The First Fall

Chapter 19

I really really hates the annoying sound of my ringtone and the person who was making it ring early in the morning. Anyway I could not ignore it because if it was dad then he would have my head for breakfast and if it was Alex then he will fry my ass the next time I was near him. Who else could be my tormentor? I dragged my hand towards the bed side table and searched for the offending item without opening my heavy eyelids.

“Hello. Whoever you are please have the kind heartedness to call me an hour or so later.” I said in a groggy voice.

“That’s rich of you to say, you douche bag.” All my sleepiness fled and I was wide awake at her sarcasm. God! the wench had already started and that too this early in the morning. I thought. How did I get entangled in this lady tarantula’s web? I asked myself.

“Hi Rhea darling, don’t get all riled up this early. What do you want?”

“When are we going to Alex’s place? You told me you will take me there today and don’t you dare back off JT or I will make your life living hell.”

“So you are too eager to meet your best friend. What about meeting me first and I will warm you up real nice and then we can go meet Nina. What do you say?”

“You …… aaarrhhh…… What I would really like to do is to pull all that wonderful hair of yours out with its root and then skin you alive. But since you are a budding politician still hiding behind his mighty father’s legs I can’t do that. Can I?”

“Wow!! What a colorful fantasy my Love. About pulling my hair off, you did that pretty well the last time if I remember correctly.” I could not suppress my urge to ruffle her always disheveled feathers once again.

“About going to Alex’s place, be ready at nine and I will pick you up. Just wait outside on time, I really don’t want to face your brother this early.”

“Okay.”

I cleared my throat and decided to ask her THE QUESTION “Rhea did you…….. eerrr…… did you check it?”

“No. I will meet you at nine. I can’t talk about this through phone.” And the line got disconnected.

I lay there listening to the tone with a hundred thoughts flashing through my mind. What if she was….. oh no…there was no possibility of that happening just because we did it one time and that too when we were both under the influence of alcohol. I promised myself that I will not touch it again. What have I done? If Nina or Alex got any information about this then I was history. If this got out into the hands of any reporter, I would have to kiss my career goodbye. I can’t even imagine the effect of an angry Dad on me. He will kill me. I was so sure. But I also couldn’t ignore her or my child if there was one, just like that.

The blasted woman won’t even agree to marriage that easily. What have I gotten myself into? I was the one who preached to Roy about Nina’s age difference and why the two of them together was not a good idea and all that crap and I have done the same thing to her best friend. It was a total mess. I shoved my fingers through my hair and decided to face the music when it came.

I looked at the bedside clock and it showed the time as six thirty. I was not going to get any sleep. I got up and decided to pack my bags for the trip. Alex finally decided to settle down with Rene. They wanted a very private ceremony at a church near their home and it was going to happen the coming weekend. Rhea also got invited and they were expecting us by evening. Since Rhea was staying with her brother and his family near Dad’s official residence, Nina asked me to pick Rhea up on the way and I agreed because we both needed to clear the air between us after what had happened.

I was yet to talk to Nina properly and I expected her to lash out at me for avoiding her but she was not even angry at me. What a girl she was. No wonder why Alex and Dad both liked her very much. My feelings were a little more complicated than theirs, I respect her as an individual, I love her as a sister and I could talk to her easily as if she was one of my good friends. Anyone who talked to her for a few minutes will like her forever or at least she used to be like that before Roy’s accident. It was easy to use that word instead of the other one. It still hurts when his memories refresh themselves in my mind. If this was what his memories were doing to me then I couldn’t even think about Nina’s situation.

Both Alex and Dad were very worried about her, she hasn’t yet cried nor did anything to get her feelings out and according to them she had changed a lot. She was not my Roy’s Nina anymore, this Nina was a woman who was still hurting from her loss and was struggling hard to stay on her own two feet. She tried to get a job with the environmental department but since it will take her far away and she would have to travel a lot and that too to remote places, Alex objected to it and after losing a battle fought hard she decided to help her friend in running her gift shop in which she too was  now a partner.

Alex also felt  that she has not yet accepted Roy’s death completely. In a way that made sense, she did not attend the funeral nor saw him after the accident because she did not even came to the hospital, which was what we all wanted at that time. But I think that was what caused this illusion in her mind that he may still be somewhere waiting for her.

I will have to do something to change that. I gave Roy my word that I will not let her ruin her life like she was letting it. I knew that I will have to make her face the reality somehow and I already know that it’s not going to be an easy task and whatever methods I was about to use, will hurt her a lot. Oh Roy!! Forgive me my brother; there is no other way to make her see the real situation she is in. I asked him his forgiveness in my head.

Rhea was waiting for me near the gate and I helped her get all her bags in the car. The woman carried everything with her or else what was there in all those bags, total nine of them. But I kept my mouth shut. She too was tensed just like me and I didn’t want to put more pressure on her.

We drove in  comfortable silence for some time.  “J T I didn’t check it. I just can’t make me do it and what if it is positive? My brother will kill me and Nina; the poor fellow will get a heart attack.”

“Stop it right there woman. First off all if you don’t do it within twenty four hours then I will make you do it. After that we will decide what to do. Believe me when I say, I won’t let you face the wolves alone. I will be there with you. I just want to enjoy my brother’s wedding first.”

“Ha ha….very funny. You got me into this predicament in the first place and are you threatening me now? How dare you?”

“So now all the blame is on me? Don’t say that you are as innocent as the Virgin Mary. What were you doing in that club in the first place that too late at night with that ogre of a boyfriend trying to force his organs into you? And please don’t forget the fact that I saved you from him and other carnivores there and it was you who kissed me first.”

“OH please shut up JT. I was drunk and I did that because I thought  Robin was a good man. I was trying to have a good time at the club with my other friends. I didn’t expect those things to happen and I never even dreamed that he….. he will try to do that to me and…”

“What kind of a name is that? Was his parents Batman fans? Who in their right mind will name a boy Robin? And I have to say this Rhea, your choice sucks.”

“Obviously. I completely agree to that. Look at with whom I have got messed up this time. I went straight to the devil from that complete excuse of a man.”

“Ha. So now I am the devil? If I am the devil himself then you are my Persephone my dear.”

“And don’t forget that Hades abducted the innocent women.”

“No love, in our case it was you who jumped into the hell fire. You initiated whatever happened between us and do remember my noble lady, that I too was a little drunk.”

“Shut up JT. Your filthy voice is giving me a head ache and by the way I am too tensed because I am going to meet Nina after a long time and even if she looks very quiet, she is very shrewd and I don’t think I will be able to keep this act for long in front of her.”

I took her clenched hand in mine and tried to calm her down. It was true that we couldn’t prevent ourselves from going for each other’s jugular when we were in close quarters but I also couldn’t see her suffering because even though I liked to put the blame on her, I too have sinned royally.