from me. Running away from herself. "Prish...", I whispered, my voice shaking. "What are you doing..?"

At last, I caught up. I pressed harder on the gas until I got ahead of her. The moment I had enough space, I gripped the steering wheel tight and turned it hard to the left. My car swung across the road, the tires screeching as I spun it around until the front of my car faced hers.

Our eyes met. I had never seen her look like that before. Her eyes were red from crying, her jaw was clenched so tightly I thought it would break. There was anger and something that scared me even more, she looked like she'd stopped caring whether she lived through the night. I stayed right in front of her, matching her speed as we kept driving down the road. She tried to go around me, but I moved with her, not giving her any room to pass. When I saw her slow down, I took a deep breath and stepped on the brakes.

For a moment. We were staring straight at each other through our windshields. Neither of us moved, I could hear my own breathing. Fast and uneven. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. Then, she looked up. Our eyes met again. God...

I never seen so much hurt in someone's eyes. It was like she was silently blaming me for everything. For every dream she'd watched me chase, every promise we'd made as kids, every lie I'd told tonight. I slowly reached for the door handle. "Aki.." I whispered, even though she couldn't hear me. "It's over.." I opened my door and stepped out. Started walking toward her. One step, then another.

My heartbeat was so loud I couldn't hear anything else. She wasn't moving, not an inch. I thought, I actually thought she was finally listening. Relief hit me so suddenly my knees almost gave out. "It's okay..." I muttered to myself. "She's stopping.", I took another step. Then I heard, the deep growl of the Corvette's engine, my entire body froze. "No."

The headlights suddenly grew brighter. The front of her car dipped. She was accelerating. "Prish!", She shot forward, straight at me. My body reacted before my mind could, her emotions got the best of her.

I turned and sprinted back to my car as fast as I could, my lungs burning. I threw myself into the driver's seat, slammed the door shut, and reached for the steering wheel. The red Corvette whipped past the front of my car, missing it by mere inches before disappearing behind me. The blast of wind rocked my car. "God damn it!" I gripped the wheel, threw the car into a hard turn, and yanked it around. The tires screamed across the asphalt as the rear swung wide before catching grip again.

The moment my car straightened, I buried my foot into the accelerator. The chase wasn't over, it had only just begun. I caught up to her again just as we reached the intersection. The traffic lights were flashing yellow at that hour, the roads nearly empty except for us. The Corvette was still flying too fast. "Prish..."

I reached for my phone with one hand, my fingers trembling so badly I almost dropped it. She answered on the third ring, neither of us spoke for a second. All I could hear was the sound of our engines and her shaky breathing. "Please..." My voice broke. "Please stop.", There were only silence. "Aki.. please.. I'm begging you!"

A short laugh came from the other end, it didn't sound like her. "You should've signed it." It's almost like she's losing herself. "You should've left."

"I don't want to leave you."

"You don't get it, do you?"

"I do." Can we just go home and rest? That's the only thing in my mind right now, maybe we're just both tired. Maybe we could talk this out in the morning, but I can't sleep knowing she's mad at me.

"No.", Her voice cracked. "You never did!"

I felt tears running down my face. "I'm begging you..."

"You'll hate me."

I took a deep breath as I felt my chest getting crashed."I could never hate you.."

"You will."

"No..", I said smiling, although she couldn't see it.

"I said you'll have a reason to leave."

My heart stopped. "Prish..?"

She took one slow breath. "I- dumb ass!" The call ended.

"God.. no..", I looked up. The Corvette drifted toward the right side of the road, for one impossible second. I thought she was finally pulling over. Then I saw it. She never touched the brakes. "PRISH!" The red Corvette shot straight toward the steel light pole standing just before the intersection. "No! NO!" The impact shook the night.

A deafening explosion of metal echoed through the empty road. The front of the Corvette folded in on itself, glass burst into the air like rain. One of the tires tore completely off the car and rolled across the intersection before bouncing onto the opposite side of the road. The rest of the car spun violently before coming to a dead stop, smoke poured from the crushed hood.

Everything around me went silent. My ears rang. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe. "...Prish?" My foot slammed on the brakes. My car skidded across the pavement before stopping crooked in the middle of the intersection. I threw the door open before the car had fully stopped. "PRISH!", I ran. My legs barely felt connected to my body.

The Corvette... is-is she still with me..?

It barely looked like a car anymore. The entire front end had collapsed around the pole. The windshield was gone. The driver's side was crushed so badly I couldn't even recognize it as the same car she'd driven out minutes ago. Smoke curled into the night sky. "No... no.", I reached the door and pulled with everything I had. It wouldn't move. "Help!" I screamed. "Somebody help!"

The smell of smoke filled the air, lights flicked on in nearby apartment s. People came running toward the intersection. Someone called emergency services. Another man grabbed a crowbar from the back of his truck. Together we forced the mangled door open. The metal groaned before finally giving way. I climbed inside without thinking. "...Prish?", She didn't answer.

Her head rested against the deployed airbag, her eyes were closed. Her hand hung limp beside the seat. "Hey.." My voice barely came out. "Hey.. look at me." I can't her nothing. Not even her breathing. "Please...", My hands shook as I reached for her. She didn't move, she didn't squeeze my hand back, she didn't even open her eyes.

The firefighters and paramedics arrived moments later. "Sir, move back!"

"I can't!", I said, my hands was still stuck in her arms. It's not that it's actually glued in there, I was just being stubborn again.

"We need space!"

"I can't leave her!", Someone gently pulled me away while another team carefully cut through the wreckage. Every second felt like an hour, finally, they lifted her free.

The moment I saw her lying on the stretcher, completely still, something inside me broke.

I stumbled backward into the middle of the road. My knees hit the pavement, I couldn't hear the sirens anymore. I couldn't hear the people talking around me, all I could do was stare at her. "I'm sorry..", The words came out as a whisper. Then again. "I'm sorry..." Again. "I'm so... so sorry...", I buried m

y face in my shaking hands as the flashing lights painted the intersection red and blue, praying over and over that I wasn't too late. "Please wake up.. come on now don't scare me like this.."