by Twila Bergania and Kat Petines
Welcome back to Rewind Down, where we sit back, relax and revisit stories. This feature series is inspired by The Rewatch Project of Forever Young Adult.
Caught up yet? Click here if not! If you’re done, let’s proceed to Episodes 13-19!
EPISODE 13, in which Kit and Matthew treats us to a hot and cold 12 night
So we know from the previous episode that Kit has somehow fallen—quite literally—into Matthew’s arms after a few rounds of drinks. (Kids, remember not to drink on an empty stomach… better yet, don’t drink at all.)
This chapter opens with a scrumptious late dinner in Matthew’s apartment, where Kit happily munches on truffle butter and brioche slices after the party. Matthew is obviously on cloud nine after the successful event, so much so that he decides to celebrate with a bottle of wine. Kit on the other hand is somewhere between being the supportive girl (space) friend, and not having the heart to tell Matthew that his magazine’s layout sort of sucks. For dessert, they treat us to a steamy bedroom scene that left us wanting more… In the same fashion Matthew left Kit hanging.
Kit wakes up the next day alone in bed, and with a really bad hangover. Further proving his douchebag capabilities, we find Matthew eating breakfast while reading on his iPad. He greets Kit ever so casually, as if nothing really happened the night before.
“Hey, you’re up.”
Well, hello to you, too, Mr. Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’am? Can that greeting be any colder?
He then proceeds to offer bad coffee to our girl Kit and ignores her for the rest of their shitty breakfast which, by the way, was made up only of cereal and milk. Wow, how gracious of you, Matthew.
As if that’s not enough, the inconsiderate bastard starts helping himself to a handful of Kit’s goodies as soon as she finishes eating. We’ve got to hand it to him, guys. At least he had the decency to wait until the food’s gone. Kit seems to have become a happy participant once again. We’re all slack-jawed, waiting for our girl to come back to her senses once her hormones are done ruining her.
“It feels right, to be wanted by a man during brunch.”
However, she knew something wasn’t right the moment it ends and we can’t help but sigh as we go through the thoughts in her troubled little head.
“Call me clingy. Call me crazy but I sense something has changed.”
At this point, we’re trying to keep our kilay below sea level while we wag our fingers at Kit along with our best I-told-you-so look. The guy is clearly just stringing her along for sex and our poor Kit is too blinded by her adoration that she basically reverts to her ‘side chick’ ways where she subconsciously checks around for remnants of last night’s tryst.
“Why am I so conscious about not leaving a trace?”
To fully drive in the fact that Kit is nothing but a booty call on speed dial in Matthew’s world, he drives her home in silence and doesn’t speak to her until she decides to break the ice.
“It’s the weekend. Any plans?”
Matthew’s probably too absorbed in his self-serving thoughts that he’s surprised when he realizes he’s with someone. He doesn’t even get Kit’s hint. He tells her he’d be in Tagaytay for an all-important tennis match (a sport perfect for entitled jerks like him, TBH). They fall into another awkward silence until they reach Kit’s condo where he leaves her with a peck on the cheek and a promise to call.
But we all know what happens after he says that, right? Zilch.
EPISODE 14, in which Kit gets her heart broken by Matthew… again
Kit despairs over Matthew’s flagging interest, as evidenced by the decreasing number of calls that downgraded to text messages that downgraded to five days of no communication. We’ve all been there. We know she should take one for the team and just. Stop. Waiting. For. Him. To. Get. It. Together.
But of course, she’s feeling him, which is why we see her wondering if she should invite The Douche to a last-minute date on a Friday night. FORTUNATELY, while she’s caught the feels, she still knows she shouldn’t. It’s a bad idea. So she calls her handsome friend Denver, and it looks like she’s going to have a fairly good night…
Until Matthew shows up looking amazing. And she’s floored.
From there, it only gets worse for Kit. When someone asks if Kit and Denver are together, Denver blurts out:
“I wish,” Denver grabs another glass of wine. “She’s with Matthew here.”
To which, Matthew—proving that he is the biggest a-double s-hole in the universe—replies:
“Kit and I are just good friends.”
DOUCHEBAG. Kit escapes to the bathroom to cry it out, composes herself, and tries to carry on with the night.
EPISODE 15, in which Kit falls into depression and we fall for Tristan more
Sigh. If there’s any more reason to want to kick Matthew’s lying ass, it’s his subsequent effect on Kit. We find our heroine trying to hold it together in front of Matthew, Denver, and Mr. Collins while they persuade her to hang around longer after watching a play that hit way too close to home.
Thankfully, she declines the offer by pretending she’s about to hook up—err, meet up—with someone. She books an Uber to take her home and our homeboy Matthew never even looks at her, which is a shame because then he’d probably see just how hard she’s trying not to have an emotional breakdown in front of their mutual friend and hot former teacher.
Kit comes home to an empty apartment and officially begins her cry fest over Mr. Liar. Because she’s our friend we let her drink away her sorrow, hoping she’d be fine the next morning. We’ve all had nights when that’s left for us to do is to ugly cry ’til we fall asleep so we feel yah, Kit!
