Hide and Seek

4 hours...

'So, from that day forward, Ezra Levi and Zahara Jeri were an official couple. He would visit me every two days or so, and he would not go a day without calling or texting me to check up on me. Whenever he would come to the house he would just cook with me and eat with me, and ask about my day, but he would always avoid talking about his. So, I didn't push him until the day he actually cried. It was raining that day. Heavy rain, with thunder and lightning. He was drenched when he walked in, and his eyes were drooping.

"Ezra?" I took hold of him. "Are you okay babe?"

"Yeah," he breathed.

"You should take a bath and wear something warm." I led him to the bathroom and ran a bath for him.
When he was done and dressed in his pyjamas, he joined me by the sofa. I had a blanket and some tea ready for him. He took a sip of his tea and stared at the TV, it was on the NEWS channel.

"Homie, are you sure you're okay?" I asked him again.

"Mmh." He nodded with a small smile and took another sip of his tea.

"Ezra." I turned his face to me. "You know you don't always have to be okay, right?"

"Mmh." His voice was weaker and tears were beginning to well in his eyes.
I took his cup from him and placed it on the coffee table. He sniffed, pressing his palm on his chin, then moved his hand to rub his forehead. I squeezed his arm and he glanced at me and sniffed again, the tears pouring out of his eyes. I took his head and placed it on my shoulder. I felt him sink into it as warm tears soaked my pyjama top. He drew a shaky breath and exhaled a cough. I felt one of his hands squeeze my arm and I hugged him. I rubbed his back to comfort him because I had no words at the time. I didn't know where to start so my presence was the best form of consolation I could give him at the time. He continued to let out strained sobs and my heart ached for him. In that moment I felt like crying too. Not crying with him, but for him. I wanted to sort of take the pain he was feeling, put it in me, and finish the crying off for him.
He fell asleep on my lap, curled up like a scared little boy. I also fell asleep, but we both began to stir at around two am.

"I'll go make us some coffee," he croaked as he stood up. When he came back to the lounge, I was sitting up.

"Will you tell me what's going on?" I tried to meet his eyes, but he was so focused on his coffee.
"Ezra," I pressed, taking his coffee from him. "Talk to me, please."
He exhaled and nodded his head. "I'm scared Zahara," he expressed. "I'm really scared."

"Of what?" I whispered.

"My family," he huffed. "They really scare me. They are doing all these things that I'm failing to understand. The lying, the deceit, the cheating, and some of them don't even look like they feel bad. I shouldn't be snitching on them to a future police officer, but if I keep this to myself any longer I think I might lose my mind."

"It's okay. You can tell me. I promise that I'll keep my lips sealed."
So, he narrated to me everything his siblings had done, and everything that had happened to him. How he knew that Seth had framed him. What Eli was doing. Kaiya's accident. Dilean and Renata. Inez going to jail and Myra stealing Dilean's presentation. He told me everything and I hated them for doing that to him.
We spoke for the whole night and I saw a vulnerable side of Ezra. I was used to him being open with me, but not in that way. He poured his heart out to me that night. He expressed everything he felt towards his siblings and talked about how he knew how much they hated him. He told me about how he never wanted the inheritance in the first place, but he had to force himself to accept it because he couldn't trust any of his siblings. And he respected his father too much to let his empire fall into the wrong hands.
It pained me how he had to carry all that burden on his own for that long.

"I feel a bit better after telling you," he said, as the sun rose. "I feel relieved. Like, I've been holding my breath and I've finally let it go."

"I'm sorry that live had to go through that all alone."

"It's okay. It was hard keeping it from you. I'm glad you finally know."

"Me too."

Ezra seemed a lot better after our talk that night. He told me that he had stopped talking to all his siblings, but that didn't stop him from talking about them, especially Dilean. I actually got to know him through Ezra.
Sometimes he would get carried away and talk about how much he admired Dilean when they were younger, then he would be reminded of everything that happened between them, then he would turn all gloomy and upset. It would take an effort to cheer him up, but he would be back to himself in no time.
As life went on, I made it into the police force and maybe it was my paranoia or new found detective instincts, but Ezra seemed to start crawling into his shell. It seemed like the ghosts of the past were now haunting him. He would mutter incoherent things to himself. Things about all his siblings. And when I tried to ask him, he shut me out. He went from visiting me every two days, to visiting me once a week.
To be honest, for a split second, I thought he was cheating on me, but that wasn't the case.'