Chapter 22: The dumbest decision...
We were in my room; I and Jose, working on the management list for the upcoming theatre performance.
"So, would you like to explain about the crisis you mentioned while coming upstairs," Jose asked me while typing the participant names on the laptop.
"Oh! That is nothing serious, it is about Simon," I hinted at him.
"Did he get into some trouble?" he is too dumb to get a hint.
"No," I said, still focused on my research work.
"Tell me, I am curious," he said while throwing a tantrum.
"You are really too naive," I said looking at him.
He looked confused.
"Simon's crush is back in the country, he is going back and forth to meet her, and as siblings, we always cover for each other," I explained it to him.
"Wait, so you know about his love life that means he knows about yours too, if you cover up for each other," he asked me, in wonder.
"Of course, he does, I always tell him everything," I said nonchalantly, but Jose on the other hand looked surprised.
"So, all along I was trying to hide it from him, making a joke of myself, when he already knows," he might've felt so dumb.
"Haha," I couldn't help but laugh.
"Stop laughing, you should've told me earlier," he said to me.
He is really innocent and cute, maybe that's why I keep on getting magnetised by this pure personality of his.
"Will it be difficult?" he said ambiguously.
"What will be?" I asked him.
"Telling your parents about us," he explained.
I laughed as he said this to me.
"You just made me your girlfriend not long ago, and now you want to meet my parents. Not to mention we are just high schoolers. Aren't you going a bit too fast Mr. Jose," I said.
"So, you mean are not serious about us? Did you never think about the future?" he said, and suddenly the conversation turned serious.
"Do you know the one thing that I learned from my past, Jose?" I asked him looking in his eyes.
"What did you learn?" he asked softly, as if he knew my answer already.
"I've learnt to never think of the future and live the present," he knew what I was talking about and so he stopped with the future talks.
We got busy with our work once again. After a few minutes silence and focus in the room, he spoke again. Well, I've realised that he is usually not this talkative in front of others, it is just him with me.
"I have one more question," he said again pausing what he was doing.
"Speak!" I said without looking up at him, busy doing my work.
"Will you never tell Richa and Jake that your Mom is the chairperson of the school?" he asked me.
"I will, but not yet. I don't see any need to tell them, and I also feel like, if I tell them, they might become estranged with me," I told him my side of reasoning.
"I also know it, but I did not become estranged from you," he made sense.
"I will think of a way to tell them then, now stop talking and focus on your work, mine is almost done," I decide to tell Richa and Jake about this soon.
...knock...knock.
Someone knocked at my room's door.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"It's me. Can I come in?" It was Richa.
"And me, too," and Jake too.
"The door is op...," Jake barged in before I completed speaking.
"You are senseless," Richa said to Jake with a disgusted look on her face.
"It's alright. We are friends," Jake said to her while she rolled her eyes at him.
"Yeah," I said to them with a sigh.
"What are you so focused on, Jose?" Jake asked.
"You are just acting idiot, we have to do the prerequisite to make that acting go smoothly," Jose explained to him.
"Such tough work, do you need something to drink, My Master," Jake acted cutely, clinging to Jose.
"Get off, and stop this behaviour," Jose said to him, pushing Jake away jokingly, as I and Richa laughed at them.
"Are you still busy? It's your birthday though," Richa said to me with a disappointed look on her face.
"I am done, do you want to do something," I asked.
"Really! Then let's go and play video games together, Jake is no fun, he keeps on losing to me," She said, indirectly mocking Jake.
"Ay! Don't say that, it's not true. I was not losing, but letting you win the game," he said refuting Richa's words.
"Big and useless mouth is all you have," Richa murmured standing next to me.
I heard her and burst into laughing. Richa looked at me and started laughing together.
"By the way, where is Sam? Wasn't he playing with guys a while ago?" I asked them, as I didn't see Sam together with them.
"Oh, he is on FaceTime with his Dad," Jake replied to my questions, focused on the screen that Jose was working on.
"Did Uncle Adam call? I'll go and say hi to him," I said.
"I'll go with you," Richa said.
