“W-w-what?!!” I was surprised.
“He asked me to take care of you. You might think he’d asked too much, but it’s the only way I could make it up to him.”
“W-w-why would he do that?”
“Because he believed that I’m the only one who’s capable of protecting you as much as I protected him before, when we were younger.”
“B-b-but why didn’t you tell me all about these in the first place?”
Stephen stayed silent for a while. I just looked at him as he looked away and turned his back on me again. I was impatiently waiting for his answer.
“Why didn’t you tell me about you and your relationship with Jazz?”
“I might drive you away. I might scared you. I don’t want to fail Jazz. I’m afraid not to fulfill what I promised him.”
“You used me.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. You used me. You wanted to make it up to him by fulfilling your promise and you used me.”
“What do you expect me to do? Just leave it that way?”
It struck me. Somehow, Stephen was right. I’ve realized he didn’t have the worst intentions on me.
“But it was still wrong,” I convicted. “You should’ve introduced yourself properly – “
“And then what? You’ll laugh at me like everything’s a joke?” he moved toward me slowly. I stepped back as he tried to get near to me.
“No – “
“How would I know? I’ve been watching you for months now.”
“You’re stalking me?”
“Call it whatever you want. To me, I was just watching you.”
He was still moving toward me while I kept stepping back to avoid getting close to him. Finally, I back bumped into a tree and I’d nowhere to go. Stephen started to get closer.
“What are you trying to do?”
“I just want to protect you Nikki, just like what my little brother wanted me to do.”
“Stop. Don’t come near me.”
The distance between me and Stephen was getting smaller and smaller until our faces were just a couple of inches apart. He leaned his right arm on the trunk of the tree as he whispered to me.
“I wanted to protect you… or maybe more,” then he kissed me.
…to be continued
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