Tyler greeted both Claire and Amelia with a sweet warm smile . They were like his little sisters who he had grown up taking care of . They met every vacation when Ben and Avi went visiting Rose and her family . Tyler and David loved it there . They had their favourite people around . Rose , Amelia and Claire met almost daily even during the vacations and so they were very much familiar with the two brother figures of their lives . Both the boys always insisted to come here to meet their sisters and their brother , Christof .
Tyler hugged both tight . He had missed his two sisters all these years . Rose felt guilty, blaming herself to be the reason to separate them as she saw them laughing and catching up with each other . As they broke away from the hug Rose decided that it was now or never . She made eye contact with Tyler and nodded.
" I'm ready " she spoke up with determination.
Tyler's eyes widened as he stared bewildered at her . He saw it in her eyes . She was ready to rip off the bandage today and let her wounds from those three years to be exposed once again to the most important people of her life , to the girls who now stood confused again . He didn't need to reassure wether he heard it correct or not . He could see it in her eyes and he felt proud , extremely proud of his little angel. He nodded .
" So girls , get in the car . We will be going to my friend's apartment. That's where I'll be living for these two days ."
Rose was happy that he was staying, she wouldn't be able to get through tomorrow by herself ; but she didn't want to have another stranger seeing her break down her life story . Tyler sensed it .
" You won't be able to meet him . He is off to a trip with his girlfriend."
Rose sighed giving him a grateful look. They got in the car and drove off to the apartment. Rose expected her nerves to rise with each passing second but nothing happened. That's when she realised how deep Claire and Amelia had made their way into her life. She was not afraid of being judged or treated differently after telling this to them . She wasn't afraid of someone drifting apart from her because it was them , her besties, her strength. She smiled at the thought. They reached the decent yet comfortable apartment and settled down as Tyler brought in water for all .
Rose sat down with Tyler next to her and both the girls in front of her .
" I promised to tell you everything that day at the concert and you know I don't break promises ."
Their breath hitched . The moment was here ,the explanation was here for which they had waited impatiently for all those three years . They encouraged her to go forward with loud drumming heart and breath caught in their throats .
" Exactly three years ago today I was standing in my house packing my bag for our mini trip the next day to my uncles'. They had opened a new shop in collaboration with dad ." her voice faltered a bit but she continued.
" Tomorrow three years ago was supposed to be the day of inauguration to my dad's little dream . He always wanted a small shop of bakery where he could sit and sell sweet love to everyone. He used to say ' It is for the best . I'll fill everyone's life with sweet love and sneak a bit in my life too. ' " she chuckled lightly thinking of that day .
Christof was running around the house with her behind him. He wasn't giving her her favourite earphones. He wanted it for himself and she wasn't happy about it . That's when they banged into the small table at the far end of the wall and her mom's favourite vase broke down a chunk from the top . They looked horrified and immediately picked up the pieces . Rose bent down to fix it while Christof kept an eye out for their doom . In no time the vase was as good as new as they both stood admiring their master piece. Years of experience did help out a bit . They chuckled to themselves. Rose remembered all these little things about them. They might be insignificant to all ,but Rose . For her these little things were for her to treasure. Their smiles and frowns , their fights every small thing meant the world to her .
" We had to leave in the morning at 7 but as usual ,we could never follow our plan through . We left at 9 with dad scowling at us while mom sat down calmly enjoying the scenes passing by . She was always able to do that . Handle everything calmly. Dad was the one to always get excited. We both as usual were debating on whose playlist to play for the ride. 40 minutes into the ride and we still hadn't played a single song yet . We were to reach in 20 minutes and we had finally given up settling down for a random playlist. "
All this while Rose had a small smile playing on her lips . She wasn't even here . Her eyes glazed with a far away look . She was reliving the moment again for a millionth time in her life . Claire and Amelia couldn't see where it was going . They had always found it weird when Rose somehow always dodged the topic when it came to parents or siblings . Either she left or she skillfully changed the topic. They didn't pay much attention to it until now when they saw the small smile slip and her posture slouching down , her confident self crippling down as she brought her knees to her stomach and let her head rest in them . Tyler seemed as much broken as her . He had listened to this once before and it was a torture for him to hear what happened that day to his favourite people , to her .
Rose rocked a bit before taking in a deep breath and continuing.
" Dad was in the driver's seat at the right and Mumma was in the passenger seat . Chris sat right behind dad , the place where I should have been , not him . " As she let a painful whimper out. Tyler took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes . He shook his head . He didn't want her to go back to square one. Rose nodded and closed her eyes . Letting her thoughts settle down she continued.
" We were waiting for the light to go green . We were at the crossroad ,a big one at that . We were all singing together to ' Little Things' , my favourite. As the light went green , dad tried to start the car but it came to a stop. So he turned the key again bringing it back to life . We took off to hear a loud horn honking at us ."
She choked covering her ears tight as the horn blared in her ears. Tyler bent down and slowly yet firmly pried her arms off and kept it on his chest right where his heart was . He told Rose to breathe sensing she was near to a panick attack. Feeling the heart rhythm she synchronised and controlled her breathing. Tyler smiled at her , she had improved , a lot over the years . He held a glass of water and she snatched it hungrily finishing it off in a single go .
Amelia and Claire stared bewildered. They were clutching their hands tightly together as if it would drive away the pain they felt in their hearts for their friend . They were hurting bad and could see where this was going . Rose composed herself and somehow persuaded Tyler to let her continue. She had to take it out. Now or never .
" A truck hit hard on the right side of the front of the car . Everything happened so quickly I couldn't comprehend anything. One moment my ears were listening to the sweet melody and the next it was a sharp high pitched tinge. I couldn't open my eyes no matter how hard I tried . Nothing was right , my head was ringing and my body ached with each moment I made. "
She was a full on rambling mess now. She wasn't here , she was there lying on the broken car's seat amongst the shattered glass. She was there lying next to the other three , all surrounded by their own blood . She was there lying in the half blown off car surrounded by strangers many of whom were clicking pictures while a few tried to contact the ambulance. She was no more in the apartment room surrounded by Tyler or Amelia or Claire.
Amelia moved forward to shake her out of it but Tyler stopped her. He knew that even if she was snapped out now, the scene will complete itself in her mind . Atleast now she would be able to take it out of her , he didn't think she would be able to complete it later. Neither did he want her to go through it again.
" I still tried and slowly opened my eyes to see Chris slacked off at my side lying without any movement on me . He wasn't moving , my baby brother wasn't moving." She sobbed letting the tears cascade down as her fingers trembled.
" I cried out loud as someone came forward to take him out of my hands . I looked over to mom dad to tell them that Chris isn't ok. But they were not there . They weren't in the front seats . The person took him out as I had no energy left to fight . Someone dragged me out too . I stumbled over to Chris immediately taking him into my hands but his arms didn't circle me. He didn't move it at all . I glanced over to see mom and dad lying unconscious on the ground . Chris flustered his eyes open for a second to look at me before he closed them again . It was so brief I guess I imagined it. I barely noticed the blaring sound of ambulance and registered them moving mom and dad into the vehicle . Another arrived as they came rushing to us and carried Chris inside as another helped me up . That's when I lost my conscious again ."
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A/N
Phew!! I dropped the bomb but there is still more left .... You'll see that tomorrow....
So .... How was it ?? Tell me did you feel your eyebrows scrunch ?? Did you feel remorse set in ?? Did you feel like crying??
If yes , then keep it in because there is more left ... Until tomorrow...
Thanks
Lots of love and hugs
Joban ❤️