Chapter 57

"Hey, Dana." Chelsea sat on Dana's bedside as she talked to Dana who was lying down on her bed as usual while reading a book.

"Oh, hey." Dana didn't even notice her coming inside the room. She spotted Blade who was behind Chelsea. "What is it?"

"We heard what happened with Nelson..."

"Don't want to talk about it." Dana faced her book once more.

"Can you reconsider coming to the party?"

"I already said no, okay?"

"Dana...are you really okay with this?"

"With what?"

"This! The way you've been treating everybody! Everybody that genuinely cares for you!"

"...I don't know what you're talking about." Dana flipped a page of her book.

Chelsea looked at Blade with an expression of giving up.

Blade furrowed her brows and stomped her way to Dana and slapped the book she was holding out of her hands.

"Hey!" Dana shouted at her.

"You're being such a bitch, Dana..."

"!!" Dana and Chelsea were shocked.

"Who are you calling a bitch! You...you bitch!" Dana immediately put her hand on her mouth. She was too caught up by the moment that she shouted what she was thinking.

"What's the matter? I know what people think about me. A real bitch, right? The campus slut? Always sleeping around to get what she wants?" Blade lashed out.

"Blade..." Chelsea uttered.

"No, I know. I always see it on social media. I've always known. But you know what? I don't care what people think about me as long as my close friends don't see me that way...." Blade started becoming teary eyed. "...but there are days that it does get to me, and I cry alone...because they don't know what I've been through to become this way...I just want to be understood. That I didn't become like this for no reason..."

She started telling them about her traumatic past that made her feel less of herself. She was raped. And after that, her then boyfriend left her and blamed her for what happened.

Then, when she thought she found a better relationship, she immediately got dumped after they had sex and rumors of her being a slut started spreading.

She even considered suicide once. Fortunately, that didn't end her life.

Then, that's when she decided to just own it. She figured it would bother her less if it was at least true.

That was just the start, over time, she realized the only time she ever felt wanted was during sex. It became addicting to her.

"I'm sorry, Blade..." Dana said with a pained expression.

Chelsea was speechless and just stared at Blade's face and felt her pain.

It was a rare sight for Blade to show so much emotion. She always looked happy that's why people always judged her to be an airhead.

"That's why you're lucky, Dana. So, stop being a bitch and don't take the people around you for granted. Especially Nelson who looks like he is really trying. Don't look for people who aren't here." Blade was obviously referring to Terry.

Dana stood up with teary eyes and hugged Blade. Chelsea also stood up and embraced them both.

"I love you, girls." Chelsea said.

----

Once they got to the party...

"Girls! Wha-what are you doing here?" Mason stood in front of them as soon as caught sight of them.

"Hey, Mason."

"Dana, I-I thought you weren't going to come...haha" He was stuttering and acting suspicious.

Dana raised her brow before asking a question. "Where's Nelson?"

"Nelson? I don't know. I saw him around here earlier, but now he's gone. Maybe he already left."

The girls looked at each other and exchanged confused looks. Nelson has never left a party early.

"Girls! What's up!" Another one of Nelson's friends walked up to them.

"Hey, Jody. Do you know where Nelson is?" Chelsea asked.

"Yeah, I think I saw him a couple minutes ago going upstairs." Jody happily answered.

"Dude!!" Mason slapped Jody's arm with the back of his hand

"Ow! What?!"

Having enough of the comedy act, Dana pushed her way through and the two girls followed her.

"Dana!" Mason shouted as Dana pushed her way into the crowd of people. "Idiot!" He shouted at Jody as he pushed onto him what he was holding and ran to chase after Dana.

Mason rushed and pushed through to a crowd of people to catch up to the girls who were almost at the stairs.

As they were about to reach the foot of the stairs, Mason was able to catch them and stand in front of them again.

"I can't let you go up there." He said.

"Why? What's upstairs, Mason?" Dana asked him.

"...Mmmm-It's a surprise! We were planning a surprise for you and Nelson wanted it to be romantic. There. I said it. Now, could you please go so we could still save the guy's effort."

Doubtful, Chelsea interjected with a smile. "Mason...if you don't let us through right now, I'll talk to my dad to convince the University to take you out of the team." Chelsea was the daughter of one of the members of the board of GCU along with Lucius Fox and others. It would be easy to make her threat happen.

"Shit..." Mason hesitantly made way for them and looked down.

Dana already had a hunch about what she would see once she gets upstairs. She was getting nervous. She vividly felt her blood rushing to her head and made it heavier to balance on her shoulders. The rythmic flow of her blood in the vessels of her temples was loud and made it seem like she was listening to her own heartbeat.

