𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐇

XV

𝙰𝙿𝙿𝚁𝙾𝚇𝙸𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙴𝙻𝚈 𝚃𝚆𝙾 𝚈𝙴𝙰𝚁𝚂 𝙰𝙶𝙾...

"Have you ever considered going back?" Alfonso asks, cautiously awaiting his friend's reaction. "To your siblings, i mean."

Chin resting on interlocked hands, Zephaniah scratches his well-groomed stubble and avoids Alfonso's calculating gaze.

"You even miss them?" he continues, causing Zephaniah to huff in annoyance.

"Of course i've thought about it," he replies, paying no mind to the second question.

"And?"

Alfonso is determined to find out what good reason Zephaniah has to justify his on-going absence.

And in his case, having both older and younger half-siblings from each parent, he can't imagine being apart from them for such a long period of time.

"And i've made the decision to return by the time i turn thirty," Zephaniah says, his face void of emotion.

"Four years down the line?" Alfonso pins him with a skeptical look, his tone that of incredulity. "The triplets will be seventeen by then. The rest of them adults. You'll have missed out on seven years of their life...their childhood and teenage years. Zephaniah, that's not right."

He can't help but be so opinionated when it comes to his friend's situation. It may not be his business, nor does it affect him, but Alfonso wants what's best for Zephaniah and his family.

Zephaniah, however, often claims that he merely tolerates Alfonso.

He is by no means the type of guy to check up on his so-called friends, or ask them to hang out. If anything, it's the opposite.

Most commonly, they will drink and get high to forget about all of their troubles for a while.

And unfortunately, Zephaniah's happiest moments are the ones where he is so fucked up that he forgets his own name.

"It was their thirteenth birthday last month." Zephaniah ignores him. "I was going to visit them. I wanted to...I even got them a gift," he admits, bashfully.

"You don't get anyone gifts." Alfonso laughs in good nature.

"Yeah, well...it wasn't anything special. Besides, Xavi won't return my calls. He doesn't want anything to do with me, never mind allow me to see our siblings."

"Xavi was hurt by you, Zeph. He feels betrayed," Alfonso says. "Perhaps if you guys were to reconnect, things would gradually improve," he suggests with a shrug.

"Xavi was hurt by the truth." Zephaniah corrects him. "And nothing in my power could change that."

"The truth was that you left him behind with no explanation," Alfonso insists.

"No," Zephaniah disagrees, with a humourless scoff. "No, the truth is far more complex than that."

— RORI —

Xavi's car pulls up in front us at around one am.

He took approximately seventeen minutes to get here, definitely driving over the speed limit in order to do so.

He immediately sets foot out of the car, not even bothering to close the door behind him as he rushes to meet my brothers and i on the sidewalk.

"What the hell happened to him?" he asks, in a pressing tone, when he sees the state of our older brother.

After Zephaniah fell unconscious, the other eleven men in the room were escorted out by security. They offered to call an ambulance for our brother but we refused, insisting we would drive him to the hospital ourselves.