You know how these things went. I liked— loved Mandelyn like no other afterward. I believed she was the one for me, even before I knew it.
The weekend we spent together marked the beginning of our friendship which escalated toward a full courtship. I believed she loved and cared for me.
After she went back to the town, I missed her dreadfully, and not knowing their home, I decided to travel with Professor Gilbert that holiday to know and see where she stayed.
Coming back from the trip with him, I was the most delighted because she was so happy and blushed like no other when she saw me out of that carriage. My heart was full. She loved me and I loved her more. When we got back to the university, I went on to make my intentions known to him. He didn't object and rather said, he had been planning to make this meeting happen but fortunately, fate took it into its own hands. He found me a worthy gentleman for his daughter.
For the rest of my years at the university, I spoke to no other lady except Madelyn. I Sent her letters every week, not minding how stressful it was to deliver them to the post office. She did the same with a matching savor. I promised myself to marry her after I graduated even though I didn't tell her. She was all I could see and dreamt about, waiting eagerly for the holidays to be over, so I could visit and feed my fantasies with her alluring face. Rosy cheeks that needed no pinch to show their delicateness, small pink lips that I only dreamed of kissing, and her eyes, Ah! The most enchanting.
Not until, the beginning of this year, which was now my last year at the school, my fourth year. I wasn't eager to leave anyway, because I used her father as a medium to remind her of me. I was afraid of losing her If I went back to our hometown which was far away from Pelinburst and regardless of that, I was not eager to go home.
I saw Mandelyn at the school, that holiday, but she hadn't come to see me, neither her father.
My roommate and companion since childhood, Elliot Rivers, informed me he saw my lover at the school but why hadn't she visited?
I managed to ask the professor indirectly and he said firmly, that whoever I saw was not her, that she, Madelyn would never travel all the way from the town to visit the university. For what? For whom?
Like I said earlier, there was a time for everything.
It ended. The three years of romance and doting on each other, messing my head and studies all for the sake of such an ungrateful soul! She never loved me, I realized. She was only leading me on as the fool she saw me to be. But not to worry dearest Mandelyn or dearest future lover, I would never be such a fool again! Woe betide me, to ever love first or confess first, I would never!
I caught her red-handed with a junior at the university along with Elliot. He was dumbfounded! I was shattered. How shameless she had been to kiss him in front of the school gate that evening as he was sending her off. She never allowed me more than a forehead kiss. I loved her and she was such a pure and religious creature, I found no fault in her and even found her more alluring. Stupid me! When we got married we could do more. What a fool I'd been.
Retiring back that day, I never spoke to her ever again, to date. The letters stopped. I stopped inquiring about her from the professor and he noticed it but chose to remain quiet. I was pleased. He should ask his daughter not I.
The last time I saw her, was one month ago, she had come in the pretense of seeing her father. It was all to see and to know why her fool had stopped sending forth letters. I burned both hers and mine, all of it. I get obsessed with things quickly, but once my trust was shattered it was impossible to be fixed again. Once I turned back, it was forever, and so I bid her adieu.
All her attempts to get me to talk were fruitless and she ended up disappointed. When she persisted afterward, I decided to taunt her with my findings.
She had laughed nervously, fondling with her fingers. I would have believed the innocence that shone on her face. But not anymore. She was untrustworthy.
"It was nothing, we— we were—"
"Kissing?"
She turned Scarlet from cheek to neck hiding her eyes. There was nothing to lie about.
"I'm sorry," she said with her face to the ground. "But it was nothing serious—"
"Humbug! Madelyn, humbug!"
"I'm sorry for you, you should be sorry for yourself. What was that saying again? Ahha! The heart wants what it wants right? You do you, mandelyn, and likewise I. From today, we are no longer acquaintances, I know you not, you know me not, Adieu and happy life"
I stomped out of the Library with a burning chest. How dare she! It was nothing serious? One way or the other, she would pay back for lying to me all these years and allowing me to make a fool of myself. Well, she made a fool of herself, not me.
"Eugene"
I turned away from the window where I stood looking out of the school vicinity. It was only a week we had left to vacate the school(we, the graduates).
"Elliot"
He closed back our room's door, hanging his hat atop the nail on the wall.
"Reliving your last moments?" he asked as he came forward with a smile.
"Last moments Indeed" I murmur unceremoniously.
"Here," he offered an envelope. "From your mother."