Stuck With You

Beginning

Celestine stared blindly at the pages of her book. She squeezed her eyes shut, drew in a long breath and tried to release tension as she exhaled. But even as she opened her eyes, her glance strayed to the pair of antique oval frames that sat on the desk next to the pile of textbook and novel books.

"How are you, long lost brother?" 

Her eyes misted over as she asked bitterly the picture; as if he could answer back just one question, vivid with hope.

Suddenly, the sound of the phone ringing on the desk alerted her. She tossed the book aside and get off the bed, tried to blink back the tears.

Looking at Daddy number flash up on the screen, she ignored it with labor-like pain.

It's 12:51 and she knows her father is worried about her moving out of their house but it is the only way for her to shut herself from visualising; and, having survived the thing most feared his death and pretend she is okay.

She tied her frizzy golden-brown hair into a loose bun using a bow-knot scrunchie from her wrist.

Celestine went to the window and pulled apart the drapes. She had never seen the street so peaceful. 

"Rest in piece." she muttered to herself more than his long lost brother.

It's been a year since everything happened but she still can't forget, forget the scene of that night in her bedroom. And blood splatter. Blood everywhere. Dried, flaking like old paint. She inexplicably shiver as the wind flicked at her bare arms.

Slamming her eyes and taking a deep breath as her therapist had taught her, she looked at her reflection in the glass window and smiled.

"I'm okay. I promise I won't stop living, too. Thank you, for the second life." Celestine recited filtering the wind. 

She doesn't remember how it started, but anytime she remembers what happened and felt that's left her overflowing with emptiness, she talks to the wind. Like her whisper can solve anything.

It's been a year, if its not for herself she has to do it for him. He would've wanted her to be happy, have peace of mind. Not living like a ghost every day. This dawn she will start once again.

"Be my angel, long lost brother." she whispered as her eyes flutter open. 

Instinctively, Celestine looked toward her neighbor's window. The door was closed, but the blinds were open, and the lights were off.

Her toffee-brown eyes wide, she stared blankly on the roof and saw a lithe, dark, hooded figure perched like a huge crow.

"Oh my god!" she put her hand to her mouth. 

Celestine heard a horrible scream that made her tiny hairs on her neck and arms standing up, and she took quietly to inhale as she peered around the corner of the window.

She saw two body bags, he reached inside the body bag and removed a rotten bloody head.

Fear melded with the stench of horror. Celestine could almost smell the coppery rust of blood where she stood. Her heart raced in her chest. 

With a shuddering sigh, her eyes found the dark, hooded figure. He seems to be staring at her.

Oh dear!

He tilts his head and thrust his hand forward, blood dripping on the damp ground, he yelled roughly. "Happy Halloween!"

He bark out a laugh and bent over a little, hands going to his stomach. 

Sh*t!

"Go to hell, Lyndon!" she yelled back with fury on her face, furious at the devil.

"Come with me, Angel!" 

Her nostrils flared in anger when she realised he tricked her, again. 

But this time, he's not the only one.

She looked down, there's an apprentice, crouched down behind a rustling bush hiding like a child. 

She run a tongue over her teeth as her eyes shooting daggers at him.

He got the guts to do that because he knew the neighbor was hard of hearing. 

Celestine pulled back from the opening after closing drapes over windows and jumps onto the bed.

She snatched a pillow beside her and threw it over her head, she shrieked out of madness.

As soon as her irregular breathing subsided, she fell asleep. Snoring.

©

She was late.

It was already 8:12 am and she was already 42 minutes late for school.

And this time, she can't blame Lyndon because it is her fault being inquisitive about the new book she bought, and depressed last night. 

"Wait!"

Celestine had almost reached the bus. She stumbled back a step, catching one heel on the sidewalk and almost tripping over her own feet.

The bus stopped and she quickly jumped on.

Her face was all red. Her breathing seemed broken in ragged gasps for air as she grasps the handrail. While her hair looks like a birds nest and yet she ignored it like it didn't matter. 

