Chapter 40
It was the crack of the dawn the next day with the sunrise brightening enough to reveal the daylight. Lucy fumbled under her blanket before she sat up and yawned. She glanced at the clock and gasped at the time
"11:21 a.m! What a sleep."
She turned to her Teddy bear and kissed it "Hey Teddy, good morning. How was your night? I hope you slept well" she asked as she put it's hand in hers, beaming broadly. She dropped the Teddy as some realization came on her, she removed her pillow with her expression undefined, then she brought a picture, it was the picture she, Linda and Arthur had took together during their valedictory service, they're both in their academic gowns and cap except Linda who was beaming broadly in their middle.
She countlessly brushed her thumb through Arthur's face, lost in thought that she didn't know when the door was opened.
"Hey Lucy,are you alright?" Iris' voice jerked her back to life and she quickly fumbled with where to keep the picture.
"Hey Iris, good morning" she replied tucking the picture under her big Teddy so as not to give Iris any suspicious movement.
"I'm sorry if I interrupt anything but I've been at the door for a while now, knocking" Iris said sitting on the bed opposite her.
Lucy wanted to say something, probably 'you knocked?' Cause she didn't hear one but she quickly took it back so as not to prolong the topic.
"Are you sure everything is alright?" Iris asked again when she was not replying.
"Of course it is, I guess I was too overjoyed yesterday that I slept too much" she smiled and Iris' expression relieved
She chuckled and replied "of course you are"
Lucy had told Fred the day before that she want Iris to join them and he'd agreed. Iris could confirm that with the rest of the day, she was really glad and overjoyed.
"What about them? I mean Fred and Carl" Lucy asked
"They have been in the study room before dawn, come on let's go take breakfast or should I say late breakfast?" She laughed
"You cooked?" Lucy's eyes narrowed at her
"Yeah"
"Oh shit! How could you cook with your condition?"
"I'm fine, asides I took my drugs yesterday so I woke up with a strong and positive body aching to work" she winked
"Nevertheless, you should have call me to do that or join you" she scowled and protested
Iris still maintaining her smile made a light bow "okay, I'm sorry ma'am"
"Okay, you owe me a cup of ice cream for that" she said and they laughed.
Lucy and Iris were already on the table when Fred and Carl joined them.
"Wow that smell so nice and tempting" Carl said as he approached them, sniffing so long and loud as if feeding his nose with the aroma
"Oh, is that peri-peri chicken?" He said as he quickly grabbed his seat and settled on it.
"Wow" he mouthed staring at the table, the chicken, the fries and salad mouth wateringly. Carl will never stop being funny. Lucy shook her head trying enough to keep herself from laughing.
"Morning Carl" she greeted and his head swiftly tilted up
"Oh sorry, morning everybody" he greeted and they laughed.
Fred took a seat at the edge, his usual seat.
"Morning sweet big brother" Lucy grinned at him
"Yeah, stubborn little sister" he simply replied and started to eat while Carl scoffed.
"Hey" she scowled at him
"Too inhuman" she muttered and continued eating.
Fred lurked his lip in a smile and faced Iris "how's your health Iris?"
"Good" she replied
"And thanks for the drug"
"Drug?" Lucy queried
"Yeah, I realized he later went out to buy some drugs yesterday without asking me for the prescription and surprisingly he bought the right and effective one" Iris explained
"Really?" Carl and Lucy's stare is now on him
Unable to hide his awkward feelings from their stare, he explained "well, I used the internet to search for the one that is more better"
Iris would have added 'and more expensive' but she think it's not a good idea to do so.
"She needs to be more healthy by now if she want to board the plane this time tomorrow" he added. For one reason or another, Iris thought it's more than that and she hoped it should be, she could still remember Fred's presence had woke her up in her room the morning before dawn, probably he'd come to see if she's alright and this he does without waking her up but unfortunately she'd woke up immediately he entered her room and walked stealthily up to her, then he'd carefully placed his palm on her cheek to feel her temperature and gaze at her forehead for awhile, then he carefully cover her very well with her blanket before leaving.
"Wow, so you're turning doctor now?" Carl came with his teasing again.
"I guess you'll really like to finish that chicken before you or you just spend the rest of this period staring at our mouth" he threatened and Carl pulled the plate more closer to himself
"Bully" he muttered and Lucy and Iris chuckled.
After eating, Iris and Lucy made to park the dishes but Fred stopped them
"You guys need to rest, We got this" he said facing Carl and they collect the dishes to the kitchen
"Hey man, it's time you confess to me" Carl started as they wash the dishes
"What?" Fred asked
He leaned closer to him and whispered "Tell me, you love her right?"
Fred turned his head to him and in a confused look he asked "who?"
