Struggle Of Love - Chapter 22 Her Confession

“-admired you since very long. I love you.”

“Hey, hey, Fern! Calm down. I understand you . . . Okay? I do. But I am just not motivated at all for this.”

“All I’m asking is a simple date. It won’t last more than a couple hours. So please.” I could not believe this. She was trying hard.

—

At 9:00 PM that night, we all decided we go down for our dinner. Dinner was rather fine unlike the lunch we had in thick air. Soon after dinner, Fern must have dragged Ton to the park behind the restaurant of Axil without catching much attention, not even mine. In the meanwhile James and May left to get some ice cream back to our suit. I had not known until then that the suit was booked till tomorrow night. Apparently the girls had much more plans. Jessy is a slow eater, I am a huge eater. I eat the most of all of us. Kai is my only competition in this aspect. I still try to eat like him. He eats even more. Hence, Jessy and I were left at the table to walk back to the suit.

As she fetched another tissue, I asked her, “You guys are staying the night?”

“Yes. To drink, like always. We will leave tomorrow in the afternoon.” Sure, May can cope with the hangover but not the other two. I still have a hard time believing these girls, they drink so much. Then, we are there, the guys, we don’t drink. James had to because of his colleagues, but he didn’t like it, he said.

“I see.” I was thankful she spoke to me casually not bringing up May.

As we were walking together, we realised two people were missing without a clue. Jessy suggested we take a walk before going up. I could sense she wanted something with me; she is not a very generous person to my knowledge. This is her being nice. As expected, she did need me. She suddenly asked if anything was wrong with James that I knew.

“I don’t know. But Ton and I also think something’s off.”

“May does not breathe a word about it,” she said. I had a feeling and this was confirmation that May knew what’s wrong with James. Moreover, we can’t know from her because Jessy and James, being seniors probably, are the only ones that can pry things out of May to an extent which seemed to fail right now.

The park was filled with people. As we walked further, it became very less crowded. That’s where we heard Fern confessing to Ton in a secluded corner. I was shocked to hear it but soon Jessy tugged at my arm suggesting we go out of their sight making no sound. We went three feet away and eavesdropped over their exchanged of words as we his behind a well shaped tree.

Fern was persuading him so much. Her voice would get close to cracking and crying but I knew from the way she paused between her words that she was trying hard to keep up her composure. Earlier at lunch, I thought something was up catching her slight nervousness. Who would have known that she planned to confess to Ton? But Tom just kept rejecting her softly. Then their conversation ended with Ton asking some time to let her know his decision. A while later Fern hugged him and she walked away towards the entry to the restaurant. A little later, we saw Ton walk in the same direction after looking intently at the grass of the lawns.

I looked at Jessy as she glanced at me, her face didn’t not show any surprise. I don’t think any of us, at least the guys, have an idea of this whole ‘Fern likes Ton’ thing. When we went in our suit, the four were eating ice cream and joking and laughing. Fern was very good at acting cool and faking festiveness, point learned. We both joined them. May gave me a little smile of acknowledgement. That’s a first in very long years. She always did, but it was always so fake. This time it’s not.

The night got darker and Ton and I decided we should take our leave. Ton offered to drop me off at my university. I knew I had to speak with May and clear some matters. If I back off now, I would be permanently losing my chance to confront her. Today we talked about James, even if it was a simple benign warning from her. And that is my basis to talk things through. I was going to do it. The next moment I suggested that May and I talk.