Repeat and Retribution

Chapter 16

What was the reason between Clyde and Dana’s break up before? It was the question that kept coming in her mind, remembering those time that whenever she would asked about it, Clyde would usually tell her things, it always sounded like an excuse rather than an actual answer.

In her previous time during the course of her college years, Clyde and Dana were together up to their second year, until they broke up on their third. She and Clyde became close on the fourth and finally became a couple before they graduated.

During the earlier years she was quite aloof and would just look at the man from afar not wanting to cause any trouble. But now, she seems to be colliding with the two and slowly getting insight on what might have happened between the two before.

Though she was still unsure of it, the hints that she has been receiving during these past few months opened up new things for her.

First was the part that the woman she was up against was truly a vile and conniving person from the beginning. That would explain the reason why she lost from the very start, a vixen skilled in luring men was not someone she would be able to take on her own, specially one as beautiful as Dana.

Feeling a bitter taste in her mouth, she could not help but grit her teeth from the pain of facing the truth, that her relationship with Clyde was bound to end as she never really gained the man’s heart from the start. She could not help but feel a pang on her chest at the knowledge that she was truly living a life of lie from the very start.

That made her blood boil even more as she had found more reason to feel disgust and anger towards Dana.

Though nothing has happened between them yet, she could not find the point of extracting revenge, thus causing another conflict within her.

If things kept going as they are now, she wasn’t sure that the woman would not cause any problem for her in the near future, just like before.

All those things kept haunting her that she wasn’t really able to get it out of her system for a while. The fear always came back no matter how much she tried to disregard the idea.

Crystal was currently in the library while she was pondering once again. Thankfully she was already done with her research that she was just taking a break from it all.

When she finally felt uneasy because of the number of people coming in and out of the place, she decided that she was not going to get any peace of mind there.

Gathering her things she decides to just go home for now, thinking a little helping in their eatery would clear her mind off of things.

Crystal was already walking fast, not minding anyone around as she made her way to the door. Her mind was still deep in thought that she wasn’t able to focus on the things around her until she bumped into someone.

“Hi,” the young man greeted with a wide smile.

His hazel eyes seemed to pierce right through her soul, looking all so warm and fuzzy as if from a dream. Crystal could feel her insides twitch just from the man’ gazed, she couldn’t help that feeling though there was a hint of tingling pain inside of her as flashback of their old past began flooding her memories once more.

It took her a while to compose and gather her wits back, sensing the sudden gush of emotions that were flooding her, inside out.

“Hi,” she just says, keeping her lips in a half smile.

She kept her eyes on his forehead as to avoid those mesmerizing eyes that seem to be hypnotizing her.

“I didn’t think I’d see you here,” Clyde chuckled causing his eyes to squint a little as if it was closed. The man gave out a warm smile as he kept that alluring smile of his straight at her.

Crystal could not help but swallow hard as she was starting to feel a sudden mix of emotions in that moment. Though it wasn’t the same meeting that they had as last time, she was unable to deny the fact that she felt like there were butterflies flying around inside her stomach again.

Yet it seems the pain that came along with those memories somewhat gave her a jolt of reality as to what was going to happen if she let her emotions slide.

Taking several deep breaths to calm her nerves she disregards all those feeling and reminded her self not to be taken by it once more.

“I’m always here after class,” she finally says after getting back her nerves.

“Oh!” The man back off a bit, suddenly caught off guard.

Noticing the sudden awkwardness in the air, as the man wasn’t able to answer back, she suddenly felt pity, having the full knowledge of how shy Clyde was.

“How about you, what brings you here?” she just states.

There was still a part of her that wanted to at least not cause the man to lose face nor confidence when facing other people.

“I...I’m just trying to do some work done during my spare time,” he let’s out a soft laugh as he raises a few notebooks that he was holding on his left hand.

Crystal just nods. “That’s nice. Well, I’ll see you around then,” she waves him off.

Not wanting to continue their conversations any further knowing that her emotions were still a bit disarrayed and seem to be in full hormonal blast.

Scratching his nape as he bowed his head, Clyde let out another chuckle. “Okay,” his smile seemed to slowly fade watching as Crystal turned and began walking away.

“Hey, wait up,” the young man called out.

“Yes?” When Crystal turned around to look, the man was already running towards her.

They almost bump in to each other as she was blocking the way, while Clyde suddenly lost balance and because of her sudden stop.

