Bandit [Sequel to That One Girl]

chapter four: powerful silence

Yousef's POV

I run down the steps and hand Lilly a blanket for Esme.

We had just seen her break down into tears, which definitely isn't a good thing at all. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to see her at our door early in the morning.

Lilly wrapped the blanket over Esme, who had a large cup of hot chocolate in her hands. She definitely had something going on.

Well, she did have something going on.

"Esme, what's going on?" Lilly asked. Esme kept quiet, her eyes wandering around the family room.

"Ok, at least tell us how you got our address" I sat down on one of the single chairs, facing her and Lilly. She sniffed before telling us.

"From your workplace, Yousef. I know someone who works there. I also know that you are doing really shit job there" She says, taking a sip of the hot beverage.

"Oh thanks" I spat with sarcasm.

"This isn't the time to dwell on Yousef and how bad he's doing. We are gathered here because of you" Lilly looks at Esme. I knew she wasn't going to give up until she found an answer out of her.

Esme shook her head. It seemed that she was too scared to even tell us the outline of how she ended up in our house.

Lilly got up from her chair and crouched down in front of Esme.

"Please. We need to know" She said, stroking the girl's bruised hands softly.

"Ok fine" She huffed, putting the cup down. "But you promise not to tell a single soul about what I'm about to tell you." Me and Lilly agreed quickly. We were seriously curious about what was going on.

"Um, how do I fucking say this?" She sat and starting staring into space for what seemed like hours. Lilly didn't push her to say something, she allowed her to sit there. In silence.

"I- I got myself into trouble after that court case 8 years ago" She says, not facing either of us. Lilly turns and gives me a look of confusion but doesn't say anything to her.

"What do you mean by 'trouble'" I speak up for Lilly as I knew she wanted to say that exact thing.

"Not necessarily 'trouble' but I've been through so much shit for you, Singh" She turns to face Lilly with tears threatening to leave her eyes.

"After the court session and left, I went to those girls th-"

"The ones that wanted to blow up the school" Lilly finishes her sentence and looks to the ground.

"Yeah and I told them everything that had happened with you and the court session and everything. They then put me into this circuit to deliver stuff to people." Esme looked at Lilly before continuing.

"I was in there ever since and man, those people that you deliver to aren't nice at all. They either ask you for the world or your fucking dignity. No in-between. If I quitted, the motherfuckers promised to bait my ass to the police, telling them about the other things I did years back. They put me in there to replace you because you quit on the fucking mission to blow up the school. You were supposed to be in there. Not me. I eventually couldn't take it anymore so I ran aw-"

I look at Lilly to see tears streaming down her face. Esme also notices and stops.

"You don't need to continue. You don't need to tell me more. I get it" She sits up and walks out of the room, carrying her sobs with her.

I sit there, gobsmacked. I feel like Lilly thinks she's the entire cause to the story that lead Esme appearing on our doorstep, in tears.

"Do you have a spare room?" Esme interrupted me from my thoughts.

"Yeah, I'll show you. It's probably already set up because Lil is like that" I laugh to myself before directing her to the bedroom.

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