CHAPTER 46

Genesis's POV

        Most times, we see only what is above the water, but the knowledge never makes it to the perception of what we have about others which acts as the bulk of the iceberg. That perhaps adds to the mystery and makes us attracted to the opposite person. We want to know more about that person, to learn more about that person, to discover new things about that person.

People have three faces. The one they show to the world, the one they show to family and friends and the one they never reveal to anyone and that is the truest reflection of who he is truly. Dario is an iceberg who reveals a portion of himself to all and saves his hidden wonderment and splendor for those willing to dive deep with him.

My phone dinged and I jolted. My stomach flushed with excitement as I scrambled out of the bed in a rush and immediately yanked my phone out of the charging plug. A broad grin assaulted my lips when I saw he had just sent another reply, stretching our late night back and forth text messages. I opened his newest text to read what it said and chuckled at his thoughts.

We have been talking- really talking, spending most of our time in the other's personal space, getting to really know each other. We met up most afternoons and evenings and unfolded our mysteries, breaking into the other's personal territory. There was a level of closeness we were slowly reaching and as much as it scared me a bit, it excited me too.

My phone beeped again and I darted for it

Food is such a sexual word.

I worked my fingers over the screen, texting back my reply.

I guess so. What do you mean?

I barely left my phone when his reply came in.

I mean look at it this way. It's got an 'F' for fucking, 'oo' is the sound made while at it and 'D' is sorta self explanatory.

Oh my!

It was a burst of deep, hearty laughter breaking out of me at the stroke of midnight. I laughed until my sides hurt, tears streamed down my face and I was unable to stop.

Christ! You're dirty Dario. So dirty! My God, how did you even come up with that?

Our conversation went back and forth, pulling me out of the mental stress experienced as a result of a long day at the campus. The waiting minutes for his reply, the drilling sessions in my mind just thinking about what he meant by that text and what my next reply should be, how to think of something to crack him up. All this summed up to be the most beautiful part of my day. I loved speaking to him. Each time, a new discovery was made. The magic which sparks out of each conversation was so precious. It helped in creating unforgettable memories, one so precious it brought a smile to my face each time I tried to recollect it.

Can I call you?

My eyes grew. I took a deep breath and relaxed.

Yes

Not a second later and my phone ringtone punctured the air. It was then I realized how quickly I needed to change it. The song just didn't get me like before. The more I listened to it, the more it sounded nicer and nicer, until I had almost memorized it. Then, it just became boring.

"Hey."

"So I'm lying in my bed trying to fall asleep and I get the sensation that I'm going to sneeze. No big deal, right? Except. Exceeeppt. I'm lying in bed. On my back. So the sneeze comes and it was a powerful one. I mean I shot a good snot rocket high up in the air. No big deal, right? Wrong. Remember how I'm lying in bed? On my back? Yeah, that's right. The snot rocket propelled itself into the air and then gravity pasted it all over my face. All over. So the moral lesson of this story is, don't sneeze while lying in bed or you'll get a snot rocket in the face." The words flew out of my mouth so quickly and I spoke in a rush as if someone would interrupt me if I so much as pause for a split second.

He chuckled and the sound filtered through the phone speakers. I consciously caught myself and slowed down my pace, remembering that I needed to pause and take a deep breath.

"Noted. Hey. Again."

I grinned, "Hi."

"Why ain't you sleeping yet?"

"I did...in class and so right now, I'm being punished for it." I tossed and turned. "Why aren't you asleep yet?" Throwing his question back at him.

His voice was husky and unclear, a roughness, like a semi whisper as if he was speaking from the back of his throat or suffering from a cold.

"I can't." He said, clearing his throat.

"Why?" I posed a question.

"I...I just can't."

"Dario, are you okay?" I asked with a bit of concern. "You just sound a little bit off."

"I'm okay."

"Alright then. I'm going to believe you." I quickly added. "And it has got nothing to do with you walking me back to my dorm after lectures today. Well, I mean yesterday."

Throaty laughter filled my ears.

"You threatened to take another hood of mine if I didn't. It looked like I got no choice." He spoke almost too quietly, like he was selective with his choice of words.

"But they are so comfy." I whined. "And snug and stress-free and huge on me. They could pass as dresses on my body. There's this one I saw in your closet the other day..."

"No way! I ain't...."