“I remember watching ‘Moulin Rouge’ until I feel asleep. I remember feeling such a loser.”
And if there’s any more reason to love Tristan, it’s the fact that he’s always there to rescue Kit from her crazy moments. He’s obviously worried about her so he wakes her with his loud knocks on the door and Kit opens it in a state of utter mess.
“Did someone die?” he asks quietly.
“My pride,” I reply.
Can we just stop and admire their relationship at this point? They’re so comfortable with each other that Kit allows herself to look her worst in front of Tristan, and Tristan instantly knows that something’s up before she even opens her mouth.
Without even really understanding why, Tristan takes her out for breakfast at what we could tell was Recovery in BGC. (Frankly, if we were that broken we’d crave for their tapsilog too because it’s just sooo good.) In the middle of her self wallowing story, sweetiepie Tristan even offers his pancakes to Kit and we basically melt into a puddle of mush.
Tristan’s advice is to run away from Matthew for a while, which is the exact thing we think Kit should do now that we’ve seen once and for all how much of an asshole that guy is. Kit is hesitant, and Tristan proceeds to ask her what exactly she feels about Matthew. She answers in the form of a Shakespeare-like monologue about the way she feels when she’s around him and basically what she’s saying is that she doesn’t really know how she feels about the guy.
“Do you think Matthew feels the same for you?”
Ouch. Our girl fails to answer that but we all know the answer anyway. Tristan, in true friend fashion, continues his safe advice because who else would give #TotalBrutalHonesty to Kit other than him?
“He seems like he’s on a different kind of high, whatever it is he’s getting from you is fueling his ego. While you, on the other hand, are falling way too fast and way too deep. And you’re not even sure if you love him or not.”
Whew, let’s give it up for good friends like Tristan. In the end Kit resolves to stay away from Matthew (FINALLYYY) and Tristan helps her escape somewhere… Could this finally be the start of #TeamKiTris going canon?!
EPISODE 16, in which Kit tries to heal from Matthew and finds her way back to Tristan
Kit finally has had enough of the city and hitches a vacation with swoon-worthy Tristan to a beautiful luxury resort in Marinduque. She completely deserves it. Downtime away from the stresses of the daily grind is a prerequisite to shaking some douche off of us, we know that. Besides, if she has to cry, there’s no better way to do it than being somewhere with a great view!
New place, new perspective, new life. So Matthew:
We see her having a perfectly lovely time with Tristan! He’s the perfect host, taking her out to try water sports, making sure she’s comfortable, and even sleeping on the sofa when the resort made a mistake with the accommodations that would have meant the two of them sharing a bed. Hmmm…
And our girl is happy. She’s not thinking about Matthew too much, and she’s even considering making up an excuse she can say to her boss so she can extend her leave period and stay at the resort longer. Tristan continues to be amazing. He’s pleasant, he’s sweet and he’s very invested in giving Kit a good time. He even goes the extra mile and kisses her on the forehead before leaving for work for the day.
WAIT, WHAT?
Yes. And Kit is confused. But she resolutely tells herself it was just a friendly kiss. MMMMMM.
EPISODE 17, in which Kit finally snaps out of it
With the way things are going between Kit and Tristan, we were betting something HUGE was going to happen soon and at this point, we’re too invested not to want it bad. So when we finally see Kit walking around the island in deep meditation, we’re overjoyed. Our girl is finally facing her demons the right way, cross-legged in the Meditation Sanctuary and surrounded by lush greenery, peace, and quiet.
She starts by thinking about Tristan’s uncharacteristic kiss-on-the-forehead. The she goes deeper into her long-time non-relationship with Matthew and realizes that she’s beginning to hate herself because of him. We start cheering for her when she finally leaves with a stronger resolve to let go and forget him.
“Maybe I am not in love with Matthew. Maybe I am in love with the memory of him.”
With newfound enlightenment, Kit walks back to the villa and gets her much-needed beauty rest. It’s a good thing she slept the afternoon away because a few hours later, she wakes up to the sound of a ringing phone and on the other end of the line is a very busy Tristan asking her to “dress fancy” for an event he’s doing later that night. Yes! Finally, something to get the ball rolling again. We can just imagine Kit finally making up for the time she lost when she ditched Tristan at the gallery.
“You want me to dress to impress.”
“Well, you’re always impressive,” he says. “But yeah something like that.” And then he disconnects.
This is it, guys! We’re ready to know that this episode might just be our next favorite, and our girl DID NOT disappoint. She dons this amazing white dress with a slit (*GASP*) and strides into the event with an aura of hotness we’re 100% sure Tristan won’t be able to avoid. She’s welcomed by Tristan’s tita who seems to be very fond of her. Kit sees Tristan in action and comes to a realization we’ve ALL been wanting her to have since Episode 7.
“A guy like Tristan doesn’t come very often and I am insanely lucky to have known him almost all my life.”
