The Apartment
Chapter 9: Disappointment
Mary’s heart thundered. Her mouth had long run dry as she walked stiffly toward the notice board.
“The results out! So soon…” she bit her right thumb and winced. Her legs felt heavy and she felt unsteady in her stride.
The notice board was in sight. There were numerous girls already there. Mary froze six feet from the notice board. She watched a girl collapse to her knees her face contorted in despair, tears flooding down her trembling cheeks. She was not alone. All around her she could feel the mix of emotion with the most prevalent being the heavy disappointment.
“I can’t do this…” Mary thought. She spun around and started for the dorms. She would check later.
“It can’t be!!!!” a girl screeched. She turned back to see a fair skinned girl frantically searching for her name on the lists, “There must be a mistake!”
Her own heart dropped. She swallowed hard, “I …..have to do this.”.
Mary maneuvered past the girls with lifeless eyes and jovial girls and finally got to the front. She took a deep breath and searched for her name.
“Its…not…there…..” her heart was pounding. Her eyes ran down the list. She had finished the first one. Behind her she heard a gleeful scream. She bit her lip and continued. Her arms were shaking and her palms sweaty.
“Please…pleaaaaase….pleaaaase…” she muttered with her trembling left hand over her lips , “God, pleaaase..”
Her eyes were glazed over with tears. There were two more names on the list but she couldn’t make them out.
“We made it!!!!!!” a familiar baritone voice screeched in her ear, “Mary we made it!!”
It was a girl from her class. She blinked away her tears and looked at the last two names and sure enough hers was the second last.
“Ooh my GOD!” Mary jumped with glee, “I did it! I made it!”
She could not resist the laughter that flowed out of her full lips releasing all the pent-up frustration since she her fall out with Esther. Her laughter came to a gradual end.
Then, her countenance fell, “I hope she’s okay…”
She wanted to celebrate with Esther more than anything.
“Are you not happy?”, her classmate asked with a raised brow.
“No. I mean…..that’s not it… I will see you at prep time”, Mary responded with a hesitant smile before walking off.
“I must reconcile with Esther…” she thought as she headed for the dorms.
****
Esther was standing in front of the staffroom pacing back and forth, her forehead creased and her hands clutching a creased envelope. Mary stood at the top of the stairs watching. Numerous students moved back and forth along the corridor up the stairs towards the classrooms or down the corridor towards the dorms.
“I knew it” Mary thought, “Must be the school fees. Maybe I should ask my dad…”
Mary looked at Esther again. She was taking deep breaths.
“I wonder who she wants to see”, Mary thought pursing her lips.
Her thoughts were cut short by the appearance of the JV club patron.
Mary inadvertently stepped back.
“It can’t be”, her eyes narrowed.
****
Mary sat at the foot of her bed. Her mind was awash with numerous questions. Her heart wrung with an unfamiliar pain. She rested her forehead on her clutched palms with her elbows resting on her knees. She rocked back and forth.
“She betrayed me…bloody pretender!!!” Mary thought clutching her jaw.
A breeze washed into the room, “ Mary?”
It was Esther. She didn’t move.
“When were you going to tell me?” she asked her voice low
Esther was silent. Mary looked up into Esther’s eyes.
“You lied to me….”
Esther opened her mouth to speak but shut it. She shook her head letting out a sigh before turning her back to Mary, “You’d never understand”
Mary bit her lip, “You’re the worst!!”
Silence.
Mary walked out of the room slowly with her head bowed in disappointment.