I change my clothes into a simple black t-shirt and pant accompanied by my denim jacket. This jacket is my favorite, to be honest. Tying up my hair into a simple messy bun, I pack my things and dresses back in my luggage when Emi comes and I remember to ask her if she went out yesterday since Winnie told me that.
"Eila", she addresses me before I can ask anything while I'm zipping my luggage and she's putting on her makeup.
"Yeah".
"Why did you go out yesterday?"
"Emi", I go near her, "Before that I need to ask you something. Did you go out last day?"
"Huh? Where?" She sounds confused.
"I mean, in the afternoon. When it was snowing, there was the news of the storm?"
"No. Why? And why did you go?" Emi didn't go out. Did Winnie lie to me? My eyes are focused on the ground when Emi shakes me by my arm. "I'll come back right away", I avoid her and go out of my room to find Jim. I go to his room first but he's not in there, as I look around the aisle I see him talking to Winnie, he's getting irate on her. As I approach near I hear, "I swear I saw Emi going out", Winnie exclaims.
"But Emi said she didn't", I say in the middle of their conversation while they both turn at me, immediately after which Jim focuses his eyes back on her, "Why did you lie? I never thought you'll step so low!"
"You think I deliberately made Eila go out in the storm?" Her voice is filled with sting. I don't know what has gone wrong. Emi won't lie to me and Winnie's sounding too depressed over the fact.
"Yes. Else you should have tried to stop her at least. If not that you should've informed me or others. But you didn't", Jim inculpates.
"I told her not to go out and I thought she'll be back soon. I didn't know the situation will get worse", she tries hard to elucidate and I think she's not lying. There's sure some misunderstanding.
"Jim. I think there's some misunderstanding", and Winnie nods with me.
"But I don't trust her", he gazes at Winnie before focusing his eyes on mine when Emi appears, "What are you guys doing here?"
"Emi", Winnie goes near her, "I saw you going out last day".
"When?" She sounds confused while me and Jim just stare at their conversation unable to figure out what's the actual problem.
"In the afternoon", Winnie tries to remind her, "You were doing something with your phone and hurriedly went out, I tried to ask but you went in urgency".
"Yeah", Emi blurts, "I did go out but I came back. Tacker called me that he wanted to show something ungently and as I went out I see it's the snowman he made". So Winnie's not lying. Emi just forgot about that. "I'm sorry I forgot to mention that."
"See. I was not lying. Now do you trust me?" Winnie says facing Jim while he seems confused over the whole matter and so am I. This is getting complicated.
"When did you come back?" Jim asks.
"After 5-10 mins", Emi replies, "But what happened? Why do you all seem so serious?"
"Didn't you see her coming back?" Jim again questions Winnie.
"No. If I had seen, then why would I tell Eila that she was out?" Winnie exclaims and this time she's not lying. There's a clear sign on pain visible on her face as her eyes are glued on Jim and I know, this is because of his blaming her for the whole misunderstanding.
"This was all a misunderstanding. Let's leave the matter now", I stand near Jim placing my palm on his shoulder.
"Trust me", Winnie comes near, her eyes still focused on him with a certain kind of agony reflected in them.
"I need to pack my bags", he faces me to which I nod while Winnie's just watching him go away without saying anything. "I'm sorry for all these", I try to approach near her when she steps back and I can distinctly catch sight of the pique in her eyes as she gazes into mine before she turns away to go in her room. "Now will you please tell me what happened?" Emi asks in confusion unable to figure out the whole matter. I explain every single detail about the whole incident when she finally gasps all. "Things were so knotty!"
"Hmm. Now we need to hurry", she's right. We don't have much time left.
It's almost 1:30 pm and we just finished our lunch, now it's time for another journey. I must admit, I'm actually tired. Moreover, this one's gonna be a long one. Travelling to Bar Harbor from New Hampshire by bus is not a easy matter. It would take more that 5 hours. Our bus is already booked before, keeping the luggages safe in a proper place, we take our seats. As usual I sit with Jim though I'm taking the window seat. I notice that we are twinning since he's wearing a grey turtleneck sweater with black jacket and pants. I decide to light up the atmosphere as he's still in a grim mood. "We are twinning", I give a wide smile at him while he faces me to look. "See I'm also wearing black", and yeah, it brings a smile on his face.
"Woww", he chuckles.
"Come one. Leave the matter. And it was not Winnie's fault. We should say sorry to her".
"Hmm", he agrees.
Rest of the hours, Sam entertained all with his horrible singing and Keith blurted his not so funny jokes, though his expressions will make you laugh more. In middle of which Mr. Paul started his lecture about our graduation exam and all, I mean who talks about studies at this time. Without having any option left we keep nodding with whatever he says until Miss. Henry stops him allowing us to have fun rather than gossip about studying and all. After a lapse of more than 5 hours we finally reach our inn in Mount Desert Island. Stepping down the bus I take a glimpse of the amazingly beautiful red roof inn with the wall painted white. Since it didn't snow much this year so the green sheath of grass in the front are still visible with few chairs and tables placed in the front yard for the visitors. As we head inside we are warmly welcomed by a young girl who seems kind of our age. Amazingly she's the receptionist. After checking in we are handed the keys to our room and this time also we're sharing like earlier. It's evening already and we have no plans for today. As I freshen up I decide to talk to Winnie and say sorry. I go to her room but she's not in there. Upon asking Rochelle she informs her to be in the front yard. Without wasting a second further I head towards the front yard only to find her sitting on a chair talking over her phone with someone. I wait standing at a distance till the moment she hangs up and when she finally does I go near her and pull the chair in front of the table to sit beside her. She stares at me with a void look mixed with anguish and pain in her eyes and I know what this means. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry".
"Stop", she exclaims in a almost empty voice. "I don't need your fake sympathy". I'm not faking.
"Winnie, listen to me once. He was just tensed for me..", before I could complete she begins, "I know. He cares for you. In fact he cares for you only. You know Eila, I tried. I really tried to get over him, but I can't. And what hurts the most is, he doesn't trust me. This is only because of you", tears roll down her eyes as she speaks and all are justified.
"That's not the case..", she again pauses me, "Then what is it?" I have nothing to say. I don't know what you say. She's not wrong today.
Some situations are really delicate to be handled in negligence. I finally realize, You can never learn to hold a thing until it slips from your hand. Be it a person, a situation or just a mere thing to be precise about.
We failed to realize what she felt until now, we were happy in our own world while she was broken inside out at the same time. It was our fault this time, yet I don't know how to make up for it. I try hard to hold back my tears as her void eyes peeks into mine. "Will you forgive us?" I manage to say hoping she will.
She doesn't say anything and gets up from her chair to go before which she gives a last look at me, "Somethings are way too broken to be repaired back", she disappears amidst this mist fog of night while her words keep buzzing in my ear. She's hurt, not because of what all happened, rather for the reason of Jim not trusting her and somehow I am the one to be blamed for that. We three are again tangled by fate unable to figure out who's right or wrong and I finally get that, in every story the one we address to be the third wheel is actually the one to suffer the most. And this is certainly an undeniable fact.
(A/N: So you guys liked this chapter? I really wanted to break those stereotypes to show the third wheel to be the harsh one in a love drama. Though they do things they shouldn't do but isn't it an undeniable fact that, they are indeed the ones to get hurt the most? I would love to know your views.)