~ Switzerland, Interlaken ~
June 10
9:12 AM
Oni and Michael joined Nala, Haru, Ron and Zula at the table on the sun terrace for breakfast. They all saw that Michael is wearing sunglasses, but no one said anything about it. It is sunny.
"You want your usual?", Oni asked Michael while standing up.
"Yeah. But I will get it."
Oni placed her palm on his shoulder, pushing him to stay seated. "It's not a problem. If you can, sit and close your eyes."
Seeing that Michael relaxed, Oni gave an approving smile and walked inside the event hall where array of breakfast items was laid out on a long table.
"I will help Oni bring food so that she does not need to make two trips…", Nala said and dashed after Oni.
"How are your eyes?", Dezy asked when he passed next to Michael.
Wally was right next to Dezy. "We heard that it's not simple and you got some medicine."
Dezy and Wally felt guilty because they are the ones who called Michael to help out last night with the translation related to the bonfire, and he ended up with an injury.
"Something happened to your eyes?", Haru asked.
Michael slid the sunglasses down his nose, revealing his bloodshot eyes.
Haru frowned. "Looks bad…"
"It stings, but it's not affecting my sight. With medicine, it will clear up in few days.", Michael responded and pushed the sunglasses up.
"I'm sorry.", Dezy said guiltily while eyeing Michael.
"It's not your fault. Don't worry about it. If you came here just to apologize, it's not necessary. Go with your business."
"You fixed things with Oni?", Ron asked Michael when Dezy and Wally walked away. Ron noticed that Oni's and Michael's interaction is much warmer than last night at the party.
Corners of Michael's lips lifted into a smile. "Yeah. We are dating."
"How did that happen?", Haru asked, unable to hide his surprise. Last night he clearly remembers that Oni was giving Michael the cold treatment.
Zula bolted out of her seat. "I'm going to see if Oni needs help."
Ron stifled a laugh seeing Zula rush into the event hall. Everyone knows that she went to get the scoop from Oni related to Michael.
…
In the event hall…
Zula found Nala and Oni talking on the side of the table with food.
"Wait, wait!", Zula exclaimed while dashing toward them. "Start from the beginning…"
Oni eyed Zula. "Start what?"
Zula rolled her eyes. "Michael just said that the two of you are dating, so… I want to know the details."
Oni inhaled and hid her face in her palms.
"Michael said what?", Nala asked with glee and then looked at Oni with eyes full of stars.
Nala asked Oni how are things going with Michael, and Oni said that they are fine, but she didn't say that they are dating!
Zula paused and her eyes darted from Nala to Oni. "Wait, the two of you were not talking about that when I came here?"
Oni exhaled. "Well, we are talking about it now…"
"Wow…", Nala said under her breath. "Did he say that he loves you? Did you kiss? How far did you go?"
"Uhm…", Oni fidgeted nervously. "He didn't say that he loves me, but he said some nice things and we held hands… and we kissed." Oni ended in a small voice.
Nala was not sure what the last part was, but she heard that Oni and Michael held hands, and they are dating! "When was that?"
"Last night, in his room."
Zula patted her chest dramatically. "Wow, wow… you spent the night in his room?"
Nala waved her hand at Zula, indicating that she should calm down. "Oni didn't say that she spent the night. She was just there for some time… Few minutes maybe." Nala turned to Oni. "Right? … Right?"
"Actually… I spent the night in his room.", Oni said shyly and quickly added: "But only because he needs medicine and I helped him out and we spoke about our upcoming date in Los Angeles and then I slept off. But nothing happened. We just held hands."
"You slept last night in Michael's room while holding hands with him…", Zula said and exhaled. "That is more than what I did with Ron and we are dating… forever."
"You are holding hands and kissing.", Nala told Zula.
"Yeah. And that's it.", Zula said sadly. "I wish that he holds me while I sleep."
