Zero Messages

10. E m o j i

t e n : emoji

|emoji : a japanese word for computer generated emoticons which typically deals with a large number of conflicting emotions|

Losing someone you love hurts a lot. Whether the person dies, stops talking to you or leaves town on his own accord without as much as a goodbye, it still hurts. And when it happens one after another? It breaks you. For a while you mourn and wail. You quit eating and drinking thinking how it was your fault.

And then during this mental turmoil you are suddenly hit by the realization that crying or wailing, sobbing or starving won't bring them back. This great revelation marks the beginning of a long journey called 'moving on'.

Years ago, I lost two best friends and a parent and just when I was coming to terms with their absence, one of them decided to walk into my life and turn it upside down. That certain someone not only tried to mend his relationship with me but in fact claimed to help me in fixing my relations with other two as well.

And what about me? What if I didn't want to fix my relations? What if I wanted to live my life without them? Oh, that doesn't count. Because, the Grade A Asshole called Daniel Craig thinks that he can take all my decisions for me.

Standing under the shade of the tree in the aforementioned idiot's proximity I repeated my words, "Daniel, what the hell did you do?"

"Umm...I just planned some couple games."

"You are a fucking idiot." I said and bent down to pick up my footwear. Leaning against the tree I buckled them and started moving towards the house.

"Tori, wait!" Daniel hollered but I ignored him, "You'll spoil everything."

"No, asshole. You spoiled everything. I am just going to fix the collateral damage that I bet has already been done." I said walking hastily and pushed the door open. Immediately I spotted my mother who sat amidst a large group of people. Next to her sat none other than Jonathan Steward.

I turned around to glare at Daniel, a range of colorful curses coming out of my mouth.

"Now, how do you propose I should go to my mom when she's surrounded by people?" I ask through gritted teeth.

"You don't." He said in 'duh' tone.

"Shut up."

"Come on, let's eavesdrop. That ought to give you satisfaction?"

Without replying I followed him to the snack table which was propped near to the group of people Mum was a part of.

"What are they even doing?"

"Playing a game called 'Two truths, one lie' with a twist," he said slyly. "It's a common couple therapy game."

I facepalmed. Could it get any worse? 'Two truths, one lie', is a kind of bonding game where a person speaks three statements about himself, and as the name suggests, two of them are true and one of them is a lie and the other participants guess which one it is. Two minutes of watching them and I figured the twist. Basically, the Craigs had made it a couple game where a person had to tell three things about his spouse​ rather than himself or herself. And my parents sat together, meaning that they had to talk about each other.