Kiss of A Titan
Chapter 60

As I stood there in profound satisfaction, I briefly watched him return to take his position with the sprinters at the starting line and I felt utterly relieved of seeing Richard come back to the team highly spirited and confident enough to begin his training in spite of everything that had happened in Hawaii.

"He looks handsome, doesn't he?"

The question came from someone familiar standing behind me and I turned around to see who it was. It turned out to be Katherine and she peered at me with her pitiful pale eyes of which ringlets of her fawn hair kept brushing against because of the wind. I glanced at the athletes whom I could barely pick out in the race track from afar and returned back to look at Katherine. She wasn't looking at me and still had her eyes wrapped up in what the athletes were doing. My guess was that she was looking at Richard with the same bird-eyed view I used to pick him out from the midst of the other runners.

"How long have you been standing there?", I ignored the first question and brushed aside the strands of my hair.

"A while now", She replied, still gazing at the runners. "You really must hate me now, don't you?", "To be honest and sincere, I didn't hate you as much as I dislike Lori even after all that has happened", "You expect me to believe that?", This time, she turned to face me and I folded my hands across my chest.

"Believe it or not....That's the truth", "I still don't believe you", "Suit yourself then", I said and made a move to leave but she wasn't done yet.

"Wait...", She said and I stopped. Then she came to confront me face to face.

"Is there something more you want to talk about?", "You must hold a grudge after knowing that I did that on purpose", "Like I said, I don't hate you....", "That's a lie. You can't be all that forgiving when you haven't been to the gymnasium for some days now", "I admit that I was bit disappointed because of what you did but you aren't the reason why I haven't been to the gym lately", "Then is it Richard?" she questioned giving me the same pitiful look the first time she stared at me. Right there, I felt I had the upper-hand in the conversation and I wasn't letting her trample on my pride once again like she did before. Now was the opportunity to put her in her place and I felt the power to set things straight with everyone beginning from her appearance at that moment.

"Yes...It's because of him", I said affirmatively though not too sure of the words that came out of my mouth but I was ready to do the right thing and it was clear that she knew that as well. She was taken aback for a brief second and I could clearly see that she was at the end of the stick.

"You...love him now, don't you?" she asked, trying to calm herself from breaking down.

"Obviously, Yes, I do love him...what's it to you?"

I asked boldly and she flinched. Her eyes suddenly became beclouded with tears and she looked away effortlessly trying to suppress the tears in her eyes. She sniffed and wiped the tears clean from her eyes after she felt an even sharper pain stabbed her heart and I was beginning to feel a lot sorry for her. I felt emotionally bad for her and regretted questioning her rudely.

It was a question that would have really felt good if it was Lori I was talking to but I had unwittingly asked the wrong question intently to the wrong person who clearly was finding it hard to be lucid with her actual thoughts because of some pain she must be feeling as a result of her findings.

"Are...you okay?" I asked, feeling a bit bad at myself.

"Everything's....fine..I...just feel angry at myself", she stuttered sniffing more profoundly than before

"And why are you mad at yourself? I mean, I just said I don't hold a grudge against you", "It's not that...", She said and looked at the athletes who were now taking a break from their incessant running. "I feel bad because of some other reason that's already too late to talk about...", "I don't quite understand you", "Let me be clear....Before Richard started dating Lori, I had a crush on him but...", "You didn't want to come in between them", "No...it wasn't that I was afraid he would decline or envious of their relationship which was quite the gossips around school back then but I felt too embarrassed at myself to be liking someone who already has a girlfriend and that was Lori", "If that was how you felt, then why didn't you tell him after they broke up?" I asked curiously and she looked at me squarely on the face for some time before responding.

"Sadly, I had thought and hoped he would chase after me if I snobbed him like I did all the time but that wasn't the case. I was too stupid to think that it was the best approach to get him. That's why I purposely hid away my feelings from him and...things were promising until you came along..." she said and stole another glance at the athletes. The air seemed to quiet down between us and it was my turn to be taken aback by her explanations.

"After Richard and Lori broke up, I was...happy that he might look in my direction but he kissed you right in front of everybody....I felt severely hurt much more than it did Lori", she narrated and her face became even paler than the first time she appeared behind me.

"That's why you made everyone ditch me back in Denver", I mumbled at the sudden realization of her true intentions.

"Yes...I did that on purpose to separate you from him even though it was hard doing something you know it's clearly wrong and it would only hurt you back after you do it", she explained further weeping bitterly and exhaled deeply to calm her breath and her voice from breaking which was already racing as she made her intentions known to me. Deep down, I wanted to say that she had failed in goal but some eerie feeling of pity stopped me from slandering her right on her face. "The two of you looked better together after all that has happened and after your return from Hawaii", "How did you-", "Everyone knows you accompanied him there....It's no longer news that you're his girlfriend since you were the only one he personally invited for the vacation", "Katherine, I...", I said apologetically even though I wasn't in the place to ask for forgiveness.

"After all this time, he eventually chose someone else over me", 'I'm truly sorry if things turned out this way...I really didn't mean for all this to happen", "It's fine. I'm used to his views about women and I'd like to let you know that Richard's yours now.......and I accept that if though it's being tough for me", She said and turned to leave. I wanted to stop her but my fingers were already shaking with disbelief by the time she left me there alone to ponder on her revealing her hidden feelings which she had bottled up inside her the entire time we knew each other not only as athletes in a team but an iconic figure I admiringly looked up to be the best I can be in the field of athleticism in the Titan team.