Simmer & Stir

Chapter 28

Roseville.

My hometown where I decided to take a break from the chaos of my life.

After my initial fight with Philip, I had gone back to my apartment. It was within the silence of those four walls when truth reared its head.

Philip not only lied to me, but he also made his folks lie too. They played a part in his concocted narrative. Everyone lied to me.

In the dreariness of my room, I sat and comprehended how much trust I put in Philip. And how easy it was for him to break it. Not a flinch on his face when he lie woven chronicle.

I was still in the dark to know the rationale behind all of it.

But I knew better now.

I knew I had to draw back, move ahead and clear my head about our relationship. The so-called relationship where Philip kept dropping me messages daily. His good mornings woke me up and his good nights tucked me back to sleep.

He would never text me anywhere between those times, probably giving me space.

For most girls, messages like these would mean the world. Only I was able to pierce behind the veil of those texts. The knowledge about his operated sight danced in my mind every time I saw his morning and evening greetings. Though Philip was giving me space, he was also constantly reminding me of his lie.

One lie.

It was not any infidelity or a scandal that broke us apart. Neither did we fall out of love. All it took was one rotten secret to tear off the love I had as a second skin.

"Can I come in?" Dad's cloaked voice emerged from behind my room's closed door. He walked in after a knock when I didn't answer.

His eyes lingered over the walls of my room. Pink-colored walls enlivened with a soft, shimmering hue from the sunlight streaming through the opposite side. The morning air was warm and hung upon us, perspiring everyone's brows and foreheads.

Dad towed the beads of sweat from his forehead, his thumb rolled over his brows. He sat at the corner of my bed, watching the wind chime trying hard to flutter in the humid air and play music - the task it was assigned.

For eight months, I hadn't been home.

Although my room - the pink palace I called my room with posters of great Rockstars from Axel Rose to Slash, Madonna and Britney peeling from the sides; the fluffy pale-colored carpet, all things remained the same - the people who resided in the house changed.

Dad had put on more weight around his torso. Well, he was never a built man and his growing potbelly was due to consumption of sweets and trans-fat which mom loved cooking with. His shrunken eyes remind me of the hard work he still did.

Printed news was running out of business all around the country. For a small town like Roseville, the business didn't have much to bite into with everyone switching to reading news on their mobile apps.

With the company letting go of employees every few months, it was only a matter of time when they sacked dad too. Mom was doing better - running the saloon business on her own. But as the rest of the town kids flocked in pursuit of bigger, better and shinier jobs in the cities, the only townies left were a bunch of older women who would clutch their pearls upon told the prices of the new range of hair dyes.

Financially, mom and dad barely remained afloat. Barely living paycheck to paycheck.

With my salary, they had a chance of going out for dinners once a week and buying something fancier for the house but that was the extent of it.