The Tour

Apologies and Understandings

Mal was having a fitful nap when  a noice awoke her. Upon opening her eyes, Mal noticed two things: One, Carlos was sitting at the foot of her bed, and Jay was at the foot of Evie's. Two, it was almost 9:00 P.M.  After a moment Mal figured out what the noise was, someone was knocking on her door. "Who is it?" Mal called hating how her voice cracked from crying earlier. "Mal? It's Ben, Doug, Jane and Lonnie. Can we come in?" Ben asked. Mal noticed Evie had awoken. Mal gave her a questioning look to which Evie responded with a nod. "Come in."
Mal replied. The door opened, and Ben and the others came in. Mal got up and sat on Evie's bed with her, while Jay and Carlos claimed hers. An awkward silence filled the room. Mal felt Ben's eyes on her, but didn't look up. Finally Ben spoke. "So I believe an apology is in order." Ben said. Again Mal wouldn't look at him. After several minutes of continued silence he spoke again.
"We all owe you a big apology for how we treated you all after the events at  the tea house. You all shared something with us and allowed yourselves to be vulnerable. Instead of us comforting you we ignored you. We are very sorry." Ben said. Mal finally allowed herself to look at Ben and saw how sad he looked. "We've also decided that none of us will ever pressure you all to talk about your past life on the Isle. But if any of you ever need to or want to we are all willing to listen and promise not to judge you." Ben said. He was looking at Mal with the most kind and gentle expression in her eyes that caused her to gasp. Never had anyone looked at her like that before. "Ben can we talk privately please?" Mal asked.
Ben nodded and led Mal outside to a small garden. He also noticed that everyone else had paired off together as well. Ben led Mal to a stone bench and sat down beside her. While waiting for her to speak Ben took in her appearance, her tear stained cheeks, smeared make up and bedraggled hair all indicated that she hasn't had a good afternoon and it was all his fault.
"Ben? Thank you for deciding not to ask me or the others about the Isle anymore. " Mal said softly. "Im sorry again Mal, how I treated you was wrong. Can you forgive me?" Ben asked. "I'm not going to lie to you Ben, how you acted really hurt me. But yes I forgive you." Mal replied. "Come here." Ben said, holding out his arms. Mal went to him and climbed on his lap and let him hold her. He didn't try to kiss her or touch her anyway intimately. At that moment he simply held her. After a while, Ben kissed her forehead. "We leave tomorrow." He said. "I don't suppose you're gonna tell me where we're going are you?" Mal asked. "Nope. I will however, tell you that you're going to love it." Ben said. "How do you know?" Mal asked. "Because I know you." Ben said simply. "Ben can we go in I'm getting cold. Plus I need to take a shower." Mal said. "Yeah we probably should go back in." Ben said standing with Mal still in his arms. He set her on her feet but didn't let go of her hand. "I love you, you know." Ben told her. "I love you to, with all my heart." Mal replied, squeezing his hand.
Together they walked back to her room. "Should we knock first?" Ben asked. "Why would we knock? It's my room." Mal asked. "Well what if Evie and Doug are in there talking privately?" Ben asked. "Good point." Mal said raising her fist to the door and knocked "Come in!" Evie shouted from the other side of the door. Mal opened the door and entered the room with Ben behind her. Doug was sitting next to Evie on her bed. It was obvious that Evie had taken a shower probably before her talk with Doug. "Hey Eves." Mal greeted. "Hey Mal." Evie said back. A long silence ensued. "Well we should probably get ready for bed since we're leaving tomorrow." Mal said. "Yeah us to." Ben said. Ben kissed her cheek. "Goodnight I love you." Ben said before leaving to his room Doug kissed Evie on her forehead. "Goodnight beautiful." Doug said before he left. Finally they were alone. "So, I take it you and Doug made up." Mal said sitting next to Evie on her bed. "Yeah he apologized to me and was really sweet about the whole thing. Plus you know I can't stay mad at Doug for to long he's just to darn adorable." Evie said. "You know I don't think anyone can really stay mad at Doug he's just to nice." Mal said.
"I saw Ben kiss your cheek so does that mean you made up?" Evie asked.
"Oh yes. We made up." Mal replied.
"That good huh?" Evie asked, smirking.
"Not like that you dork. We didn't even kiss. He apologized to me again and I told him how I felt. Then he just held me." Mal explained. "What was that like?" Evie asked. "It felt really good, he didn't try to make out with me or anything. All he did was hold me." Mal replied. "Huh." Evie said. "Yeah." Mal confirmed. "We leave tomorrow." Mal told her best friend. "I know, and you are going to love our next destination." Evie said. "Why does everyone keep saying that? First Ben and now you why doesn't someone just tell me where we are going?" Mal asked, exasperated.
"Well to answer your first question we tell you that you're going to love it because we know you and as for your second question if we told you where we were going it would ruin the surprise. Now since I already took a shower you should too and then try to get some sleep. We have another long trip ahead of us." Evie said. Yeah yeah I'm going." Mal said, gathering everything for her shower. 30 minutes later Mal climbed into her bed and closed her eyes, letting sleep overtake her.