Chapter 21
- Rhea's POV -
I heard a soft voice from somewhere as I came down from the balcony. Otso's mind had a new prank, so we all went down from the balcony to her room.
But as I walked down the stairs, I was pulled by a singing voice. I was not able to go to the room because I realized that my ears were searching for the very cold voice I was hearing.
I found what my ear was looking for. He was sitting alone in front of the door holding his guitar. I secretly sat next to him, making sure he didn't notice me.
Jc turned to me when he heard my voice join him. He gave me a small smile when he saw me sitting next to him.
"Why did you stop?" I was surprised when he suddenly stopped playing the guitar.
We looked at each other.. He looked as if he was examining my face as if there was something. He just looked at me for a few minutes.
I feel like my body is getting cold when he looked at me like that.
After a while I raised my eyebrows, indicating why he was looking at me. It's like he doesn't want to talk and prefers to just stare at me. His gaze gave me a strange feeling.
"Aaah...." He swallowed nervously then smiled slightly, "What are you doing out here?"
My brain suddenly went blank. I couldn't prepare an excuse so I just smiled.
"Because you looked bad at me earlier." I suddenly regretted saying that without thinking.
He just smirked then focused his attention on the guitar again, "Maybe I'm just nervous."
And before I could think of an answer, he immediately played the guitar. My attention turned to the song he was playing.
It's good because I feel awkward.
"Is it hard to play the guitar?" My curiosity while looking at Jc in wonder.
He stopped strumming and turned to me with a smile, "Not really. Do you want to try?"
"I don't know how." I replied with puppy eyes.
All right. Lets pretend that I don't know. Even you also taught me before.
"Just try it." He handed the guitar to me, "I'll teach you."
"Okay??" I hesitantly took the guitar from him and positioned the soundhole in front of my stomach while the frets were in my left hand. Mind you, I strum right hand.
"What song do you like?" He asked when I was positioned.
I stared at the guitar while thinking, "Stars by Callalily."
His eyes looked down at the guitar as if he was also thinking, "Okay. The chords are not that complicated."
I just smiled at him in agreement. And he raised his eyes to me to smile too. A nervous smile.
I think I should be the one nervous.
"Ahmm.." He looked at his hands and opened them in front of me, "When you demonstrate chords, these are one, two, three and four. Then this thumb is behind the frets." He explained while pointing to his fingers one by one from the point finger, middle finger, ring finger, index finger and thumb.
He glanced at me and I just nodded when our eyes met.
"And the strings, here are one, two, three, four, five, six." He explained then plucked the strings, one by one, from the smallest string to the largest "And this is the fretboard." He then pointed to the fretboard.
I just nodded at his long explanation. Acting by someone who doesn't know how to play guitar.
"The chords are Em, C9, G and D. The intro is Led but I'll teach you later when you know how to strum." He then came closer to me and the little gap between the two of us disappeared.
I didn't realize that the hair on the back of my neck was slowly standing on end. I really don't understand why I'm terrified when he's this close to me. Weird.
And because I was so focused on the horror I was feeling, I was nervous when I felt his breath on my cheek.. It turned out that his face was so close that I didn't notice.
My eyes widened slightly while staring at the guitar. I can not move. It's like horror is slowly eating my whole body.
"First chords are Em." He continued while I was about to become a stone on where I was sitting, "1st finger on the 5th string, 2nd finger on the 4th string, 3rd finger on the 2nd string then 4th finger on the 1st string." He described as he took my fingers and placed them on the corresponding strings he mentioned.
I only moved my eyes to watch his hand carefully holding my fingers. It's like he can't hold it and I feel like I'm getting cold because his face is so close to mine.
"Then strumming is down." He continued to pluck the strings of the guitar.
I just raised my eyebrows and imitated what he did. I turned to him smiling, showing my shiny white teeth while he closed his mouth smiling at me.
I saw that his eyes seemed to sparkle because of his beautiful smile... Or my vision is a little blurry because of what I drank.
"It's easy, isn't it?" He said.
His smile still didn't disappear when he turned his gaze to me.
"Next is C9." He continued, "1st finger on the 4th string, 2nd finger on the 5th string then 3rd finger on the 2nd string and 4th finger on the 1st string." He illustrated and he did the same to my fingers, "The strumming is still down." He added.
At the same time as he was playing the guitar, it was as if someone fell from the sky and landed in front of Jc and me. We both stared at whoever it was and our eyes widened in shock. While I felt like my mouth was going to fall to the ground.
We were both dumbfounded when he turned to us and almost went crazy with laughter still holding his stomach.
It's like I know what's going on.
"Juviler, is the screw in your head loose?" Jc asked him laughing.
