Entangled: Playfully

Chapter-26

Eloise Nicole

I sat back on the couch but this time I kept a little bit of distance between him and me. He still didn't look at me.

"I don't keep their pictures with me."

His voice was full of sorrow. I knew this topic was sensitive for him but I was relieved that he was trying to open up.

"Why?" I asked carefully.

"Because I can't keep myself from going back into the memories whenever I see their pictures."

My heart constricted in pain. He was suffering, he was grieving, he was enduring emotional pain.

"What do you do when you miss them?" I couldn't help but ask.

He turned his face towards me and studied my face. "Honestly, I cry."

I immediately shifted closer to him and held his hand. I intertwined my fingers with his and gave a little squeeze to his hand. Men generally act tough and refuse to accept that they cry but he accepted it wholeheartedly.

He held my hand tightly and spoke,

"What else can I do? I couldn't even perform the funeral because there were no intact... bodies left after the plane crash." He choked on his words. It was getting hard for him to speak.

"Daniel-"

"Tears automatically start falling whenever I see their pictures that's why all the pictures are preserved in the house in which I spend my childhood with my family. Whenever the pain inside me gets unbearable only then I visit them."

He bit the corner of his lower lip to stop himself from crying but a lone tear still ran out of his eye. I held my own tears and wiped his face with my fingers. He surprised me by placing his head on my shoulder.

"I miss them." He whispered.

"I know," I whispered back. We stayed in the same position for a few minutes. I kept rubbing his palm with mine to provide him calmness, making sure he knew that I was with him.

"How did you cope up with... Umm... the demise of --" I couldn't complete my sentence.

He pulled away and gave me a sad smile. "Truthfully, I haven't recovered from that shock to date. Although, my best friends Xavier, Sean, and Xavier's parents were there for me. They all became my support, they made sure that I was okay and not alone. And I'm heartily thankful for whatever they did for me, I can't repay them with anything." He smiled in satisfaction. This was the first satisfying smile played on his lips in the last fifteen minutes.

"Other than those people, there were fake people too whose sympathy and pity threw me into a sea of devastation. After crying for days, I decided to put it to the end. I have had enough of those fake people and their fake consoling. Then I found a solution to stop them from asking questions about my family. I found a therapy that helped me mask my pained face and that therapy is...a Smile."

"The day I decided to wear a smile, I became a new Daniel. I became a person who to date doesn't give a fuck about people talking behind my back. Every day I wear a smile and spread smiles, not giving anyone a single chance to question me about something I don't want to answer."

I pulled him in a hug and hid my face in the hollow of his neck, he too did the same and embraced me tightly with both arms. I didn't say anything as he had heard a lot, he just needed silence and warmth. My heart was weeping for him. I would be lying if I say I understand what he is going through.

I would have pushed everyone away if something like that had happened to me. But he? He chose to walk through the emotional suffering with a smile. He's the kind of person who hides pain beneath his charming smile.