Till The Count Of Five ✓

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

I only saw you, not the paintings or the reasons and logics. Just you, because that is all I'm ready to acknowledge and accept.

Vee

10th May 2019, Friday
21:58

I avoided school. It rarely happened but this week, I had missed at least three days. When I got to school yesterday, Nolan's car pulled up at the same time. The scratch on my forehead throbbed in reminder. I walked back to my car and came home. Not warehouse but home. I kept my distance from Ashiamma. I had to. That way forgiving Shay would be easier. I shook my head. I was no one to forgive her, simply forget what she did.

Papa cleared his throat and I motioned him to come in.

"Penny for your thoughts," he said and made myself comfortable on my chair.

I sat up on the bed and examined him, whatever he was letting me examine. "No bottles tonight?"

"We both know how that ended up. Are you fine? You did not attend school."

I laughed. So this was about school again. Grades, school, staying sober.

"Vicky, I mean you. How are you? You rarely miss school. It is your only escape from me and these walls." He gestured around my room.

I stared at his concerned eyes. "Do you believe them? The rumours say I drink in school as well." I knew he got every report about how I was doing. That happened when you were friends with the Vice-Principal.

A corner of his mouth lifted. "My son is not a pansy who'll hide in the washroom to take a swig. If you drank in school, you'd do it openly in the class, not in a place that stinks of piss."

"A simple 'no' would have answered my question," I replied, not having the energy to put up with him at the moment.

Start with your father. This was what I tried to achieve - starting.

"What did I say that night?" I asked. He looked taken aback. When no answer came, I continued, "I remember you vaguely asking me if I was sure. What did I say which you did not believe?"

"Why are you asking me this now?"

I shrugged. "Because it just came to my mind." Along with Ashiamma's white dress. Just her dress, nothing else, not even her. Just a white dress that she had shown me before her birthday, on the day when I had told her I would not be coming. That was the last time I saw her, or so I liked to tell myself. In reality, I saw her everyday.

Last night, I had slept early and ended up watching her. She had danced around the hall, like I imagined her to be dancing on her birthday. She had called me before the party and described how she wanted it to go.

"You're not coming?"

"No."

"That's a shame. You're missing fun." Translated to I am missing you.

I realized then who she had become - a girl desperate to put the pieces she had thrown together. She did not even know how many pieces there were.

The glint of her sandals made me squint my eyes last night. She had never been a huge fan of white dresses, especially with lacy edges. They come off after one wash, she had said. When she danced in my dreams in the empty hall, her sandals hurting my ears and eyes, she grinned at me.

"They come off after one wash," she had said, twirling around. "But, guess what?"

She had stumbled in that glittery footwear and I had grabbed her. Her hands had wrapped around my shirt and she had grinned at me. I could not help but smile back as I had pushed her hair aside. God, that smile. That smile was the one she gave me when she won something. That was her genuine self.