5 Chapter 4: Dex

Dexter woke up early even after a hard night of drinking. He had a hangover but luckily, it was quickly fixed by a warm cup of bitter brewed coffee. He inhaled the coffee's aroma and started to recall the night during the after-party.

Everybody was jamming to the EDM beats as he walked over to the corner of the bar. He was carefully treading towards the corner as he tried his best to avoid loose and flailing arms that might hit the beer bottles he was carrying. It was only a short distance, but the sea of inebriated people made it hard for him to reach them in the shortest time possible. After 10 minutes of walking through a maze of people, he was finally able to squeeze himself out of it and found his friends at the corner table.

"Got the beers!" he said in relief.

"What took you so long?" Mae asked.

Dex just pointed to the dancing crowd. "That."

Mae simply nodded and drank her beer without any complaints.

"Where's Calista?" he asked Mae.

"Oooh... She said she was going to the comfort room."

Dex settled himself and drank with Mae and their other classmates.

The music began to play a nostalgic tune. Most of their classmates were singing and dancing at their seats while some faded away to the crowd only to show up once in a while to grab a bottle of beer or to rest. Dex noticed that Calista was still not back. So he excused himself and went to look for her.

He found Calista on the balcony talking to someone on the phone. He noticed how she shifted her phone from ear to ear. He slowly approached her to the balcony and tapped her shoulder. That's when he noticed she was crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing." she sniffed and wiped her tears.

Calista hurriedly ended the call on her phone and dashed towards the door when Dex caught her arm. She stopped, turned back and slapped his hand a few times, however, he never let go nor loosen his grip. She finally gave up and squatted on the floor crying.

" What happened?" he gently raised her back to her feet.

"Tristan." she sobbed.

His heart went down his stomach. He knew about this secret all along. His twin brother had an affair with Calista but he never reacted to it. He never tried to intervene. He was afraid to hurt Calista by telling the truth that Tristan already had someone else when he courted her. He's been buried by the guilt ever since. He hugged her tight to console her while trying to hold back his tears from his remorse.

" Calista..." he stuttered. "I knew..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Calista pushed him back and wiped the tears from her face.

"What am I doing?!" she said as she smiled at him. " This night is supposed to be a night of fun?" she slapped her hard with both her hands, it made her face flushed in red. She then kissed Dex on the cheeks and went straight for the door that leads to the party.

Dex was flustered and speechless.

"Come on, Dex! Tonight is a night of partying! We do not mourn during parties." she added with a smile on her face.

Calista's smile had always been like a ball of shining light to Dex's day. It's warm like the sun and bright to erase the gloom in his life but tonight, even that smile lost its shine. The smile was just a husk of a person faking how miserable she is. Even so, Dex rode along with it and went back to the table.

Calista was drowning herself in liquor that night. Cocktails, beers, and all other concoctions that will make his liver squirm if he ever tried one. As far as he knows, Calista was never a heavy drinker but tonight, she looks as if she'll wring dry the bar.

Mae noticed it too and tried to ask Calista what's going on. But she only answered gibberish and laughed all the way. Mae asked Dex about it. He answered her using sign language, a nifty skill they learned printed on the back of notebooks back in elementary days which they used the same way in high school if they're cheating a test or just trying to be silent while the teacher is discussing something.

Mae nodded in disappointment.

The night ended with Calista passing out and had to be carried by Mae and Dex back home where she mumbled Tristan's name over and over again in the car.

Dex finished his coffee and proceeded to order some lugaw and balbacua at Caldero ni Maxx then went to Calista and Mae's apartment where he was greeted by the sight of Calista puking her entire stomach out of the sink and Mae ridiculing her for the entire ordeal.

"There, there Mae, don't be too hard on her." he smiled at them.

He then gave the lugaw to Calista and gave Mae her favorite balbacua. Mae jokingly said she was on a diet which he quickly sneered in his reply. They had a good laugh about it. He stayed longer to talk with the girls in the apartment. He left an hour before lunch and went to eat outside.

Driving his way to the restaurant he cannot help but think about the guilt he felt for keeping the truth to Calista. He knows he was as guilty as he's brother is and there is no forgiving that. Dexter planned to reveal the truth to Calista later that night about his scheming and philandering twin brother. He knows he must and there's no way that he would let him hurt her more than he already did.

Afternoon came and went, Dex was already fitting his green T-Rex onesie. It fitted perfectly! With no minute to spare, Dex went back to the girls' apartment where he waited another 30 minutes for Calista to find and wear her onesie.

Calista came out of her room stunning both him and Mae for all the wrong reasons.

"You know it's way too early for Halloween, right?" Mae snickered in her breath.

Calista in her skeleton costume (or onesie as she would like to call it) was a delivery mishap. However, it's too late to buy another and change, so they just got along with it and went straight to the party.

