Clyde thought that he was bound to be the 'King of Troubles' forever. Doing hilarious things to whoever he wishes to pissed off was always his flavor of every distasteful life he had. But things changed after the dreadful thing he did to Raine.  Despite of everything he did just to humiliate her, Raine never get rid of the unpretentious smile on her face. It was true and genuine enough to lighten a heart that had been into the dark.

Would it take a 'sorry' to heal the broken heart and lowered the Eiffel Tower of pride?

It was bright sunny day; clouds were raging away from the oceanic sky. It was past noon already and students were going back and forth on the hallway of the social sciences building.

The time that our English Professor dismissed the class, I immediately moved out on the room, making it faster than the adrenaline rush could ever do. I was heading to where the stupid stacks of books were kept, where my girlfriend Raine was waiting for me. Despite the fully crowded way, I managed to get passed on them. The sweat did manage also to grasp on my body. Good thing I didn’t smell odd.

Raine wanted to meet me there after my last class today. It was because of my stupid failing grade in Mathematics. Instead of spending our time together in a cozy and romantic place to date where we could talk about random things and treasure every second in our life, we will be spending it in a dull, rubbish, and such boring place, the library.

I told her yesterday that it was best to study at her place. There would be no students around looking awkwardly on us like they always do. Surely after a hateful boring session, we could proceed to the most awaited and exciting one, what mostly the two people do alone.

But in our one and a half years of being together, we never reach far from cuddling and kissing. As much as I wanted to do more, I love her so much that I respect her. If only she was like any other girls I dated; I could’ve hit on her just like I always did on others before. But she wasn’t any other girls to begin with. She was different, attractively different.

Raine Auster, in her big timid pair of eye glasses in front of her big rounded brown eyes, curly shoulder-length blonde hair, thin luscious lips, and flawless white-light skin, was a strong, fierce, determined woman enough to make my life miserable. It wasn’t because she was terror, mean, arrogant, badly war-freak girl. She wasn’t any of that at all actually. It was because she was the total opposite me. She was purely –hearted. She never got angry to anyone even to those who despised her. She didn’t plant any grievances yet watered those hopeless ones to grow. She could see good things in every downfall and the tiny little light in the darkest corners. She was the most amazing miracle I had.

My past life was actually a disaster. The people who knew me called me his highness Clyde, the King of Trouble. I was a bad-ass jerked who love to hurt and bully every one. Women were my toys and the games I always wanted to play. I never attended any classes and instead vandalized the precious walls on the school. Detention became my home. The Institute could never expel me because of the fear they had on my family name, Stewart. But things changed after I met her.

I started to love her the time that I did the most humiliating thing in my life.

Raine was a new student at that time. And since I loved doing troubles, I wrote unnecessary things on her class schedule that made her almost lost in the school grounds, drew skulls on her notes and even painted different colors on the inner walls of her locker. The most exciting thing of all the troubles I did was to see how furious the victims’ expressions could be. It made me so hyper every time I got to witnessed it. But I never saw it on Raine. Because every time I gave her troubles, she would just did her three S: sigh, shrug, and smile. It wasn’t just a typical type but a genuine one. It made me mad all the time.

One day, I was sneaking on her bag thinking on what prank I would do next when I saw a pink notebook with a red lace locking it. I supposed it was her diary. It wasn’t my hobby to look on someone’s privacy but then I thought I might read something interesting. I found out that she was the only daughter of a two parents, who had been separated when she was 10 years old. She was living along in an apartment since her parents had their own families already. But she was still sustained and supported by them. She had a nanny, who looked after her but she never let her stayed overnight. She also had a driver to send her anywhere she went.

She had been living independently for 4 years already. In the last 4 years, she stayed at her grandparents. I felt sad on how lonely she had been all these years. I shook my head in disgust for a countless times to get rid of that weird feeling. An evil smile was plastered on my face when I read about what she was scared of, one of the creepy creatures from the family of Arachnids, the spiders.

It was lunch time; a lot of people were in the cafeteria taking their food. While Raine was on the line to get something to eat, I placed a large hairy spider on her bag. She returned to her table and placed her food on it. When she opened her bag, the large spider jumped out on her chest.

She freaked out in horror, pushing away the spider reluctantly. Her screams and shattering voices were so loud that the people around her laughed at the entertainment. I tried catching my breath for laughing too much. The feared looked on her face added up to the spice. She froze as the people continued to make fun of her.

