BEAUTIFUL ME

PART NINTEEN

"THE STORY"

BY UMORU PRAISE

*****

“Hey bro! What’s up” Jeremy said enthusiastically as he grabbed a seat in the eatery. “This one you called me, hope you and Malia aren’t fighting?”

Jeremy was bothered about Frank’s silence

“Dude what’s up with you, are you okay?”

“I think I owe you an apology” Frank finally spoke up

“What do you mean?”

 Frank spoke soberly and calmly “Malia is the first lady that has ever looked at me with love. She helped me through a lot. She always came through for me” Frank gave a sigh and continued “I have feelings for Malia...”

Even if Jeremy already knew about it, he still felt shocked

“I have always had feelings for her from the very first day, you won’t blame me. I wanted to tell her so many times, but I didn’t want to take her unaware or make her drift away, so I decided to exercise patience and probably take it slow. I knew she felt the same. Our relationship was going well. But unfortunately, during the period of my patience, at the time I prepared myself to tell her how I feel …”

“I came in” Jeremy decided to finish the sentence “why are you telling me this?”

Frank continued without responding to Jeremy’s question “I didn’t see you as a threat initially but when she started talking about you and then that you guys are dating, I regretted why I didn’t open up to her at the time I had the chance”

He laughed and continued “I have thought of fighting for her countlessly because I feel she still has feeling for me but you being the one I have to fight with...” Frank breathed out dramatically, "it might take a lot of time and energy and that’s what I don’t have. And also it isn’t the right thing to do, so I just decided to tell her how I feel and I did that six days ago”

Jeremy’s eyes immediately lit up. Frank knew he was in a relationship with Malia, and even if she told him there was nothing between them, Jeremy couldn’t help but think of the odds,  Frank still had a chance in her life deep down

“What did she say?” Jeremy asked calmly

“I wish she said anything. She just left me hanging and has been avoiding me since then.”

Frank beamed a smile towards Jeremy “I keep a lot of things to myself no matter how bad but I couldn’t just carry my feelings for Malia to my grave. I needed to let it out. I am telling you this because I need you to do me a favor.”

“Which is?” Jeremy was curious

“I don’t want to apologize for saying what I said to Malia, because I mean every word, but please just beg her not to give me the silent treatment, because I can’t take it. I know she saw me as a friend especially when you came into the picture, but I saw her more than that and that is why I told her. I know it might sound weird, but I could die if she keeps avoiding me because of what I said. If she doesn’t feel the same, then its fine…” Jeremy saw Frank’s eyes all watery “but she is the only person who spoke to me and stood up for me when others discarded me. From the first day we met, she always spoke to me, so please tell her she shouldn’t stop especially not now”

Jeremy didn’t feel quite easy with the whole thing

“This is the first request I have ever asked of you, and don’t worry it will be the last” Frank grinned at him. He cleaned the tear drop that tried escaping and tuned back to his cheerful mood. “You know, come to think of it, I think I am acting this way because I haven’t stayed a week without hearing from Malia since we met. I guess it’s pretty new for me” Frank laughed out

*****

(Jeremy)

“All I remembered doing was laugh. I just started laughing along with him. “Jeremy laughed with tears in his eyes “that guy was weird. That was the last time I saw him laugh.” Jeremy tried getting himself back together. “I called Malia on the phone and told her to try and meet up with Frank. She told me she went home so meeting up wouldn’t be possible. I didn’t inform her of my dialogue with him. I asked her when she would be back and she told me in two days’ time.”

“When she finally returned, I told her again to get in contact with him, I didn’t want to tell her anything, I wanted her to tell me on her own what Frank told her. Although I asked why she wasn’t talking to him but she said it was nothing for me to worry about, that she would sought it out” Jeremy air quoted “she said she wanted to handle whatever was going on between them in a…she used the word, ‘comfortable manner’. I felt pissed at first but then I thought it best not to interfere.”

 And when I was no longer hearing from Frank after a few days, I became uneasy, thoughts about what he said about dying if he doesn’t hear from her began to scare me because I had read of the case of an ‘Obsessive Love Disorder (OLD) and I feared Frank might have that if he did anything harmful to himself”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a rare condition were the victim deludes themselves into believing that a relationship that ended long ago is still loving and healthy. It can cause the victim to believe another person loves them back when they actually don’t and if something goes wrong, they could cause themselves harm” the medical student in Jeremy explain things to Tony

“Was it the cause of his death?” Tony had to ask

“Possibly. The next time I heard and saw Frank’s name was on the school bill board about his death. Nobody said how he died. The school banned every research on his death. We got to know his Family ordered it that way

(Malia)

I don’t know. I got to hear about his death from Jeremy. He told me about his dialogue with Frank after he passed away. I had no idea. 

Jeremy blames me for Frank’s death from that day. He begged me to have a talk with him, but I was confused. I had feelings for Frank before I met Jeremy but he saw me only as a friend. He never showed signs he wanted to be more than friends. But since we blended off well as best friends, I felt it was best not to look cheap”

“So when he finally told me he had feelings for me, I felt confused on what to reply. I did love Jeremy but Frank was my best friend. I didn’t want to hurt him after everything he had been through. He had become so cheerful and happy especially with his family being proud of him, I didn’t want a ‘no’ in his life to remove the slightest joy from his face.”

“So you felt avoiding him would solve everything?” Alex didn’t appreciate her excuse

“Nooo…at first I was avoiding him but then I went home and I was held back with some issues”

“You should have called at least” Eli said

“I know, I thought of it. But I didn’t see it as an issue to just solve over the phone. I wanted to see him face to face and sort things out” Malia tried defending

“So when you returned?” Alex asked

“I had a talk with Jeremy. He also pressed that I should see Frank. And I made up my mind to. But the day I set apart for it, I had a pop test and it took my whole day. I called Frank’s phone but it didn’t pull through. When I went over to him place, they told me he had traveled home and that’s a flight journey. I had to wait for him to get back. I called his line for days but it never pulled through. That was when Jeremy called and told me the news.” 

“Jeremy blamed me for his death, he couldn’t look at me when I went over to his place. I wouldn’t blame him because I would do the same. It was all my fault, if I hadn’t procrastinated things and given him the silent treatment he may never have died…

So guys, what do you think:

* Do u think Jeremy is has a fault for not telling Malia about his dialogue with Frank?

*Do you think Malia is actually the cause of Frank's death?