Goodbye

Page 22

Salem came to visit the next day. She hugged Emilia and would not let go of her. I guess she was too happy to know that Emilia would give her a second chance. After all, she had beaten herself up over it all the time.

I decided to stay in the kitchen. Salem probably had some stuff she wanted to talk about with Emilia. I did not mean to get in their way. I cleaned up every cup and every plate I could find in the kitchen. No dust was save from me. Doing the dishes was surprisingly fun.

Salem entered the kitchen after half an hour. Emilia went upstairs to search for something. I had some time to talk to Salem or rather, Salem had some time to talk to me. She nervously leaned against the slightly splintered doorframe. I looked her in the eyes and noticed that something must have been wrong.

"Listen, I'm not crazy, okay? I'm just wondering. I talked to Lisa yesterday and she pointed out how it was weird that Esra's letter to you was suddenly part of her present. Esra told me that she was in fact absolutely sure that she put the letter in your paper bag. It's as if someone put it there on purpose."

Actually, I thought it was weird too. My present was entirely different from Lisa's. Esra had gotten me some chocolate, while Lisa's present was a CD from her favourite band. There was no way Esra could have mistaken those two presents. Something was iffy about this whole situation but why would anyone do this? There was this one feeling lingering around in the back of my mind but it could not have been true, or could it?

"I think it was all planned. Someone had known about the letter and realised that we would start fighting, if anyone besides you got to read it."

I did not want to admit it but Salem was right. The whole thing just seemed like too much of an accident but we had no prove. Besides, it really made no sense. Sure, they were not all the best of friends but somehow they managed to stay together.

Salem noticed the look on my face. She glanced at the cup in my hand. It was the cup Emilia usually used. Green and with white rabbits on it. This cup must have been at least ten years old by now. She got it when she was just a child. Nevertheless, she loved using it. Emilia once told me that her tea tasted better when she drank it from that cup.

"It's not that I don't believe you. It's just, do you really think someone wanted us to fight like this? I mean, what good would that do?" I put down the cup and carefully watched Salem, who was thinking of a response, only to realise that there was not one. She sighed, before taking a step forward. All of a sudden she had that shocked look on her face as if someone had pulled a leather.

"Maybe it wasn't really about us but rather about Emilia. Think about it. Our fight was mostly about all the stupid stuff you did. No judging. The thing is, right after you left, Emilia actually started to understand her feelings for you. I mean, it was always obvious how you felt about Emilia but when it came to Emilia, she had usually been the stubborn one. What if somebody wanted to make sure that Emilia would exactly know about everything? I'm sure you told her most of the stuff but I believe you didn't actually tell her everything."

"Well, you're right I guess. She knew about the whole situation with Bill's mom and about you and me having sex, when you were here for sleepovers. However, while I did complain to her about what happened at school, I never explicitly told her that I was having sex with her friends. Well she probably figured it all out just like usual but then again, she couldn't possibly have known about everything."

Just one look at Salem's excited face was enough to tell me that I was satisfying her hunger for curiosity with every word I spoke. I needed to take a step back, before she was going to attack me. There was a reason why everyone at school actually used to be scared of Salem. If Salem and I ever seriously fought, I would have ended up on my knees begging for forgiveness.

"See? Someone was trying to make you look bad. It's just a theory of mine but I think it might have been either Viola or Bill. Bill hates your guts because of what happened with his mom and because he and Emilia used to be best friends before you took his place. Viola on the other hand had always been jealous of Emilia because Bill seemingly cared more about her than he cared about Viola. Besides, you made some guys look bad in front of their girlfriends. No matter how much experience they had, you were still a professional, meaning most people came to you to get satisfied because you set the bar too high."

"Can we please not talk about this. I'm kind of trying to move on from all of this."

I felt uncomfortable hearing about my past. Whenever I looked at my hands, I would think about all those sins I committed. Even now, when Salem started mentioning this topic, a thousand images flashed in front of my eyes. I saw the first time we had sex. I saw her naked, developed body. Even back then I thought that her chest was enormous. I had spent the night with countless woman but I rarely got to see a natural body like this.

We did it for the first time in the school bathroom. The second time was in her room and the third time was in mine. Back then I knew that it was wrong but I just could not say no. The first time she sneaked into my room, I got anxious because of Emilia. After I heard from Emilia that she knew about what happened, I started feeling depressed. I loved Emilia but she told me that she was rooting for Salem and me.

"So, what are we gonna do now? We have no prove whatsoever that one of them intentionally put the letter in Lisa's paper bag." I pointed out. Salem agreed.

"You're right about that. That's why I want you to talk to them."

"You want me to talk to them? In case you've forgotten, those two hate me more than your sister ever did."

Salem wanted to say something but suddenly we heard footsteps. Emilia was coming back. Salem ended our conversation. She told me to just try it and then went back to the living room to wait for Emilia. I sighed. This was going to get messy.

I thought about the whole situation. Something did not sit right with me. I had a feeling that a third party was involved. It might sound weird but for some reason I believed that neither Viola nor Bill had done it. Sure, Salem was right with her accusation but would either one of them really go that far just to break Emilia and me apart? Who would even waste their time on such a minor issue?

At least I was sure that it could not have been Emilia. She was a smart girl but even she could not have possibly come up with a plan like this. However, she did notice that something was not right with me. When Salem took a shower, Emilia asked me what was on my mind. I just could not fool her. She saw right through me every time.