He took a deep breath to calm himself down, "Boss Uno is losing his mind inside."
Before Jc could answer, I couldn't stop laughing. I laughed at the dare that Otso did. I just don't know how Uno reacted.
Jc's eyebrows met as he turned to me. Obviously surprised.
I laughed when our eyes met. It was obvious from his face what he wanted to ask so I just explained.
"When you walked out, Uno was the one chosen to do the dare. Then they put a blind fold over his eyes and then let him into Otso's room..." I stopped suddenly because I couldn't stop giggling so he laughed too, "Then we chose two to be with Uno, a boy and a girl." Juviler and I giggled almost at the same time so we exchanged looks. Jc grinned while Juviler glanced at us.
"Him and Angel. Of course they both have blindfolds." I continued pointing at Juviler while suppressing my own laughter, "Then Angel will turn Uno on but Juviler will be the one who will kiss him on the lips."
"You? Lips to lips with Uno?" Jc laughed and turned to him and we laughed together.
Jc's laugh is so loud. His eyes were almost teary and he was still holding his stomach. Like he was about to roll on the ground. And his face was red with laughter.
"What? Is it good?" He even laughs mockingly at Juviler.
"Pwee! It tastes like Kerosene." Juviler joked and they burst out laughing again, almost driving them crazy. And I joined in the laughter.
"Shit! Who thought of that? Jc said in the middle of his laughter.
"Of course, none other than Janica Aquino aka Otso. The great co-founder of pranks." I still laugh at the answer.
And again they both burst out laughing. They are terrible. We might need paramedics here. These two are going crazy.
But with just one sound of the guitar, the two stopped their laughter that almost drove them crazy. They looked at me when I started playing the guitar.
I could see that Juviler was amazed while watching me and I was worried about Jc's behavior towards me. He looks surprised. Naturally, he didn't teach me the intro because it was led, but I knew.
Even before I could proceed to the next stanza, I was interrupted by Juviler's applause. So Jc and I both looked at him.
"Did you teach her?" Juviler asked Jc in amazement.
He just nodded with a small smile. But he seemed hesitant to nod.
"You are really good at teaching." He praised with a smile, "Primera's voice is good but the guitar is out of tune."
He just smirked and looked at me with raised eyebrows.
Oh my gosh!
I know that look very well. He rarely raises an eyebrow. I wonder if he has ….. Doubtful???
"Oh yeah, Four… One string is out of tune." I hint. The word came out of my mouth with obvious fear.
He didn't speak and he came closer to me. My eyes widened and I turned my attention to the guitar. I felt his cheek slightly touching mine. So a strange cold went up my whole body.
He extended his arm and it circled behind me as he reached for the corresponding tuning peg of the out-of-tune string.
While he was adjusting, someone suddenly pushed him which caused me to go straight to the ground. But before my face touched the ground, I immediately placed my hand on the ground. That's why, only my guitar and knee fell, while Jc fell straight to the ground.
I quickly looked to see who it was, but he was already in front of Jc and grabbed his collar and pulled him to stand up.
"You really don't distance yourself from her? I'll drag you away from her." His voice was loud and thick and threatened Jc.
He even managed to smirk even though his face was covered in dust, "Your girlfriend just wanted to learn how to play a guitar."
Before the situation worsened, I immediately approached them and pulled Ceejay's hand that was tightly holding Jc's collar.
"Ceejay, Eno–"
"Don't interfere!" He hit my face with his arm so hard that I fell to the ground and hit my face.
The next thing I witnessed was that Jc suddenly loosened his collar from Ceejay's grip and punched Ceejay directly in the face. Reason for Ceejay to step back.
"Are you stupid!? You're going to hurt your girlfriend!?" Jc's voice was aggressive which made Ceejay even pissed off.
Ceejay didn't seem to hear anything so he rushed straight at Jc and kicked him in the stomach. Jc groaned in pain as he wrapped his arms around his stomach and bent slightly.
"JUVILEEEER!!" I almost screamed.
Juviler hurried to them. The only one outside with us. He rushed between them as Ceejay approached Jc but Ceejay still didn't budge. He still tried to get close to Jc even though Juviler was trying to push him back.
That's when I picked myself up from the fall and quickly approached Ceejay. Hoping he will calm down and listen to me.
"Listen! Stop i–"
His elbow hit my face with such force, causing my whole body to weaken and fall to the ground.
Suddenly my body felt heavy and no matter what I did, I couldn't even lift my hands. I feel something hot dripping from my nose and my vision is getting blurry.
Juviler kept trying to separate the two dragons in front of me while my lids gradually got heavier until my vision became completely black.