Closed Doors and a Guitar Pick - Sen Cal Kapimi

Closed Doors & A Guitar Pick

Eda stopped speaking. Her words, steely and cold, fell into the deafening silence as the ten people in the room looked down in discomfort. She looked around at the people in the room, most of them trying to avoid her eyes. 

 Erdem's fist clenched at the injustice he felt he been a part of. Leila looked ready to burst in tears.

 Pyril and Selin's victorious smugness was wiped off their faces, Selin visibly paled as she prayed that her role did not come out and the buck stopped with Kaan and Ferit. Her mind was already planning ahead now that it seemed certain that Ferit would come across as an accomplice of Kaan. 

Engin, always fond of Eda, squirmed and felt his eyes prickling with tears. This surely was the end between Eda and Serkan he thought. No emotions could survive the public humiliation that Eda faced.

All this while Serkan stood still, not a muscle moved, his eyes following Eda as she narrated how Kaan had managed to obtain the documents and how Ferit had leaked the contract between them. Her eyes were not focused on him but somewhere distant beyond him, as if she could not even stand to look at him. Her calm voice sounded dead to him; he wasn't used to this unexpressive Eda. His Eda was always responsive, coming back ten times more strongly in any situation, whether in love or hate.

"What have I done?" he thought  He felt as if the room was airless, light-less like a coalmine underground where no one could hear him. 

He had known this hadn't he? He had known that she couldn't do it, she couldn't have betrayed him. "What have I done, dear God?"

In the dull silence of the room, someone coughed in embarrassment and Serkan realized they were waiting for him to say something, waiting for him to accept how wrong his accusations were and to free them all of this guilt. He looked up to steal a glance at Eda, not having the courage to see her eyes, not having the courage to accept it was he who had done this to her.

Eda had come to the end of her words. Now only one thing remained, to return to Serkan what belonged to him. Ceren had the ring ready in her hand. She placed a hand on Eda's shoulder, encouraging her, supporting her because she knew what Eda was going through now.

"My beautiful friend, just a bit more", Ceren whispered. Eda nodded. 

Engin looking at Ceren understood what was going to happen and his heart landed with a thud at his feet.

 "Not this too, not now", he whispered to himself. He tried to reach Ceren's eyes frantically trying to ask her to postpone the next part, seeking her help to stop Eda. Ceren turned away with a hard look. This was going to cost many friendships not just between Eda and Serkan. 

 Engin, defeatedly gestured to the rest of the people to leave the hall. Tear-striken Melo was the last to leave, dragged out by Fifi.

Eda silently took the small flat package from Ceren and walked up to Serkan to cut off the last meaningful bond that remained between them.

Serkan had stood with his bowed head trying to compose his thoughts to say a word. He felt with his body, his consciousness that Eda was moving towards him before he looked up. 

Idly he wondered, how could he be so attuned to her presence, her movements, her gestures, almost feeling them before they happened? How could he so conscious of her presence, that he knew when she stepped into a room, even before he saw her? How could his eyes, after every few heartbeats, search for her? How could he feel his skin tingle if she were close by? And yet how could he accuse her of betrayal and selling him out when he knew she was the last person in that room to harm him?