When Love Returns | 2 ✔

Chapter 33

"So tell me about yourself." Zach replied, munching on a French fry.

Earlier, we had stopped at the drive through McDonald section and both ordered some cheeseburgers and fries as well as chilled soft drinks. Then aiming for some peace and quiet, he took us to an airy, grassy land I had never been to before. We sat on the neatly mowed grass and without wasting time, dug into our lunch.

We had only taken a few bites when he decided it was time to get to know each other.

"You mean to tell me your parents never told you a thing about me?" I asked. I was sure his parents must have said one thing or the other about me.

He chuckled, "Well, yeah. They mentioned you a couple of times."

You see? I was right.

"In a nutshell, what have you gathered?"

"Um, I know you were initially blind—my mum kept ranting about how blind but pretty you were," I nodded in understanding, nudging him to continue. "I was actually surprised when she called me some months ago, jubilating that you can see now. Besides that, I know nothing about you. So please, fill in the blank space."

"There's nothing much to tell. Yes I was blind but not from birth. I was eight months old when it happened..." I spent the next thirty minutes narrating everything; the loneliness of being blind as child even when I had my cousin to mingle with, adolescence, high school, university, my friends, how I got my sight back, my plans for the future, my dream of owning a book store when I ended up graduating and so on.

I, however, never mentioned anything about Jason.

"And you said ‘there's nothing much to tell’? You just narrated a gazillion things." I burst out laughing at the fact that I had indeed spent a lot of time talking about myself.

"Whatever." I replied, still grinning. "So now is the part where you tell me about yourself. I know nothing other than your name and the fact that you've been in Thailand for some time."

"There's nothing much to tell." He responded, trying so hard to sound like me and failing miserably. I couldn't control the laughter. It just felt great to laugh over silly stuff.

"I do not sound like that." I said in between giggles.

"Of course you do. I have a talent of impersonation and I mimicked the pitch of your voice perfectly."

I scoffed, "Whatever helps you sleep at night. Now back to the question."

He cleared his throat, stared ahead like he was pondering on everything. "My dad and mum aren't my biological parents. I was adopted at the age of three at an orphanage in Thailand. After an intense research by my adopted parents, I found out my parents were initially on vacation but lost their lives in a Tsunami. Having no living relatives, I was taken to an orphanage where my dad and mum found me."

All thoughts of joking vanished as I listened to him. "I'm so sorry for your loss." I patted his shoulder lightly, offering my condolences.

"Its all right. I don't even remember my biological parents. The only thing I have that pertains to them is this necklace." He pulled out a silver necklace with a heart shaped pendant. Two words ‘L and F’ were engraved on it.

"Liam and Florence, these are their initials." He explained as if reading my mind.

"Beautiful names!" I responded with a smile.

"Yeah. So um, I've been with my new parents since then and they've been the greatest blessing in my life. They did their best possible in helping me fulfil my dream of becoming a Civil Engineer. Not once did they ever make me feel unwanted, never once forced into doing anything I didn't want to do. Well not until last year." My interest piqued at that.