"Lizzy, what the hell has happened between you and William?" Jane and Charlotte asked Elizabeth as soon as school got over.
"Nothing," Lizzy replied, a pang of guilt overtook her.
"You cannot lie to me," Charlotte said and looked directly in her eyes.
"I don't want to talk about it,"
"You'll have to face it sometimes," Charlotte said.
"I'll wait for my turn," Lizzy said sarcastically.
"Lizzy, you can tell us everything," Jane comforted her.
"But, I don't want to. Not today, tomorrow may be,"
"Alright-y then! We'll speak of it no more," Jane said.
"Thank you. How was your quiz?" she asked Charlotte.
"Amazing! I knew almost all the answers. A for sure," Charlotte replied, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. She didn't want Lizzy to be upset more than she already was.
"What did you exactly say to Lizzy?" asked Chris furiously.
"I just told her the truth," Darcy said, trying to hide the pain he was feeling.
"Did she reject you?" Charles intervened.
"Quite vehemently, I should add," Darcy said directly looking into his eyes. The pain was obvious; he could not hide from the people who knew him well. "But, I don't want to talk about it. I need to see my father. So, I got to go early," He left without so much as a bye.
Those eyes, had betrayed his true feelings. Lizzy could picture them in front of her. The time when he was telling about Wickham, those eyes reflected regret. And at the time of bidding adieu, they were reflecting something entirely different.
Was it perhaps, that he truly liked me? Lizzy wondered. Not as well equipped as her other friends on the relationship front; Elizabeth was going through a big turmoil inside her head. May be I should talk to Jane. But what shall I tell her? Lizzy thought. She was not used to letting her feelings out; even if it was Jane, Elizabeth needed quite a lot of courage to broach the subject.
She went for her tennis with the aim to forget about these things for the time being. And of course, the balls were now The Wicked Wickham.
"Hello father," William said glumly as he entered his father's office. Imagine a huge corporate office with that huge window giving the view of the entire city. No, it was nothing like that. Mr Michael Darcy liked it simple. The furnishings were no doubt the most expensive and royal, but nothing was gaudy. There was a window, but the view was of a park, a few ice cream vendors and a lot of happy children.
"Hello son," Mr Michael Darcy said while placing one hand on the screen of his Blackberry, "Come, sit down,"
He did what he was told; his head still downcast. He couldn't forget the events of the previous day so easily. Under that tough exterior laid a very soft man. Not so easily visible, but it was there.
"So, how was school today?" Mr Darcy began after keeping a few files aside.
"The usual," William replied without even looking at him.
"That project, you and Elizabeth were working on; did you give it?" his father asked him. Desperate to find some topic which would make William speak.
"Yes," William said yet again.
"Good, good. Well, I just wanted you to take a look at these," Darcy Sr. said and handed over some papers to William.
"What's this?" William said. Finally something piqued his interest.
"You're driving license documents. You'll turn seventeen and I just wanted you to take a look at them to make sure every detail is correct,"
William was lucky to have a perceptive father as Mr Michael Darcy. After all, how many billion dollar dads handle these things personally? And perceptive as he was, he was able to decipher that something was amiss with his son.
"So, what do you think?" Michael said after completing yet another phone call.
"Uh…Looks like they're in order," William said nonchalantly, gazing out of the window.
"So, what's wrong?" Michael asked his son.
"Nothing, if that's all. I would like to go for my football practice," William said standing up.
Yes, something was amiss. Will have to wait till the night, probably, Darcy Sr. mused to himself.
"Yes, yes. You should go," Michael Darcy tried to sound cheerful.
"Bye," and off he went.
"Okay, I have to tell you something," Lizzy said hurriedly as she entered Jane's room.
Keeping her books aside, Jane said, "Speak up,"
"Darcy said that he liked me. I insulted him and turns out he was right," Lizzy said in one breath.
"Right about- you liking him?" Jane asked with a glimmer of hope.
"What! No…Well, I don't about that yet…but about Wickham,"
"Wickham! How does he come in?" Jane asked truly confused.
Then Lizzy narrated the whole incidence leaving his and her insults.
"He cannot be that bad," Jane said, trying to reassure herself more than Lizzy. She did not want to believe that this kind of evil existed in the world.
"He is," Lizzy said after a few moments of contemplating.
Jane gave her a big hug. Lizzy needed it, even though she was never the one to hug.
He missed all the goals. He passed horribly. He did not even dribble correctly. Today was not his day. And with that kind of volume of information stored up in him, who could blame him?
"She believed Wickham over me. I could hardly expect anything," Darcy finally confessed to Chris and Charles. "I told her his history with me. And now, I do not care what she does with it."
"About Georgie?" Chris asked, worried for his little cousin.
"She won't speak about it. Cares for her too much," he said with a sardonic laughter.
Chris tapped his shoulders and said, "Come on! It's time we go,"
