BETRAYAL

I pressed the call button again for the ...th time and placed the phone on my ear, pacing around the small space in the hospital room.

But all I got was the damn irritating sound of the rings until the phone went dead again—yet again!

How many times had I called?

I had lost count, and the nervousness and the anger were driving me mad.

"Where the heck are you?" I murmured to myself through gritted teeth as I pulled the phone from my ear.

I checked my wristwatch and sprinted out of the room and down the hospital hallway, my white coat flaring behind me as alarms blared in the background. My grip tightened on the medical chart in my hand, the edges biting into my palm while my heart raced with bubbling panic. Streams of assorted feelings surged through me—feelings that I didn’t want to entertain.

I was almost running out of breath from all the sprinting when I bumped into a nurse along the hallway. I grabbed her, my feet still refusing to be planted on the shaky ground underneath. “Hey! Sorry, have you seen my boyfriend?”

The nurse’s brows furrowed at the thought. She took a second to think before she finally gestured vaguely down the hall. “I think I saw him follow Marylyn into a room down the hall some minutes ago.”

“Marylyn?” I asked in confusion.

No. Actually, I was just thinking, and it came out loudly. So loudly that it wrinkled up the nurse’s face in confusion.

Marylyn was my best friend of many years. We had gone through a lot together, sticking together through thick and thin. However, actually, we were not on the same level. She was a rich kid, the only one of her social class who sought friendship from a nobody like me. So it would be fair enough to say that she was with me throughout my lows. The only weird thing I knew about her was that she wished to have a man like mine.

A pure, refined wine! A complete package—that is how she always described him, saying that Vincent was every woman’s dream man. She praised him even for the smallest things and even defended his wrongs. But that was just her telling me that I had chosen wisely. That I was blessed with a good man. It never triggered anything in me.

Except this very moment, when I heard that my man had followed my best friend into a room. Vincent had come to greet me this morning, after going MIA on me for the entire weekend. Something didn’t sit right with me.

“You don’t seem okay,” the nurse pointed out, studying my furrowed face and the uncontrolled rising and falling of my chest. “Is anything the matter?”

"Umh... No,” I responded, shaking the raging wild thoughts playing in my head. “Thank you. Please excuse me,” I excused myself and ran off in the direction where the nurse had gestured earlier.

My stomach twisted as I ran down the hall towards the supply closet. My head felt heavy with the wild thoughts that ran through my mind, while my heart thudded inside my chest. Each step felt heavier than the previous one, anxiety fueling my every step.

Upon getting to the door, a faint sound reached my ears from the inside.

But it was not just any sound.

It was a quiet moan that sent a cold chill down my spine.

I dragged my feet near the door, and immediately I placed my ear against it. I froze.

“V…ooh. Ooh, yes, baby. Like that…aah,” the sound echoed again, even louder now than before.

I couldn’t move and couldn’t breathe for minutes I could not count. The ground beneath me seemed to shake dangerously, forcing me to stay still.

V??? That sound...and that voice...something sounded damn familiar. Too familiar, yet too unbelievable. It was impossible.

The moans echoed again and again while I listened behind the closed door, my fingers lingering on the doorknob while I battled with my divided thoughts. I didn’t know whether to walk in and confirm what I was thinking or just walk away to save myself the pain.

‘But, that can’t be… ‘I must be paranoid,’ I tried convincing myself.

Finally, after a tormenting moment that felt like an eternity, my trembling fingers found the courage and twisted the knob, pushing the door open with all my might.

I threw myself inside, and for a moment, everything stood still, except for the dagger that was slowly piercing through my heart.

First, it was the strong smell of sex. And it floated past my nostrils to the high heavens, as if the entire world needed to know of what was happening inside that room. A suffocating stench that made me nauseous.

And then, then came the deafening combo of thrusts and moans and heavy breathing and the curses of suppressed pleasure.

My eyes snapped open, and I caught sight of them—Marylyn was pressed against the table, moans of pleasure leaving her mouth as my boyfriend, Vincent De'Luka, hungrily trailed wet kisses down her neck, his trousers and boxers hanging halfway as he mercilessly pounded into her.

They were intertwined, his manhood fully buried inside her pot of honey, hungrily thrusting in her as if he was quenching a thirst of an entire century.

Beads of sweat dropped on Vincent’s back that faced me, a stinging bittersweet sign of a sweet moment of pleasure that I was about to interrupt.

I staggered back, and my vision blurred for a second as the moans and thrusts became louder. My legs became too heavy to walk me any further. I almost choked on my blocked breath. My entire body shook with the disbelief and the shock of what stared right into my eyes.

My boyfriend and my only friend?

“H..o…w can thi…” My mouth ran dry as soon as I started, and the words came out so faint that it did not interrupt the scene at all.

The medical chart slipped from my hand, clattering on the floor and startling the duo from their nearing climax. They finally sprang apart, moans and curses of disappointment raining from their mouths, guilt and shame spreading across their faces as they faced me.

At least, that was what I, the stupid, naive me, would have imagined.

They should have been ashamed and shocked that I learned of their betrayal, right?

My eyes locked with Vincent’s. I now had two streams of tears running down my chubby cheeks.

Tears that didn’t move him at all.

He was there, standing so tall and dauntless as if he was silently commanding me not to speak a word about what I had witnessed. At some point, I could swear that I saw the guilt vanish from his face.

Or maybe it was never there…

From behind Vincent came a nervous giggle followed by a mocking murmur, “What a bad-timing bitch!”

I shook my head, not letting that bitch get to me. I took a deep breath in and out, calming the storm that was raging inside of me.

“No!” I whispered, my voice cracking as I wiped the tears from my eyes.

I shot my clear vision toward Vincent again, as if confirming something or, perhaps, demanding explanations, of which Vincent didn’t seem to be bothered.

He just stood there. Erect. Dauntless. Emotionless. There was not even a slight tinge of guilt on his face, like I expected. It was like he couldn’t even see me. I had suddenly turned invisible to my own man. He couldn’t see my pain, nor could he own up to his own betrayal.

“This is not happening. This…” My mouth went dry as Vincent shifted in his posture, pulling his pants up slowly, like he intentionally wanted to let the details of his betrayal sink into my brain. So unapologetically.

My mouth remained agape as my blurry vision watched him get dressed. His composure stung more than the act of betrayal itself.

I mean, how could he be this calm, unbothered, and cold towards me after I caught him cheating on me?