Given and Denied

Chapter 22.

I hugged at my coffee mug, feeling the warmth of the liquid through the ceramic, but this could not warm my heart, which had been broken into tiny smithereens with the news I had just heard barely half an hour ago.
Although it was going to hurt like crazy to know the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, I really needed to know the details.
Of course, I also felt very angry about it too and had my own ideas on how it had happened, but I must know the truth.

Staring down at the little gravel path below where I was seated, I tried to imagine the scenario.
Maya had taken off to Corfu anyway, despite my urgency to keep her here, on her lone quest to find Hugo after discovering that he was not truly gay after all.
He had dumped Marcus unceremoniously whilst out there, when the two of them were on holiday together, for a bikini clad super model. Marcus had been devastated and thought that he was indeed to blame for turning Hugo against the gay lifestyle that he so much enjoyed. I on the other hand never trusted Hugo at all and always thought that he was a despicable user of the highest order whatever the gender of his victims!

Maya, on the other hand had been overwhelmed by this news and after many, many months of worshipping him from afar whilst he dated guys, she now thought she was actually in with a chance of snaring this guy now that his liaisons now seemed to have changed.
I was devastated, so too was her mother, when Maya announced that she was getting on a plane to Corfu to meet him!
I always thought that she was far too good a person for the likes of Hugo Martinez, who to my mind was a user and not deserving of the love of two of my closest friends.
Just where the drugs came into any of this was way beyond me, but it would not have surprised me if Hugo was into them and had contributed to her extremely sad demise.

I gripped my mug tightly as I now thought about it and after my own experience with an hullucinatic drug, I couldn't dare imagine what she must have actually gone through in her last few moments. I hoped that she was out of it and had just gone to sleep. It was the very least  this wonderful, beautiful human being deserved.

The bench I was sat upon suddenly lowered as both Marcus and Amelia now sat themselves either side of me.

"It's a very lovely setting for a film isn't it".   Amelia stated, looking around her. "You are so lucky". 

"Yes, it's very peaceful when David's not shouting orders at us".  I smiled half heartedly and noticing the wonderful flower garden before me.

"The crew are very nice".  Marcus added.  "Very accommodating". 

I smiled over at him.

"They're a great bunch".  I said.

"They seem to think a lot of you".  Amelia went on.  "You know, halting filming and allowing us all to stay here to collect our thoughts like this, that's really nice of them".

"Yeah, almost like a family I suppose".  I nodded.

I then took a deep breath and looked back down at the small gravel path again. It was all very well having small talk like this, but I really had to try and understand what indeed happened to one of my closest of friends. The person I most turned to and loved and trusted like no other.

"Do you know how it happened?".   I very suddenly asked.
"With Maya, I mean. What were the circumstances?".

"She took a drug overdose".  Marcus said bluntly.
"Stupid idiot. I mean what sort of crazy assed fool does that!"

I turned to look at him and saw that he was looking down and crying again. I touched at his arm.

"I know....... Stupid people do stupid things on times. But maybe it wasn't intentional. Maybe like me it was an accident. I was lucky, I was found so quickly".  I said quietly.