At first, I thought she was so ashamed and embarrassed that was why she was craving for a bigger amount of air. She was grasping for it in a hard way. A school doctor, who happened to witness the incident, suddenly approached her and tried to calm her down.

“Who did this?” the doctor angrily asked all of us.

Everyone stopped laughing. The cafeteria turned into a sudden silence. No one dared to talk yet they knew that when it comes to trouble, I am the author.

The doctor glared at me in disgust. “Are you trying to kill her?!”

That was when I found myself dumbfounded. Despite of all the trouble I did, killing was never in my vocabulary. It was the least thing I wanna do.

The doctor called for some help when Raine lost her consciousness.

The next day, she didn’t go to school nor attended her classes. It made me worried so much. I asked some of her friends on where she was. At first, they hesitated to answer since they find it unusual. Some were too mad to entertain me. They thought I was planning something bad to her again. But when they noticed how persevere and determined I was, they told me what they knew.

Raine was confined on the hospital after the incident and it was all because of me. It wasn’t just simply fear of spiders, she had an Arachnophobia and a phobia could kill.

I blamed myself for what happened to her. My stupid pride couldn’t stop me for asking forgiveness; it will be my first time.

I felt a little agitated as I stood in front of her ward. It took me forever on opening the door.

What welcomed me was not a pale woman who suffered from a terrible trauma but a woman who just freshly woken up from a deep sleep and had just garnered maximum energy storage. She was half lying on the hospital bed with her back leaned on the wall.

Raine looked at me, wondering. Her mother, who was sitting beside her, gave me the same questioning look. I was astounded when Raine gave me a genuine smile the she always wore. It seemed that the time was frozen as I literally stiffen on the door. I only went back to my senses when Raine kept on uttering my name.

“What are you doing here Clyde?” she asked in a calmed voice yet bewildered.

It took a moment before I found the words to answer. “I—wanted to talk to you.”

“I’ll leave you in a minute. Just call me if you need me.” Her mom stood up and leaved the room to give us some privacy.

I stepped heavily in the room unable to speak. I was sure what I came for but I seemed to lose the reason at all.

She broke the atmosphere when she felt that I was tensed up. “So? What push you to come here?”

“I—am sorry for what I—‘ve done.” I stammered as I mouthed the words enough for her to hear.

Raine didn’t say anything at all as if wanting for me to speak more. When she realized that it wasn’t my nature at all to explain, she showed me again the heart-warming curve of her lips. At that moment, I felt strange. My heart was thumping like a bass drum; it was so loud and deafening. It made me hard to breathe for a sec. I grasped my chest for the sudden reaction.

“Are you okay? Do you need to see a doctor?” she asked worriedly.

I shook my head and felt embarrassed. She chuckled when she saw my face turned red.

“What?” I irritatingly asked her.

She tried to stop laughing but just couldn’t. “Nothing, I just find you cute.” She confessed.

She stopped when she noticed that I was shy at the moment.

“It’s okay, by the way. You are already forgiven.” She smiled as she continued, changing the subject. I didn’t expect her to forgive me that fast after the terrible thing I did to her.

I frantically frowned, not wanting to accept what she said. I could easily understand if she will get mad at me. But accepting like nothing happened at all pissed me.

"Don’t you loathe me for what I did? Shout at me! Hurt me for almost killing you!” I shouted, not able to control the raging emotion on me.

She just shook her head, making my annoyed more. “I can’t. On the contrary, I wanted to thank you. If it wasn’t because of you, I would have collapsed because of overly fatigue. I’m pretty workaholic person so I’m so stubborn to take a rest especially when I’m in the middle of finishing something important. It was already God’s works to let me rest. I can’t resist that.” Her face was so gleeful while explaining to me. She was just calm yet too delightful.

“Too optimistic.” I commented in a low tone.

She responded, not taking out her smile. “There’s always a reason behind anything. God won’t let unnecessary things happen. You see? We’re about to reach the stage of being friends. Thanks from what you did. It didn’t result that bad after all.”

It was the start of our friendship. We got to know each other as the days passed. People around me seemed to be startled at my sudden change but they didn’t have any choice at all. It wasn’t theirs to deal with. I stopped doing any troubles; the professors were pleased to that. It made me realized that it would never do good to me nor to anyone especially if I kept on troubling them. That was why I made a promise to myself that what I did to Raine will be the last one.

Raine was too bubbly even from the start. She did most of the talking when we had a conversation together. And I just love to hear her giggles, her voice. It was later that I found out that I’m a natural talkative myself. Our relationship started to get deeper, reaching the new stage. Until we realized that we wanted to spend our lives together.

