The Reunion - Episode 7

 

For a tiny second, Mariah forgot where she was, as she tossed and turned on the hotel room queen sized bed, she sleepily bumped into Lisa who lay beside her.

“Why are you on my bed?” Mariah yelled in her bedroom voice as she threw a pillow at Lisa.

“Stop yelling.” Lisa replied with a literal pillow talk voice ,she currently had a terrible hangover ,but that didn’t stop her from sitting upright and eventually throwing a pillow at Mariah  “we’re staying in the same room ,remember ? Abi is old age doing you already?” Lisa continued, she was in a moody mood.

“I had the weirdest dream; I dreamt that I met Michael.” Mariah said, she was getting into the gist as she sat up.

“Yes, that happened M…you’re seriously getting old oo.”

“I know it happened.” she started in a duh tone. “The point is …I met Michael, but the weird part is that, it wasn’t Michael, it was just a faceless guy that seemed like Michael, but it wasn’t him.” Mariah said in circles.

“So who said it wasn’t Michael?” at this point, Lisa walked to the bathroom and walked back to the bed with a toothbrush in her mouth.

“Nobody told me, obviously …I just knew “ 

“Okay.” Lisa simply replied, she knew her friend had a thing for finding meanings to the dreams she had, and she was in no mood to feed Mariah’s theories.

“I think the dream means something, maybe it’s a sign.” Mariah stated excitedly, Lisa rolled her eyes at her friend and headed for the bathroom . “I thought I was here so that I could reunite with Michael ,but what if I’m not ,what if I’m here to meet a guy I don’t know …that would explain why he was faceless in my dream.” Mariah ranted to herself.

“So what? Every single girl is here to meet a faceless guy.” Lisa replied with a mischievous grin.

“Why do we make meeting a guy so important?”

“You’re the one dreaming about faceless guys, not me.” Lisa retorted.

“I know, but sometimes we act like our happiness depends on a guy we haven’t even met, it’s weird … as though our whole life depends on meeting a man.”

“Well ,I know what you mean…you can look at it that way ,but then ,I don’t see it as looking for a man, I see it as looking for love ,and that’s something …unfortunately for us ,love comes in a box known as a ‘man’.” Lisa explained with so much concern

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/the-reunion

. “An empty box.” She added.

“Hmm…I guess that makes sense.” Mariah replied, unsure if she actually got the sense in Lisa’s reply. “You came back late last night, where were you?” she asked. Mariah wasn’t one to ask questions, but she had a feeling that Lisa wanted to talk about it.

“I…was...with a guy.” Lisa said with the goofiest smile, she couldn’t even complete her whole sentence without smiling in between.

“Really? What’s his name?” Mariah asked in the hopes of knowing who it was.

“I don’t think you know him.” Lisa said with a faded smile, it was like she suddenly realized something that wasn’t smile worthy.

“Why? I think I know all my mates.”

“He isn’t one of them, he’s…younger.” 

“Ooh!” Mariah replied, she knew Lisa didn’t like the idea of dating younger guys, they had argued over it more times than she could actually remember. “What’s his name?”

“Jerry, I mean …Jeremy, he has a sister in your set, a pregnant one.” Lisa replied with the duvet over her head.

“Oh my! Chubby jerry?” Mariah squealed excitedly.

“What?” 

“Chubby jerry? He’s a bit fat?”

“I don’t think we’re talking about the same jerry.” Lisa replied as she hurriedly threw the duvet off the bed, the jerry she met last night, looked liked a potential work out guy.

“I think we are… he was really cute though, his sister’s name is Esther? “

“Ooh crap! It’s the same jerry.” Lisa replied with way less excitement than when the conversation about jerry initially began.

“How did you meet him?” Mariah asked curiously, wondering how their paths crossed, but her question was left unanswered as Lisa changed the subject.

“How was the ‘catch up’ with Michael?” she asked for the sole purpose of diverting a conversation about chubby jerry. 

“Ooh, that …it wasn’t bad, till he left me at the bar to talk to someone prettier.” Mariah replied with a sad smile.

“Seriously M…if he doesn’t see how amazing you are upfront, he doesn’t deserve your time, and don’t say stuff like that, sure, there’s always going to be someone prettier …but don’t say stuff like that, you’re more beautiful than you think.” Lisa rounded up her little speech with an encouraging pat on Mariah’s back as she headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

“Who are you and what did you do to evil Lisa?” Mariah yelled as she got off the bed, Lisa wasn’t one to say sentimental things like that, her emotions were often expressed through vulgar words that came from her head, but not today, and the thought of that made Mariah feel better.

The rest of the morning constituted of more boy talk, there was room service, and they squealed like high school girls when they found out that their daily breakfast would be free, their excitement for the day was like a raging fire, which lit up every passing second. As they headed for the pool all geared up and dressed up for the occasion, they engaged in a pleasant amount of small talk.

