Journey of Life.

Chapter 85.

I watch Arthur with so much delight as he calmly answers James's question first. "I know it sounds stupid to say, but the fact that I lied to Nikki is because I did it to get her away from you."

"What do you mean?" James asks confused.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see him moving. Perhaps he has noticed that I am shivering, in fact I am feeling quite cold. Arthur observing him covering me with the jacket, doesn't reply right away. He just lights up another cigarette again. I am amazed at how much they smoke, I think it is their way to easily throw away what they think.

"You alright Arthur?" I ask at the end.

Arthur clears his throat, and without having taken any consideration of my words, he retorts directly "You know very well that I didn't frequent Nikki much at that time, but I immediately understood that she was a bad influence towards you."

James does not seem to understand, in fact he raises an eyebrow looking at him with perplexity. Suddenly I am just surprised as soon as Arthur asks "Iris is it true that Nikki was a bully, and that you used to be also her victim?"

I nod. "But what does this have to do with James?"

"Don't you really remember anything what she did to you, James?" He ends the sentence while massaging his forehead.

"No, I don't really have a clue what you're talking about." James replies coldly, showing that he is losing patience.

"You have a really bad memory!" Arthur exclaims. "She fucking bullied you James! Especially in front of Iris."

James rightly asks annoyed "So instead of being on my side, you did everything so that she hated me more. I hope you are aware what you say does not make fucking any sense. If you have to pull my legs, you better not swing explanations."

To reassure him, I touch his hand, and again the silence falls. Arthur's eyes focus on our hands that are holding tightly. At that point, he gets up and with a sorry he goes back inside, and with a different expression than usual, he moves to another room, so that I cannot analyze what he is feeling.

"Are you tired Iris?"

"Not at all." I respond and without taking my eyes off that point, ready to catch every movement of his cousin. "More than anything else, I'm worried about Arthur. I see him so, off."

"I think we are all that way right now." He replies while drinking the last sip of wine. "Rather, how you feel?"

I smile with difficulty, as I feel the warmth of his hand on my cheek.

"James from what I understand, you really did love Iris, and I want to know why did you substitute me for her?" And looking down, I also ask "What mistake do you have to fix? In the end, you didn't do anything wrong. It was she who played with your feelings."

"I guess what I was feeling wasn't exactly love, I was never happy with her." I raise my face, when he adds "I always felt that she saw me with pity. Because she targeted me only as an orphan and a lost boy. So she saw me as if I was a desperate person in need of affection, without actually understanding what I really needed."

He gets closer and closer as he says "She wasn't like you. And when I met you, I made up for the mistake by not being the way I used to be before, which is someone ready to give himself to the first woman he falls in love with."

"Why did you have to be tough on me, if you knew I was different from her?" I close my eyes, traveling into the world of his warmth. I love when he touches my lips...

"Because I was afraid. Afraid of falling in love, to be loved. But, here I am, telling you, that I love you. I do fucking love you, Iris Jones."

He kisses me expressing what he feels, making those words a melody, a hymn to this scene of ours.