We both headed towards the staircase, leaving Jose and Jake in the room alone.
"By the way, your house is pretty big too," Richa said to me while we walked down the staircase.
"Thank you," I replied.
"I never asked, what do your parents do?" she asked me.
"Well, I will tell you later," I left her in suspense.
"Oh! again," she sighed and did not ask further and I gave her a smile.
We reached downstairs, I saw everyone gathered around my Dad's laptop, kept on the table.
"Did Uncle Adam call?" I shouted from where I was standing.
"Oh! you are here? We were just going to call you down," Mom said to me.
"Dad, look my sister is looking so gorgeous," Sam came to me and dragged me in front of the laptop.
"Hi, Uncle, how have you been?" I greeted him.
"I am great my daughter, how have you been? Got any boyfriends you are eighteen now," he said to me jokingly.
"Umm, no comments on that," I joked back to him, "But I do have a great friend to introduce to you, she is so much like Jennie, but again she has infinite charm that makes her unique too."
Sam brought Richa to stand next to me.
"Is she her?" he asked.
"Yes," I replied.
"Hello," Richa waved to him, with such a natural smile.
"Hello there, child. You got one beautiful friend there, April," he said.
"Well, agreed," I complied, while Richa looked a little shy at the compliment.
"Happy birthday dear," he wished me, "I know that I am the last one to wish you, my apologies."
"Oh! come on, you are not late. I already saw your text an hour ago that you sent me, but I was kind of too busy to reply," I know he loves me no matter how late or early he is in wishing me.
"How is the school going? How is Kristen?" he asked me.
"It is going great. Kristen is also good. How is it there? Is work tiring?" I asked him concerned about him, as he has been away from home for too long.
"It is acceptable, don't worry. By the way, did you show your new friend the secret hideout that you, Kristen, and Jennie made? She can be a part of it now too, can't she?" he asked me to show Richa, the hideout that I, Kristen and Jennie made.
"Of course, she can, I almost forgot about that," I said to him and then grabbed Richa's hand and said, "Com with me, I will show it to you now. Bye, Uncle, talk to you later."
I waved at the camera and headed with Richa, to the place, which was just now mentioned by my Uncle.
"Where are we going?" Richa asked me.
"A hideout," I replied.
"Another hideout! Well, what's with you and hideouts, first at school and now at your house?" she asked with a surprised expression hiding her curiosity.
"Umm, actually I, Kristen, Jennie, and Simon; we used to watch too many detective movies and so that inspired us to do these crazy things. Even the hideout at the school was made by Simon when he was in high school. He later came home and told the three of us that when we reach high school we can use it as our hideout too," I don't know but while speaking sorrow crept slowly through my vein endings and I just became all quiet.
"Why did you stop speaking?" Richa asked me.
"It suddenly hits me, that what we thought and imagined, none of it came true. I am here but Jennie and Kristen are not here," I said while my steps slowed down.
"But I am here," Richa came and stood in front of me with a big smile on her face, to console me, and yes, she succeeded.
"Yeah, you are here," I smiled at her, " Come, let me show you, Simon still kept the place clean."
I took her to the yard then passing through the pergola we reached a wall covered with creepers.
"Why are we standing here, in front of this wall?" Richa asked me.
"Why do you think? Try pushing it," I told her.
"What? The wall?" she asked in astonishment.
"Yes, try it," I assured her.
She did as I said and as she placed her hand on it, the wall turned ninety degrees to the left.
"Woah! This is a hideout? It is a secret tunnel," she was much more surprised than I thought she would be.
The secret door opened to the stairs leading to a basement, it was normal for us, but it might have been a weird thing for her.
"Let's go down," I asked her.
"No, it is scary , it is so dark down there," she looked terrified.
"It is not, look," I stepped inside and as I did the motion-detecting lights glowed up on the stairs.
"This is crazy, a secret hideout with technology," she was amazed.
"It didn't have these lights before, but then Simon added them later," I explained to her, "Come on, it is not scary at all," I said indulging her to follow me.
She held me hand and followed me. It might look creepy at first but this hideout of ours is one of the most beautiful places to be at.
