Loving A Phantom

Chapter 5: Don't Trust Her Lips

Robert was indenial, he couldn't decide if this was what he wanted, or what he should choose.

"I am not a coward." His voice deepened, almost as though he had felt offended.

"I never said that you..." Her voice sounded so suddenly frightened and as though she were short of breath.

"It is not that I do not long for you;" He was hesitant to speak, "There are consequences." He said.

"The phantom that menaced you...what did he look like?" Asked Robert.

"I don't know, he had so much blue light I couldn't see it." Margaret said taking in a deep breath and calming down.

Then she suddenly felt sick again.

"It could have been any of them." Said Robert, he almost seemed to sigh.

"Robert...tell me about them." Said Margaret, curious.

"I cannot speak of them." He said.

"...Why not?" Asked Margaret.

"I just cannot." Said Robert distressed, "Please stop asking me."

"Well I know that you aren't decided but you will consider won't you?" Asked Margaret.

"I will go away for a few days, if I do not return, I want you to forget about me." Said Robert.

"...Well okay." Said Margaret softly begining to doubt if she really felt something.

"I will search within the depths of my emotions and I will search for the truth." Said Robert.

"Just do me one favor Robert..." She said softly.

"What might that be?" Asked Robert.

"Take care of yourself." She sighed, frustrated, worried that he would not come back.

"Robert..!" She called out when he was a couple of feet away. "...Don't keep me waiting for too long without an answer!" She needed to know if he loved her, she just needed to know.

He turned around and looked at her, and he continued on his way.

Margaret tried the door but it was locked, and after wriggling the doorknob about two times, she went to the window. She wasn't about to knock and risk her dad knowing that she was out. She slid open the window and climbed inside, and suddenly, she looked up, and saw him.

"Margaret, you were out with a man!" Mason exclaimed with a big smile on his face but Margaret's smile faded deeply embarrassed and she fell inside the house right on her head from the window onto the hard tile, cutting her face incidentally.

"Ow!" She exclaimed, now she was sure to have a headache all evening. She stood up from the floor and said a bit awkwardly, and low, "...It's that obvious?"

"Of course it is!!" Her dad exclaimed. "I'm real happy for you, when am I going to meet him!?"

"Well" Margaret walked over to the couch and sat down beside him. "...Never." She smiled suddenly.

"Why? What happened?" Asked Mason.

"Well, he's just...a bit different." Margaret didn't know what to say, or how to say it.

"Different how? People are wonderful because we have differences." Mason was so happy.

"Yeah but...he's not exactly a person." Margaret pretended she was joking. "I mean he's got a great inner...umm...person but he doesn't do great with people. " Said Margaret, "How do I say it? Okay, he's got the heart of a person but...he doesn't exactly have the heart."

"He's shy!" Exclaimed her dad jumping to conclusions, "That is so cute!! My outstanding outspoken wonderful loud daughter has found a shy man!" He was even more thrilled now.

"Well...if you want to see it that way, I think he's a bit afrai-" Margaret began.

"of people, yeah, I know what you mean! That's great, when do I get to meet him!!?" Mason cut her off in the middle of her sentence.

Margaret didn't know how to put this nicely. She looked at the left wall and at the right facing him but her eyes were crossing in every other direction, but she managed to straighten them center right on him, "...Never." She said finally.

"You're really nervous about this, you really like this young fellow, don't you?" He asked, smiling so big that it made her uncomfortable.

"Yes, okay!!" Margaret began to laugh, she loosened up a little, "I really like him, I do-!!"

"How old is he?" Asked Mason.

"Daddy, we haven't gotten that far yet-" She became slowly quiet again.

"When are you going to see him again?" He asked her.

"I don't know." Said Margaret, "I don't."

She suddenly began to feel a little bit gloomy,

"Daddy please, stop with all the questions." She stood up to leave suddenly feeling sad unsure if Robert would agree to risk everything for her or not.

She wanted him to love her so genuinely he would, he was supposed to love her so that he would not letting anything be a barrier.

She knew that he may have been risking alot but she didn't know what, he was not communicating with her either.

He didn't seem to know.

She was risking her reputation, that much she knew.

She didn't intend on telling anyone, she knew they would think she was crazy but then....

suddenly the phone rang.

It was Raymond Emilio, her older brother, out of them nine, he was the sixth one to be born. He was older than her by about ten years.

"Raymond it's you!!!" Her voice was so excited like if he'd picked her up and spun her around in a circle but it wasn't true. She was just spinning with the phone in her hand, "Raymond I've got so much to tell you! I've fallen in love, I haven't been this happy in years..." She barely let him talk, she started to listen to him but she kept cutting him off. "His name is Robert and he has great shoes a deep voice a serious face you know he barely smiles but I can tell that he's just so friendly I can sense it he's just absolutely marvelous and he's a real man! He makes me feel like I'm standing on top of a ferris wheel and like I'm not even buckled in and he makes me feel-"

"Hold on, you're talking so fast, I can barely hear your words-" Raymond was laughing so hard on the other side of the phone.

Her brother Raymond was her 'go to' guy. He was the closest to her of all of her family, and she could really spill alot to him, he was a real fun guy. He had his serious moments, but with her, he laid back and relaxed free. She could be the same way with him. When they were together, they were inseparable and they were always laughing. He was real good at telling jokes but she was the baddest. She good tell a real good joke and that was something that Robert still hadn't learned yet.

He didn't know much about her, he didn't know how fun that Margaret really was.

The whole phone call long Raymond teased Margaret.

Margaret teased back defensive but she didn't mean it, she liked the attention. She hadn't talked to her brother in a real long time.

But the time came that Robert had to go,

"I'm sorry Margarettie, my wife is nagging!" Raymond laughed, "I'm just joking sweetheart, you could never bother." He didn't realize that he was still on the phone when he kissed his wife until Margaret hung up the call and he just heard the, "beep."

That was awkward, but the moment had passed and he continued to tell his wife how much he loved her.

Next Margaret went over to her friend's house and she vented all about Robert, she didn't hold back anything. Her friend, Jamica believed that there was such a thing as phantoms, but she also believed there were aliens and mermaids. Margaret still thought Jamica was crazy, but she knew she wouldn't be criticized and Jamica was after all, her only friend.

Lucky, her only friend was one likely to believe her and Margaret could not believe that she had not told Jamica sooner.

"You have landed yourself on a mine of crystals..." Said Jamica, "but also I would not want to be you." She sounded so serious.

"...Why?" Asked Margaret.

"It isn't right." Said Jamica. "If you were a scientist you could take the opportunity...to study him." She said.

"I'm not a scientist like you." Said Margaret.

"...Margaret have you lost your mind?" Said Jamica, even her...of all people, "Do you really expect me to believe that a phantom saved your life from a car accident and that now he comes to visit you because you were both meant to be together or something...even I know that you're not making any sense."

Jamica passed her a whole lot of books. "You need evidence. Without it I would not recommend that you tell anyone. People are going to think that you are crazy."

"Oh Jamica, you don't think that do you?" Margaret suddenly felt really terrible about having admitted it.

Jamica didn't believe her, she was supposed to believe her but she did not.

Margaret began grabbing her things to leave, suddenly she looked up, her eyes widened terribly distressed, "You're not going to tell anyone...are you?"

Margaret really didn't want Robert to find out that she'd gone and blabbered their secret love to everyone she was most close to.

But alas...in a little over a week of days time, he returned to her and found her when she was alone in the back garden behind her house.

"...How have you been?" he said coming to her, asking the question subtly.

"Have you decided?" She stood up abruptly and turned around searching for him but she could only hear him.