Chapter Two

Dominic

Riiiiiiiing !

Riiiiiiiing !

Riiiiiiiing!

My eyes opened immediately as soon as I heard my phone ringing loud as fuck. I groaned deeply at the lingering fact that I still needed some more time to sleep, preferably an uninterrupted one. The party that I went to last night was definitely something. My body was inched almost at the very edge of the couch, just about to fall. Much to my frustration, I mustered an ounce of energy enough to keep myself from falling and, at the same time, stretch my arm in order to reach for my phone. I'm pretty sure I did not set up an alarm for today. It took seconds before I realized that it wasn't an alarm but a call from my dad. I honestly don't want to pick up the phone, but I felt like I needed to, and I was damn right. He was calling to give me a heads up that he's already on his way back home from his business trip. I know it was supposed to be a three-day trip, but I guess something's changed. I was taken aback by the knowledge, and my initial reaction cost me to hit the floor unexpectedly hard. I quickly stood up, and then I realized that I am fully naked, my butt and everything just displayed into view. I promptly grabbed my boxer shorts, which is kicked under the table, and quickly slipped it on.

"Hey, time to wake up!" I whispered as if I'm going to disturb some other people here. Panic just took all over me. I know that dad is still hours away from arriving home, but I didn't want to be caught with a guy. I shook the guy, still sleeping soundly on the inner part of the couch. "Hey, wake up!" I made my voice even louder in my second attempt with high hopes of waking him up, and it did wake him up.

"Errr" He opened his eyes, slowly adjusting from the brightness of the morning light coming from the curtainless glass wall overlooking the lavish skyscrapers of the city.

"Wake up! You need to leave," I said to him. I was kind of hoping to spend a lot more time with this hot guy that I met last night, maybe cuddle a bit more longer, but I don't want to get caught taking home a guy on my first month here in Singapore. Dad doesn't know yet that I'm gay, I'm sure he'll be okay with it just like mom, but I want my coming out story to come from my own mouth at the right time and not by being caught hooking up with a guy.

"Like right now?" He asked, scratching his head, a little bit confused at my sudden decision.

"Yes, right now. My dad's coming home," I spat right at him dead in the eye as he quickly understood and got on his feet quickly. He was entirely naked as well, and his softened manhood jiggled into view. That thing served its purpose last night.

"Where're my jeans?" He asked after I handed him his boxers and shirt.

"I don't know, try looking behind the couch," I replied. I was also busy slipping on my pants. He found his jeans under the couch and quickly slipped on it. "Okay, go, go" As much as I don't want to be rude, but I rushed him towards the door.

"Hey, uhm can I get your number?" He turned back to face me once he was already outside.

"What?"

"Your number. Maybe we can go out some other time, maybe have some decent dinner or something like that," He said, ultimately handing me his phone.

"Yeah, sure, sure. No problem" I took the phone from his hand and entered some random number. In my mind, I've made a sudden decision not to see this guy anymore. He's hot and pretty good at bed, but I don't want anything further beyond that.

"Thanks, catch you later, bud," He mouthed, then left.

A week passed by faster than I expected, and I can't still believe that my first month here in Singapore, I already hooked up with someone that is a stranger to me, and even up until now, I still can't remember the name of that hot guy that I hooked up. I thought that that would be the first and only time that I will hook up with some random stranger, but it actually turned out to be the start of a terrible thing that is going to define me as a horrible human being.

I can still remember everything that happened after that Valentine's ball, it was a hell of a nightmare, and everything was dreadful. I really tried running after Valentine with the pure intentions of explaining everything to him, maybe let him know about the things that he didn't know, but I guess fate doesn’t really trust me after that. I became the one big elephant in the room; everyone sees me, talks to me, but nobody wants to talk about it. I am so fucking guilty at the fact that I'm the only reason for Valentine attempting to take his own life. After all that he'd been through, he doesn't deserve what I did to him. Everyone thinks that I'm the monster, that I'm the heartless devil who cold-heartedly ripped Valentine's heart out of his chest with my own sharp claws. At first, I began blaming Valerie and her anti-Valentine club for setting everything up to a perfectly calibrated move. I even resented Yhannie for not even giving me some information so that I could at least cushion the blow, but in the end, I ended up believing everyone. I ended up accepting the truth that I'm the monster, that I'm the villain to this madness. I'm basically the joker to their batman.

Valentine motherfucking Grande. He's truly worth fighting for, but I just gave up the fight. I could've just easily let them took away everything from me and be the poor victim of this vendetta. I could've just let Valerie send that video to the principal and risk being removed from being a candidate for Valedictorian or the worst-case scenario of getting expelled only a month away from graduation and ultimately disappointing my parents. Had I chosen that option, Valentine would probably still end up broken-hearted, and I will still be a total mess. After my graduation speech, I shifted the blame from them to myself. I was the one signed up into that bullshit. I was the one who dragged myself into the quicksand. I did this to myself, and I have no other choice but to live with it.

As soon as College began rolling, my life also began rolling. Everything that happened just happened without me thinking about the consequences of it. I started dating a lot of hot guys, different guys week after week after week. I don't know. I feel like I am desperate to find someone who can help me get through the aftermath of what I did. My life turned around. I'm dying from the pain and guilt that is continually taking my breath away, and yet I'm still very much alive. I'm suffocating from everything, and I guess hooking up with different guys creates a perfect place for me to hide. I lost myself upon trying to figure out how life would turn out for me.

It's eleven in the evening, and I found myself sitting alone in the bar casually drinking my beer as I let my eyes roam around the vicinity with the intention of checking everyone out first before doing some action. A cute guy is wearing some glasses at the corner, he's probably waiting for someone, but I can tell that he's kind of checking me out as well. A tall guy is scratching his stubbled chin who’s probably waiting for someone else as well. Another guy is walking towards the bathroom wearing some leather jacket and ripped jeans.

"Found some cute guy yet?" The waiter named Ozzy with a curly mullet asked as he served another bottle of beer in front of me. I've known this guy for about a month now since I started drinking here in this bar. We've been having small conversations, and that's just about it.

"Uhm, What?" I replied, acting as innocent as possible. Of course, having been here at the very same bar, at the very same spot at the very same time for about a month now, Ozzy already knew what I was looking for here. A hookup.

"That guy seems like he's checking you out," Ozzy said, almost whispering, pointing at a guy a few feet away from me.

"Who?"

"That guy in a floral shirt," Ozzy replied as he went back to wiping some glasses. I turned around to see the guy he's talking about, and he's right. He's checking me out. He smiled the moment our eyes met.

I just kept on drinking my beer while still trying to tease that guy, and after five minutes, he gave up and just walked straight towards my spot.

"Hi there."

"Hi"

"I've been checking you out," He said, subsequently sitting right next to me. "My name's Jonathan."

"Dominic," I smiled, and we did a handshake. "Nice to meet you."

Jonathan and I spent some time trying to score some getting to know each other points from each other. He's telling me everything about his home, hobbies, exes, and basically letting me know how fragrant his name is. Well, I'm buying it for now. We had this weird conversation about turtles until the moment he decided that he had enough of it and told me to go somewhere else.