The event finishes and we see Tristan basking unabashedly in Kit’s beauty. What’s more? He’s got truffle fries as bait. They go back to the villa and step into the outdoor Jacuzzi while eating truffle fries and talking about their high school happy times. They go back to the moment of senior prom where Tristan apparently told Kit that he’s leaving for the states. Maybe that’s why he chose to take her to the dance instead of Kit’s high school best friend who we thought he fancied more. Somehow, they slip into more serious talk which ends up in Tristan finally confessing his long repressed feelings for her.
And then they kiss.
And we officially lose it.
Of course they stop. Tristan is obviously super scared she’d react negatively and she almost does but mostly because she’s also super insecure about herself. How could a broken girl like her deserve someone so good? Maybe he wouldn’t like her now that she’s damaged and ruined.
“Listen to me,” he says, kneeling down in front of me and dripping wet from the Jacuzzi. “You are not broken. You are not ruined. You… you’re just being pulled like a puppet on a string by some asshole you met in college.”
Aaawww… Damn that was so cheesy and so sweet and ARGHHHH our feelings!!! That’s when Kit finally snaps out of it. She realizes she’s never really been bound to Matthew which makes it easier for her to welcome Tristan with open arms. They kiss again and at this point, it’s gotten super hard for us to read the next few chapters without squirming like worms with so much kilig and excitement.
EPISODE 18, in which Kit and Tristan finally get it on
We’re still reeling from the discovery that IT WAS DEFINITELY NOT A FRIENDLY KISS. And there’s more!
After swimming and drinking champagne, Kit and Tristan proceed to the bedroom. Our girl is tipsy, but she’s still thirsty. So she makes her moves, and Tristan responds… but:
“I want nothing more than to make you mine, Kit,” he whispered in the dark. “I want every part of you. But I want to do it the right way, even if that means waiting another day.”
OMG. Sound the sirens, romance is not dead.
Even better, she wakes up to a breakfast and a loving note from Tristan. We’re thinking if this doesn’t sound like the best way to move on from somebody, then nothing is.
Kit knows it. She understands the gravity of last night’s event, and she thinks about it. Almost like a deliberate test from the universe, she gets a text message from Matthew.
“I had a dream about you last night,” Mathew’s message reads.
She’s miffed, but she asks what it is about, out of curiosity. Matthew says they were having sex in his dream, and she says “Sure,” turns off her phone and tells herself she’s done with Matthew and his games.
GOOD JOB, GIRL.
She wanders around the resort, and comes home to a lovely dinner lovingly prepared by Tristan. And she gets her dessert later, when he comes home and they finally get it on.
She just has one teensy problem, though, and we hope it’s something that will come to be sorted later on.
Episode 19, in which Matthew reappears just when things are starting to get better
Ahhh, mornings at Bellaroca are starting to get more and more awesome for Kit. In this episode, we are treated to a morning love fest from Kit and Tristan. We know it’s way too early, but we ain’t complaining. Kit starts to question whether she should start thinking of her best guy friend as her boyfriend. Unlike Mr. Asshole, Tristan a.k.a. Mr. Right spends the morning eating actual breakfast with our heroine and bestows her with so much affection that we’re starting to hate it (just because it’s too good to be true). Plus, they said ‘I love you’ to each other!
But then Tristan leaves for work and Kit is left alone only to find twenty four messages from Matthew asking her if she’s mad. Uhhh, no shit? We’re still not sure what happened at Avenue Q, but for Kit to run away to a place like Marinduque for a break, we’re thinking it was REALLY BAD.
Anyway, Kit moves along and tries to find peace within herself, away from the memories of both Tristan and Matthew. However, she finds the resort too crowded now because of an event so she makes her way back to the villa only to be shocked by the presence of—surprise, surprise—Matthew.
Ugh. We hate Matthew. We really do. Just when #TeamKiTris is going so well, he comes in and ruins everything. They talk about Avenue Q, and Matthew goes on to tell Kit that whatever he did was only because he was protecting her form the bad labels people usually attach to the women he dates. Really now?
“You’ve known this since college. I loved you and, fuck this, I love you.”
Uh-oh, smooth talker alert! Is Kit going to fall for this guy all over again?!
And just like that, I feel the tug of the red string pulling me closer and closer until I feel my eyes close when his lips rest on mine.
And she does. Matthew, the biggest ass this story could ever possibly have, is now kissing Kit like nothing happened. But that’s not the worst part. Tristan actually sees all this happen and starts a fight with Matthew before pulling Kit back to the villa.
We feel our hearts being squeezed when #TeamKiTris starts their first fight as a couple. At some point we got scared of seeing Tristan transform before our eyes into an ugly, angry mess. And then he says the things Kit never thought he would.
“Are you really that broken that you’re happy being just a fuck buddy?”
Bam! Instant regret. Kit cries, and Tristan knows he fucked up but couldn’t make up of it at that moment so he leaves. How can something so good end that quickly?
☁️
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