But sometimes, in order to strengthen ones relationship, it must be tested. On how strong the foundation of love was.

I was three meters away from the library when someone clung unto my neck.

“Hey Clyde, I miss you,” said Dara in a flirtatious way. She was one of my flings before I met Raine.

Dara tried to kiss me but I pushed her away.

“Don’t you miss me?” she asked in the same tone.

The students around us were being suspicious in our actions. I pulled Dara away from the crowd, just a bit corner near the library.

“What do you want?” I asked her annoyingly.

“I want you.” She declared as she tried to grip my collar but I shove her hands away.

“Stop this. We’re done already for a long time now.” I angrily said.

“I won’t not until I get what I want that only you can give.” She said, annoyed.

I heaved a deep sigh before asking her. “What is it?”

She traced my lips with her index finger, leaned closer and mouthed ‘kiss’.

I pushed her away. “Do you think I would buy that?” I told her, not showing any sign of interest.

“Yes, because if you won’t do it then I’ll ruin your life and your girlfriend’s life.” She threatened me.

I thought about it for a moment until I had remembered that Dara was a psycho. She would do anything to have things her way. Then I decided to let her taste her own medicine.

"Okay. Promise me that you would stop this insanity to me and my girlfriend.” She leaned closer again to my face as she breathed ‘promise’. I did the same by lowering my face since I was taller than her. My face was just an inch away from hers when a ruckus sound erupted behind us. I checked if who it was, only to find out that it was Raine. She gasped; her books were on the floor. Her eyes were starting to get misty.

I swiftly walked towards her. “Let me explain.” I uttered but then she ran away. I chased her, leaving Dara behind.

It was never my plan to kiss Dara. I thought of leaving her half-way. But Raine thought that I did kiss her.

I suddenly gripped her wrist when my pace became faster than her. She faced me with anguish. Tears were streaming down from her eyes.

"It’s not what you think it was.” I explained in a soothing voice.

“You kissed her.” She cried in pain.

I had this urge to hug her, to comfort her but thought it was better to explain first. “I didn’t. Trust me.”

“But I saw you. Don’t deny it from me.” She said in a quivering voice. It was now louder than her normal tone. Good thing we were at a place with seldom people around.

“You’ve seen it wrong. That’s not what happened.” I persuaded, matching the peak of her voice.

Raine stretched her arms forward not letting me talk. “Leave me for a while. I wanted to think.”

I sighed in submission. Madness was flowing through my veins. “So you don’t believe me?”

“Please..”

“You’d really think I kissed Dara?”

She didn’t respond, looked down and cried in silence.

Frustrated as I was, I leaved her hanging.

I kept on walking, not giving any attention to where my feet were heading to. It took me five minutes before I stopped. I looked around and noticed that I was on the parking lot already. I took a deep breath, trying to reflect what I just did.

I was furiously mad, really mad. My head was spinning in chaos. Weird because I didn’t know on what I was mad at all. Was it because of Raine not believing me? Was it because I was only thinking on myself and not to what Raine felt?

I ruffled my hair in irritation. I was deadly confused.  I didn’t know what to do. Not realizing of what I did, I kicked something in frustration. It was too late to realize that I hit the bumper of a SUV car. There was a slight dent formed against my force. I threw a deep groaned in exasperation.

“Such an unlucky day.” I muttered boringly, opened my bag and went through it. I picked up a yellow sticky note and a pen and wrote ‘sorry for the damage’. Pretty sissy requirements did helped in times of crisis like this. It wasn’t that I couldn’t pay the casualty. I wasn’t just in the mood to talk to anyone right now. I decided that I would deal with it later.

Three days had passed and it had been three days too that I’d tried to talk to Raine. I called her every single time yet the voice mail would do the talking. Sometimes she would hang up the phone. I tried to approach her at school but every time I did it, she would stride away from me. My will of wanting to talk to her had gone insane to the extent of thinking on kidnapping her. But of course I didn’t do it.

It was almost dusky but the grayish sky was betraying the time. It was filled with fluffy clouds and was about to precipitate.

Despite the weather condition, I was too stubborn that I ended up walking with no assurance. And for the second time, it led me to the same lot. I sat down on a protruding cement near to a black auto, looked down with my head rested on my palm.

This was my first serious relationship yet it was drowning. It was all because of me. I promised that the spider incident would be the last trouble that I did. Sadly, I did another one. I broke my promise and it was pounding me inside in torture.