I laughed, "I was going to say I loved it."

"I'm gonna believe you."

Out in the night, a mockingbird called relentlessly for a mate. I hoped he finds one or a hawk finds it. I hope they find each other.

"What keeps you up late at night?"

I heard him chuckle, "Uh, a lot of shit. Sometimes, a project, the other times, my thoughts. Almost always either of the two. What about you?"

I snorted, "Ahh, they are silly things. You probably won't even want to hear them."

"I wanna hear how silly they are. I wouldn't be asking if I didn't."

"Uh, well." I turned and laid on my stomach, pulling the pillow from under my head and positioning it in between my thighs. "How many people I have seen and met are now dead, if other people think about the times I completely embarrassed myself, have I accidentally ruined someone's life, do people actually like me or they just like a version of me that I have spun for them. Or perhaps, a version of me they have created in their heads."

A pale sort of silence fell upon us, like the moonlight on the snow. For a moment, I thought he had hung up or fallen asleep but his deep breathing resonating from the other side and the constant shuffling I picked up told me he hadn't but his next flow of words caused a frisson of goosebumps to crawl over my skin.

"I like you."

I sat up like a stroke of lightening, breath leaking out of me in short gasps and butterflies floating through every cell in my body.

"What-what did you say?" Perhaps, I must have misheard him.

"I said I like you." He repeated.

"Dario..."

"You said you wondered if people actually liked you or they just like a version of you you made up for them and I said to hell with them. I like you. Genuinely."

"Oh, I..." I gulped down a pool of saliva that wedged in my throat. "I...I didn't know that was what you meant."

"What did you think I meant?"

"Nothing." I answered in a whisper. "I just thought you meant something else."

"We are just friends, right?" He asked.

"Yes." I concurred. "Just friends."

"Cool."

There was an absence of noise for a long moment.

"Are you there?"

"Yup."

I smiled, "Let's play a game."

"Okay."

"If you are going to be stranded on a deserted island with one person forever, who would it be?"

"Dora." He said almost immediately. "Damn! That girl has everything in her backpack."

I laughed, "Dario, are you a fan?"

"Surely."

"Oh my God, you still watch Dora?" That made me crack up.

He chuckled. "Yeah, yeah. When I've got the time."

"That's surprising."

"What? I can't watch Dora."

"No, no. I mean it's...okay, you don't seem like the type that likes those kinds of things. You're always so serious, you know. So thorough and unapproachable, like this big scary guy ready to break someone's bones."

"Is that how you perceive me?"

"Yeah, most people." I said, guffawing. In fact, everyone I know."

"I'm talking about you. Is that how you perceive me?"

"Well, yeah. I mean then, I'll admit you terrified me. I used to be so scared of you."

"And now? What about now?"

"I'm not scared of you Dario. Not anymore. I know you better than I did before."

There was pin-drop silence except for the the hissing sound of the trees when it was being disturbed by the breeze, rhythmic sounds of our own breathing after own words were long abandoned and the snoring sound of Lana giving in to nature.

He spoke to me with a sadness that could melt the coldest of hearts. His voice trembled just a bit and the sound of it coursed through my veins and twisted my stomach into knots.

"I didn't get to do a lot of shit as a kid. A normal kid." He confessed. "Growing up was a bit...too tough for me."

I turned over to my sides and stared at the sky through the window. It was surrounded with stars. A lot of stars.

"What was it like? Growing up back there? Where you are from?"

"Fuck. It was shitty."

The world suddenly became peaceful. Every thing came to a still. All that was left was him and I. Talking about the sense of life, laughing at silly things and sharing the silence. The silence wasn't awkward anymore. It was magic and no one had to say anything. It was comfortable silence. A mutual understood silence.

Time must have slipped out of our hands or perhaps we must have been a bit more engrossed in our world than we thought. The unmistakable sound of noise chatter behind the door. The clacking sound of footsteps against the linoleum floors echoed down the hallway. A nudge on my leg had me jerking the limb forward.

I laughed and turned over on my stomach as my fingers hovered over my phone screen. I jerked my leg again.

"Genesis."

My eyes brimmed with tears of mirth and the smile tugging my lips broke into a grin. I hovered my fingers above the screen while staring at his text, thinking of what my reply should be.

"Genesis."

I began to chuckle, "I'm coming."

