BETRAYAL

24

"Calvin was right! You wouldn't have been able to do it yourself."

"What are you talking about?"

Haroon started explaining, "That day after you stormed out. I was so angry at Calvin and I-

"Why would you do that," Haroon yelled as soon as Michael walked out, at Calvin who was still sitting down on the floor "Are you even human? Don't you have feelings? Don't you feel even a little bit of remorse, how could you say those things to him?"

"I made it easier for him to completely hate us, you should be thanking me."

"What!?"

"You should know that better than me, Michael..he...he is not capable of doing it himself," Calvin said before getting up and walking away leaving Haroon there in shock. He didn't miss what fell down from his left eye before he turned to leave, that silver shinning thing. A tear!

"...and that's when I realized one thing that I've been missing all this time, Calvin too has been regretting. It wasn't just I who has been regretting all this time," Haroon finished.

"You can't just conclude that from a single tear Haroon." He knew Haroon was naive, he knew he could be wrong. "I saw his face. The things he said he meant them."

"Yeah, maybe some he did. Maybe he did envy you, heck we all did. But no Mike. He does regret his decisions. I only realized it that day but after realizing it everything became clear, everything made sense....after you were gone Calvin became even more like a real son to your mom, he would go see her almost everyday and console her. Calvin who was too busy for his parents always had time for your mother, why is that? It was because he felt too guilty and he felt like he had to take care of her, he felt like it was his responsibility to care her in your place since he...we were the reason you were no longer there. It was out of guilty. Unlike me who ran away from everything, I ran away because it was too hard to face your mom, but he was facing it all. He thought he had to atleast do that much."

Did he really? Michael wondered but he decided not to say anything.

"And one more important thing, the day that we..w...you fell down that cliff," Haroon closed his eyes as he felt a sharp pain from recalling that day, he opened them after a while and continued "I was so devastated, I fell down crying, I couldn't move. But Calvin didn't cry. Instead he ran, he ran down the cliff. I thought he was running away from the crime scene and so I had to collect myself and follow behind him although I couldn't run as much as him. When I finally reached down there Calvin was three half quarters deep in the water, he was searching, looking for something for nearly two hours without saying anything. The current was so strong but yet he didn't stop. I didn't know what he was doing back then and didn't bother to ask since I was so out of it after what we did but now I know, he was looking for you. For you Michael. He started regretting the moment you fell down that cliff and unlike me who stayed there doing nothing he thought he could save you. At the time he didn't care that you would have turned him in if you survived, he only thought of saving you."

He rubbed tears that fell down on his cheeks by the back of his hands before continuing, "And when he couldn't find you he called 911, he is the one who called it. At the time I totally misunderstood his actions, I thought he was putting an act to remove any suspicious on us if we go back home without doing anything."

Michael just stood there listening to him with no emotion on his face. He didn't know what to feel with this new revelation.

"So unlike me who wanted to beg for your forgiveness, to cry under your feet until you do forgive us. Calvin wanted you to hate us which was what he thought we deserved. And that's why he was trying to help you hate us. I'm not trying to say Calvin is innocent. He clearly isn't. There's nothing that can justify what we did to you but what I'm trying to say we did regret it. We regretted it everyday. You were like a brother to us and yet we-" Haroon couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. He couldn't repeat what they have done, he was so ashamed and disgusted at himself but he wanted to be strong, atleast until he tells everything to Michael. He deserved the whole truth.