They arrived late at the party. Most of their friends and classmates were already eating the prepared dinner when they arrived. Everyone had a great time, Calista on the other hand, earned a lot of laughs from her costume. She had the pleasure of explaining the entire situation to their classmates every chance she gets.

The night went on smoothly and rowdy too. The booze and music did it's work and made everyone dance like there was no tomorrow. Dex had a few drinks and noticed Calista just staring at her phone. She was lively earlier but slumped back on the sofa as the night progressed.

"You're not drinking?" Dex approached her and gave her a bottle of beer.

"I just might, again." she sighed.

She puts her phone on the glass table in front of her and starts chugging down the beer in one go. When that was finished, she grabbed Dex's beer from his hand and drank it as well. At this point, Dex held Calista’s hand tightly and asked if they could talk in private.

Dex found a quiet space on the rooftop where the party was held. They sat near the pool and Dex started to talk. He explained to Calista what truly happened and how he knew about his brother's affairs with other girls, unfortunately including her. He knew that his brother's fiance is as clueless as a child and knows how his brother abused this to his bidding.

" Calista, I knew you knew about this already. I can't let you stay hurt because it's hurting me as much as it does with you."

" Dex, I am trying my best to let go of him." she sighed. " But, every time I do, he just keeps on coming back."

Calista told Dex about a new suitor she had from work and how they were hitting it off nicely. However, just as she was beginning to fall for the guy, Tristan shows up and steals the show by begging her to come back to him. He argued that he loved her more than anyone else and was breaking up with his fiance if she would come back to her.

Dex clenched his fist as Calista continued with her story. He has nothing but hatred and anger towards his twin brother. Dex was completely the opposite of Tristan. While Tristan was strong and athletic, Dex was more of the sickly type, however, what he lacked in physical attributes, he made up for his academic prowess. As both of them grew, Dex found himself successful in his academic studies and graduated with the highest distinction at college. While Tristan, was a major star athlete in basketball for the university he was in and even after graduation, he had a lot of big leagues recruiting him to their team until he settled with the one he is currently with now.

Dex was shy and timid while his brother was loud and boisterous. He had always stolen from Dex, from his money, to the girls he tried courting, his brother was trying to make Dex's life a living hell. He even went so far and stole Calista from her when he knew he had a crush on her and ever since that day, Calista was enraptured by his brother's web of lies and deceit.

Dex hugged Calista tight.

" Calista, I am sorry for not telling this to you right away." he began. " I am not even sure how I would be able to tell all of this to you up until now. I should've told you sooner."

Calista patted Dex's head, " Dex, you have always been the kind one. I always knew about that. I know you had a lot of things to say about him, but you never tried to say it to me because you know it would hurt me."

She looked into his eyes. " Even if you did, I may have not listened anyway."

"But I am over him now, for good. Remember last night when I cried and drank so hard? That was me dumping your brother on that phone call. It was the final straw, he still had his girl with him and left me on the sidelines for his pleasure. So, I gave up on him. Good riddance!" she smiled.

You're lying. Dex said to himself after hearing those words from her. He knew Calista very well and good. He knew how she smiles even at the darkest and uncomfortable of times just to make everyone calm. He knows her strength too well that it became her undoing as well.

He knows her like the back of his hand. He met Calista from the elementary days and since then, they were inseparable. He loves her but he's just too scared to tell her the truth and when his brother and Calista became a thing it made it more complicated than it already was.

Their conversation was interrupted when a bunch of their drunk classmates decided to play a game in the pool. They asked Dex to play with them but he didn't want to. It took a lot of convincing to let him agree to participate, it took Mae and Calista to do that part.

After the game ended, they weren't able to talk again. Calista just went on the night dancing and laughing with their lady classmates and he just went on drinking his way through the night along with the others.

Later, Dex woke up with the sound of muffled cries and chaotic ramblings of the people coming from the living room. He got up off the makeshift bed he slept on during the rough night of drinking and went straight outside to find everyone shaken and crying.

"What's going on?" he asked. No one seemed to notice him. "Where are the others? Where's Calista?" he asked another one, but his classmate seemed to be in shock to give him an answer.

He went back to the room and took out his phone. He noticed the missed calls he received from Ann, 25 for the past 15 minutes. He tried to call Calista first but she wasn't answering. He was calling Ann now when he noticed that Calista's phone was still on the table in the living room. He picked it up and put it in his pocket.

The phone rang another tone or so when an unfamiliar voice came to the phone.

"Hey, Dex. This is Mark."

"Hey, Mark..." he got confused. " Where's Ann?"

"About that..." a wailing scream echoed from the background.

Dex's heart sank when Mark finally explained to him that he was currently on the ground floor with Ann crying inconsolably.

Ann finally took the phone from Mark and gave him the horrifying news.

"Dex, Calista...is dead."

Everything else just faded out from Dex's sight as he dropped his phone to the floor.