“I can’t believe you met jerry, I have a feeling you did something stupid though.” Mariah said thoughtfully and Lisa smiled mentally as she remembered how they forcefully met.

“And I can’t believe that you’re meeting up with Michael.” she replied with a mocking stress on his name as she wiggled her eyebrows.

“Ooh my God.” Mariah exclaimed as she stopped dead in her tracks, as well as her sight.

“What?” Lisa asked, as she followed Mariah’s gaze. “Who is that?” she continued, she still couldn’t tell who Mariah was looking at, but she could tell that it had to be the man in the midst of three blushing ladies. “What is he telling them? They are over blushing, it’s disgusting.” Lisa said with an over exaggerated sneer.

“That’s him.” Mariah replied, obviously lost in thoughts.

“Who? The faceless man in your dream?” Lisa was as confused as a deer caught in headlights, and she did not like the feeling.

“What? No …he’s coming this way, hide me.” Mariah said frantically as she hid herself behind Lisa.

“Babe, not to crash your hide and seek game or anything, but I think he already saw you.” 

“How do you know?” Mariah whispered as she held Lisa in place.

“Because he smiled the moment he saw you hide, and ooh! He’s here already.” Lisa said between her gritted teeth.

“Where is here?” Mariah whispered, her eyes were closed as though it made her more invincible.

“right here .” he whispered ,and just like that ,Mariah could feel his shadow looming over hers ,she had her eyes wide open in embarrassment but she didn’t let it show.

“Dayooo! heyyy.” She said, feigning what is known as over excitement.

“Mariah, hey…were you hiding from me again?” Dayo asked with a knowing smile.

“What do you mean by again?” Lisa interrupted, and all she got from Mariah was an evil glare.

“it’s a long story ,but it started after I asked her out in school ,if I remember correctly ,you stopped talking to me after you turned me down ,she avoided me like a plague .” he said to Lisa with nothing short of what seemed like a happy sad memory.

“Really? She didn’t tell me anything about a Dayo.” Lisa said as she gave Mariah a questioning look 

“See …that’s how much she hated me.” Dayo said, and for the first time since he started talking, he was giving off a fake smile.

“I didn’t hate you.” Mariah said in an attempt to defend herself ,till they were interrupted by chubby jerry ,he wasn’t so chubby anymore ,but that wasn’t the shocking part ,the shocking part was when he wrapped his arm around Lisa’s waist ,he didn’t stop there though, he proceeded with a soft peck on her cheek .

“Jeremy?” Mariah called out; she was beyond stunned at how he had turned out fine.

“Mariah?” he asked unsure of himself, he walked up to her and gave her a warm hug “I didn’t know you were here.” He commented.

“How would you? You were busy charming my friend.” 

“Who said he was charming me?” Lisa asked with a frown that could last for days, Dayo and jerry exchanged pleasantries as Mariah and Lisa bickered over nothing. Just then Mariah received a text, she showed it to Lisa, and they both knew who the unknown number belonged to, it was Michael …it was a subtle text that read; meet me at the pool. it was a simple text ,but Mariah couldn’t help herself as she smiled ,immediately she raised her head up ,her eyes met Dayo’s ,she looked away and excused herself nicely .  She was just a few steps closer to the pool when Dayo caught up to her.

“So that’s all I get?” Dayo asked 

“What?” she asked as she searched for Michael with her eyes.

“You’re just going to leave me high and dry? After all these years, and not even a hug?” he asked with yet another sad smile.

“I’m sorry Dayo ,I just have a lot on my mind right now .” she said as she kept searching for Michael ,she smiled as soon as she laid her eyes on him , he was standing over at the pool side with a drink in his hand ,he looked as dashing as ever, even without a shirt on .

“You always have ‘a lot’ on your mind.” Dayo said simply ,she then noticed that they were both staring at Michael ,but in entirely different ways ,Mariah couldn’t tell why ,but she had a feeling that dayo didn’t like Michael ,she had that feeling since high school ,and in that moment …the entire scenario had a déjà vu touch to it ,she knew the feeling all too well ,it was like a reunion of feelings ,all meshed into one . She touched Dayo’s arm and smiled at him.

“it was really nice seeing you again .” she said honestly ,even though it was a fact that she spent the last days of high school avoiding him, she truly missed him .

“Yeah, you too.” he smiled and she smiled back, her attention turned back to Michael, and once their eyes met, she knew she had to walk away, she smiled at Dayo apologetically and inevitably she walked away. Mariah didn’t feel so good about the way she left things with Dayo, as she walked towards Michael…she had a mental debate about going back, not going back to the seconds that had passed ,but going back to the years that had passed.