When they got to the second floor, a big hallway that led to many rooms were there, but she didn't have to look in every single room. She knows the room that their circle use everytime they come here. It was the second biggest room there. Near the master's bedroom at the end of the hallway.

Her steps became heavy but she didn't slow down, she even sped up.

When she was about to reach for the door knob, Chelsea grabbed her arm.

"Are you sure?" Chelsea asked her. "I can do it for you. You don't have to see what's inside."

"Thank you, Chels...but I have to do this. It's kind of my fault that it ended up this way." Dana said with a melancholic expression.

"Okay..." Chelsea released her arm.

Dana opened the door and saw Nelson and a girl putting on their clothes. They were sweaty and their hair was messy.

"Dana?" Nelson widened his eyes as she met Dana's eyes. He immediately stood up and prepared the best explanation he can come up with in his head.

"Don't bother, Nelson..." Dana held out her empty palm towards him. "It's probably my fault too. We should break up."

"Wha- I-"

"Let's not make it harder than it already is. I was indecisive and I couldn't be the girlfriend you needed. Let's end it here."

"I..." Nelson clenched his fists and closed his eyes in frustration. "This is unfair...I can't believe that this is how you'll end everything. You didn't even get angry at me."

"You're right... I'm unfair..." Dana said with a regretful smile.

"Heh..." Nelson chuckled and crashed on the bed. "You should've been angry that I fucked up...I guess that's just how much you think of me..."

"I'm not angry, but I do feel betrayed. It still hurts because you're still close to my heart, but I think I deserve it."

The girl inside the bedroom with Nelson was awkwardly watching the scene and her eyes were screaming for help as he looked at the two girls that were behind Dana.

Chelsea looked at her as if saying that she should stay there for a while.

"So...this is it?"

"Yeah..."

Nelson covered his contorted face with his forearm as he lied on the bed.

"See you later, Nelson..." Dana turned around and passed by Chelsea and Blade.

Chelsea gave a signal to the girl that she can go now.

The girl just whispered goodby to Nelson as she quickly went out of the room after the others.

"That guy left and I still lost..." Nelson muttered to himself as his tears began to flow.

He only slept with the girl because he was angry at Dana for being indifferent about him. Despite that, Dana didn't even get jealous or mad at him. She was still indifferent.

Nelson had multiple girlfriends before Dana, but he never wanted a girl more than Dana. It was real love.

"I guess it's karma..." Nelson recollected about his past. He was a horrible boyfriend and a terrible person to his peers. He was an egotistical maniac that did anything to boost his ego. He broke many women's hearts before and now he could finally feel what they felt.

It was at this point that Nelson decided to change.

----

"Dana..." Chelsea called out her friend who was walking in front of them, but Dana kept walking without turning around. "Dana!" Chelsea finally got frustrated and garbbed Dana's shoulder.

Dana turned around and revealed her mournful face. Like she said earlier, she wasn't angry, but she still felt betrayed. She felt like she deserved it.

"Dana..." Chelsea hugged her and let her cry on her shoulder. She glanced at Blade. Blade was calling someone on her smartwatch. She gave Blade a disappointed look but Blade didn't back down and gestured her to wait.

When Dana was finally able to come down, they continued walking back to their house.

As Dana and Chelsea was about to walk up the stairs to the porch...

"Dana..." A familiar voice rang out.

Both of them looked up and saw Terry McGinnis looking at them with a faint smile.

Dana walked up the stairs and Chelsea let her go alone.

Terry didn't expect a warm greeting...

Pow!

...but he also didn't expect to get punched in the face.

He clutched his nose as he looked back at Dana who was about to burst into tears again.

"You dumb idiot!" She started crying and suddenly jumped into his chest.

Terry just awkwardly smiled.

Chelsea looked so confused and looked for Blade behind her to make sense of it all. "Did you call him?"

"No, I called him." Blade pointed to her back and there, Don was leaning on a tree.

"Since when..."

"He asked for my number before when we were at the party the night when Dana got kidnapped. It took a long time before he called me and asked me out because he was busy or so he says."

"Are you two...?"

"Yeah...I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys earlier. Because if I told you, then Dana would keep asking about Terry and he asked me to keep it a secret...I felt guilty everytime we hang out with him."

"You bitch..." Chelsea chuckled.

Blade just smiled and shrugged. "See you later." She waved her hand and spun her heel.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know, we like to keep things exciting like that." Blade giggled.

Chelsea gave up and sighed. She looked back at Terry and Dana who were having their own moment. She became a bit jealous of her friends that got to find happiness, but she was also happy for them. "I should ask Terry if he has any more friends to introduce next time..."