𝗜𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁 𝗔𝗳𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘀 | 𝐁𝗼𝐛𝐛𝐲 𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝𝐲/𝗥𝗙𝗞

VII: "Love Conquers All"

"Stop beating around the bush." Bobby's eyes alone were confessing to the French girl; they were crystallized with tears. And for reasons unknown to Evelyn, her sane mind became undone. She gulped — in fear of the words escaping her mouth would be drunken ones. "No, Bobby." A bittersweet smile appeared on Evelyn's face. That plain reply made Bobby questions every single thing he'd ever done. What went wrong? Was it because of that one time he left Evelyn behind at a gas station as a joke? Or was it because he's a coward, who could never profess his love the moment he found out he had fallen deeply into the abyss?

"I love you, Evelyn."

Whether it was mere Dutch courage or the fact that Evelyn was now a sensible adult, Bobby did the most difficult thing in the world — admitting you've fallen into a trap called love. However, it did not change the fact that the boy was five years older than the girl, and they had acknowledged that their families would never allow any sort of union to happen between them; Evelyn was birthed into a family of non-believers, and Bobby the opposite. They've seen what would happen if they unite — the same exact thing that Kathleen had to go through, Bobby would passively be banished from the Kennedy clan. Though, with all that's happened, Kathleen was planning to fly to Paris — the same day as her father, to gain his consent for her upcoming plans to marry her new beau, Fitzwilliam.

"You don't love me like that, Bobby." Evelyn's voice was soft and soothing, but the words she uttered pierced through every layer of walls Bobby had built around himself. "I've loved you in all kinds of ways," Bobby grunts as he was getting up on his feet, he straightened himself with his blurring vision. "Platonically, romantically..." He muttered, he was tallying. Somehow, Bobby managed to utter another line of words before going completely silent, "The worst of all— desperately." He laid his pair of crystal blue eyes into Evelyn's cloudy emeralds. It was the worst feeling — rejection. Being on the receiving end could scar you, but no one ever talks about how tough you must be to ignite it. It's like you're willing to release your handgrip from a rope that's holding someone from plummeting to their death. That's the idea of rejection in Evelyn's mind, desperately trying to find a way to hurt someone without hurting them — impossible.

"It'd be suicide." There were trembles in Evelyn's feminine voice. Her world was colliding with the void within herself. She wished she could say: 'can we do this some other day?' but to do so, she would desensitize love. "You don't think it's killing us already?" With a final drag from his cigarette, Bobby threw it away to the ground — thirty feet below him. "All this running and hiding..." He uttered in disbelief, though in a calm manner, "And all the fucking lies!" Bobby raised his voice. It instantly reminded Evelyn of the time they had their first argument.

"Can't we give it a try, at least?" The man sat back down. His hands were as cold as ice. "Give love a try?" Evelyn questioned. She reached for the wounded soul with her hand. "When has it ever turned out alright?" She lowered her eyes to their hands. "Your hand is cold." Gently, she rubbed the back of Bobby's hand with both her thumbs. Bobby leaned in to whisper, "not as cold as your heart, Eve." And his face dropped. There was no more fight in Bobby. He'd done his best at encouraging the girl to give in to love, but she's much more pessimistic than he'd expected.

Tensions filled the air — thickening the atmosphere. Sounds of crickets and cicadas surrounded them amid the night. Exhalations and inhalations of the same oxygen. However, there was no more negotiating — it was clear then. "Good night." Bobby pulled his hand out of Evelyn's warm grips. Evelyn hoisted her head up to look at the man as he pats dust off of his Levi's jeans. A final deep breath, and he was walking away.

Only then, a teardrop fell from the damsel's eye, pitiful emotions rushed over her. She was on the brink of a breakdown. If she could, she would confess her undying love for the man, but she could not. It was with no doubt, they've been in love clandestinely for so long. But no one, not even themselves, was courageous enough to say anything about it. It was deemed to be a disastrous love story from the start. It was foreseeable since the moment Bobby introduced himself to Evelyn thirteen years ago.

"I love you too, Bobby."

But in the end,
love conquers all.

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