"This is beautiful," Richa exclaimed with her eyes wide open.
"It is," I complied.
"I could literally live here, this is a fairy land," she meant what she said, I can tell by her expression.
"Well, you can there is a bed there," I told her.
"If my parents ever kick me out, can I make this my place?" she asked me.
"You can anytime you want. But wait a second, why would your parents kick you out. From what I saw at your birthday, you are one beloved child of your parents," I asked back.
"Because I will bring Jake home someday as my boyfriend," she said.
"But why is that a big deal?" I asked her in curiosity, somehow it did not make any sense to me.
"Well, just one of the Asian things," she said and what she said might sum up all the answers to my future curiosities too.
"All right!" I exclaimed.
"What is that?" she asked me looking at the mirrored wall, which was covered with post-its.
"You know that there were three girls back then and Simon was alone between us, and as girls how can we not love dressing up? We also did cosplays, playing princesses, and dancing in front of this mirror. You know once Simon was so done with us, we made him dress like Snow White," I told her.
"For real? I would love to see him do that again," she laughed.
"To make him do that again, I will have to be reborn. That man didn't talk to me for a week after that, and me going one week after upsetting my brother again, impossible!" I joked.
"Oh! really! What love?! Amazing!" Richa joked back.
"Wow, so many words," we laughed together.
"But all that aside, why is the mirror covered with post-its?" she asked me about the stick-Ons.
I sighed deeply and turned back to sit on the bed, while Richa stood there looking at me.
"After we lost Jennie, Kristen and I also became distant. She blamed me and I blamed myself as well. Kristen was upset with me and I was upset with myself too. I lost everything that was happy in my life, with just one incident. After all that happened, one day I came down here and put on these stick-Ons to cover this mirror, because every time I looked in this mirror, I would keep feeling sad and helpless. Every time I look in the mirror, I see us four dancing together, with big smiles on our faces," as I stopped speaking, I felt a warm embrace that made me feel I was not alone.
Richa is a very kind girl and a very pure soul. She is someone who brought the unexpected to my life.
"April, why does Kristen blame you and why do you blame yourself? Why is it that you are helpless?" she asked me not in an interrogative manner but searching for a way to get me out of it.
I looked at her with gratitude.
"You can tell me, and you can also cry. I never see you express, what you are feeling," she was saying facts, I know I don't tell things to anyone this easily, but I spoke my heart today so many times.
"Now that I think of I have so many lovely people around me. I cannot use the strong word of hate for anyone, because no one deserves that hate around me. Probably the only people I will ever hate, are the ones that kidnapped me and Jennie back then," I told her everything with a genuine heart.
"Wait you were kidnapped?" she looked shocked and worried at the same time.
"Yes, you might not know it, only a few people are aware of it," I told her in a chill tone, as she looked a little too surprised.
"What exactly happened to you back then?" she seemed to be wanting to know more about my pain and share it as a friend.
"Well, it was just another day at school. The day in the school passed well. We ate, talked, studied, and laughed with each other. At that time Jennie and Kristen were sitting so close to me. No one knew what was waiting for us ahead."
I sighed and continued while Richa listened to me with a tense expression holding my hands tightly.
"Jennie said that she wanted to go to eat the cream cake that they sell at the main intersection near the school. Kristen told us that she wouldn't be able to stay back with us as she had to go to attend her home tuition. We reluctantly parted. I and Jennie were there at the bakery sitting in the umbrella shade outside enjoying our cakes. Two men approached us and started saying that they saw Kristen have an accident. Of course, they did not say her name but said the girl who was with us earlier, and the only girl who was with us was Kristen. If they knew Kristen, they probably saw us three together many times, and that was suspicious. But at that time when they mentioned Kristen's accident, I and Jennie can't think of anything else. We asked them where did the accident took place, and they said they would take us there. Without thinking much, we followed them."
"That was so dumb of you," Richa said with a worried expression.
"It was, very dumb, very very dumb," I sighed and covered my face with both my hands.
"You have always been an idiot," A voice came from near the staircase. I turned to see Kristen standing there with Jake and Jose.
***
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