Smallest Decisions

Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever. - Keri Russell

"Aerith! What the heck are you doing!" Hunter grabbed the duvet and wrapped her like a spring roll to keep her from fully undressing when she started peeling off her clothes.

Aerith fought back but her strength was no match to Hunter's. He tossed her to anywhere he wanted her to go without any effort. "I told him that I will sleep with the first person that comes forward. My dad keeps his word. So I shall keep mine too."

"Wait. Stop it! Jeez! Have some dignity." He rolled her one more time until she's fully wrapped with the duvet.

"Stop wiggling!" he demanded, unbuckling his belt to tie the human spring roll he made just so she wouldn't escape.

Her protruding feet out of the duvet waddled as she fought for her liberty.

Panting, Zachary braced his hands on his hips. "Wow! Didn't know you have so much power in you, A!"

He slumped on the empty side of the bed and looked at her face to search for the answers that boggled his mind. "Can you explain to me why you guys were fighting?"

"I heard them talking about me. They said… Zach took my virginity which isn't true. You know me. I won't just randomly give my virginity away. Who does that?"

"Heh," Hunter chuckled. "Really? But you just randomly said… you will sleep with me," he reminded her.

Tilting her head to the side. "Oh, yeah. I did. Well..." She swallowed a lump in her throat and continued, "We could schedule that sometime in the future. We can get to know each other first… you know. The basics of a relationship."

"Tch. You're not making sense, A."

Aerith's eyes trained on the ceiling. Maybe, just maybe, if she looked up, her tears wouldn't fall from her eyes. Her moment was cut short when she heard Hunter speak beside her.

"What's this?" His forehead creased, and his brows knitted, scrutinizing the oddly shaped ring. He saw Aerith and Zach wearing a pair for years but still asked if there was a hidden meaning behind it.

"Purity ring," she sighed and looked up to meet his gaze but got distracted when she saw how his pupils dilated upon hearing her words.

Her heart started racing in her chest as her mind was suddenly cleared from the fog of anger that clouded her judgment.

It was a split second late when she realized the consequences of her words and her actions.

He wouldn't touch her, would he? She could scream and Kevin would beat Hunter to death.

But Hunter turned her into a spring roll. How could he touch her now? What? Did her brain just farted and silently wished to be touched by Hunter Ma?

"Zach said he's a virgin?" he said, scoffing as he glanced on Aerith. "News flash: He's not."

Clearing her throat, she tried to play it cool and said, "I know. But… Why do you even care? Okay. You can let me go now. I know I'm not your type."

"Who said you're not my type?"

"What did you just say?" Aerith's eyes enlarged, her mouth shaped like an 'O'. She averted her gaze, staring on her wiggling feet.

Silence ensued as Hunter opened and closed his palm as if contemplating.

She made an offer… and a tempting one, he thought.

"So whoever has this purity ring, will have the honor of taking your V card." His chest rumbled as he said the most ridiculous words he uttered to date.

"What's so funny, H? You don't like it? You don't like me?"

"Trust me. I like you so bad, it's crazy to think that I'm here declining your offer."

Aerith didn't think much about what Hunter said. She thought, well, they've been friends for years so he did like her a bit, right? To her surprise, the dip on the bed was gone when he stood up.

Hunter then pocketed Aerith's purity ring, tapping it twice. "How about I'll keep this for you in the meantime while you sort your emotions out and you can come see me when you've got your senses back."

Aerith's eyes darted to where Hunter stood—by the foot of her bed. She could see that he was giving her a way out of her outburst.

"Why, H? Am I ugly?" she asked, her eyelids brimmed with tears that threatened to spill. She was starting to question herself maybe she was indeed ugly that was why Zach didn't bother touching her all those years and Hunter now too.

Her head snapped to the door's direction when she heard it creak open, and with every ounce of what's left of her dignity, she blew the hair that was sticking on her face and proclaimed, "I'll keep my word, Hunter. I said I'm sleeping with the next person that passes by, and that's you."

Hunter scoffed and left without a word.

Little did she know that four years later, she would wish she never uttered those words because Hunter collects promises, and when he does, he makes sure to collect it with an interest—and that's her heart.

...

Ever woke up in the middle of the night and started regretting your life choices?

That's exactly what kept Aerith up at an ungodly hour, wondering how she would take back the words she foolishly uttered in her brief fit of hormone-induced rage.

It didn't bother her whom she spoke those words to, but what she hated was how she certainly looked cheap after uttering such gibberish.

"What am I going to do? He won't take that for real right?" she cried her horror, kicking her legs up in the air.

Her phone beeped endlessly, popping up a string of messages from her ex-boyfriend who was in fact her boyfriend of three years had not the guy wronged her that same day.

How could she be so stupid? How could she have missed the signs… for three freaking long years?

Peeling her body from the bed, she dragged her feet into the kitchen on the first floor and took out a bottle of cold water from it.

She chugged it down empty, her eyes landing on the stack of papers that was randomly piled on top of the kitchen island.

It had a sticky note on it, screaming at her that the deadline was tomorrow morning.

She mourned the sleep that she would be skipping tonight to cram and write fifteen hundred words of film reaction paper that was given weeks ahead, but Aerith being herself, she would cram to finish it, beating the deadline.

Why was she like that? She would tell herself to do something in advance so she wouldn't cram, then suddenly find something attractive like a random cat video in Youtube, eventually forgetting what she had to do in the first place.

Then bam!

Before she knew it, the deadline was at the horizon flipping a bird on her, mocking her lack of focus.

Even if she felt empty and lacked the will to do anything at the moment, she didn't want to disappoint her parents by giving them a less than stellar grade. That's the last thing she wanted to ever happen.

How was she supposed to tell her parents she was nursing a broken heart when they were expecting her to be burning a candle at both ends, excelling in university?

Beep. Beep.

Another message came through; however, Aerith refused to read it. The sting of betrayal poisoned every chamber of her heart.

Aerith grabbed her phone, and strode to the cupboard, opening up the rice dispenser. She buried her phone under the grains of rice, burying her feelings along with it.

She was left not once but twice in her life, and if there's one thing that Aerith was best at, it would be how she could easily detach herself from the people who drifted away from her life.

"Goodbye, Zach," Aerith said, closing the lid of the rice dispenser and placing it back in the cupboard.

She frowned. Suddenly, the momentary silence of her phone brought her back to the events that transpired that day.

They were still happy and in love a few hours ago. She was cheering on him from the pews and her heart stopped when he paused in the middle of the game to wave at her.

Silently crying in the darkness of the kitchen, Aerith mourned all the years she spent with him. Everything between her and Zach was over, and she didn't even see it coming.