Rough Path to Bliss

Chapter 3

Quickly breaking out from Bryan’s embrace, Michelle turned swiftly, she heard Damian call her name, and in no time, he was in sight. "Your mum calls for you" he said, as he made way to leave. Thank goodness that he didn’t see her with Bryan when they kissed, she thought to herself, but on second thought, she felt she shouldn’t care if he had seen them or not. She made way to her mum’s room in the hospital.

"Damian paid for the hospital bills and gave us more money" Mabel said smiling cheerfully.

"That’s nice of him" Michelle said unbothered and keeping a straight face

"You don’t seem to be happy about this," Mabel said

"Happy about what?" Michelle asked

"About Damian," Mabel continued, "you should be trying to get to know him better."

Michelle sensing where this was heading to, quickly interrupted her mum.

"Mum we will talk about all these later, I am very happy your bills are sorted and that you are much better now, but let’s focus on getting you to be strong for now."

Those words seemed to pacify Mabel; she somehow saw it as positive feedback from her daughter.

Just then, Bryan walked in. He hadn’t seen Mabel since she was brought in. He knew Mabel never liked him, but he had to come see her and ask how she was doing.

"Good morning ma, how are you doing?" Bryan enquired

"I am much better now," Mabel said, keeping a straight face.

There was an awkward silence for few seconds, then the nurses came in to carry out their checkup on Mabel.

Michelle and Bryan went back to the lobby, and another awkward silence ensued. Michelle had always seen him as a brother figure, and was surprised at herself that she was the one that even initiated the kiss. She couldn’t look Bryan straight in the eyes now.

"I am actually sorry for what happened," Michelle said, breaking the silence.

"Sorry for what?" Bryan asked

"Bryan, you are not a very good pretender, you know what I mean," Michelle retorted.

"Well, I actually am a good pretender" Bryan said

"No, you aren’t, don’t let me remind you the number of times you messed up our plans just because you couldn’t go on with a lie or just pretend."

"But that was when we were kids," Bryan said.

"No, even as an adult Bryan, you are bad with pretending. Last week, you saw a cop fall inside a small ditch because he was staring at a scantily dressed woman, you would have waited till you walked past him before bursting into laughter, but you did that right in front of him."

"But that’s a different scenario," Bryan said laughing out loudly, Michelle had joined him laughing too as they remembered what happened.

Michelle was a very beautiful woman, with a heart- shaped face and full lips, and a striking resemblance to the singer Beyonce, she had what one could call a baby face, which was very appealing. Growing up, she had lots of male admirers, a lot of men did crazy things just to be with her, no wonder the billionaire Damian wanted to marry her. Her mum always told her to take advantage of her beauty and be with a very rich man.

"You know I want you, it’s a secret I’ve been trying to hide," Bryan said looking at Michelle’s smiling face.

"Its ‘you know I want you, it’s not a secret I try to hide’" Michelle said correcting Bryan, whom she thought was referring to the lyrics of ‘rewrite the stars.

"I am not singing the lyrics of ‘rewrite the stars’" Bryan said. "Yes, I know I am not good at pretending, but I have always pretended to see you as just a sister, meanwhile I have always loved you all these years."

"You are not serious" Michelle said, waving off what Bryan said, "I am sorry for kissing you, that was actually a mistake, and I shouldn’t have done that."

"No, you don’t have to be sorry" Bryan replied.

"I am actually serious about what I said," Bryan said solemnly. "I have loved you all these years, and not as a sister. I’ve had real feelings for you, and I still do, I couldn’t just bring myself to tell you all these while."

Michelle paused for few seconds; another awkward silence ensued.

"So why did it take you this long to say it" Michelle said looking away.

Bryan wasn’t sure if Michelle was pleased with this or not. He looked at her and sensed that she might not be pleased, she was looking away.

"I didn’t want to spoil our friendship. You have always seen me as a big brother and…"

"Well, you have spoilt it already" Michelle interrupted him. I only saw you as a brother, and nothing else.

"You men all seem to want the same thing," she continued. "You have helped me all these years because you’ve always wanted to be with me. Mr. Damian is helping my mum because he wants to marry me, my boss at work has been pestering me, offering me lots of money and incentives on the condition that I sleep with him, no one seems to help a lady without wanting something in return. Tell me, what’s the difference between you and Mr. Damian," she asked, this time with a little tone of anger in her voice.

