Dryads and Nymphs

Chapter 22-Maryse's Confessions

Maryse was still lost in her thoughts, staring at the fire as if it was a window and she could see right through it. Maybe she could, Ariana thought wistfully. Poor Maryse, she looked so heartbroken, so unlike the cheerful girl she knew, that she would have thought she wasn’t the same person at all.

She sat opposite Maryse, and noted that Dylan sat at the exact place where he had been sitting before. “May,” she whispered softly. “What are you thinking about?”

Maryse looked up with a startled expression. She quickly pasted a smile on her face, though Ariana could see that it was a fake one. “Nothing Ari. I was just wondering,” she said through her smile.

Ariana’s gaze shifted from Maryse to Dylan, seeing that he had his head turned towards her, staring at Maryse. His expression was glassy eyed, as if he was daydreaming. He caught sight of Ariana looking at him and quickly straightened.

“Maryse, I barely know you but I am a part of this as much as you are,” he started. Maryse looked confused. “What do you mean?”

Dylan glanced at Ariana briefly before saying, “I wanted to ask you what are you hiding?”

“Hiding?” Maryse echoed.

“Yes. What happened with you and Salem that you act so awkward when in sight of each other?”

“Excuse me!” Maryse said, getting up in anger. “You have no right to inquire about my life!”

“May, Dylan is right. And he has a right to know what happened in Salem’s life, because he is his friend,” Ariana interjected in a soothing voice trying to reason with her.

“No he has no right to ask about it without Salem’s permission,” Maryse hissed.

“So you admit that something happened. Don’t deny because you already have convinced us,” Dylan replied coolly.

Maryse’s face turned a deep shade of red, though Ariana couldn’t see if it was from embarrassment or anger. “You,” she hissed at Dylan. “I hate you. You are a stranger and you have no right to talk to me like that.”

Dylan looked like she had slapped him. Ariana admitted that what Maryse had said did sting. “Maryse!” she warned rising to her feet as well.

“Is this why you became friends with him?” Maryse asked turning on Ariana, “So you could pry about other people’s lives?”

“Do you have any idea how it feels? To know that the two people you love most of all in the world kept a secret from you, and never planned to tell?” Ariana found herself saying the words she hadn’t realized she had been thinking all along, and were the truth about how she felt.

Maryse paled her eyes wide. Her anger ebbed away, her own tantrum forgotten. “I-I didn’t know that you could ever find out,” she whispered.

“Well I did,” Ariana replied, “with the way you two acted around each other anyone could tell that something was off.”

Maryse shrank to the ground. She looked up, a confuse look on her face. “But I told you. You came to my house and I told you.”

“You told me that you loved Salem. No, not even that. You confirmed my suspicions. But never did you tell me what had actually happened to make you both try to avoid each other. You kept it hidden for all these years. You tell us tonight or I will tell everyone that you are actually in love with Salem, starting with my own father.” Ariana stopped short. She hadn’t meant to sound so bitter or to threaten. She sounded like a spoilt child now, threatening to tell on someone else. She immediately regretted what she had just said to Maryse.