"There is nothing wrong with going slow. Both of you are teenagers and Ron is cherishing you, just how Michael is cherishing Oni by holding hands when they obviously had a chance to do much more than that.", Nala ended with a mischievous grin.
"OK. That's enough.", Oni said. "I need to get breakfast for two people. Are the two of you here to help me out, or to gossip?"
Zula and Nala burst into giggles when they saw Oni suddenly switching to business-mode (to hide her embarrassment), and the two of them went after Oni to help.
The three girls were unaware that on the other side of the open door, two steps away from them, Marija was standing and eavesdropping on their conversation.
Marija was confused.
She woke up that morning in a daze, and it took her some time to remember how she got into her room and what happened before that.
Marija hates Oni and feels like scratching her face off. It's not enough that Oni got in-between her and Jesse, but Oni also pretended to be innocent while setting her up to fall into the lake!
No matter how angry Marija was, she was also hungry, so she got ready and headed down for breakfast.
Few minutes ago, when Marija saw that Oni is getting into the event hall, she swiftly hid behind the door. She wants to confront Oni, but not in front of such a big audience.
Back to present.
Marija is not sure what to make out of the things she heard. But she has a feeling that she stumbled onto something important. Isn't Oni in love with Jesse? Who is this Michael person? And Oni spent the night in his room on a pretense of giving him medicine? Marija does not know who Michael is, but considering that Oni spent the night with him, and they only held hands, he must be a teenager from their group. There is no way that Jesse will spend the night next to a female and be happy with holding hands. Marija nodded knowingly when she remembered Jesse's words how Oni pushed him away. Did Oni reject Jesse because of Michael?
Marija snorted while remembering Sarah's confident expression when she told her how Oni is in love with Jesse. Well, it seems that Sarah does not know her precious Oni how much she thought she does. Sarah was talking how Oni is delicate and innocent. Marija's eyes flashed in malice while wondering what will Sarah say if she knows that Oni spent the night with some… Michael?
Marija got her breakfast absentmindedly and joined Petar, Lucija, Tereza, Emir, Mishi and Eliza at the table on the sun terrace.
"We will head back to Chateau in about one hour.", Mishi told Marija. "Will you join us, or head back later by yourself?"
"In one hour?", Marija asked with a frown obviously not pleased with this news.
Mishi confirmed. "The trip itself is more than seven hours. We will take a break for lunch and at least one more to stretch our legs." Mishi subconsciously glanced at Eliza. He knows that with her six-month pregnancy belly, she can't sit without moving for a long time, and they will probably make few other smaller breaks as well.
"If we leave after eleven in the morning, we will not be at the Chateau by dinner time.", Petar added. "You can come with us, or stay longer here, but then you need to figure out your transportation. Sarah and Aiden will be at the Chateau tomorrow afternoon."
Marija bit her lower lip while thinking what to do. Six of them arrived with a luxury van which Aiden rented for them to use for this occasion.
Her sight fell on the table on the other side of the terrace and she saw Michael (aka Jesse). He is sitting next to Oni and they are talking something, and he is smiling and… He told Marija yesterday more than once that he does not want anything to do with her.
Marija wondered, considering fiasco from last night, will Sarah be upset at her? Well, maybe Sarah has no idea what happened last night. After all, it is her wedding day… does she have the time to think about the minor incident at the dock? No one got hurt, so it's probably not a big deal. If it's any deal, that is because Marija ended up in the lake, so obviously: Marija is the one who was bullied.
Marija smirked while thinking how she will see Sarah tomorrow and expose Oni as a little slut who talks how she loves Jesse while spending the night with a boy named Michael. Hmph!
"Marija?"
Tereza's voice pulled Marija out of her thoughts. "What?"
"Are you going with us back to France or not?", Tereza asked.
"Yes, yes. After breakfast I need fifteen minutes to pack and I am ready.", Marija said and took a bite of the pastry.
---
If you are not reading this at 'W e b n o v e l .. c o m', then the content you're reading is stolen! Please support the author by reading this novel from the original source.