She felt her heart leap as their lips almost touch, the moment that the young man had been able to regain his footing. His hands had managed to grab hold of the wall behind her, balancing himself.

She swallowed deep and hard as once again their eyes suddenly met and became glued to each other.

Crystal could feel the warm of his breath and her body suddenly long for his touch as his arms were suddenly on both her sides, pinning her to the wall.

“So...sorry!” Clyde burst out, realizing what he had done.

The man immediately straightened himself, seeing at how Crystal clutched her books in front of her.

“No, it’s okay, it was an accident.” she says, catching her breath from the sudden lost of air.

Luckily she was able to compose herself before losing it. Yet she was unable to remove that weird tingling feeling inside of her from what had just happened.

Again there was an abrupt silence between the two of them, but this time they were both unable to look at each other.

“Do...do you need something?” she finally says after a few moments, finally breaking the ice.

The man swallowed hard as he tried effortlessly to look back at her. “Uhm, yeah. I...I remembered you aced the test in algebra last semester,” she finally says. Though his eyes seemed to still be focused on the ground.

“I don’t think I actually aced it,” She was able to cautiously answer, twiddling her fingers on the button of her shirt.

Fixing her uniform, her hair and her bag. For some reason she was suddenly worrying about how she looked right now in front of him.

Clyde cleared his throat. “I mean, you got the highest score in our class,” he repeated.

“Okay, so?” she says a matter of fact.

Though it came out a bit straight forward, she didn’t really have enough time as she was still trying to gather herself from a while ago.

Thankfully the young man had put some distance between them, giving her space to breath. And the man’s hesitation also gave her ample time to think about how she should react to the young mans approach. Even though her teenage hormones seem to be getting the best of her, she still had her old with about her.

It screamed something was up and wrong with what was happening right now as the man never really approached her before in her past life nor gave notice to her, up until before they graduated.

But now here he was suddenly chasing her down the hallway like some throttling school boy.

“I...I was thinking if I could ask a favor. Maybe you could help me out a bit, since I seem to be having trouble understanding the same subject right now,” Clyde finally says, though it came out like a babble.

Finally being able to think straight. Crystal takes a quick look at the man’s books. They were certain subjects that she knew Clyde excelled in, that she was sure of.

“Sure,” she just answers.

Though still baffled by the attention she was getting, there was a part of her that was curious and was wondering what it was all about. Wanting to get at least to the bottom of it all she decided to play along with this farce.

“Great!” That seemed to have returned the glitter in Clydes eyes, as the man was smiling from ear to ear again.

“Though, I can’t help you out right now. I need to go home already,” she informs him.

She had a strict schedule that she follows and not even her curiosity with what the young man was thinking was not enough for her to break it. Besides there was also the part of her that kept nagging to not give a care for the said person after all he did or in that case what the man was going to do.

“Yeah, of course you do,” Clyde let out a laugh.

Though it came out forced she noticed that the man was trying to keep really keep the conversation going. Something she knew the man avoided before.

“Maybe you can come to class early tomorrow,” she tells him.

There was a part of her that wanted to commend the man and at least see what this will lead to, as she was experiencing a whole lot of things that she had not before.

“Sure, definitely!” Clyde said in an almost squeaky voice.

She could not help but hold her laughter at the abrupt shock and happiness on the man’s face. It was something so new to her that it really made her heart flutter. It was something that was so new that she was both sad and happy upon seeing.

“Alright, I’ll see you then,” she says before turning her back on him again.

She wanted to end the conversation then and there as she was starting to feel awkwardly giddy from the long talk with him.

“Great! I’ll see you tomorrow then,” the mans says out loud.

She does not look back this time but just waves a hand at him, she was afraid that she was going to start falling for him as it seems her heart was still longing for the man that she once knew.

“What is going on inside your head now? Why are bothering me now?” she says in her mind confused at why all the man seemed suddenly so interested in her unlike before.

Hurrying her strides to get out of there it almost looked like she was running, only to be stopped by something that caught her gazed.

From a far, though hidden from other peoples view, because of the trees surrounding the area within the parking lot of the school was Dana. The girl was in a hurry to get inside a car.

It gave her chills seeing how the woman giggled upon climbing up on the vehicle. The way she moved, the way she patted whomever was inside was not that of a friend. Crystal was more shocked as she moved closer she got the glimpse of the person inside the car.