"T-thank you Harry!" she managed to chirped.

"Late again, teacher Celestine." he chuckled, shaking his head. 

Her face twisted. She turns away from him being embarrassed. "Y-yeah, guess they'll have to deduct half of my pay again, today."

"I'll try to drive fast." He tilts his head slightly to the side, his eyes on the road and smiled.

She hummed her response.

The bus was half full so she sat down on a vacant chair on the nearest to the door.

Taking a deep breath to center herself, she restlessly leaned her back on the chair. 

Celestine squinted her eyes sideways and they lit up like beams of light.

The best view to scrutinized if the handsome man beside her is a bachelor.

Ugh, there's no wedding ring!

She hugged her bag close to her chest as her eyebrows square root.

It was the first time she became intrigued by a stranger, and felt that jolt of a crush.

When she was a toddler, she would be excited when she knew that her father would be visiting. Eventually, she stopped feeling any excitement when she introduced him to her adoptive mother. Right after her biological mom's death, due to HIV, he ruined her vision of men.

Moving his luscious lips silently, he was reading a book titled Every Beast Needs a Beauty.

Her brows knitted into a frown, wondering who is the author that made him engrossed in reading.

She wants to ask if, HI STRANGER! Can I be the beauty behind your beastly self?!

But then he takes out his phone and the heart-shaped with ebony-black slightly curl hair, a Filipina beauty background photo is a heartbreaking sign he's in a relationship.

Too soon to assume he's eligible.

She chewed her dry chapped lip and steal a glance outside the dusty window as she pulled out the lesson plan out of her bag and began to read.

Look, I'm intelligent, too! Were her thoughts said in sarcasm or in jealousy?

Eventually, he stretched out his left hand in front of her.

Clearly this is a sign that his peripheral vision has spotted her and he's preparing to be interested to know her, atleast her name? phone number?

Okay, that's not a way to be respected. 

She jerked her head around, expression startled and she sucked her tongue. The butterflies in her stomach dance around as her heart leaped.

He had cold grey eyes with a hawkish nose. His thin, deep-red lips were turned up in a wicked smile as he searched her face. 

He placed his arm around the back of her chair, his face inches away. "Staring is rude, princess."

Celestine swallowed hard, without looking him straight in his eyes. She  focused her gaze at his hawkish nose, fighting the influence of his smell, so sweet it numbs her senses.

All of a sudden, she heard a, "Beep! Beep!" and her name being called.

"Teacher Celestine!" the bus driver yelled. 

She was blinking her eyes rapidly.

"Teacher Celestine!"

She leaps up incontinently, "E-excuse me..." she stutters a little.

Her entire body shaking, struggling forward; and, she squeezed in walking away from him.

Then she went out the bus, dazed in silence as she briskly walk toward the school's gateway. 

Celestine didn't move her head but from the corner of her eye hoped to notice him looking.

Slowly turning her head, she lifted her chin as the bus pulled back into the traffic.

He was watching her, the expression on his goodlooking but unnerving face bland—yet Celestine couldn't help wondering what he was really thinking.

Sighing, and pasting a faint smile on her face, still he was gazing at her like the cumulonimbus cloud above the sky until she lost sight of him.

That moment, he was worth every minute of being late for school that day.

She left him but his scent remains.

Apparently, her students need a teacher. Even as she ran, she fumbled for her ID and lesson plan in her bag.

Unluckily, it was a mistake to be bewitched by a beast.

She left unintentionally her lesson plan, and now she has to face the wrath of her atrocious principal.

Fingers crossed behind her back, she approached the old man who seems to be waiting for her like Hachiko. 

His wide forehead had numerous lines and had a fringe of grey-white hair around his balding, speckled scalp. He had a wrinkled face and a back slightly hunched. With each movement there was the creak of old bones. 

"G-granpa, I-I am sorry. I won't be late, again." she said quietly.