"C’mon, you want to compare me with that man?" Bryan asked quite surprised.

"Well, the only difference between you two is that he was bold enough to say what he wanted, while you couldn’t."

"No Michy, I care about you, I always have, it is not my fault that I fell for you, I genuinely do care about you."

As Bryan was saying those words, Michelle walked out of the lobby.

Bryan was quite confused. He couldn’t predict what her reaction would be if he told her about his feelings, but he never thought it would make her this angry. On the other hand, he was happy that he had let it out of his chest. Whatever happened, he would never want the friendship they have had all these years to end, he would always be there for her, no matter what happened.

Just then, a young lady walked up to him, asking him if he knew if a particular doctor was around. "No, I wouldn’t know, I came to see my friend’s mum," Bryan said

"Oh, she is your friend? I thought she was your girlfriend, from the way you two started, and the way she walked out angrily. Sorry my name is Emilia" she said.

"I am Bryan, nice meting you. You have a family or a friend in the ward?"

"Yes, my uncle, but he will soon be discharged."

'How is your friend’s mum, hope it’s not a serious issue?" She enquired

"She is quite fine, it’s nothing serious."

"Your face looks quite familiar" she said, "do you live on Malcom Street" she asked?

"No, I don’t, but my house is close to the street"

"That’s it then, I must have seen you around there" she said

"You live at Malcom?" Bryan asked

"No, but I have friends there, I do come around once in a while."

Malcom was a very popular and busy street, asides the fact that it is very long and wide, one can easily get whatever they wanted around. It had retail stores, night clubs, karaoke bars, schools, hotels, mini markets, supermarkets etc., but it is best known as the hub of gangsters and drug smugglers. Although there were hardly any shootings or cops chasing or investigating culprits, the residents still knew that a lot was going down behind the scenes.

"You look like a musician" Emily said

"Really, why do you think so?"

"Erm, your looks, and besides, almost everyone I know in that area is either a musician, a wanna-be rapper or does drugs. But you do look like a softie, drugs wouldn’t be your thing."

Bryan let out a soft smile. "It seems you have met every guy in that area to conclude, besides I don’t stay at Malcom Street, just that my house isn’t far from there."

"No, I am not concluding" Emily said politely, "just that I have met quite a lot of guys from that area, a handful of them."

"Wow, how many have you met?" Bryan asked.

Emily tilted her head upwards and to the side in a gesture that indicated that she was thinking or counting the number of guys she had met there, she stood in that state for some seconds.

"Oh, they must be quite a lot, it is taking you this long to count,” said Bryan.

"Yes, I am still counting, don’t interrupt me."

After few seconds she said, "two, two guys. I know two guys from that area."

"Wow! two guys, that’s quite a number" Bryan joked

"Yes, quite a lot" she joked too.

"Well, I am a guitarist and a pianist, I sing too, but not necessarily a musician, but I do love music a lot"

"Well, that is it, I was right after all, you are a musician"

"Not necessarily" Bryan said.

"A musician is someone that does music" she said blankly.

"Ok, I am a lowkey musician, happy now?"

"I hope you would play me a song one day Mr. Piano Man," Emily giggled

"I hope too," Bryan said.

"I will have to take my leave now" she said, and politely asked for Bryan’s contact. "Have a great day" she said as she rose to go.

"You too" Bryan said, giving her a thumbs up.

After Emily left, Bryan pondered why it took Michelle so long to come out, she was obviously angry at him, even though he saw no reason for her to be.

After waiting for half an hour without Michelle coming back, he decided to leave. He would definitely meet her again, and if it means apologizing for what he said, he would do that, even though he knew he had no reason to.

He made his way out of the hospital, and decided to walk down rather than to take a cab. He enjoyed walking; he saw it as a medium to clear his head from whatever was troubling him. With his headset on, he played Dermott Kennedy’s Outnumbered, the song had this special effect on him. And just then he got outnumbered.

A car pulled up just beside him, two men came out, swiftly pointing a gun at him, he was pushed to enter the car.