CHAPTER TEN: Are you jealous?

Cyrene’s subtle breathing kept re-sounding in Jason’s ears until he quit pretending to be asleep and finally opened his eyes. The events of few hours ago refused to stop replaying in his head and he couldn’t stop thinking about how the relationship between Cyrene and himself went from teacher-student relationship to Cyrene snoring beside him on the bed in the master’s bedroom.

Well, nothing happened between them aside from the intense make out earlier and in as much as the kiss was so passionate and fresh in his mind, Cyrene was going to forget it as soon as she opened her eyes the next day. That was what pained Jason the most.

He looked at Cyrene softly on the bed again before sneaking out of the room. He walked downstairs and saw Tim sitting by the kitchen counter and munching on a large bowl of salad.

“Fancy seeing you down here,” Tim said looking at Jason who was putting on just shorts and a vest.

“I could say the same to you. When did you say you’re moving out again?” Jason eyed him before continuing. “Why are you eating that bowl of grass? Did you discuss that with June?” he asked opening the fridge.

“I don’t need permission to eat healthy once in a while. Not even June’s permission.” Tim said scooping more of the grass into his mouth.

“I won’t say a word about that again, I’m sure you would be able to settle yourself with June. When are you making breakfast? If you’re going to keep living here that’s the least you could do what.” He told Tim while bringing out a container of milk from the fridge.

“I have been doing that though. So I can continue to live here as long as I cook,” Tim said enthusiastically

“Cyrene is here. She’s upstairs,” Jason said peeking at Tim from over the refrigerator.

“What!” Tim screamed with the salad half stuffed into his mouth. “What’s she doing here? Why didn’t you tell me? I called June and she should be here by now,”

“What!” Jason screamed and glared at Tim. “Cyrene would feel so overwhelmed with all of you around. Look, don’t let June come in here until I say otherwise. I will wake Cyrene up and take her out for breakfast.” Jason instructed Tim and tried to run upstairs but before he could take a step, the main door swung open and June strolled in casually carrying two filled bags of groceries.

“Hello everyone, who missed my spice?” June said loudly as she continued to make her way towards Jason in the kitchen.

“Spice?” a soft voice repeated

Everyone turned towards the direction of the voice and saw Cyrene standing on the last step with Jason’s shirt barely covering her butt.

“Cyrene?” June called out surprising and looked at Jason with a questioning glare before turning to look at Tim who just shook his head without saying anything else.

“You both should better be ready to explain whatever is going on here by the time I return. Meanwhile Cyrene, let’s get you into something less…sexy” June said dropping the bags of groceries on the kitchen counter and making her way towards Cyrene, who still stood there looking confused.

********

In Jason’s room upstairs, June was standing in front of the closet ransacking the whole place as she tried to find something decent for Cyrene to put on. She was pulling out varieties of button up shirts but still looked displeased at everything she was finding.

“I don’t know why I can’t find anything more decent for you to wear. It seems like you’d have to wear the same thing you wore while coming here. Meanwhile, I’m very much upset with you right now that I can barely see clearly,” June said finally finding a top that seemed more appropriate than every other thing she was finding earlier.

“Why are you upset? I’m sure I didn’t do anything to warrant such emotions from you. I still don’t recalled how or when I got here as well,” Cyrene said collecting the top from June.

“Exactly! Why don’t you recall it? Were you drunk? You drank so much that you ended up sleeping on the same bed as your professor,” June said suggestively, prompting Cyrene to discard the top that June found for her and going for her own instead.

“Are you jealous? Do you like the professor? Were you trying to get with him and I beat you to it? Why are you making sound it look like sleeping here was a crime?” Cyrene threw back at her.

“Because you’re hiding things from me! I thought we were friends, best friends even but since we met, you have never been completely honest about yourself to me. You keep acting as if nothing is wrong but I’m not that stupid to keep believing your lies. You look at me like a stranger every time I see you and I keep sucking up to your nonsense just keep our friendship going! You’re still looking at me like that right now and I’m done pretending,” June shouted instinctively throwing her hands up.

Cyrene just stood there watching June rant about everything without knowing whether to tell her everything yet or not. She herself had so many questions for June. Why did she waltz into Jason’s house like that? The other day she stumbled upon the three of them talking about her but she never got the chance to ask June about it. The fact that she doesn’t recall doesn’t mean that her heart forgot.

“Do I owe you any explanation? If yes then you have to answer my question too before I tell you everything,” Cyrene said sitting down on the bed and gazing up at June who had conflicted expression written all over her face.

“Before anything I’d love to apologize to you,” June sat close to Cyrene, picking up her hands and wrapping hers around it.

“Apologize for what? Being the cause of all my sufferings for the past many years?” Cyrene asked looking intensely into June’s panic stricken face as she gradually withdrew her hands from Junes.