Presente Divino by Dawn Rosewood

finally trapped. And I stared up into his eyes with extreme seriousness. “Do you truly

believe I don’t know anything, Cai?”

He was still trying to press himself further up against the wall, but it was a futile attempt.

The only thing creating distance between us now was our height difference. When he

eventually came to the same conclusion that there was no point in trying to move, he finally

looked down at me, his eyes searching mine as if he was looking for something. I waited for

his reply as he opened and closed his mouth several times, almost as if trying to find the

right words to say but nothing would come out. Then, finally, I lost patience. I angrily sighed

and turned away, heading towards the door. “You want to know

which of us is the child? Go take a good, hard look at yourself, Cai.” “Aria, wait,” he called

after me. “I‘ll make it up to you. We can do some extra lessons and I’ll even teach you a

special fighting technique only taught at my pack” I disregarded what he was saying

and kept walking, choosing to reply without even turning to look at him. “Don’t

bother, Cai. I‘d rather not spend my time with someone who can’t even take me

seriously.” “Well, then you‘ll get your wish anyway,” he called out. “I‘m not going to be here

for much longer.”

I paused in my tracks and finally looked back at him.

“…What do you mean?”

“I mean my exchange is up in a week or so. I’m going to be forced to head home soon.”

Whatever feeling of calm I had managed to hold a few moments ago was abruptly thrown

out the window, my fury being reignited. I wasn’t sure what made me angrier; the fact he’d

ditched me for over an hour to get into a girl’s pants, or the fact he had been planning to

leave so soon and hadn’t even brought it up until now. “Are you actually telling me right

now that you were planning to go back home in a week, and you weren’t even going to tell

me?!” “No! I was going to tell you! Of course, I was.” “When?! via a letter when you’d

already returned?! I thought we were friends, Cai. What the fuck is wrong with you?” “No,

don’t be stupid!”

I stormed back towards him, quickly making up the ground I’d previously made between us.

“You want to make it up to me, Cai?” I asked rhetorically. “Fine then.” I threw a punch

towards his face that he dodged effortlessly, moving his head to the side to avoid the blow.

“Aria… what are you doing?”

He took a step back to make some distance, but I didn’t let him get away. I swept my leg up

at him in an attempt to hit his side, but he quickly blocked it with his arm. “What do you

mean? You thought this was going to be fixable by just a simple make up training session,

right? Well then, hit me, Cai!” I shifted my weight to my other leg and tried to surprise him

with a kick from my other foot. The movement was fast enough

that he did almost miss it, but at the last second, he grabbed my ankle, holding me in

place. “Stop this,” he growled. I refused to listen to him, his request only making me want

to hit him more for trying to tell m e what to do.

He still hadn’t let go of my leg, so I took the opportunity to grab onto one of the desks

behind me, using it as leverage to support my weight. Lifting myself into the air, I then

kicked him square in the chest, forcing him to release my ankle and stumble several feet

backwards.

“Hit me, Cai,” I said trying to goad him, covering the space I’d just made again.

“No.”

I went to punch him in the jaw, and, to my surprise, he didn’t even try to defend himself this

time. My hit landed perfectly against the side of his face and I was left staring at my hand in

disbelief.

“What are you doing..?” I asked in complete shock.

But he didn’t answer me. Unsure about what else to do, I then tried to hit him again; a right

hook straight into his stomach. He coughed and stumbled back but, still, he didn’t try to

defend himself.

I screamed out in anger at his refusal to engage and ran up to him, hitting him again and

again several more times, all of which he endured and never once raised a hand against

me.

“I said fucking hit me, Cai!” “No! I won’t!” he finally yelled back. “This isn‘t

the gym, this isn‘t training. I’m not going to hurt you.” The weight of his words slowly

started to wear me down as I continued to attack him, my punches against him slowly

becoming weaker. “…Please… hit me….” I could feel my tears coming back and I swallowed

hard to keep them at bay. He refused to answer and continued to let me come at him. When

I finally admitted that he wasn’t going to react, I slumped to my knees in front of him,

defeated. It had only taken a few more hits before I had finally stopped, my tears having

fallen enough by that point to obscure my vision.

“Are you done?” he asked after several moments had passed. I couldn’t do it anymore. I

couldn’t stand this feeling of being insignificant once again. Was it actually impossible to

hope someone would put me first for once? That I would be someone’s priority? 1

Because I realised that was the real reason as to why I was so angry. It wasn’t about the

girl, or about him being late… it was because I thought Cai had actually cared about me,

that we were friends. But I knew there was no real reason for him to have felt that way. He

was an incredibly charismatic and friendly guy to every person he met. The truth was he

probably had a tonne of friends, maybe even a best friend waiting for

him at home. And yet I‘d had the audacity to assume that maybe I was equally that

important to him. … That maybe I mattered. “…Go,” I whispered quietly. “What did you just

say?” he asked, sounding unsure as to whether he’d heard right.

“I said go, Cai!” I yelled, shooting my head up to meet his gaze. “Leave already! Go back to

your territory and have a great life!” He didn’t hesitate for even a second longer. He just

turned around and left straight out the door, not needing to be told a third time.