Deserving | ✔

Chapter 10

"Tri!! I swear if you cheat once more I'll kick you out!"

She smirks. "Yeah, like you have the heart to kick your sister out of your apartment!"

I pout. "But you are misusing the soft corner I have for you!"

She reaches over to me and ruffles my hair. "Bhai, that's the sole purpose of soft corners!"

We both laugh.

A whole day has passed since Trisha came. A whole day has passed since I got to know about the... Incident. A whole day has passed with so much emotions.

Tri brings out the child in me. She suggested that we play something like old days when she used to visit us. So here we are, playing Scrabble.

How do you cheat at a simple game like Scrabble? Ask Tri.

I've never been this relaxed since Stephanie's... Death. Only Tri can bring that effect in me after Steph herself.

I don't know what kind of a magic she has, but Tri made me realise that I can think of Steph and stay calm at the same time. Only when thinking about her death, I get delusional now. Tri's the best therapist. Considering she's a lawyer, she has one hell of a hobby right there.

"You're tempting me right now! If you don't want me to cheat, get your head into the game! If you trail back into your mind, I can't help my hands from picking letters here and there!"

I shake my head and look at the board. She has arranged the word 'TILE'. I use the L to form 'LOVE' on the board.

She snorts. "How cliché of you!" She sticks her tongue out. I hit the back of her head and she scowls.

The doorbell rings, breaking our childish fight. "I'll go get it..." I sigh and get up to answer the door.

When I open the door, a figure pounces at me. "Whoa," I raise my hands.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, okay?" I hear a muffled voice. I look down and see her. Leril Kennedy.

I hold her shoulders and part her from me. She looks at me with teary eyes.

"Do you know how worried I was? You didn't pick any of my calls and I was caught up at work so I couldn't visit you! It was so frustrating staying at work when I knew someone was hurt because of me!"

She hugs me again and I stay frozen. Seeing Leril brought me back to the fresh memory of her utterances.

I push her away and get inside.

"Who was it?" Tri asks me. But I ignore it, heading straight to the bedroom.

Leril must have got inside, because I hear both Leril and Trisha ask each other, "Who are you?" before I shut the door close.

I ball up in the bed as the three words 'Stephanie was raped' swarm my head.

After what seems like years, the door swings open. "It's me, Phillip. It's Tri."

She comes inside and sits next to me. "Before you say anything or even think anything, you need to listen to this."

She shows a recorder to me and switches it on. The recorder plays.

"Phil, kill them for me."

Five words. From her. Five words that changed my whole life. Five words that became my whole life.

***

I remember the first time I took a walk in New York. If you are a New Yorker, walking is a primary part of your life. People walk all the time, all day, all year. It's the part that makes New York dynamic. I took my walk with her. It was the first day for us in New York officially. We had been there twice or thrice before, but it was for looking for apartments and stuff. That day was the official settling in day. We were officially New Yorkers.