Chapter 56

**Kapittel 56**

**After their emotional moment**, which Brent called a drama, the group finally reconciled and immediately began patching their relationship up by eating a tub of chocolate of ice cream. "Ah, I missed this," Allison heard her childhood friend's voice say as she felt the sofa sunk, like something heavy was placed unto it.

A small smile etched on her face while her eyes watched Johnsy pull a joke on Rebecca. "Yeah. We used to do this often back when we were in high school."

Brent chuckled. "Yup, I can quite remember. We would skip classes and climb over the walls, then go straight to the ice cream parlor." It caused nostalgia to kick in her system again at the sudden reminisce of their high school life. She considered those times to be timeless.

"Old times," she breathed out.

"Yeah," he said before silence took over and made a noise between the two. Allison turned her head and looked over at him. By the looks of his face, he seemed to be thinking of something. She wondered what he was thinking about.

"Uh..." she heard him trail off.

She hastily turned away as the atmosphere began getting awkward. "Yes?"

"Ah... I'm sorry," she heard him apologize. She looked at him with her face contorted in confusion. "What for?"

He looked at her, and their eyes met. Her heart felt warm. The awkwardness suddenly walked away and was replaced by easing comfort. "For not being there for you," he stated, "For being an irresponsible best friend. Back then, I already knew something was bugging you, but I didn't bother to ask since I knew you didn't want to talk about your problems.

"But then, what I've done was a wrong move. I should've confronted you with some frothing hot choco so we could talk about it. The realization came too soon, however. I dissed myself millions of times after I've realized that.

"And you, you should stop taking everything to yourself. It'll cause you more trouble. That's why I'm here. That's why Rebecca and Johnsy are here. That's why friends exist, hun. We're a family bonded by our unnerving friendship. That's why, when things get too heavy and out of reach, you can always talk to us."

Allison's eyes watered once again. She couldn't take such words that were coming forth from Brent's mouth right now. It gave her an odd, overwhelming feeling that made her uneasy but not in a bad way. It felt like she was given a new door to open. A new door that would lead her to somewhere she could lay upon for comfort, and she never had that kind of opportunity when she was a child. The servants did provide her comfort, warmth, and love like family, but it always stuck in her mind that they were servants. Her family paid them to do that, and to keep their jobs, they must get along with her. Little did she know that they were genuinely fond of her.

"I'm no one special. I'm just Brent. The gay son of Ada and Leo Kade. I'm a happy-go-lucky person and only cares about nothing but only how to make myself happy. I deserve nothing, but why, Allison?" he shot her a look with his eyes pleading, 'Why?'

"Why did you risk your own freedom just to keep a secret? Just to hide what is supposed to be my responsibility? I know that you're a good friend, Allison, and you're a friend who is for keeps, but I've never thought that you'd come to that extent."

She remained silent and just listened to him.

"At first, when Rebecca told me everything, I was mad at you. I thought that you betrayed me because you did not tell me about my child's presence. But I remembered something back then when we were still kids. Your parents promised you that they'd take you to the amusement park but failed. You felt hurt at that time and promised yourself that you'd keep your promises because you know how it hurts when you've promised to something but couldn't keep it.

Rebecca made you promise that you won't tell either Johnsy or me about her pregnancy, and I can't believe that you kept that secret even though it meant your freedom from commitment. It all vanished. My anger for you vanished. It just went popped like a damn bubble. And a sudden realization hit me, I was lucky to have you as my best friend. Having a caring and sweet friend like you is already a huge gift for me— fuck, why are you crying?!" he panicked mid-sentence when tears began to flow from her guilt-stricken eyes.

She sniffed before wiping a tear that escaped from her eyes. "Nothing, I just feel happy, and Dawson, you weren't an irresponsible friend. You've been my best friend. You've been with me through thick and thin, and that's already enough for me," she said as she wiped another tear.

"Shit, Allison. Don't cry. I hate seeing you cry," said Brent, fretting, but she shook her head before diverting the topic. She was already tired of crying. "I've had enough of crying today, Dawson. Fill me with some ice cream, please?"

He stilled for a moment, probably still stunned with the sudden change of topic.

"My pleasure," he said before taking her small cup. He went on his feet. She thought that he was going to saunter to the kitchen, but she was wrong. He faced her with a warm welcome in his beautiful blue eyes.

"Welcome home, hun," he told her with a warm smile on his lips.

"Thank you, Dawson," she thanked him with an appeased smile on her lips before throwing herself to her childhood friend in a tight embrace. She was home indeed.

Smoking has been Hades' habit since he was in college. Oddly, it was some kind of stress reliever. He would take a cigarette stick, place it between his lips, and light it up whenever he had problems. He felt relieved whenever he smelled the choking scent of nicotine and tar. He had already stopped this bad habit for long years, but he never thought that he'd be doing this again. Smoking while standing on the balcony, looking at the white, dazzling stars up above in the dim night sky.

'Beautiful,' he thought as he puffed a smoke. But as soon as he thought that word, a familiar scene flashed before his mind.

"Please break up with me. Please!" she angrily said to him. His heart squeezed as he watched her struggle against his hold while saying these hurtful words. He thought that he was slowly making her open her heart to him to the point that she was willing to be with him, let alone marry him. It was distraught him to hear from her that she wasn't actually pregnant, but it didn't change the fact that he wanted to marry her.

"I don't want to get married yet, and we don't have feelings for each other, right?! So why do you want to keep this engagement!" she asked, glaring at him while crying, and he couldn't handle the painful unease in his chest. His business rivals had been calling him a monster, but he had never felt even a single ounce of emotion at it. But hearing the woman he loved to call him that just felt like hell. Seeing her like this, hearing her say those words felt like dying. It felt like death. She was his life but also his death. "Because I love you!"

"I never knew that you're back to your old habit." Hades' thoughts were cut short when he heard someone say from behind.

"Hera," he said his sister's name before looking to confirm his assumption, and he was right.

"I brought you coffee," she said as she raised the cup of hot coffee she was holding, offering it to him.

"Thanks," he said before taking the coffee in his hands. The sweet aroma of black coffee assailed his nose, rendering him to sigh on appeasement. He missed drinking his sister's coffee.

"So she's gone?" he heard her ask. He could only nod in reply.

Hera sighed in disappointment. "Too bad. I was looking forward to meeting her."

He said nothing and only remained silent. Today had been a painful day. All his plans were ruined. He now considered his life ruined. The love of his life was now gone because he was too pushy on showing his affection.

"What're you gonna do now?" she asked.

He took a sip before putting his cigarette back to his lips. "Move on. Probably," he answered with his eyes directly staring at the night sky.