Crashing into an Old Flame
Chapter 125: My tattoo?

Chapter 125: My tattoo?

Maxim proceeded to adjust the pillows behind her and helped her lean back on them.

’’I am not kicking you after you called me stupid in multiple languages. That’s enough proof that the fever hasn’t gone into my brain or else it would have made me turn smarter,’’ she rolled her eyes.

Diana discreetly inched to the side when he sat beside her on the bed.

Her aching body screamed at her in agony but her mind was at peace. Sitting too close to him might just make her fever return.

Maxim brought the glass of water to her mouth. After taking a few sips, she opened her mouth, ’’I am not staying here.’’

’’Just the night...’’ he gave in when he heard her persistent tone.

’’No,’’ Diana raised her left-hand index finger and swayed it from left to right as she enunciated, ’’NO.’’

Maxim frowned, ’’Don’t be a child,’’ he leaned closer to her and pressed his forehead against hers.

Her face flushed, ’’Y-You...’’ You can’t sacrifice yourself to convince me.

’’You are still a bit warm. Let’s stay here just in case,’’ he tried to coax her gently.

Diana clamped her mouth shut when she realized that she misunderstood his actions. But then, did he check everyone’s fever in that manner?

She bit her bottom lips for a moment before she opened her mouth, ’’No. Either you drive me back to my sweet Angel or I pull this needle out of my hand and run away from here.’’

’’Diana...’’

’’On the count of 3,’’ Diana quirked a brow at him.

Maxim felt a headache.

’’1...’’

’’Listen to me. We need to make sure you are perfectly fine before we leave...’’

’’I am not a princess. Wrong answer,’’ Diana raised two fingers, ’’...2.’’

’’I get it but...’’

’’3...’’

’’She was not my girlfriend,’’ Maxim interrupted her.

Diana froze. Her fingers slumped and her jaw went slack when his words registered in her mind. No way, ’’Um, what?"

’’The person you asked about...’’ he frowned, trying to remember that girl’s name and failing at it, ’’She was not my first girlfriend or whatsoever.’’

’’No way,’’ she glared at him, ’’I don’t believe you.’’

’’Who do you believe then?" he quirked a brow.

’’At this moment? Anyone but you," Diana thought back to the day she went home and tore off all those notes that she had put so much effort into writing.

She had felt like someone stole her best friend from her.

"I don’t even know why you need to lie to me about something like this...’’ Diana gave him a pointed stare as she spoke, ’’I... I saw you both together in the library and I heard bits of your conversation. She said something about dating you.’’

Maxim’s brows tugged together as he tried to recall the time.

As it turned out, something like that had happened. But he had no idea that Diana was there.

’’I went to the library to look for you...’’ Maxim said, ’’We didn’t date,’’ Though there was a proposal from that side.

Usually, Diana came to the library during that time and he had wanted to wait for her there, not expecting to be pestered by someone.

In the end, he remembered leaving that place when Diana did not come.

"To look for me? You were ignoring me at that time,’’ Diana deadpanned.

When she thought about those days, indignance resurfaced in her heart.

He was in trouble and as a friend, she had decided to help him instead of watching from the sidelines. She did not know where she went wrong with it.

Maxim’s gaze deepened.

He lowered his head and glanced at her hand quietly for a moment before he asked, ’’What about you?"

’’What about me?" Diana was bewildered.

’’Your tattoo... Who did you get it for? That boyfriend you mistook me for that day or another one?"

Diana did not know why she felt angry at his words.

She did not lose her calm easily. She was not the one to be provoked with a few words. And she rarely lost her temper with this person sitting in front of her.

Yet, since the day she met him again, their dynamics had started shifting already.

Things that weren’t happening in their teenage years started happening now.

’’My tattoo?" Diana tilted her hand and looked at the messy heart scribbled at the corner of it before she looked at him, ’’Not for a boyfriend.’’

Maxim’s heart leaped with those four simple words only to drop when she continued speaking.

’’It was supposed to be a reminder of a friend who let me down, deemed me as annoying, and whatnot. I don’t know why people associate tattoos with happy memories. For me, this has been a reminder that nobody stays forever,’’ she met his gaze and her lips tugged up in a bitter smile, ’’People leave at their own convenience. Equations change with time. And emotions fade.’’

Maxim’s fingers curled into a fist, ’’Right.’’

’’Yeah...’’ Diana shrugged, ’’So, this tattoo is nothing special except for a warning sign to remind me before I get too involved or too attached again.’’

’’Good,’’ Maxim nodded and like the masochist he was, he asked, ’’What prompted you to get it?"

Diana gazed out of the hospital window.

After some time, she opened her mouth, ’’It was my 22nd birthday...’’

The stress of medical school, the pressure from her mother to start studying business, the absence of her father, and the loneliness got to her.

She did not have a single friend she could talk to.

Daisy already had a lot on her plate. She had broken off contact with their parents and was struggling to make a living on her own without relying on them.

Amidst everything, the burning hole that Diana had suppressed in her chest became more apparent.

She went back to the Chen Mansion after attending the lecture and the moment she stepped in, she was struck on her chest with a plate. Food had dripped from her hair and body while her ribs tingled with a numbing sensation.

And Diana had stood there in a daze while her mother told her how much of a disappointment she was, how she should have died in her womb, and every other thing that would not pass off as warm birthday wishes.

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