THE STORY 2 EP. 16

 

EPISODE SIXTEEN

THE STORY 2

BY PRAISE UMORU

It’s been nineteen days after Tim’s outburst at the center and seventeen days after the death of Eli’s mum. Still, Jeremy seemed to be counting three weeks or more in jail and the crew were like scattered sheep with no shepherd.

But one of the sheep took a bold step regardless of all the odds to make amends

 “I know you… I know you don’t want to see me, talk to me or even have anything to do with me. But I know I just have to apologize. What I did was wrong, I should never have done such a thing, it was so unlike me and I am deeply sorry Quinn”

Quinn twirled her straw round inside her juice tumbler as all she could think about was the scenario at the lake

Even if he had called her to such a fancy restaurant, offering her, her favorite drink, she hadn’t taken a sip. She was just purely absent minded

“Quinn…Quinn…”

Quinn shook her head as Tim’s soft call bounced her back to reality

“Umm…” she looked at him all shocked and blank

“Are you even paying attention to me?” Tim asked politely

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

Tim was flabbergasted at her response. He had been pouring out his heart in a sincere apology to the lady seated in front of him for five minutes but she barely even heard a word he had said.

“Look Tim, I really have a lot on my mind right now and you not talking is kind of burring into my time. You called me up, saying you wanted to talk, so what is it?” 

Tim felt hurt by her words, he took a deep breath and spoke up “I know you hate me right now Quinn, but I am deeply sorry for what I did at the Centre especially what I said to you, I am really sorry. Everything just came out wrong, I wasn’t myself” Quinn gazed at Tim’s remorseful expression

She grazed her hands into her hair pulling it all back with an exhausted sigh “you know you were right…”

“I was wrong” Tim cut in “I should never have said such things to you guys. You guys just wanted to help and I was just giving myself an excuse for not opening up sooner. And what I said to you… I didn’t mean any of it. I am really sorry”

Quinn sent him a genuine but faint smile that melted Tim’s heart. Since he gave his awful outburst at the Centre especially to Quinn, he had felt nothing but pain and guilt for hurting her so much. He couldn’t face the crew after such an act, but he had to make things right and he decided to start with Quinn, probably with her by his side, she would help him make amends with the rest of the crew. But she always ignored his calls and texts and any other medium he tried to use to contact her. Two days after, he had tried to pull through to Eli and Tony but was to no avail. He couldn’t come in contact with Mrs. Irene, not after his words to her, so he hoped she would come by the Centre once again. He thought he was being avoided by everyone but little did he know that the Centre was in an uproar of its own

Quinn didn’t feel emotionally comfortable as her heart was in a dilemma. She knew that regardless of Tim’s apology, he was right about what he said at the Centre. She tried solving every ones issues, but here she was hurting with shame about her scenario with Tony.

She felt torn to a million pieces after that act. She was once again lost in her thoughts forgetting about Tim’s presence

“Quinn are you okay” Tim said with his hands place on top of Quinn’s on the table

She immediately pulled her hands away looking at him with facial discomfort

“Quinn you know you can talk to me right” Tim was hurt about her retorted hand but he also wanted to grant her comfort

“I… I am fine” Quinn stuttered “I… just…”

Quinn’s ringtone interrupted her as she peeped to see the caller ID as ‘Alex’

“Oh my goodness, Alex where have you been? Are you okay? Why haven’t you been picking your calls? Do you know how worried everyone has been...?”

“Quinn!”

Alex called out her name with a cold tone to stop her numerous questions short. Quinn stopped on hearing his cold tone. He sounded serious and she knew Alex only sounded serious when situations were of paramount importance

 “Alex what is it?” her voice became low accompanied with worry. Her facial expression gave her away to Tim that sensed something was wrong

“It’s Eli...” Alex responded soberly

******

Quinn and Tim rushed down to the Centre. Alex had told them he was at the Centre before Quinn’s phone switched off. They saw Alex getting off the phone when they stepped into the Centre.

“What happened? Where is Elizabeth?”

Quinn asked Alex all paranoid immediately she set eyes on him

“Quinn just calm down a bit first” Alex tried to calm her down

“Don’t tell me to calm down Alex, what is wrong with Elizabeth?! I have tried reaching her for days but she doesn’t pick my calls. I thought she was mad at me for not responding to her calls before so I went over to her place but I was told she went on a trip. I haven’t heard from her for days Alex neither from you and then you call me out of the blues and the first thing you mention sounds negative, how do you expect me to keep calm!”

Quinn’s words screamed hurt and guilt. None of the guys could understand the reason for her guilt as much as her. The guys only assumed her close relationship with Elizabeth made her act this way

“It’s her mum” Alex spoke soberly

“What do you mean it’s her mum?”

“She passed away two weeks ago”

“What?!!!” Quinn couldn’t believe her ears. Her heart dropped and shattered into a million pieces. Her surrounding suddenly felt hot. She gulped her saliva countless times to cool herself but it was only increasing the heat

“Alex please tell me it isn’t true” 

Alex couldn’t say a word to her. Quinn felt all the guilt in the world on her. She remembered Eli’s countless calls… it went on for three days but she wasn’t interested in picking up. She had thought she wanted to cheer her up about Tim’s outburst but unknown to her, that Eli was the one that needed cheering up and consoling.

Quinn slopped on the floor with tears falling profusely. Alex wanted to go close to her but Tim beat him to it already. Alex didn’t know who the guy was, more so, getting close to Quinn but he knew it wasn’t the time for questions

The trio in the Centre felt the presence of a figure entering. Alex and Tim were both shocked to see the figure but Quinn didn’t look up

“Eli” Alex called softly stimulating Quinn’s immediate gaze on the figure at the door

“Eli…” Quinn got up with a melancholic smile. Eli looked at her blankly with an unreadable expression

Tony immediately rushed in behind Eli. Quinn’s heart suddenly skipped a beat in pain. She composed herself in the presence of everyone not to raise any suspicion and went towards Eli still with so much guilt harboring her heart trying to give her an embrace with an apology in her eyes but Eli’s anger moved into her right palm and landed on her cheek

‘SLAP!!!’

“Don’t you dare touch me?”

To be continued…(Disclaimer: please share your comments on what you think so far about the book on this blog comment as the next episode is going to be released also on other platforms below)

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