There is silence on the other end and I'm wondering if he hung up on me.
"So you...forgave him?" He asks and it sounds in an accusing tone. I tried to hide my disappointment when I answer.
"Yes, I mean I had to?"
"Did he point a gun at your head and make you forgive himself?"
"Jacob!"
"What? Why else would you forgive him? Don't you remember you were in school with a hallway full of people when he decided to target you with his piling frustration?"
I'm at a loss words. What else was I supposed to do? Shout at him and be mad for publicly humiliating me and then have cold tension whenever I and him are in the same room?
"Don't make it sound like it was a bad thing," I say in a small voice.
He lets out a frustrated sigh.
"Ella, we both agreed that your feelings for him will do you no good and you'll just end up hurting yourself"
"I know that!" I found my voice getting a bit louder, "But what else was I supposed to do?"
"Not forgive him maybe" I feel like rolling my eyes at that.
"Jacob, I kno-" There is a soft knock on my door and simply yell "Not now, Sean" but then another voice says, "Its me"
A rush of excitement runs through my body and I whisper into the phone, "Got to go, bye"
I almost leap out of my bed and onto the door and pull it wide open.
"Yes?" I ask keeping my voice as normal as possible.
"I've ordered dessert for us. Do you want to come downstairs and join me for a game of chess?" He bits his lip while waiting for my answer.
This is the best day.
He's asking to play Chess with him.
Playing Chess, has been out thing for a long long time.
I give him a wide smile before saying, "Sure, Let me grab the board and pieces, you can come in if you want," I turn around walking up to the shelf where my board games were stacked. When I turn to him with hands full he's by my desk looking into something.
"You've taken Physics?" He asks, his eyes lighting up.
I nod slightly.
"Wow, I did not see that coming," he says and follows me out my room. We descend side by side and walk into the living room to find it empty.
"Sean?" I call out. I look at Mark quizzically.
He just shrugs his shoulders and looks around like me. Sean emerges from the bathroom a minute later.
"Mark, stay home for sometime. I got to be somewhere," He then turns towards me. "Ella, I really need to go, I know we're the only ones home today so I'm telling Mark to stay with you. I hope you understand"
I finding myself nodding. Sean looks unusually nervous and scared. He's in hurry and one can see it in the way he is rushing from one room to another finding his car keys and shoes.
"I'll be back soon" He yells shutting the door behind him.
I turn to Mark, "Do you know anything about this?"
"It's a long story," he says scratching the back of his neck.
"If only you had to stay for sometime," I say cheekily and sit on the comfy sofa. Mark smiles and sits opposite me opening up the board and placing the pieces.
He's always chooses the black pieces.
***
We get lost in several games which were fun filled with tubs of ice-cream because we decided to eat up Sean's share too.
It felt calming, like falling back into the routine.
Mark informed me that Sean has been seeing someone and even though it's not official yet he has harboured some serious feelings for the girl. I didn't ask for more because I trusted that Sean would tell me everything himself when he felt the time was right.
"Ella, can I ask you for a favour?" Mark says after we've closed the board and are lounging with the TV on and a slow tempo song playing in the background.
"Sure," I say.
"Since, you've taken Physics, could you like maybe make a small school project?" I fully turn around and look him straight in the eye.
"Why? And for whom?" I ask.
He shakes his head a bit but I can the slight red ears.
"It's for a friend's younger sister, She's been having some difficulty and now my friend is looking for someone to make her a project on her sisters behalf you know"
"I told her I could help but I clearly have parted ways with Physics and since you've taken that subject, I thought you could help" I looks at me with hopeful eyes.
"What's her name?" I ask.
He takes sometime before finally letting out, " Cami, she's from my college. "
I don't know why but the question shoots up before I can think, "So you like her?"
A small smile takes hold of his lips and he looks at me while nodding.
Oh.
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guys the story completed 1k reads! thank you everyone who've stuck so far :)
