“We have to talk,” Persha says, still breathing heavily from the kiss they shared, if that was even a kiss.
“About what?” she asks, composed as ever.
“About what?
Zabi, we just had a full-blown make-out session,” he says, shocked she even had to ask.
They look at each other for a while.
“You know what?
I tried my best.
I confessed first, and I initiated the kiss.
Sorry if I read it wrong,” he says, turning to grab his gym bag.
“Sorry you had to shield me from…
that,” he says referring to the state she was in, covered and dripping paint.
Before he could open the door, he hears it.
“I want you to belong to me,” she says.
Persha stops in his tracks, slowly turning to look at the woman he’s going crazy over.
He stalks back to where he stood, stepping closer, their faces nearly touching as she looked down at him.
“I didn’t get that…
could you please repeat it?” Persha says, his hands hovering above her face.
“I want you to be mine…
would you be mine, Persha?” she repeats again, quiet this time, like she didn’t expect to blurt it out at first.
“Yes…
but I want you to be more direct with me, Zabi.
I don’t ever want to assume anything,” he says, his eyes locked on hers.
“What else do you want me to say?” she asks.
Persha could tell she was genuinely oblivious, so he didn’t feel angry.
Instead, he sighed.
“Zabi…
I can’t be yours until I hear those words,” he says, stepping back.
There it was again, that look, this time with a mix of pain.
“What words?…
Tell me,” she says, desperation in her voice.
“You’d have to figure that out yourself,” he says, smiling, reaching out to pull a clump of paint from her hair, his gesture was soft, letting her know there was no bad blood between them.
As she watches him walk out of the room, when he was gone she leans on the wall,a sigh leaving her lips,running her hands through her hair.
“What words?” she asks no one in particular.
“Maybe Tiffany would know.”
***
The next day came quickly.
An announcement was being passed for all students to meet at the assembly hall.
They filled into the hall, taking their seats at their section in the hall.
Council Presidents sat behind their sector.
Zabi could see Persha from where she sat.
He was talking to a girl, maybe one of his friends.
Tiffany was beside her, listening to the speech.
They knew what it was about already, an announcement for the final-year students’ graduation taking place in three months, so she didn’t really pay any mind to the announcer’s words.
“Tiff,” she says.
Tiffany turns to face her, slinging her arm over the back of her chair, twisting her body to face her.
“Yeah?” she says.
“I need to ask you something,” Zabi says, glancing at her.
She thinks it through for a while, deciding if it’s a good idea to ask Tiff about it or not.
“What words do you say when you want someone?” she asks.
Tiffany’s face twists in confusion.
“I read a book…
where the male lead tells the female lead he likes her, or had liked her for a while rather.
Instead of making her happy, it makes her angry,” she says, pausing to glance at Tiffany again.
She nods her head signaling was listening to what Zabi was saying.
“Then she says, if he doesn’t say the words she wants to hear, she wouldn’t be with him,he asked if liking her wasn’t enough,” Zabi adds.
“Apparently, they never completed the book, so…
what did she want to hear?”
Tiffany hums, adjusting in her seat.
“Well, for one, people don’t like assuming things when it comes to relationships.
In fact, it’s bad to assume you and someone else are dating if the person hasn’t asked you out,” she says.
“Ask you out?…
How do you do that?” Zabi asks.
“Come on, Zabi, you can’t be that uninformed,” she says, rolling her eyes.
“Just tell me,” Zabi says, ignoring the sly comment.
“Simple.
The guy takes her on a date.
In case you don’t know what a date is, a date is—”
“Fuck you, I know what a date is,” Zabi cuts in.
Tiffany laughs, continuing her explanation.
“He takes her on a date.
When the mood has been set, then takes the opportunity to tell her why he likes or loves her, then he asks her out,” she says.
“Yeah, how does he do that?
What words does he say?” Zabi glances at her.
“He asks her if she’ll be his girlfriend, you know?
to seal their relationship.
It’s just like how a man asks a woman if she’d marry him instead of assuming you’re already married just because you have kids and live together,” Tiffany adds.
“Yeah, that’s true.
I understand why the girl in the book was angry now,” Zabi says.
“Mmm…
sure…
the girl in the book,” she taunts, knowing fully well there’s no damn girl in a book.
“This is about pretty boy over there, right?” Tiffany asks, “because you’ve been staring at him since we walked in here.”
A smile creeps onto her face at the silent confirmation.
“You know what?
I’m happy you’ve found love, Zabi…
but…
isn’t he gay?”
Zabi doesn’t reply.
“Well, with how you look, he probably wouldn’t notice he’s messing with a woman,” she adds, turning her attention back to the announcer talking.
Zabi sat processing the new information she had just gotten.
Persha wanted her to solidify things, and that she was going to do.
***
Persha kept staring at the text on his phone that read, “Hey, it’s Zabi.
Meet me at the school’s gate.”
First of all, he hadn’t given Zabi his number, and secondly, he was embarrassed.
They kissed, confessed, but were still circling around each other.
He sure as hell hopes she’s gotten her shit sorted out.
Zabi had taken him to a museum.
He appreciated art, but not to the point of going to a museum.
Pushing that at the back of his mind, he keeps walking with her. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
The museum was vast and eerily empty.
It was just both of them inside.
It was a beautiful place.
Art, paintings, and sculptures around them, each piece with documentation about the artist and their intentions.
“These pieces are beautiful,” he says, breaking the silence.
It’s been silent from the car till now.
Zabi hadn’t said anything.
“But…
I don’t really fancy museums that much,” he adds.
Zabi stops walking, making Persha stop, turning to face her.
“I know.
I brought you here because we met in a familiar setting,” she admits.
Persha’s eyes widen.
She was right.
They did meet in a room littered with sculptures.
“That’s true…
hasn’t been that long now that I remember,” Persha says.
“The first time i saw you, i thought you were hot as all”persha laughs, He’d gone and confessed why not just get it over with, he thought,”Although you were mean to me at first…you were always my hero.” he adds smiling.
Zabi clears her throat, grabbing his attention again.
“I’d like to say some things.
Don’t say anything till I’m done…
okay?” she says, pausing for a while before continuing.
“In case you didn’t notice, I liked you since I saw you that day in my studio.
I thought, wow, what a beautiful person.”
Persha smiles at that.
“So I…
put myself in your way, over and over and over again…
just to keep seeing you.
Although you were always in danger, I didn’t mind.
It felt…
satisfying.
And that night when you were…
drugged…
after we uh…”
Persha quirks a brow, a sly smile on his face, watching her face flush in embarrassment.
“Yeah, that,” she chuckles, and Persha could swear that was the sexiest thing he’d ever heard in his life.
“That night was when I realized I had to have you, so…
if you’d have me, Persha Mace…
would you be my boyfriend?” she says, releasing the breath she mistakenly held.
And all Persha could do was smile, wide, giggling.
“You made it sound like a proposal,” he says, collecting himself.
He sees the flash of doubt in her eyes, quickly blurting out his response.
“Yes.”
Zabi looks at him, edging for an elaboration.
“Yes what?…
I would hate to assume anything,” she throws his words back at him.
“Yes, Zabi Foss, I’d be your boyfriend,” he says, watching her worries leave her face.
He could tell she was excited.
“This is the part where we kiss,” Persha says, walking towards her.
And she meets him halfway, pulling him closer by his waist as they share a deep kiss right in front of a painting of a mother and her infant child, just like the sculpture when they first met.