BEAUTIFUL ME

 PART EIGHTEEN

"THE STORY"

BY UMORU PRAISE

Alex and the others walked over to the park to meet up with Malia when Tony’s phone rang

“Guys Jeremy is calling”

“Pick up then” Eli felt delighted

“I was going to”

Tony picked up the phone. The trio halted till Tony finished up his call

“Does he wanna meet up?” Alex said

“Yeah…” 

“Oh Lord thank you!” Alex exclaimed “Today is the best day we have ever had over this story. Let’s go together. Eli and Malia can walk better girl to girl” Alex suggested

“Heck no!” Eli bounced back 

“She is a suspect for murder” she whispered

“Common Lil”

Don’t tell me to common. I’m not gonna take my chances. It’s either one of you comes along with me or forget it

“Fine, Tony just go alone. I will go along with Eli”

“Better. Bye sweetie” Eli waved with a successive smile

(Malia)

“I met Frank Ambrose at the school library for the first time.” Malia began “I was two seats away from him but I couldn’t help but notice the scornful laughs around him. For a guy, I wanted him to retaliate, to fight back, exchange words or something but he just sat there like he was deaf. I didn’t want to interfere at first but I saw him as a meek fool for making himself get bullied that way. I always hate it when my friends get bullied or mocked. It made me feel it was me and I just couldn’t stand it”

(Jeremy)

“…she is the softest hearted person I ever came across but when you piss her off, she would step on you. She doesn’t need to give you a blow or something, naaa” Jeremy smile was all over his face “Malia had her ways with words that would break you”

Tony looked at Jeremy shocked

“What?”

“This is the first time I heard you say her name and you didn’t even notice it. It seems even if she doesn’t have that perfected innocent character, her boldness still instigates that love you have for her deep down. You must still have feelings for her. Its obvious mehn”

Jeremy just inhaled the fresh air without saying a word to Tony

(Malia)

“But I decided on minding my business”

“I couldn’t help but always catch a glimpse at him. He looked so serious trying to read but it seemed so difficult for him. He strained his eyes, raised the book up and down, rotated it to different positions but it still seemed so difficult to him and then a girl said something so hurtful to him and that just triggered me”

“What did she say” Eli asked

*****

“Hey Frankenstein,  are you sure you are in the right place, people read here, not warm seats cause I know nothing is entering that hard skull of yours for sure”

Everyone that could hear her comment busted into a creaking laugh in the library

Frank said nothing. He gathered his books to leave

“hey soft skull” Malia walked over to the girl seated between two guys with a chewing gum in her mouth and her phone in her hands “actually, when I was going through the human anatomy, I noticed the skull is actually hard. That’s why I can knock some sense into your head and it won’t enter your brain. So that was actually a mere comment to him. You would know that if you didn’t chew like a goat but open the text book in front of you and read like the young man is trying to.” 

Malia noticed she wanted to say something back to her but she didn’t bother giving her a chance “oh sweetie, please don’t say a word or else your over chewed gum would fall out. And trust me nobody wants to see what you have been chewing for two hours”

She gave her a smirk and sat in front of Frank

****

(Malia)

“Dehm girl” Alex exclaimed unknowingly

“Babe that was hot!” Eli couldn’t hold her amazement “If it was me I would just give the girl a straight forward insult but dehm! You took the words right of my mouth. Tell me what happened next. What did Frank do, what did the lady do?”

Malia laughed at their amazement 

“Well the lady just stepped out as she could no longer bare the laughs. She got a taste of her own medicine. And… as for Frank he was so shocked about what I did. He just quietly sat down and gazed at me. And after sometime he said…”

*****

“Why did you do that, you don’t even know me?”

“I didn’t like the way she pronounced Frankenstein. That’s one of my favorite movies and she was ruining it just with her pronunciation. It pissed me off” Malia said sarcastically

Frank busted into a laugh

“You have a nice smile” Malia said boldly

“Are you trying to hit on me right now?” Frank said with so much eloquence in his speech

“You wish” Malia grinned boldly “I just like complimenting beautiful things’’

Malia saw his radiating grin that exposed his dimples. He looked nice as he smiled without holding back

“Thank you” Frank said softly

“Why didn’t you stop her from saying such hurtful things to you? I have seen and heard of meek and patient guys but yours tops them all” 

