Chapter 146 - 51 (1/2)

”Evangeline.”

Rolling her eyes, Evangeline turned towards the approaching Jennifer, who was staring at her with no warmth on her face. And now that she got a full view of her, she noticed she was wearing a body-hugging floor-length gown. The risqué design features a low neckline and a high slit, highlighting all her assets.

The man behind her was a young man, mixed and handsome as hell. He was clad in a three-piece suit all in white. All as perfect as the day they were purchased,

Evangeline bet that all of it was to spite her. To make her feel like a looser. She, who had nothing on her name and had a nerd for a boyfriend while Jennifer had a million-dollar company and an insanely gorgeous lover.

Jennifer smiled, the ways she used to in the past. If Evangeline didn't know her, she would still be fooled by her overly friendly smile.

”This is Dave, my boyfriend. Dave, this is Evangeline, my friend in elementary.”

Dave's eyes shone, and he eagerly extended a hand at Evangeline's direction.

But instead, Evangeline smirked, snorting. ”Friend? Now that's the funniest thing I've heard all day.”

Dave and Jennifer's face dropped, and the smile on their faces disappeared.

A little awkward, Jennifer turned to her man. ”Could you excuse us for a moment?”

The moment Evangeline and Jennifer were left alone, the latter stared at the former, a little upset.

”Evangeline, I know that I betrayed you, but it was already years ago. Can't you let go? I know you regretted meeting me––”

”I don't.”

Evangeline cut in, a tight smile on her face that didn't reach her eyes. ”I don't regret my past. I only regretted the time I wasted with the wrong people.”

”. . .” Jennifer couldn't respond for a time. Her mouth pinched, and a sour expression was on her face. Here she was, wanting to fix her past and have a clean slate. But what did she get in return?

Okay, Evangeline had the right to be angry about what she did. But she wasn't exactly asking to be her friend again. All she wanted was a clean slate. To make peace of her past and in hope by doing so, they could become rivals. As healthy competitors. After all, she had genuinely liked her and truly treated her as her best friend in their younger years until jealousy and envy took hold of her heart.

How could she possibly say that after all that happened? She was her friend and rival –– the person who she envied the most. But now, she was simply the person she didn't want to lose in the world.

She wanted to apologize, but Evangeline wasn't making it easy for her.

”Look,” Jennifer started. Her lips quivered, pushing out the words she was too prideful to say. The words that were more than ten years overdue. ”I'm. . . I'm sorry . . . alright? I was imm.a.t.u.r.e at that time. You know how cruel girls can be. They can simply hate you for the smallest reason for being too ugly, too beautiful, or too brainy. I only wanted to––”

Did I . . . did I cause this?

Pressing her lips together, Jennifer, for the first time, regretted her actions. All the memories of her childhood came crushing inside her head in a torrent of waves she could not control. Evangeline was greeting her with the warmest smile. She and her playing together after class and during weekends. She, protecting her whenever Calvin and the others bully her. Evangeline's pitiful, crying face whenever she saw her sad and her smiling, radiant face whenever she stared at her. And their promise of staying the best of friends forever.

All of it . . . it would never happen again. She would never see it again.

Heat pooled behind Jennifer's eyes as she choked the words.

”I- I . . . I'm sorry . . .”

Evangeline laughed. Ugly, scornful laughter.

”To say sorry to me is like pasting a piece of broken glass, expecting to piece it back together. It will be whole . . . but it will forever leave cracks.”

Raising an eyebrow, she looked at Jennifer with a glassy stare.

”You shouldn't say sorry to me. In fact, I should be thanking you. Because of you, I am what I am. Because of you, I learned to choose who I allow into my life wisely. Not because I am better than everybody, even though I am, but because I remembered what happened when I wasn't careful and just let everybody in. A time when I was innocent and naive to believe that everyone has the same heart like me.”

Jennifer didn't respond –– she couldn't. She didn't know what to say faced with Evangeline's scorn and hatred.

She realized there was an innocent, naivety, purity that died within Evangeline. And the warm, gentle, timid little girl was no more. Evangeline Krisnov was dead. She killed her.

Not registering the pain of her nails scraping against her palms, Jennifer turned away and bolted inside the hall, couldn't take the regret and guilt.

”. . .”