ONE BITTER TRUTH

Have your hands ever trembled when it held a simple piece of paper?

Eleanor Lopez thought as she took a full gulp of her whiskey, filling not only her stomach but her mind with the brandy drink, hopefully she could drown her troubles with this translucent drink. There was a lot of bustling in her back, but she felt it like buzzing sounds not worth her attention.

Her mind travelled back to few days ago when she stepped into the doctor's office to receive her results for her routine medical check up. Who could have thought that her world would crumble down her feet from the moment she held that stack of paper.

"According to the results, you're HIV positive."

The three letters words "HIV" echoed in her mind like the trumpets ringing nonstop, clanging sounds that couldn't deafen her, yet she felt that she had become dumb and deaf the moment the doctor slowly told her the results of her routine medical checkup.

"How is that possible?"

She knew that question seemed stupid as the doctor didn't even know her, he only collected her results and kindly explained everything to her like a doctor would do. He wasn't supposed to give her any explanation, but remind her of the virus that had installed itself in her body without her consent.

How ironic, Eleanor thought.

If viruses requested once permission before it installed itself, would anyone have been affected with the deathly disease? Its existence was mysterious and enigmatic, plunging one in a lonely world,till they lost a reason to ever live.

Her legs had gone weak, but she was still able to stand still, reading her results God knows how many times and requesting thesame question.

' How is it possible?'

She might seem paranoia for requesting an answer to such an obvious question, but she knew she wasn't. Eleanor Lopez had always been a clean freak, dodging dirt as if it depended on her life to be clean. It wasn't that she was scared of any disease like HIV which couldn't even attain her through dirt.

She was just Eleanor, a clean freak.

"Miss, this is not the end of the world, you can still have a normal life as long as you follow your treatment?"

The doctor tried to comfort her as much as he could, but it was to no avail. He couldn't understand what it felt like to be affected without a reason. HIV was either sexually transmissible, through blood transfusion or a pest of insect carrying it from one person to the other. But Eleanor knew she hadn't been affected because of a mere tiny mosquito, neither had she gotten it through sex.

Afterall, she was still a ******, she hadn't gone to that level of her relationship where she went beyond holding hands and sharing a kiss with her boyfriend. She was grateful that he was a considerate and comprehensive boy friend.

He choosed her from a million girls who had wished to be with her, loved and cherished her like a treasure. She had been planning to finally give herself to him on his birthday, but now she was...

HIV positive

She wished there was another explanation or it was a mistake, but no it wasn't. She was indeed HIV positive, carrying in her a virus that no one would want to die with even in their most darkest nightmare.

She walked out of the doctor's office, her heart shattered into million pieces, she only hoped that a hand would pull her for a warm hug and tell her.

' It's fine Eleanor, hold on, I'm here, we would overcome this together.'

But she was alone in this world, with no one to hold her hand or place a hand on her forehead when she was sick. The only home she had was in the old orphanage, but that orphanage had long fallen into ruins.

However, she managed to pull through, got herself in the best university through her excellent results, worked part time jobs for a living and sharing a room with her bestie.

Bestie?

She wished she hadn't acknowledged that girl as her bestie,she wished she had never saved her life in the cold street at the risk of losing hers. If only she had known who were her real friends from the start, she wouldn't feel the crushing feeling of her heart being walked on.

What bestie

What an ironic view of a best friend, Eleanor thought as a bitter smile curled her plump sexy lips.

She still recalled how she did everything for that so called best friend, taking the biggest risk for her only to brutally stroke by her envious cruelty.

How could you?

Eleanor had asked Vivian as tears gathered in her eyes, hoping the truth wasn't as it seemed. But Vivian's voice came after a sneer.

"Why shouldn't I? You're merely a picked up street girl with no identity,why should you have everything that I can't get as the doctor's daughter?"

A doctor's daughter and an orphan who was picked up from the street without identity. This was the brief truth about her and Vivian, but she was glad that her best friend never felt bothered by it.

At least, she had thought, until the day her so called best friend used her privilege as a doctor's daughter to contaminate her blood with that of an HIV patient, causing her to be infected as well. 

She tossed her chestnut hair elegantly walked towards Eleanor with a victorious smile.

"That's the privilege of being doctor's child."

Eleanor had felt her blood boiling in rage when Vivian proudly acknowledged her deeds without any remorse in her eyes. Not a single moment did she feel hurt for have destroyed her life, but she seems to be celebrating her downfall as if she had been waiting for this moment all her life. 

Maybe it was indeed the fact, maybe Vivian had indeed hated her for a whole of their childhood, but she was just too blind to see those things.

"You're so despicable!", Eleanor yelled, but her voice went hoarse due to her crying, however Vivian wasn't affected, but she sneered even more.

"Humph, you're the one who's affected with a despicable disease, stop trying to find faults with others.

"You ...", Eleanor lifted up her hand to hit Vivian in anger, but her hand was held mid air by a familiar presence.

"You ...

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