Chapter 18: Voicing it all (part 2)
"I don't think I should tell you about it". Mark said with his palms still on his head and his face downwards.
"You should, we shouldn't keep stuff like this away from each other". Ben uttered.
"Hmmm, true, I am gonna tell you because I trust you not to blurt it out to someone else".
"Surely, our secrets are safe with each other, you know me, I wouldn't even dare to blurt it out to someone else".
"Ok, back then in my college years, I was 21years at that time, I fell in love with a very pretty girl named Bridie. This girl was so beautiful that I couldn't help staring at her most of the time. I craved to tell her what I felt for her in my heart, but I was afraid for some time until I finally accumulated sufficient courage to express my love for her..."
Mark paused for a while shaking his head a bit, his facial expression revealed that reflecting on that hurtful past event wasn't pleasing to him, he continued with his speech,
"You know what Ben, I wasn't a fan of sneakers back then, but I had to purchase a sneaker 'cause I wanted to approach the girl. I dressed well and perfumed well before approaching her when she was alone. You wouldn't believe it, after all my dressing and fine boy style, she rejected my love telling me she couldn't reciprocate that feeling back to me, she didn't like me, but she rejected my love in a polite way".
Mark sighed before he continued speaking, "I was very heartbroken and sad for a whole week, I lost my appetite to eat for that whole day 'cause she repudiated my love. It wasn't a pleasant experience at all".
Ben was all ears, he had been paying rapt attention to Mark from the very beginning he started the explanation. And from his facial expression, it was apparent that Mark's words got to his heart, he understood what it felt like to be rejected by a girl you truly love. He wanted to listen to Mark second love repudiation story, so he uttered,
"That isn't a nice experience at all, you must have felt so bad, but can you tell me about your second love rejection story".
"I don't have a choice, I've given you a full detail of the first one, I have no other option than to give an account of the second one. This other rejection story I am about to tell you happened not too long ago, you remembered when I went to my label boss's house to convince him about letting me go sign to another record label, right?"
Ben provided an answer to Mark's question, "Yeah, I remember, vividly".
Mark proceeded with his speech, "That same day, after my boss didn't consent to my proposal, I visited my favorite restaurant to eat before going to the pool to swim 'cause I felt like swimming. I grabbed a lot of people's attention at the pool with my swimming skills, and 'cause of that, two beautiful ladies approached me when I was relaxing and enjoying the fresh air the pool was producing. They told me they admired my coolness and my swimming skills were so fascinating. I and the girls got acquainted with each other and we conversed a lot, we got to know each other's name, age, and other stuff".
"Throughout my conversation with them, it just seemed I was developing feelings for one of the girls named Isabel. Her manners were one of kind, the way she spoke, and her humble spirit. I had to collect their mobile numbers so I could contact her without the knowledge of her friend, Theresa. After some days, exactly the day I and my sister had a little disagreement regarding my mum's offer to start a lucrative business, I called her because I couldn't get her off my mind. We scheduled a meeting time at the 'Botanic Gardens' so I could express my feelings for her, though she had no idea of what I wanted to discuss with her. We met at the 'Botanic Gardens ', I expressed my feelings for her in the best way I could hoping that she felt the same for me too. But to my greatest surprise, she told me she didn't like me romantically, but she loved me as a friend. What could I do, I can't force her to love me, so we went our separate ways".
"Wow! two rejections from two different girls, that's bad". Ben uttered.
"Yeah, so bad, I am still wondering if I would ever get accepted by any pretty girl, looks like it is also part of my bad luck". Mark stated.
"You would surely find the right one for you at the right time".
"Hope so, at least, my love life should be much better than my music career".
"But why did you kept it away from me, why didn't you tell me that you got rejected by a girl recently". Ben inquired of Mark.
"I assumed it wasn't something you would want to hear about, so I decided to keep it to myself". Mark responded.
"You shouldn't assume such, always make sure to tell me anything unpleasant that happens to you. So we could bestow consolation to each other, just have it in mind that I would always lend a listening ear".
"These are the type of words that I need to build up my spirit, and you always make sure to give it to me, thanks a lot".
"You're welcome".
"There is something else I want to tell you". Mark said.
"What is it?" Ben inquired.
"Apart from the last time I saw my father's dead body at his burial some 15years ago, I sighted another cold-blooded lifeless body no too long ago".
"Where? When? How? was it today?" Ben asked at the same time with a face filled with curiosity.
"Take it easy bro, you gonna find answers to your questions one by one, I'm gonna answer firstly to your question, When? Well, I sighted the corpse last week. And to your question, Where? Around my boulevard". Mark answered.
"Tell me more, what happened exactly at your boulevard that led to a dead body, Talk to me Mark, gist me". Ben uttered with that large eyes revealing the tremendous amount of curiosity in it.
"Ok.....It all started when a violent riot occurred among some hoodlums which affected some other avenues and also affected the savage estate. What kept me wondering was how the riot affected a whole estate, there should always be tight security guarding an estate, but let's keep that aside for now. The riot started very late in the night, I was asleep at that time having no single idea of what was happening around me. Very early in the morning, two cops knocked on my door interrupting my precious nap. They told me they were in search of two thugs who used the riot as an opportunity to steal a very huge amount of money from a rich man. They searched everywhere in my house to see if I was concealing the thugs and the money they stole, but they found nothing".
"That's a very false accusation, if I was the one, I wouldn't take it that easy with them". Ben said interrupting Mark's explanation.
"I had no other option than to cooperate with them, that was the best to do at that moment. I was pissed off at the start, but I calmed down later on seeing that they searched the apartment of other people also". Mark uttered soothing Ben's mind a bit.
"That's more acceptable by me, continue with the explanation". Ben stated.
"After my innocence was revealed, they gave me a card telling me to call the number printed on it in case I took notice of any suspicious man carrying a dark green bag on his hand before they left my presence. After they departed, I went outside to purchase some foodstuffs, what I saw on getting outside left me in total shock. It was more than what I was imagining, broken bottles everywhere, bullets on the ground, some car glasses were shattered, and the worst of all, blood splashes on the ground. I am still confused if the blood splashes were of the thugs involved in the riot or blood splashes of innocent people. Not too long after roving about in the streets glancing at the damages those thugs had inflicted, I came across a very suspicious-looking guy carrying a dark green bag in his hand. Immediately, my senses notified me that the guy was surely one of the thugs, everything about him revealed violence and criminality. I had a double feeling on if I should overlook what I just saw or inform the cops about it, after combatting my thoughts for a while, I made up my mind to inform the cops about it 'cause it was the right thing to do. They arrived in their car almost instantly after I called them and informed them of what saw. The thug and his fellow hoodlums were handcuffed by the cops and were taken to their cars. But what left me frightened at that moment was the threatening and violent way the violent looking thug glared at me, it was so scary"...
It took Mark about some minutes more to give a full detailed explanation of the events that led to the thug's death.
"So his lifeless body was driven off by the cops". Mark said ending the explanation.
"You mean you experienced all these unpleasant events". Ben questioned Mark in awe.
"Yeah". Mark responded.
"You've surely been through a lot".
"Yeah, I am an experienced guy".
"True".
"I am gonna be interviewed at the music extra next week Thursday".
"For real?".
"Yeah".
"Wow! cool".
"You recalled to my last interview at the 'Late night show' where I couldn't even give answers to the riddles being thrown at me".
"Yeah, it was so funny, you were looking so dumbfounded that day". Ben stated as both of them laughed in unison.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Jephthah_
Jephthah_ Too many explanations from Mark, but I had to fix it like that so there would be a clearer understanding of it.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone