I went to the cafeteria and saw Brian and Miguel eating with our other classmates, but Vino was not with them. I looked over to the table where Lanie and her friends were, and Vino wasn't with them either. I went out of the cafeteria and ran to the gymnasium.

He's gotta be there.

I heard the sound of a bouncing ball before I even entered the gym. I slowly walked in and saw Vino alone, practicing his shooting. He broke Kane's heart and now he was just here casually playing ball. It made no sense at all.

"Vino."

He was aiming to make a shot and paused. He turned to look at me.

"Jeff," he greeted, holding the ball in front of him.

"Whatever happened to your promise of not breaking Kane's heart?" I asked as I walked towards him.

He didn't answer, but he furrowed his eyebrows.

"You go on making her fall for you then you leave her as you go after another girl? Why did you lead her on? What kind of bullshit are you trying to pull?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," he calmly said.

Why are you still talking so fucking calmly, dude?!

"Oh, I know very well what I'm talking about. You're a liar."

I stopped walking when I was about a meter away from him. I really wanted to hit him in the face but then I remembered that we were graduating in March and it might affect our conduct. I just balled my fists to my side.

"I still love her, Jeff. I love Kane," he said, avoiding my eyes.

"You left her for Lanie."

He dropped the ball on the floor, and it slowly bounced before rolling towards the bleachers.

Vino took a sharp, deep breath. "I did what I had to do," he murmured, almost inaudible.

"You think I'm glad that you left her? Hell no, Vino. It's not like she'll love me if you leave her like that. All I can do for her is to be a friend—to be by her side when she needs me. After all, that's just who I am to her."

He remained silent, frozen on his spot.

"Fuck you, Vino."

I was thankful that we had a two-week Christmas break. It had given me a chance to reflect about my untoward behavior. I kind of regret speaking to Vino like that. I was angry at him for what he did to Kane but maybe I didn't really have the right to interfere with their issue. I just hope Kane was doing fine. I hope the New Year would bring better things for all of us.

As our classes resumed, everyone seemed to act normal except for Kane and Vino. But maybe it was as normal as it could be for both of them. They had been avoiding each other—more like pretending that the other didn't exist. We all wanted to know why he left Kane, so the rest of the gang tried talking to Vino about the issue but they said Vino never gave a solid explanation.

Kane, on the other hand, never confronted Vino. She said she didn't see a point in doing so but I thought she was just scared to ask. To quote her, 'It's clear as day that he doesn't love me'. I wanted to tell her that Vino had told me that he still loves her but it sounded like bullshit, and I couldn't tell if he was sincere because he looked like he was lost in thought when he uttered the words. Although I still felt like Kane needed to know.

But how would I be able to prove it? Vino should be the one to tell her and prove it.

I thought this was one of the disadvantages when your friends date each other. The whole circle would be affected by their problem. It was exactly what happened at first, but Kane had told us that there was no reason to cut ties because we were still in one circle, after all. She said that the problem was between Vino and her and we didn't need to take sides. Surprisingly, it didn't feel awkward once we got used to it. I could talk to them and still feel at ease. We just didn't mind Kane and Vino's behavior towards each other.

Over the weekend, I went to Vino's house. We had been acting civil towards each other, just for our friends' sake. If Kane didn't want us to be affected by whatever happened to her and Vino, our friends shouldn't be affected by what happened between me and Vino. But I wanted to make up for what I did.

I was mad, but I was out of line.

"Hey," I greeted as Vino opened the gate for me.

"What's up, bro?"

"I just thought I should apologize," I said right away. He nodded at me, and we walked towards their porch. "Sorry about what I said."

"It's okay," he answered seriously.

"So we're still cool?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "I already lost her. I don't want to lose another friend."

I nodded, and we remained silent.

"Why did you do it?" I asked. I was referring to him and Lanie, and I knew he understood my question.

With his head bent down, he answered in a low voice, "I had a reason."

But that was not the answer that I wanted to hear.

The only thing I didn't understand was why Kane and Vino still sat beside each other during some of our classes if they didn't even want to talk to each other. I thought it was very stupid. But maybe it was part of the plan of "acting normal" or maybe, they couldn't just throw away the remaining thing that keeps them close. Sometimes I just didn't understand them at all.

There were a few occasions wherein I saw Kane watching Vino from afar and vice versa. They might avoid each other, Vino might be going out with Lanie, but then their eyes wouldn't lie.

Just like the rest of the gang, I knew they still love each other, or at least a part of them does. But they wouldn't do anything about it, and we couldn't do anything to help them fix it. But if one day, one of them comes to me for help, I wouldn't think twice about helping them get back together, but Vino has to keep his word.

It was our Physics class and it was our lecture time. I glanced at Kane as she wrote down on her notebook, and her unzipped pencil case was on her desk. Vino was sitting next to her, taking his notebook out from his bag. Kane accidentally knocked her pencil case and it fell on the floor, her assorted fine liners and black pens scattered on the floor. Vino immediately bent down to pick them up, beating Kane to it. Miguel also bent down to pick up the purple one near his foot. He handed it to Vino, and the latter put all the pens back on the pink pencil case.

"Thanks," Kane said when Vino put down her pencil case on her desk. He just nodded and went back to his notebook to focus on the lecture.

Couldn't she see that Vino still care?

I averted my attention from her to the lecture on the board. I couldn't help but think—if only she knew.

And that's it!!! Jeff's story ends in their senior year.

Playlist and a longer author's note is up next. ❤️