He had the resigned look plastered on his face. "Too late for being competent child, you're dismissed." His voice trembled but firm. 

©

Just like anesthesia, she wanted to be inflicted with numbness.

And that is why she called through the phone her favorite neighbor, they have set up a front yard camping in the front porch of his house.

A tent made of blankets hung over the rope line, tied from the feng shui tree's trunk to the other side of the same tree. 

Below them, the silver light of the moon illuminated the row of houses, but a few were scattered toward the scenery of mountain.

They were sitting beside each other, surrounded by soft pillows and a silky-smooth comforter underneath them; and, a tiny round wooden table with bountiful junk foods and finest liquors. 

"Is this safe?" She was staring at the shots like she had never seen one before.

"Sweety, that ain't condom! That's a beer. So, it's safe." Lyndon gave her an engaging grin and winked, eliciting a sexy laugh. 

"O-okay just a sip." she took a deep breath, frowned for only a moment before lifting the glass and taking liquid in one swallow.

For the first time, just a second, heat spilled from her throat to her stomach, where it pooled then spread through her senses feeling the burn of the whisky. 

She stared at the empty shot glass before lifting her eyes to him, watching as his lips quirked in amusement.

"Now, will you help your childhood sweetheart look for his chocolate?" he wiggled his eyebrows causing Celestine to giggle.

"S-so underrated, you knew I already ate it." She couldn't help but yawn as her warm-beige hands half-covered her cherry red lips.

They heard the sigh of the wind, it was very quiet.

Lyndon cleared his throat, "Feeling better?" he asked softly.

"Yes." she replied and look deep into his eyes. 

The silence was uncomfortable until  he leans towards her head, his hands on her cheeks, and places a soft kiss on her forehead. 

"I miss my girl friend..." His voice was pained. Concern filled his ocean-blue eyes.

Celestine pushed his hands away, "I-I'm alright." her voice breathy against his face. 

She started to remove his jacket, but his hands reached up and pulled it back onto her shoulders, resting his hands there.

"I'm going home!" her eyes shooting daggers at him.

He didn't listen, "Stay here." Lyndon stroked her cheeks, confused by his sudden seriousness.

Before walking out the tent he took a baseball bat that he brought a while ago, in which she didn't question. Then he immediately covered her with the comforter.

"Don't f*cking come out, Altamirano." he roughly said in an alarming manner. 

She squeezes her eyes shut as she nod and her shaky hands pressed on her mouth.

Curled up, her knees to her chest as she pressed herself. Her heart clenched, she is starting to apprehend what was about to happen.

"Don't you motherfucker dodge!" a familiar voice yelled.

"Tucker, man. Let's talk about this, I'm with a woman." He said, emphasising the last word. 

She heard ominous, angry rumble, and the evil tittering chuckle of the other. "Lyndon Matbagan, you have reminded me of someone."

"Who is it? Ahhh. That boy, but since he is dead, you want me to pull out your woman and f**k her instead!" he shouted, enraged. 

"Don't you ever touch her!" 

An uncontrollable sob tore from her throat, Not again, please...

"It depends on whether you are a good boy..." 

Their shoes sounded like rustling newspaper as they scraped the concrete road. 

"Lyndon bridge is kneeling down, bleeding now. Lyndon bridge will die now, or the fair lady." 

A horrible, evil laugh made her whole body tremble! 

She tried to peek as safe and sound as possible. And their eyes bounded to be locked. 

"N-no." She let out a muffled sob and shook her head.

He had his hands over his head, "I love you..." Lyndon mouthed, pulling his chin down toward his chest.

Celestine saw the baseball bat aiming to hit his head, and she lost her sanity that night.

All her life, she's always a princess to every man she met.

She glance at Tucker, smirking like a devil. Those fear in her eyes widened as she stood up and ran toward them.

Her eyes fluttering and her head stung while hearing weird vibrations when the baseball bat hit her head and that's when she fell on the cold arms of a man, unconscious.