The Royal Scandal (editing)

Chapter 38 [The Goodbye]

My roommate is the world biggest jerk38

Chapter 38 [The Goodbye]

The funeral was a mere blurry set of memories moving along like a dated film: dull, muffled and pictured in black and white. Everybody wore black and everybody cried. White orchids hung from the arch where under its shadows a splendid wooden casket was lowered into the ground slowly but surely.

It rained too, that day. Like pitter patter of tears raining down onto the stone tombstone, misting the air and when it ended, painted droplets of water on the green grass. The soil was damp. The crowd was silent: a sea of people with black umbrellas shielding their equally black garb. The eulogy was delivered by a grieving father who tried his might not to choke up. The women clutched handkerchiefs in their bony hands, once in a while delicately dabbing their eyes.

I was seated somewhere in the first row. My eyes tracked the slow movement of the lowering casket unconsciously holding my breath as it gradually slipped out of my view. My eyes were probably the only dry ones during the whole proceeding. Not a single sob and not a single tear. I had said my goodbyes; reassure the man I had loved most in my entire life how much I loved him. I do, I loved him, and I loved him so very much.

When the funeral ended and the crowd started to disperse I got up from my chair, hitched up my skirt and head towards the small mountain of earth. With the tips of my fingers I caressed the top of the handsome black marble tombstone.

A gentle voice called for me in the middle of my final goodbye. I turned to find my mother in mourning black, beckoning me. “Come, let’s go home sweetie.”

The parting was even more excruciating than I imagined. As tears finally escaped my eyes and ran down my cheeks, I placed my trembling hand atop the smooth marble one last time. In a whisper than only he and I can hear, as if it was a little secret just between the two of us, I had said: “Sleep tight daddy, I love you so very much. I promise I’ll take care of mommy. I promise. I love you, I love you.”   

Blinking away tears I heaved a torturous breath trying to push the memory of my father’s funeral to the back of my mind. It was the single most painful event I had had to bear in my nineteen years of life thus far. I could never forget that day. To think that I had to relieve it again, this time with Aiden lowered into the ground, it was so painful I can hardly bear it. I wiped away tears with the back of my hands when the embassy’s car finally came to a halt.

A familiar face awaited just beyond the cool interior of the car. Ryui stood in his casual wear on the damp asphalt. It rained when I had set out from my apartment. I quickly got out and flew into his arms.

“It’s going to be okay Fay.” He cooed while I was engulfed in his embrace. Nodding to his chest I finally let go soon after and then both of us set out into the hospital’s building. He set me in one of those private waiting lounge and explained to me that Aiden had been taken straight for an emergency operation. He had been in the ER for nearly an hour now.

“What about the family?” I questioned him unnecessarily, just to talk and keep things going. I did not want us to wait in silence. Every moment of peace I had had in the car, I was subjected to unpleasant memories of my father’s death and Aiden’s heartbreaking gaze when he exited my apartment a few hours earlier.

It was my fault.

“On their way.” Ryui said, settling into the chair beside me. I took my eyes to stare out the window. The moon was losing her sway and the darkness was growing thin. Morning was coming soon and a light tint was starting to appear in the eastern sky.

“Is there any other casualties?” my voice sounded disconnected even to my own ears.

“No, Aiden was… uh… driving by himself.”