"Iris" Carl winked and licked his bottom lip. Instantly Fred made to knock his head with one of the forks but he evaded it
"Seriously, if you need any information about her I can give you, she's a very good and nice girl. And she's sweet, isn't she?" He winked again and Fred just shook his head at him
"You're really pathetic, trying to put me in a relationship whereas you don't have one or maybe you use to have something like two, three days unserious relationship which will either end up with you breaking it or they do after realising your unseriousness. I think the longest one you had was seven days right?" He asked knowing for sure that it's his turn teasing him now.
"Hey man" Carl scowled
"Oh yeah I remember, what about Cynthia, I think the girl is really fond of you as she refused to let you go no matter what?" He chuckled
"The girl is really too desperate,can you imagine she hacked all my social media's account and posted that we are legally married so no one should ever come between us, imagine she didn't stop there but still made sure all articles bring that out then she was telling me it still remained one thing to do, go live on TV, just imagine that man, with all her popularity, I'm doomed. No more fun, no more girls."
Fred laughed hard, dropping the dishes "I think it's time to be serious and let go of all these girls man" he said tapping his shoulder
"How can I when I still got all this pretty girls flaunting over me"
"So you're still being a Playboy?"
"A Playboy? Nah nah nah, at least I wasn't the one approaching them so I should be nice enough accepting them" he grinned and shrugged
Fred shook his head and replied "you're too bad"
"Trust me, I'm not, I just like having fun. But you can just stop me with something"
"What's that?"
"If you give me, I promise I'd change" he said looking serious
"What's that?" Fred asked inquisitively
"Let me have Lucy" he said almost in a whisper. Fred turned back almost swiftly and before he could take time to read his expression he'd knock her forehead with the spoon his hand
"Stop dreaming man"
"Ouch!" He screeched rubbing his forehead
"You think I'm dreaming? I'm dam serious" he added and when he realize his frown, he threw his hands in the air
"OK, I surrender, I'm not good enough for her"
"Good you think so" he said and grabbed one of the kitchen towel and clean his hand with it.
They entered the room to find Lucy and Iris engrossed in a video game.
"Hey I got this!" Lucy screamed and iris laughed. She was sitting with both her legs crossed together on the couch as usual of her while Iris was sitting with one of her leg on the floor while the other was on the couch, crossed under her thigh. They barely realize Fred and Carl entering the room.
"Oh shit!" Lucy exclaimed bitterly dropping her hands on her thigh
"You won again" she muttered and Iris chuckled
"I told you not to challenge me in it right?"
"Why? Are you that bad in it and do you learn it?"
"Nope, my brother is very good at it and I started playing it with him when I was five. He will challenge me to it when I asked him for something he don't want to give or do, so if he win then I'm not getting it, but if I do then he has no choice but to give me"
"So you practiced hard so you could win him over?" Lucy asked and she nodded
"You must be really obstinate" she laughed
Fred cleared his throat to draw their attention to them and they sat on the other couch.
"oh you're here" Lucy exclaimed and sat up
"You guys are not making any arrangement?" Fred asked
"Of course we are" Lucy replied sharing a realization look with Iris
"Okay let's talk about the trip" he said sitting up and continued "the flight will be ready by nine so we should be leaving by thirty minutes past seven"
"Or eight" Lucy frowned
"Thirty minutes past seven Lucy so sleep earlier" he paused and continued "Carl has got every possible things ready so we got no problem"
"Where are we staying?" Iris asked
"That's part of what has been ready, we got a new house we're going to move into" he replied
"A new house?" Lucy queried
"Bought actually, not stolen" he arched a brow
"What about Mom, are we not staying with her?"
"Listen Lucy, Mom doesn't and shouldn't know about our voyage, okay?"
"That's not possible you know" Lucy said firmly and Fred's face turned pale
"Lucy please..." He tried to talk, almost raising his voice when Carl caught his arm and with all seriousness and calmness, he turned to Lucy and talked
"Lucy please, Mom might still know about this later but for now, we need to keep to this criteria okay?" He said and Lucy glanced at Iris who, understanding her look gave her a slight nod
"Fine, okay" she nodded at them and Fred sighed and dropped his head. After being calmed, he stood from Carl and walked to sit beside her, he dropped his right hand on her shoulder calmly and drew her closer
"Lucy, are you sure you want to do this?" He asked softly and she nodded
"Then you need to be strong,not weak and to be strong there are some unfavorable decisions you'll have to make, things you'll have to do and things you'll need to let go" he added and drew her more closer that she rested her head on his chest.
"Lucy, you need to be strong" he said almost in a whisper and when she can no more hold the tears welling up in her eyes she quickly buried her face in his chest and he knew it,
She's crying.....
To be continued...
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