Replay Of Shades

13

ENID

"I knew it was you that night. Right from the first day, dad made us meet." He finally said, and I had felt my heart sank from finding out only now that he knew all along. I hadn't suspected a thing in the slightest.

"Chase-" I stammered, "I wanted to meet with you this evening to tell you about it." I managed to say despite the fact that my voice was shaky. I was close to tears.

Why can't all of this just be a bad dream that I could wake up from?

Unfortunately, it wasn't. It was the reality that I had no choice but to face.

"I know," His voice came again, and it sounded so calm that it almost tricked me into believing everything was alright when actually it wasn't. "That was the reason why I lied to you that I wouldn't be able to make it for the dinner." He confessed.

"I..." My eyes stung, and my throat burned from unshed tears.

"What were you thinking? It was definitely going to be awkward between us afterwards."

I couldn't say anything to that because I knew he was right.

"I called to let you know that and also to tell you that you don't have to feel bad about what happened that night anymore. Of course, it was a big mistake we made, but neither of us knew we were siblings, so maybe we shouldn't blame ourselves too much. It's high time we forgave ourselves for that mistake. That would help us to move on."

I nodded aggressively even though I knew he couldn't see me, "It was all my fault that happened. I'm so sorry for lying about who I was that night." The tears were flowing freely down my cheeks now like tiny rivers.

"I guess you didn't listen to a word that I just said."

"I did." I quickly said.

"Wipe your tears then?" He implored in the same calm voice.

In compliance, I rose up to get some tissues from the dresser. Returning to my seat afterwards, I thought Chase must have hung up since it had gone silent on his end again, but to my surprise, he had stayed on the line.

While I dabbed at the tears on my cheeks with a tissue, I was going to say something when I heard over the phone a distant voice calling brother. It was a male voice, and it sounded mature.

"Oh, you're on a call, sorry for interrupting," It was the voice again, apologizing this time.

"I didn't know that you have a brother." I couldn't hide my surprise when I spoke despite myself.

"Yes, I do have a younger brother. That was Cedar. He stays here in New York."

"Really! That's cool." I told him, somehow glad the tense atmosphere between us was starting to clear up.

"Yeah,"

"So uh, let's do that."

"What?" He inquired.

I figured right away that he was lost, "Forgiving ourselves just like you said," I reminded him.

"Yeah, let's do that." He agreed.

"Good night, Chase."

"Good night- Enid." The line went dead afterwards, and I had let out a deep sigh before dropping my phone on the table.

Deciding not to do any more work tonight, I had gone ahead to shut down my laptop so I could retire to bed for the night. I lied awake in bed for a few minutes, rolling and tossing at a point while running the whole conversation that I just had on the phone with Chase over and over in my head before sleep finally took me over.