Forty Five

Chapter Forty Five

Mark looked down absent mindedly at the sports magazine his hand had grabbed after they all had settled down in the plane. His thoughts were chastising him as they had been doing ever since the day before. They were chastising him for resisting successfully the temptation to look back to take a good look at her pretty face back at the airport. Even though her pretty face had managed to stay etched in his head ever since the conversation the day before, it was still no good. He strangely yearned to see her in reality.

The day before, after she had given the little talk on how he had surprisingly become nice to her, he immediately changed what he meant to tell her and he ended up saying things he hadn’t meant to say. Taking a deep sigh, he rubbed his chin, his eyes still on the magazine, and still absent mindedly.

“You brought this upon yourself man.” Silvanus closed the book he was reading and faced Mark who rolled his eyes and looked out of the window.

“Don’t act like you don’t care anymore Mark. You have been far too lonely to keep letting your unnecessary ego get in your way of getting a real relationship.”

Mark looked at Silvanus who gave him a ‘you know I am right’ face. “I… My ego is just fine. And I don’t need a relationship, real or not.”

“Your actions the past few weeks have told me otherwise. Listen to me Mark, you are at a stage in your life where you need to decide what you want to do with your relationship status. If you want to be single all your life, it’s none of my business. If you decide to try it out, good for you. What I don’t and won’t like happening is women getting hurt by your ways of doing things when it comes to dating.”

Mark re-sat, face looking rigid as Silvanus continued his talk. “If only you saw Jennifer’s face earlier, you would understand what I mean.” He shook his head, chuckling dismissively.

“I should have never told her to tell you her feelings. I thought it would make you finally get serious, that it would make it easier for you to come out with yours. If I knew you would just make that lady sad, I wouldn’t have suggested anything. I guess I was wrong to think it was different when it came to her.” Silvanus shook his head once again at Mark and looked away, stuffing his earphones that were hanging over his neck, into his ears.

Mark’s rigid face fell when the image of Jennifer crying showed up after all he had just heard from Silvanus. He felt his chest squeeze to his dislike as he processed everything Silvanus had just said. Recalling how heated his attraction to her became after they all had found her and how uncontainable it became when he finally had her back in his house, he couldn’t help but smile softly at the memory.

If only he hadn’t messed up the only chance he had to let her know how he felt. If only he had didn’t have some ‘unnecessary ego’ as Silvanus called it.

He leaned his head against the window, looking out at the clouds.

If only he could get a chance to make things right.

If only.

-----------------------------------------------------------

“There he is. The man that has been swept away by love. I never knew this day would come and I am glad it has.” Mike beamed as the duo came out of the Hamesia airport building and walked towards Mike’s car.

“You wish.” Silvanus rolled his eyes as he opened the back seat door and jumped in. Mike frowned at Mark, watching him confusedly as he just ignored the look on his face and dropped his bag in the back. Still ignoring Mike’s questioning stare, he closed the door and climbed in to the front passenger seat. Mike looked at the duo through the window. When he saw that they were still ignoring him, he shrugged and walked to the driver’s seat, climbed in, looked at them again, frowned and faced his front.

Soon, the car was on the move but silence prevailed in the room which Mike was finding uncomfortable. They didn’t even say hi to one another, just jumped into the car and minded their businesses. Mike dramatically sighed and turned on the radio, tuning in to a music playing station.

After what seemed like an eternity of minutes, they finally arrived at Mark’s house where Charlie’s car was waiting already.

“Thank God, someone sane to talk to.” Mike murmured to himself as he parked the car properly, killing the engine. They all got down and as Mark walked towards the entrance of his house, Charlie got down a bit angrily, rapidly approaching Mark who had his back to him and ignoring Mike who had raised his hand to greet him.

“Wha…?” Charlie had grabbed Mark by the neck of his shirt, he made him face him before slamming his back into the wall. Mike looked at Silvanus confusedly but Silvanus just shrugged. They walked rapidly towards the duo who were attempting to fight each other.

“Why did you hurt her, uh? Why did you do it?” Charlie asked angrily, grabbing tighter to the neck of his cloth.

“Why do you care? Why are you fighting on her behalf?” Mark said back, his hands trying to get Charlie’s off him.

“Wait, you did not tell her how you felt?” Mike said in realization interrupting their gradual anger manifestation, receiving glares from Mark.

“Dude, don’t look at me like that. In fact you should be tied down by now for whatever you did and I can tell whatever you did was terrible. Charlie hold that cloth more tightly, we need to knock sense into his head.”

Silvanus stood a foot away, looking amusedly at the scene in front of him. But he was soon bored, so he told them to stop it. But Charlie was unyielding, he still held on to Mark’s shirt. “Charlie, I know you are angry right now, but what you are doing won’t help issues.” Charlie looked sideways. “If you want, we can tie him up for a while, but we can do that inside. Maybe we can also literally knock some sense into his head.” Mark frowned at Silvanus who eyed him dismissively.

Charlie let go of his shirt and took few steps staring at the neck of the shirt which was extremely strained. He appeared like he was trying hard to resist the urge to grab it again. Mark looked at each one of them like they were crazy as he stylishly reached for the door.

Mike rushed to the door and opened it for him, hoping to trap him. He asked Mark to enter, and he did but he immediately rushed to his work room, locking the door behind him because he knew there was a high chance they would actually tie him up. He breathed in the mixed smell of wood, paint and dry paintings, glad to be back in his space. He stared ahead at the unfinished paining that was hidden from sight by a white cover.

He reached for the cover and carefully removed it, staring at the little highlights he had already painted. Her image immediately coming to his head, he grabbed a stool and got rid of his shirt. He looked ahead at the stool just beside the painting and imagined her sitting on it, smiling for him.

He grabbed his brush, grabbed the paint he needed and began to paint strokes of her hair, a part of him wishing she were really sitting there, smiling for him.

‘If only I had one more chance to make things right.’