I responded in nonchalance at the person prodding me when the flaming lights of the sun filtered through the room. I squinted my eyes and turned away from it. The sky was ablaze with the fire of the setting sun.

"Genesis!"

I flinched and turned. Lana stood by the edge of the window, scowling hard at me. That was when I noticed the bright room full of rays from the scorching sun positioned high up in the sky. I inhaled sharply. Had I....

"I have been calling you and you have been laughing at your phone like a pregnant hyena. Who the hell were you texting that got you like that?"

"Lana, what's-what's the time?"

"It's 9:40. Were you given today off from lectures or what?"

"Wait, what?"

I dashed out of bed and sprinted for the bathroom in a flash.

"Oh my God!"

"You got a class?"

I avoided spending the remaining minutes left for my first lecture and rushed out of the bathroom in hysterics, almost tripping. "Yes." I yelled. "In twenty minutes. Lord, I can't believe I was up all night." I threw the first thing I saw on and began sorting out my books for the courses I had for the day.

"Who got you awake?"

"Lana, I can't talk right now. I'm so late."

I heard a faint beep from my phone but I didn't make any attempt in reaching it. My stomach growled but I refused to listen to it.

"You know who he is, right?"

"Lana, can we talk later? Please? And help me with my purse. It's by the drawer table, next to your vanity."

"Dario?"

"What?"

"Dario? You were talking to Dario?"

Immediately, I stopped what I was doing and turned to face her. "Yes. I was talking to Dario. How did you know that?" Then, I saw my phone in her hands. She was looking through it.

"Lana." I chided her. "It's inappropriate searching through someone's phone that way. Please stop." I stood up and took it from her.

"You were talking to Dario. Genesis, do you even know who he is? What he is like?"

"Yes, I know who he is. He is my friend and he is good."

"Haven't you heard about him? Everything he touches, he destroys. He is trouble Genesis. He is no good. Especially for a girl like you."

I scoffed. "A girl like me?"

"C'mon, you know what I mean."

"No, I don't. Wasn't it you who once told me to forget prince charming and always go for the wolf and that he can see me better, hear me better and eat me better? Whatever that meant?"

She gurned. "I know but not Dario. Genesis, look, trust me. I'm your friend. I won't lie to you. I grew up with him and have witnessed his past relationships with his ex's and seen how he treated them. He's only using you knowing that you're vulnerable right now because of your break up. Dario is not a good guy. He is toxic. Everyone knows this. He's made a terrible name for himself around here. You should stay away from him. I just wanna look out for you."

I turned away from her and resumed what I was doing. "I think all of you have got the wrong impression about him. He is not the guy you all think he is. I wouldn't be friends with him if he was. I know what I'm saying. I have seen him bare. Besides, the world isn't split into good people and death eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. He is not perfect but he is real."

I pulled a black hood over the blue camisole I had on and rolled the sleeves.

"So what. You're wearing his clothes now?"

"That's not it." I sauntered towards the door.

"I saw his leather jacket amongst your stuff yesterday. Dario hardly lets people have his things."

"He gave it to me one time because of the cold and told me to keep it. He was only being nice and considerate. He is just my friend. Nothing more. We are not kissing or...or having sex with each other. My friend. Like you are. Period."

"You have his hood on. One would think otherwise, you know. It is not fair to my brother."

"Keegan and I are done Lana. It's been a month now. I have not been with anyone else, not even one while I see him kissing all the girls. So much for loving me and caring about me."

"That's his own way of dealing with the split up. C'mon, it's just mindless sex Genesis. Sex is just his coping mechanism."

"And my friendship with Dario is mine. I don't have to think about Keegan when I am around him Lana. He helps me to forget. I enjoy his company a lot and I like to think he enjoys mine." I turned to face her. "Dario is a good guy. I promise. You can stop worrying. I'll be fine."

"He comes with a lot of baggage. I'm only worried you are not strong enough to carry them. They would pull you down with him."

"Time will tell."

"He will break you."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, whispering more to myself.

"I trust him not to."

***

So I've been thinking. This book has close to fourteen chapters before if it's done. Do y'all prefer the usual one chapter per update? Or you'll prefer I take time off to write the remaining chapters and upload everything at a go so you guys can just binge read them. Please, do comment and let me know.

Plus, how do you like this chapter?