Frank’s grin immediately disappeared. He looked towards another direction 

“Do you know her or something? Even if you do, no one has the right to say such to you”

“Maybe I let them cause its true” Frank looked at her

“Naaa…I don’t think so”

“Look mmm…” Frank realized he didn’t know her name

“Malia, My name is Malia. I understand you don’t know me that’s why you don’t wanna talk, it’s cool, just don’t let anyone treat you like trash, because no one has that right…”

*****

(Malia)

Malia hesitated

“And…” Alex grew impatient 

“We became friends that very moment. Frank easily opened up to me that very day. Although not in the library, we took a walk around the school premises before he finally opened up. I realized he had Dyslexia”

“What’s Dyslexia” Alex and Eli both asked

“It’s a condition in the brain that makes it hard for a person to read, write and spell” Malia replied

“What? Something like that exist?” Alex said

“Yeah”

“Didn’t his parents know about it?”

Malia gave a scornful side smile

“Frank’s family are the busiest set of people I have ever met. Frank is their last child of four. His parents and even grandfather where senior ambassadors, so it’s like a traditional every member of their family should not just be barristers but seniors. His three elder siblings made it to that position, so Frank was the only one left to attain that position but he never did”

Malia continued “Frank’s family got him the best tutors thinking he was just dull. They are the traveling type so they realized very late about the real cause of his learning difficulty.”

 “When they finally did, they took him off to a special school. Luckily, his speech improved. His parents had a time record for each child and Frank seemed to be delaying because it would attract attention from the press and their business associates and they didn’t want to risk their prestige about having a dullard for a son. So immediately they noticed his speech improved and a little of his reading and writing ability. They took him out of the school and left him here. They had connections with the school so it was easily sorted out. They left tutors in charge of him coming over time to time but his tutoring decreased when the people left to watch over him noticed his parent’s supervision had also decreased. And when Frank wasn’t given much attention like before, he deteriorated” 

“Frank repeated a level before I met him” she smiled “he was intelligent enough to work on his speech continuously with video tutorials and audios. Frank was one of the smartest people I have ever met, he could do anything, but when it came to reading and writing he would just break down. And his parents didn’t care. They just abandoned him since they had three other children to lift the family’s prestige. “Malia drooped a tear

“But how come his grades changed. And we found out even if he was terrible in his studies, he was pretty good in drawing” Alex said

“Frank was always good in drawing right from time. I noticed that was the only thing he could do effectively. Frank would draw so well that it looked like a photograph whenever he painted. That’s why he was placed in Fine Art department. And about his grades, when I realized he was dyslexia, I decided to be a personal tutor. We started from the scratch, few months later I realized I couldn’t do it alone even with the videos I used, I needed special help. So I went online and got in touch with a specialist for such cases and he aided us online. We got all the possible instruments needed including more people and specialist to help out and a year and a half later, Frank had improved so well that news began to reach his parents and they visited Frank in school for the first time.”

“For the first time?!” Eli was stunned

“That just…not fair” Alex responded

“But the nice thing is, Frank was filled with joy. He didn’t cloud his head with the fact his family didn’t care before. He even wanted to improve more because he saw his parents were becoming proud of him. He was more enthusiastic than ever. He became the most cheerful person I had ever met” 

“So how did he die” Alex popped out the Question

(Jeremy)

“After I and Malia became close and we finally dated, I finally got to see the almighty Frank she would always brag and tell me about. Sometimes, she made me feel jealous. She knew it but she then made it clear to me that they were just best friends and nothing more.”

“And did you believe her” Tony asked

“Of course. I never gave her the benefit of a doubt.”

“So what happened when you met Frank?”

Jeremy chuckled “if I was Malia, I would boast of Frank more than she did. Frank was everything she said and even more. He was humble and you wouldn’t even know he is from a wealthy family. I know I’m a guy, but Frank made me laugh. There was no moment with him that was dull. He was jovial, ever cheerful…”

Tony began to notice Jeremy’s eyes turning red. 

Jeremy tried to hold the tears the best way he could

“…Frank and I got along so well. He even taught me how to draw” 

Jeremy chuckled sadly. He hesitated and tried getting himself back together “I knew he liked Malia. If it was possible I would have cleared the way but I loved Malia so much that I couldn’t carry out my selflessness.

“So what happened” Tony grew more interest

“He did the boldest thing…”