Chapter 5

We stepped into his office and checked the social media feed of the couple. Neil was the one who was scrolling through the couple's feed, and some of their friends and other connections. I stood right behind him and watched him look at every feed that we could see. The couple looked happy and they have friends who were supportive of their relationship. 

"Nothing to see here," I said when it already took us a while trying to find answers.

"But we did. And that was how excited Alex was when he got that invitation that he even posted about it," he said then he moved the laptop a bit to his right so that I can have a better look at it. And Neil's right. Alex was excited about it. 

"Look at the comments." We both looked at every comment in the comment section and who were the people who reacted to it. "None of them were from his girlfriend, Sarah."

"Your girlfriend should support you with almost everything especially with this event," Neil said as we kept going on in the comments section. "Unless it has something to do with jealousy."

My eyebrows furrowed. "But I didn't see anything suspicious about Alex cheating on Sarah. His account was so . . . clean."

"It is," he said then he turned off the laptop's screen and tapped his eyeglasses up to his pointy nose. "We can't tell everyone's situation just by reading their social media feeds. We need to know about them."

I don't know what was on Neil's mind but I could tell that he was about to tell me something that I have to do.

"Today is the event. We'll go," he said after glancing at his watch then stood from his seat.

"We? Why Am I coming with you?" I asked.

He put his coat on him. "You want to see how this all ends, right?" He gave me a smirk then stepped outside the office. I followed him afterwards.

Well, he's right. I want to know the truth behind these couples.

We waited until the event started at the coliseum. It was the annual anniversary of the campus and Alex was one of the special guests there to give a speech to his fellow schoolmates. We've been looking for him and he didn't seem to make his appearance in the stadium.

"Maybe he was just there. The stadium is as big as a field, you know?"  I said while I'm munching on some popcorn. Neil on the other hand, was busy looking around.

"We will know if he attended when he was called on stage."

I gave him a grimacing look. "For a man like you, I still find it shocking to be interested in this kind of stuff. I would understand if you're a woman."

"It doesn't have to do with gender, Ella." Then he glanced at me. "It was about the person's desires."

"So knowing about someone else's love life is now a desire?"

"Not just love life, but in general," he said then his eyes narrowed while looking at a specific direction. I followed his eyesight and saw that Alex and Sarah were at one of the benches. Sarah looked like she was scolding Alex again while the other was only staring at his feet. Both me and Neil exchanged each other’s glances, mentally telling ourselves to eavesdrop their conversation. So we passed down a few benches then we stood behind the group of friends who were laughing and bantering each other. It was enough for us to hear Alex and Sarah’s conversation, which quieted down the group in front of us.

“I told you not to come here, okay? You were always busy with all this stuff that you already forgot to give me your time!” Sarah shouted at the man.

“I’m sorry! But this is important to me,” he said with his head lowered down.

“Oh fuck! Was this because of the girl?”

“I told you Sarah, we’re just friends.”

“But the professor that we seek help from yesterday told us that we should talk about this so we can understand each other! Lying to me is not part of it!”

“But I am not lying to you!”

“Oh, yes you are!”

The group of friends in front of us started turning their heads at the couple. I also noticed that Neil was not beside me anymore and that he was walking towards the couple. I immediately followed him.

“I said have a good conversation and trust each other.” The couple stopped talking then they looked at Neil with a surprised look on their faces. I just stood there and watched how this will go. 

“Were you just assuming that Alex was seeing this girl or do you have any proof for it?” Neil added.

“Professor,” Alex said as he looked at Neil. Judging from his looks, he looked like he was stressed and needed to be rescued from this bitch.

“Plus, if you really love and care for your significant one, you should support him with his interests and what makes him happy, not put restrictions on him.” Neil’s eyes were on Sarah, which made Sarah’s face turn into disgust.

“I am not—Sir, with all due respect, I have proofs here!” she said with a panicked tone as she started burying her hands on her purse. A few seconds later, she took her cell phone then started tapping on it then gave it to Neil. The professor looked at it.

“They were joking about going together today that was why I was so skeptical about him going here!” Sarah explained.

“It’s because I have no one to go with except her,” Alex defended his side. “It feels like... whenever I am friends with someone, whether they are female or male, they ended up leaving me.”

“But I have you!” Sarah said as she crossed her arms across her chest. “You have to grow up Alex! They’re not your friends! They’re just people who wanted to spend their time with you because you’re a star in this school! This is also why I don’t want you to go here because I hate that you’re gaining the attention!”

“That explains it all,” Neil said that made Sarah and Alex turn their heads at him. “Relationships are a two-way street. You don’t own them. You don’t put locks on their hands and expect them to lick your butts all the time. Like I said, if you really love someone, you should let him do all the things he loves and what makes him happy. Because if you don’t, that person will be unhappy and he or she stays with you in fear, not because you love each other.“

I was impressed with how Neil put it all out about love that silenced Sarah and Alex. This made me wonder, I remember that night at the wedding that he wanted to erase the photos of the newly wed couple. Why? Does he feel bad about them? It was a mystery that suddenly popped into my mind. A man like him who speaks about love wants to erase happy memories of a newly wed couple. Sounds contradicting.

“So what should we do?” Alex asked. 

We all knew where this was all going. Because who wants to stay with someone after getting traumatized in their relationship? Unless Sarah changed her ways, but I highly doubt that was impossible, especially how she sees love and relationships.

“It was really up to you, Alex,” Neil said as he turned his back on them then started walking away. I remained my eyes at the couple and I could sense that Alex finally made his decision.