It started to rain heavy as it painlessly dropped on my flesh. Yet I disregarded its presence. I was too consumed by my thoughts to care how I was so drenched in the water. Let alone the coldness wrapped my whole body. Unconsciously, I hit my side with my knuckles, full grip. Then I had hit a bumper again only to realize that it was the same car I hit three days ago. The dent was still there. Maybe the owner of the car didn’t notice the damage and the note was flown away by the wind.

I sighed in submission. I pulled out my sticky note again. I wrote the same words I had written last even though it was soaked with water. I was trying to affix it despite the knowledge that it wouldn’t when its wet when someone called my name. It was warm enough to make me feel better. I closed my eyes and let myself be drifted in a dream. But then she called again. I looked up to where the voice came from. I wasn’t dreaming at all.

Raine was standing in front of me three meters away. “So it was you?” she asked in appeasing tone as she referred to the damage that I did in the car.

“Is this yours?” I asked, pointing to the auto at my side.

“My Family’s.” she answered as she looked at me intently.

“Sorry about that. I was too agonized in our situation that I your family’s car without knowing, twice.” I said, embarrassed.

“It’s okay.” She smiled.

“No.” I interrupted her. “It wasn’t okay Raine.”

I slowly got up and drew closer to her. “I was too selfish. I hurt you so much. Believe me. I swear to God that I didn’t kiss her. I intended to leave her hanging. I’m so sorry Raine. Please forgive me.”

She was already crying but never moved an inch.

“I love you Raine. I always do. Even though there’s no chance for you to forgive me.” The time that I had spoken those loving words, she threw her arms around me, letting go the umbrella she was holding.

“I already knew the truth. Just a while ago. But I wanted to hear it from you. And it’s true. I’m sorry Clyde because I failed to believe in you. I was so hurt and jealous that was why I can’t afford to talk to you. I was protecting myself not knowing you that you had suffered a lot too.”

“Hey.” I tightened my hands around her waist, not wanting to let her go. “It’s not your fault. It’s mine. Don’t cry Raine because it pains me seeing you or even hearing you cry.”

“I love you Clyde, so much.” She loosened her grip but still her arms were clung around my neck.

I held her face with one of my hands, caressing her smooth pale skin.

We stared at each other for a moment. I took the initiative as I leaned closer to her then felt her luscious thin lips to mine. It was passionate and full of love. i deepened the kiss like claiming her as mine. I was too happy that she responded.

We lost the track of time as we let go, trying to catch our breath.

“Good thing no one was around.” I commented hilariously.

She chuckled at the thought but suddenly went to a halt as she remembered something. “By the way, I saw the note and kept it inside my ID holder. No wonder I felt sentimental when I found it. The penmanship was kinda familiar though except that it was lazily written.”

I chortled.  I handed her the wet sticky note when I realized it was still in my hand. “I planned to attach another one after hitting it again. Too bad, it won’t stick anymore.”

Raine held the note and opened it to see that the only visible word was ‘Sorry’. She smiled at it. “I’ll keep this. It seemed like it was really intended for me.”

“I agree to that. Glad that the car was yours or I’ll be paying. We gotta dried up or we’ll get sick.” I pulled her hand, picked up the umbrella and started to walk.

“Actually—you will be.” She said gleefully and it made me stopped. I turned to face her to know if she was serious.

She appeared in my front and tried to explain. “Our driver was extremely angry when he found out about the damage. My father didn’t know about it yet and I don’t want my driver to be burden because of your doings. You should start to be responsible from now on Mr. Stewart.” She pointed her index finger at me like a boss, beautiful and attractive boss. Surely the one I wanted to marry with.

I sighed in surrender. “Okay. Be thankful that I love you. But we better dried off fast. I don’t wanna see you in a hospital bed again because of me.”

“Well..” she uttered as she took one step closer to me. “..having a little bit of fun won’t kill us, you know.” She tiptoed as she gave me a peck on my cheek and ran away.

"Come and get me Mr. Troublemaker. It will be fun.” She shouted from afar.

I smirked and ran towards her as we shared another happy moments together.

Love is a package. You don’t need to buy trust to make it perfect, patience to make it longer and romance to make it beautiful. Because when you love, you trust no matter what happens, you forgive despite the mistakes being committed and you give love because you love without any conditions at all. Love is the best foundation in a relationship, so strong that is hard to be destroyed. It doesn’t just deserve second chances but lots and lots of chances. Because Love is unconditional as long as it came from Him.