Taking Off

Chapter 26

After almost an hour and a half, they all made their way up to their rooms, yawning and stretching. It was a good thing Figg let them skip the homework for the weekend because Tia would've had an aneurysm if she had to look at a textbook right then.

"Mate, I am exhausted," she sighed, dropping onto the couch.

"Uh, huh? I mean, yeah me too," Elijah nodded, twisting his shirt into a knot.

"But not too tired for you to spill the beans," she insisted. "Now tell me what you wanted to talk about."

He took a deep breath and stood a while away from her. She nodded, encouraging him. "Uh, I don't really know where to start," he stammered. She looked at him. He looked completely out of his comfort zone. His eyes were looking everywhere but at the couch that she sat on. His face was flushed.

"Hey, are you okay?"

He cleared his throat. "Uh, yes, yes I am. I just gotta do it, right? Just gotta do it," he mumbled.

"Okay, just breathe," she said, a little frightened. What was he about to say? She couldn't guess what it could be, at all. Except maybe there was a tiny little part of her that thought maybe there was a teeny tiny possibility that he could be about to confess something. And how would she feel then?

"Yes. Just breathe. I guess I should start with ... I'm sorry," he began.

She shook her head, clearing the idea of a confession from her mind. "Sorry?" she asked. "For what?"

He launched into it. "You know what. You've always known what. But I didn't. And I'm really sorry that I didn't. I just had a lot going on, you know, when it happened. I would never ever do that if I was having a good day, you know? It's not like me at all. I completely understand now why you hate me. I hate me for doing it. I still can't believe I did it and I can't even remember doing it. But like I said, something happened, and it wasn't a personal attack because, I mean, you're not any of those things ... that I said you were. I was just very depressed about something then ... and I'm sorry," he rambled, finally breathing out. He said all of this to his shoes. Tia just sat there, dumbfounded. Of course, she knew what he was talking about. She just did not expect him to speak about it. He looked up at her, finally, and saw her blank face. "Say something ... please?"

"I – I don't understand. What are you saying?"

"Please don't make me say it again," he mumbled. When she said nothing, he continued, "Well, that thing I did in May when I – humiliated you – in front of everyone, that's what I'm apologising about."

She cleared her throat, unsure what to do with her hands. She folded them in her lap, fingers interlaced. "Yes, yes, I understand that bit. But – but what do you mean 'something happened'?" Tears were threatening to spill from her eyes and she would do anything to stop them.

Elijah felt a bit of relief. She wasn't yelling at him. He could work with this. "Well ... what I mean is that around that time, something really big happened. And I wasn't thinking straight. It affected my whole life, really. I was horribly miserable and all I could think about was – was what happened. So, when I bumped into you, I was kind of just taking my misery out on you. I would've been the exact same if anyone bumped into me," he explained, though the more he talked, the more it sounded like nonsense.

She stood up, making him take a step back. "S – so, what you're saying is that you forgot that anything had ever happened because you were depressed?" He nodded, more confident that she was being understanding. "You forgot what you did to me because you were unhappy?" she asked. Her tone suggested she wasn't exactly understanding as he wished she was, so he recoiled. "Do you even know how humiliated I was? I don't think you realise that you almost ruined my life!" she said, her volume rising with each word.