Chapter 4 ARSENIO'S POV

ARSENIO'S POV

Life is a paradox of contradicting similarities!!!

It wasn't until I felt the ice beginning to melt that I dropped the ice pack and carried her to her room. She had just one arm around my neck and it was like she was trying her hardest not to make skin contact with me.

I bet if she was not in this condition, she would not have come so close to me. She is still angry with me and I guess five years is not enough for her to forget what I did.

"I'll go into my room on my own," She said coldly. She was speaking to me like I was a stranger...like I wasn't someone she knew.

"But I want to..." I started but she cut me off.

"I only allowed you to help me with my foot because our parents were there. Now that they aren't, place me down!"

Her voice was firmer and as much as I wanted to refute her words, I knew not to push things.

I placed her close to her door and she landed with one foot. She applied pressure on her good foot and opened the door before she leaped in.

"Seren..." She slammed the door on my face before I could say a thing. I placed my hand on the door as I fought myself not to knock or bring her door down.

Something crashed and I heard the sound of something falling.

My hand was already on the knob when she shouted, "Don't you dare open that door, Arsenio. Get going...Please!"

My hands formed into fists and I turned and walked in the opposite direction.

*************

was at a hundred and ninety-eight in my morning press-up when a pair of feet and a pair of crutches appeared before my view.

I knew who it was even though I didn't lift my head.

"A hundred and ninety-nine...

Two hundred..." I called out before I stood to my full height, towering over the unsmiling five-six before me.

"What's the issue, Bellissimo? I can still clearly remember you shutting your door on my face..."

I was about to continue when she cut me off.

"That still stands. I don't want you anywhere around me. But that's not the reason I am here.

I only need answers.

Why did you call Gerald to threaten him?" She asked.

I scoffed.

'Threaten was too strong a word for the subtle words of warnings I had given him.'.

I had merely said, "I gather that you happen to be the closest thing to a friend that she has...and yet you were present when she sprained her foot..."

" I had.. " He had bravely started but I didn't let his words have a base or take form before I annihilated it.

"If something close to this ever happens again, I promise to let you watch those unfortunate fingers of yours get roasted by fire and I'm really looking forward to you defying this order.

I know you have a good scream, Gerald.

Lastly, you can only make physical contact with Serena if it's a very dire situation. Probably such as what happened.

I think our dialogue was clear. " I asked, my anger eating through my veins as I stared harder at every picture of every Martinez on the screen.

I also remembered Serena's hesitation to be carried by me...'

'It wasn't something serious. It could even be passed as an honest conversation between friends. If I was threatening him, he would have been too scared to tell Serena.'

"He needs to know some basic things before claiming to be your friend," I replied curtly.

"You are so funny right now Arsenio.

You do not get to interfere with who my friends are. Not now, not ever.

Get that right! " She said as she stamped one of the crutches on the floor.

Probably she wanted it to be a knife so she could drive it into my belly.

"Wrong!

I'm sorry, Bellisomo, but that's for me to decide. I'll scrutinize every soul who tries to come close to you." I replied as I turned to face her.

"Why will you do that? It is none of your business Arsenio. You did not care five years ago, so why would you come now and try to make my peaceful and easy life, filled with hurdles that are different shades of you?" She asked, her eyes glazed and blazed with anger as her chest heaved.

The answer was at the tip of my tongue.

It was the unseen hand that was holding out my bleeding heart to her.

'I have always cared Serena.

Since the day you came in as a bundle of joy into our lives, up until the early years when I began to discover that I might be having feelings for you..

And even five years ago, when I left the country without telling you, especially after we had just had a big fight.

There are many instances.

I was the one who ordered something to be put in the drink of your almost second boyfriend at that school party.

His drink had been spiked and he could not stay away from the toilet throughout the night. His condition had him tied down to the toilet but far from you.

It had worked.

When those girls had devised a plan on how to pretend to be friends with you just so they could use you. I had been the one to send them the surprise packages that sent the thoughts and plans they had far from their tiny brains for a lifetime.

I was also the one that had made those pads readily available when you had forgotten to calculate your menstrual cycle and you almost became hysterical when you found out that you were due. It would not have been a nice thing because you have a friendly pad you use, and you were a thousand miles in the sky for a seventeen-hour journey.

You had been surprised when one of the hostesses had that exact package. Well, I was the one.'

But instead, my answer came out differently.

I turned away from her without saying a word and lay on the bench, ready to begin lifting the already-prepped barbells.

"Yeah just like you always do.

Go silent and fu*king walk away" She said coldly.

'Did Serena just cuss me out?'

My hands that were on the steel paused and I placed it back in its holding spot.

I sat uprightly on the bench, and she leaped closer to me with the aid of the crutches.

"I do not know if your eyes still see me as seventeen but I would urge it to be cleansed. I am no longer Little Serena and I am in control of every single thing that happens in my life.

I will only say this once,

If I want a goddamn cow as my best friend, you don't get to say a word or think twice about it. If I decide for Gerald to be my permanent wingman, you don't get to ask questions or go behind my back like a nosy freelance detective.

Even if I want to bloody open my legs to Gera..."

The name did not form properly on her lips before I pulled her by her shirt and she landed on my thighs.

I did not like the fact that the only reason she was here was because she wanted to warn me of a male.

It wasn't because of me. It was because she was trying to protect another man. She had pushed buttons but her last statement...her last statement...

I was almost cradling her in my arms. One of my hands was hoisting her back.

"Repeat those words love...

Exactly. You can't repeat that.

I don't even need you thinking about them, not to mention having your...your lips saying such." I said as I looked at her surprised eyes.

My face inched closer to hers as my eyes searched hers. Her lips were parted, her face partly flushed, and she wasn't pulling back.

My body was zinged with having her so close already...