Yours Unconditionally

Hope is a Butterfly

Hope was a butterfly. The one that had just spread its wings out of a cocoon and had them clipped even before it took its first flight. Would make you think, why bother with the painful process of metamorphosis at all? Had it known of its twisted fate, would it still go through it all? Or the mere possibility of turning into something so transcendent, will urge it to fulfill its merciless destiny?

I woke up around one in the afternoon with no intention of leaving my bed. Jackson has found me a hotel suite for my temporary stay. I just hope I find a new place soon. I have nowhere else to go, and I don't want to stay in the dorm either. And it's not like I can go home.

Edmund would be so happy right now. He finally got what he wanted all along. He'll probably be throwing a party and celebrating with his new roommate. He doesn't care about me. He never did. Why did I ever think he would fall for me? Even like me in the first place... Tristan was right. He warned me that guys like him don't care about girls like me, and yet I made a grave mistake of hoping.

Hoping that if only I could make him realize that I care for him, he would care for me too. And maybe, just maybe, he would like me back. Sitting here with my knees pressed to my chest, staring at the walls of a hotel room, my life looks pretty funny to me. Those romance novels should be banned, you know. Making young girls believe that fairy tales do exist.

A knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts. I didn't bother looking up though. "Come in!" I said, continuing staring at the wall. Taking a sudden interest in the monotonous color it was painted in. My visitor stood there for a very long moment, so I decided to put him out of his misery. "I don't have any further requests for you, Jackson. You can leave, and you don't have to tell my parents, either. I'll talk to them myself."

"Aricia..," the deep voice I love so much rang through my ears and I almost suppressed a laugh. "Why are you teasing me, my imagination? That treacherous, insensitive, indecent person will never leave his celebration to come here for me. He fooled me. Scared me. Humiliated me," I said, without bothering to look. I might be imagining him. Lately, I'm kind of doing that a lot.

I felt a hand on mine, sending shivers through my body. I looked up into those mesmerizing eyes. I felt like they held a promise of some otherworldly joy. A look of regret passed over his face when he looked at me. Maybe it was my eyes, all red from crying all night. Maybe it was tear marks running down my cheeks. Maybe it was just the look of hurt that he might have seen on my face. Holding my hands in his, he sunk to his knees. His eyes asked me for forgiveness as he spoke.

"Aricia, it's me... for real. The treacherous, insensitive, indecent person who did all those things to you, and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for hurting you, making you feel the way I did. Please, come back. Let me make it up to you," his voice filled with repentance, begging for forgiveness, and it hurt me to see him like that. To know that he was in pain. "Okay," I said simply, and he looked at me in surprise, then he gave me a warm smile. The one that makes his dimples peek and his eyes lit up.

"So you'll come back?" he asked with a glint of happiness in his voice and I nodded, smiling back. "Why did you miss me?" I said in a teasing voice, only to know if he missed me. If not as much as I missed him, then at least a little bit. "Yes. I figured I didn't want to eat instant noodles every day," he answered in the same teasing tone, making my jaw drop to the floor.

He started to laugh, the sound I decided I loved while I hit him repeatedly until he fell on the bed. I made him beg me for mercy while he cried like a child and pleaded me to stop. Okay, fine. He just laughed and made fun of me while I fabricated ways to injure him and failed miserably.

"I hate you so much!" I whined, which only made him break into fits of laughter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~^.^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edmund carried my stuff to our apartment. He had come to acknowledge it. Once we were inside, he gave me my key with the Hello Kitty keychain, but now it has two keys. I looked at him in dismay, but he just led me to the door of the spare room, the one I so infamously call the dungeon. With more than a nudge from the 6'2'' guy, I finally gathered enough courage to open it.

The door opened, and I almost gasped at the sight, not quite believing what I saw in front of me. The room was painted white and baby pink, decorated with light pink curtains and white furniture. Everything was clean and not a single trace of big brown rats. It was the complete opposite of what it had been when I left this place. I turned back to look at the auburn-haired guy, looking at my reaction with a nervous look on his face.

"You did this for me?" I said in disbelief.

"I told you I would make it up to you," he said simply, and I couldn't control it. I hugged him tightly, burying myself in his wonderful scent. "Thank you," I said simply, not being able to trust myself with words. God knows what I might say, so I buried myself deep into his chest, where I could hear the beating of his heart. Faster and louder than it should've been.

"Just once," I heard him saying, though it was so faint that I could've imagined it. And as much as I wanted him to, I never expected him to hold me back and even though he took a moment before he actually did, I couldn't care less. Because in the end, he did.

Maybe... just maybe there's still a chance for us...

And so, tempted by the promise of flight, the butterfly spreads her wings again.