Chapter 3

“Hello?” I answered the phone.

“Hello, is this Mr. Adalbert?” a female voice asked me on the phone.

“Yes?” I answered and was curious who she was.

“I am calling from the hospital, and I am afraid I have bad news for you.”

“WHAT?” I shouted.

Chapter 4

“Which one did you pick?” Corwin asked me for the thousandth time now, I guess.

“Pick what?” I answered, even though I knew what he meant.

“The girls, which one did you pick?” he asked again.

“None,” I answered.

“Seriously, I already chose five of them,” he said with pride in his voice.

“What do you want to do with that number? Make an orgy movie?” I asked.

“No, but I let my options open, so if one of them said no, I go for the other one,” he answered with a smile.

“So which one did you pick?” I asked. I was curious.

“I won’t tell you until you tell me yours,” Corwin said.

“Look at you. You are in university, and you behave like a high school kid who got his first kiss. Now tell me who they are, so in case, we won’t have a conflict of interest,” I said it casually.

“Nope, you first,” he responded.

“For the thousandth time, I told you, I didn’t pick any. Which part of ‘they aren’t my type’ that you don’t understand?” I told him. He irritated me. I wished I could punch him in the face, so it made him shut up. I was wondering what would happen to his bony face with that curly black hair. He thought that he was a guy who knew everything, and worse than that, he thought he was a player.

“So I won’t tell you who they are,” he responded. Childish, that was what he was.

“It is fine with me,” I responded. I never thought about the girls that way since I saw that look from that woman. She was a mother. What would she feel about a guy like him who had only one thought about girls—that they were made for men’s desire? I couldn’t blame him. Not a while ago, I was like him. But the look of that woman changed my life. I couldn’t bear the thought of playing with her dreams. She had plans for her sweet kids. How dare I challenge that after knowing that? A guy like him always became so blind and self-centered that he didn’t care about anybody else.

“Seriously, you haven’t chosen anybody?” Corwin asked again.

“My answer hasn’t changed from two seconds ago,” I answered.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s been changed. Who would you choose if you wanted to pick one?” he asked with persistence.

“I don’t know. I would choose anyone for now just to get rid of you,” I answered.

“Okay then, choose one,” he requested. Oh boy, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I missed Marshal.

“Okay, okay. Just promise me, after that, you leave me alone, okay?” I said.

“We’ll see,” he answered, and when I gave him a look that said “Either that or you go home without an answer,” he said okay.

“Let me see,” I said while scanning the classroom for the girl whom I wanted to pick up. I don’t know why I went through that length of trouble to find a suitable candidate for my choice. I should’ve chosen the first one I saw. After a while, with so much effort and scanning, I decided on a tall girl with dark-brown hair with pure hazel eyes. She was nicely dressed up. She was wearing a long black dress, which matched her hair. She seemed to be simple enough, but not losing the edge.

“That girl who just walked by,” I said to Corwin.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“She was one of them, but I’ll let you have her,” Corwin said.

What the hell he thinks he is? Is he a celeb or the prince of some country? What a crazy guy I am dealing with, I thought.

“Thank you. You are so generous. I’ll remember that,” I said.

Next Day

“Here comes your crush,” Corwin said in front of some other classmates. I just wanted to remove him from the earth.

“It’s not what you think. I just told him that to get rid of him. Yesterday, he went nuts,” I said and hoped they would believe me. Not a chance. Now they had something to play with or, better to say, tease with.

“She I’nt tat bad. Ai laik ho she woks,” David said.

“Got the message. It’s Dave’s. Hands off,” I said and hoped they would let go of this.

“Not a chance, mate. She’s oll yo’s,” David responded.

“What is wrong with you guys? I don’t know her name, and you guys think I have a serious crush on her?”

“Her name is Marina. What other excuse do you have?” Corwin said.

“When the fuck did you find out?” I asked. We started walking toward the coffee shop to have lunch. It was a good day if I wasn’t with them.

“Yesterday,” he answered.

