Chapter 8:
"Confessions" (Merry's POV)
Pippin's last word makes me feel like I've had a bucket of cold water dumped over my head.
"What do you mean!" I stutter, trying to ignore the pain in my heart. "You're sorry about the poem?" Pippin doesn't answer me at first, so I ask him again. This time he looks at me and nods, and at that moment, I can feel my heart break.
How could I have been so foolish? How could I believe that he actually meant what he wrote? He was probably drunk and not thinking straight. I've also done things when I've been drunk that I regretted the day after, but I've never written a love-poem like he did.
A little voice inside me whispers that that poem didn't seem at all like the rambling of a drunken person, and it occurs to me now that I've seen Pippin drunk before and I know that he can't even put two words together in a sentence when he's had too many pints. Oh, shut up, I tell the inner voice. Of course he was drunk, why else would he be sorry for writing it? I know I'm tormenting myself, but I need to know, I need to hear him say it.
"So you didn't mean it…the poem, I mean?"
Pippin smiles sadly at me. I can barely hear his voice when he finally speaks.
"No... I mean yes… I mean, I meant every word, it's just… I'm just sorry that you read it because now you know the truth and…" His voice breaks and he starts crying again. "… and now you'll hate me forever and not be my friend any more. I'm sorry!" He rises from the ground and wipes his tears away angrily. "It was foolish for me to turn back." And he starts to walk away.
I just stand there, dumbfounded for a couple of seconds before realizing what's happening:
Pippin, the love of my life, is walking away from me. I'm going to loose him again.
"Wait!" I shout, but all of a sudden he starts to run. "No! Pippin, wait for me! Don't run away from me again!"
I'm out of breath when I finally catch up with him. He closes his eyes and refuses to look at me. "Pippin?" I say softly, trying to put everything I feel into my voice. "Did you really mean what you wrote?" He gives me a small nod, but he still won't look at me. "Did you mean that I am your support, your inspiration, your passion, your light? Did you mean that I'm your soul mate? Did you mean that you love me?"
Pippin takes a deep breath and then he speaks so low that I barely can hear him. "Yes, I meant everything! You are my everything!"
"Oh, Pip. Why didn't you just... Oh, Pippin, that makes me so happy, because I feel the same way about you!"
Then I do what I've wanted to do for such a long time: I lean forward and I kiss him.