“What the…” Diana’s unfinished sentence, the sequential clucking of her tongue by the roof of her mouth, had me looking in the same line of her eyesight; Raul had just stepped out of the eatery with the hall, but he was not alone. He was with Adam and Noami.
What the hell! I completed the sentence in my head.
What does this mean? I sighed wearily. I wasn’t in the mood to grapple with Adam again.
Wasn’t he tired? Hadn’t his ego been bruised enough? I rested my hands on my thighs, waiting for them to reach my stand, devoid of any expectations. It was better that way.
“Why is the shameless scumbag with you?”‘ I asked Raul, immediately they stepped into my confines.
Raul shrugged his shoulders in reply, before dropping the tray of assorted dishes on the pavement.
I and Diana picked up the buns first and started munching. I didn’t bother to ask Adam why he was here, rather I turned to Naomi, and she shrugged her shoulders too, just before she picked a bun, and took a sitting position on the pavement.
Well, since that was the case, then I will play blindly too. I thought, looking everywhere but at Adam who just stood at the same point watching us munching.
We must have been five minutes that way, before he spoke; probably tired of being ignored. “I am sorry for what had happened in there…I am not usually like that…I don’t even understand why I did what I did…I am really sorry. It won’t happen again, Dora. And of course Diana.”
Diana nodded, unable to hold back the smile especially when Adam took a slight bow.
What was this charade? I wondered, picking a cupcake next. Adam apologizing?
I looked at Raul for better explanations-if anything had perhaps happened in the eatery, whilst I wasn’t there, to ensure this act-but the duo, he and Naomi, looked surprised.
Well, I would be too. Adam wasn’t an apologizer. The only time he had indulged in that act, was when he had tricked me into having a truce with him, after the bullying incident. Thereafter, he had bedded me.
Well, that won’t be happening for the second time. Once bitten, twice shy. But of course he didn’t need to know that. Two can play the game.
“This is a surprising development, I must say…” I mentioned, employing my very diplomatic voice. “But as you were sensible enough to make an apology..” I paused, to see if he would display any unwanted signs of being called ‘unsensible’. Yet there was nothing. Surprising.
“…I will accept your apology.. hopefully you stick to your word of not embarrassing yourself before me.” I finished with a faux graceful smile on my lips, tipping the show further by making a bow myself.
Adam chuckled then. He must think that we are pals now. Well, let him think that.
“In the spirit of the truce being made, can I take a bun? I still haven’t eaten yet. My appetite seems to have returned, watching you four eat…” He requested.
I nodded, watching him take a bun, and take a seat on the pavement, right after Raul. Adam has never been this chatty, unless he wanted something, just like before. I guess the wants are the same but the recipients are different.
Deciding to ignore his existence for the rest of the time here as much as people, I shifted the thoughts of him to one side of my head, concentrating rather on the food at hand, and smirking at times to the thoughts that might be running through the heads of the rest of the clique at this moment.
Yet who cares? I knew that they were aware that Adam was here.
Oops! I forgot to ask Naomi about her brother. Did they have a row for her being with me?
Knowing Timothy, he would want to scold his little sister. Claire would be madder if she heard of this, which I know she will. Perfect.
**
“I think it’s time to head home.” I said to Diana once we were done with the tray of food. Raul wasn’t with us, for he had gone to return the tray. It was just Naomi and Adam.
“Isn’t that too early?” Adam asked, and I bit my tongue to stop myself from lashing at him- perhaps asking him what made him think he had the audacity to have an opinion about my opinion.
It would be as if I hadn’t forgiven him, like I was still annoyed. That would be petty.
Noami suddenly stood up then, fumbling with her fingers, stuttering an untrue statement. “I need to head back in. Timothy beckons on me.”
I knew it was a lie the way her eyes darted around the park, yet not on me, like she didn’t want me to see the lie in her eyes. Her actions though were blaring enough.
Yet I nodded and let her go, whilst wondering why she had lied, and why she had thought to leave us now.
Could it be that Adam had commanded her to do so through the mind path? I turned to look at him then. He was staring at me, unabashedly, not minding that Diana was between us.
“I think you are right. Let’s go home, Dora.” Diana finally spoke, having understood the tension that was brewing between Adam and me.
She stood up from the pavement, walked a few steps away, then turned aside, and stretched her hand at me, whilst I looked at her.
“Diana, I have got somewhere beautiful to show you? I promise you won’t regret it.”
Adam.
What beautiful place again?
“Give me a characteristic of the beautiful place?” Diana asked, and for some reason my heart skipped, and my mind reeled as I remembered the cave.
Adam couldn’t possibly be talking about the place where he had told Maya, was reserved for him and his brothers right? I thought, a sudden anxiety and pain gripping my heart when Adam spoke his next words.
“A waterfall.”