I had nothing to say. They were all laughing, and I knew they were playing with me, which means being social. Fuck you, Marshal. They were all talking, but I blocked them out. I was enjoying the sunrays on my face. It was my second semester in Pure Mathematics. I hoped that someday I would become a mathematician who could solve any problem. Not speaking highly of myself, I was doing fine in university. All teachers and professors relied too much on me. I think they were abusing me because they asked me to go to their class and teach math each time they wanted to take a day off or anything else. To be honest, I enjoyed teaching math. I didn’t care who was learning and who wasn’t. If they don’t want to hear the beauty of nature’s language, it is their loss. Almost all students in university knew me and asked me to tutor them, but I had to refuse, not because I was too proud to do it but because I was too busy doing other projects with other professors. I was solving problems for the computer, chemistry, biology, and other cool stuff. As soon as I finished one, another one was replacing it. I was way ahead of all my classmates and grad students, even though I was a freshman. I had the teachers’ respect, and they took my work seriously, so if any students ran into a problem, they usually referred them to me. Also, I was a member of art classes. I continued doing the things that I had done since high school. I was passionate about music, painting, and theatre. I was doing those kinds of staff because I was lonely and had too much time in my hand in high school before I met Marshal. With all those works that I had, I didn’t have time to eat lunch peacefully. I didn’t mind that since I was learning everything from every field so fast. Next time, if I see Marshal, he is going to be fucked. How can he compete with a guy like that?

I felt someone was elbowing me, so I looked and found that gaunt face of Corwin. What now? I thought.

“Look, there she is. Your crush is following you. I think she likes you,” Corwin said.

I didn’t respond. It would be a waste of time. I just gave him a look that he should stop it or else.

At the time I came to the university, Corwin was sitting beside me as my good fortune. That was what he told me all the time. He introduced himself, and after that, he forced himself into my life. Since then, I never saw peace. He was a dynamic fellow. He would be a good friend if I had more time to spend with him.

“Now dat am loking, she lok tasty. Gud job, Agustin,” David said, and with it, he started laughing with Corwin and Winn. I liked Winn. He was an intelligent guy and didn’t talk too much. He just wanted to be with others, but he didn’t force himself to others as Corwin did. Winn was studying Theoretical Physics. He had a scholarship for it. He also had this bony face with light-brown skin. His hair was short. I could see that every girl could fall for him quickly. He was handsome and neat. We became friends when his teacher introduced us together to help him in mathematics about Quantum Physics. He received my respect. He was brilliant, and above all, he was the opposite of Corwin in talking. He always had this kind of manner in his talk. He couldn’t swear. He couldn’t raise his voice to anyone. It was like he wanted to be invisible. Oh boy, who knows what happened to him when he was in high school. Understanding that, I felt sympathy for him, but I never pitied him.

“Why don’t you go there and talk to her?” Corwin asked.

“I thought she was in your list if I remember correctly. Since I want you to have a full life without regret, I’ll let you do the honor. Now go there before Dave does,” I answered.

“Wat do you theink of me? If ai had a chance, ai wod do it without a second thought,” David responded.

“See, you have the blessing of Dave. Now go there,” I persisted.

“She is your girl. I wouldn’t do that to you,” he responded with a smile.

“What do you think of her? Do you think she is going to be your girlfriend just like that? Just look at her. Her shape, the way she walks, her manner. She is going to be a great challenge, even for Winn. She isn’t an easy thing. It’s a tough one. As all of you know, I don’t have time to go to the toilet, and hitting on her takes time. Until she knows who I am, what the fuck I am doing in this university, and what kind of person I am, I’ll get old enough to be the daddy of all students in here. Between the three of us, we all know that Corwin would be the best. You are one of those sneaky sons of bitches. I know you like her, so don’t play with your food and go there like a man and see what you can do, okay?” I said it while I was putting my lunch on a tray.

“Are you setting me up?” Corwin asked.

“No. I told you the truth,” I said. Winn and David agreed as well.

I saw the girl sitting with her friend; they had been together since morning. To be honest, she was terrific. Her smile reminded me of Calysta. Her smile was beautiful. Marina, what a lovely name she had. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to be THE GUY who just wanted to have sex with her. After seeing those eyes of a mother on that dreadful day, it was almost impossible for me to be that man.

“To be clear, you won’t get mad at me if I go there and be with her?” Corwin asked.

We didn’t smile. We just shook our heads to let him know it was an okay from us. He then told us that at a suitable time, he would ask her out. I was glad that now he had another hobby to play with, even though it would be harsh on the poor girl. Now he was her problem.