You Stay Away

Her eyes scrutinized him from the strands of the hair on his head to the toe of his leg but once her gaze stopped on his face, her face went devoid of any emotions. She shut her eyes as if refusing to accept what her eyes were registering.

How did she fall for it?

How could she fall for it?

He did it yet again.

He… was not hurt.

He… did not meet with any accident.

He lied to her.

And she… fell for it.

The dour look on her face could depress anyone. Accepting the sheer disappointment with her own-self for one more time was tough.

Her head hung down. Her lips trembled but no word could come out of them. Deeply hurt, she began back-tracking her steps. While she was dragging herself away from him, her twisted ankle gave up and her body was pushed backward.

Her vulnerable self was too shattered to care about the fall. She closed her eyes, waiting to hit the ground but in the nick of the time, her shoulders were firmly held by someone and as she was quickly straightened, she looked back at the person and wasn't surprised to see Ilyan.

It had been enough long. The car must have been fixed.

"Are you okay?" He was afraid to let go of her, fearing that she might fall again. He had already taken a look at her swollen ankle. "Your feet are bleeding," he said, his voice giving away that he was disturbed by the sight of them.

Her eyes followed his, to her feet at the ground. It was bound to happen. She had been walking and running around barefooted all along and oblivious to her pain in front of Ayden's but the unfortunate thing was, she had endured it for someone who perhaps did not deserve it.

"Can you see it?"

Ilyan's attention shifted to Ayden who had left his place by then.

"Yes, I can see the blood." Ilyan thought that Ayden obviously meant the blood because that was the most prominently visible thing out there to focus on. That was all that he could see.

"Love. Can you see love? The love she has for me?"

"Huh?" Stupefied, Ilyan scratched his head. His mind occupied with Irene's unsettled condition needed time to process what Ayden was trying to get to.

"Stop it, Ayden. Don't involve him." Irene lightly pushed Ilyan's hands off her arms while she stood firm on her feet to face Ayden.

"He is already involved. He is involved from the moment he walked in your life, the moment he held your hand, and the moment he began his attempts of replacing me." Ayden walked toward them and rooted his feet to the ground in front of them.

Confused, Ilyan ignored Ayden and turned to Irene. "Where is the one who got into the accident?"Irene lifted her teary eyes at Ayden before she furiously tore her gaze from him. "Nobody is hurt. I am sorry for wasting your time. Can you drop me home?"

"Um okay. We need to go to the hospital first." He pointed at her feet but her mind was somewhere else.

She wanted to confront Ayden about what he had done but she avoided it because Ilyan was present.

"Come, let's go." Ilyan offered his hand to her.

"Back off," Ayden screamed as he dashed forward, giving a rough push to Ilyan.

"Do you think you are being very smart here?" He fisted Ilyan's collar as he jerked him yet again. "If you think you can ever take my place in her life, then you are delusional. Can you see? She still loves me. Her leg got hurt. Her heel broke but she did not stop. She still looked for me. She is hurt but she did not mind the pain because it was my life that was on the stake."

Irene dragged herself near them and tried to pull Ayden aside. Despitehe being too strong for her to pull, her efforts did not cease. "Ayden, leave him."

"Irene, stop," Ilyan called. "Stay away, you will get yourself hurt."

Irene glanced at him for a brief moment before she was back to getting Ayden off Ilyan.

Ilyan sighed rubbing his forehead with his fingers. He did not want to push Ayden because of the whole heated atmosphere that he had sensed and rather than being angry, he pitied Ayden but afraid that Irene might get hurt in the process, he had to use his hands and set himself free of Ayden's grip.

Having always been a fighter, it wasn't really a big deal for Ilyan. Within a moment, he had swiftly slapped away Ayden's hands and stood there, wondering what more was to come.

Since he had no idea what was going on and what was the issue between the duo, he preferred keeping quiet because he did not want to cross the line but he couldn't help the anger that was rising inside him to see that Ayden did not care about Irene's injuries even though he was acting as if someone really close to her.

"You are crossing the limit, Ayden," Irene warned, clearly disliking what Ayden was trying to do.

"Am I? Am I, Irene? What are you doing? With him?"

Irene felt disgusted by Ayden's words. She was getting affected even though they had broken up.

"Dude, just let her be, okay?" Ilyan's patience was ending with every passing moment and with every tear trickling down Irene's cheek.

"You stay away -"

"No. You stay away, Ayden. Did you hear me? I said… you… stay away," Irene screamed with all her might.