EGO & VENGEANCE

Chapter 3

Kelani

"So, how was your day?" Uncle Sam questions, he wants to know if I seen any familiar faces or heard any familiar voices.

He picked me up from uni and we're on our way home now after getting my favourite iced bubble tea.

"It was fine. Nothing special. Today was short since I only had one class so I wasn't able to look around much" I say taking a sip of my mango black tea.

"Longer day tomorrow?" He asks, keeping his eyes on the road and sipping his ice tea with his free hand.

"Yep, it's a full day. Like back in highschool, gonna be about 6 hours at uni. 6 hours of typing and writing and hearing snoring and grinding of teeth. Why are the most neutral things so fucking loud?"

He laughs "maybe everything else is just really quiet, moron. Just like how things should be. Really really quiet" he turns his head away from the road and shows his eye smile, while slowly sipping his iced tea.

He's talking about me being loud? His breathing alone is enough to make you want to pull out your ear drums. Sounds like how people with blocked sinuses would snore... that's his BREATHING.

I roll my eyes and continue sipping my iced tea.

Once we get home, I go inside to find Mum sleeping on the couch in the living room. "Good girls" is playing on Netflix in the background.

"Has she been sleeping all day?" I ask my uncle as he closes the front door behind him.

"Not all day, I mean she watched a few episodes of her show after waking up at 11am. But then she fell back asleep around two."

While I been barely getting any sleep at all, mum has been sleeping a lot. Maybe too much. After Alaiyah took her own life 3 years ago, mum was never the same.

There was a period where I'd find her talking to herself, as if she was talking to Alaiyah. I took it as her coping mechanism. But then suddenly she wasn't doing it anymore and she started grieving all over again. I assumed it was because Alaiyahs voice wasn't heard anymore or she said she had to go.

Dad leaving us didn't make it any easier for mum. He suddenly started packing his bags a couple weeks after Alaiyah passed, and left.

"I can't do this anymore. I can't fucking stand in the kitchen or sit on the couch in the living room regularly. Every day her eyes look at me like I killed her. We can't help eachother, we are just bringing more pain for eachother, so I gotta go for all of our sakes. I'm sorry lani, I'm sorry I didn't believe you both sooner"

I remember every single word of his pitiful speech. It took Alaiyah taking her own life for him to see the truth and her pain. For him to see our pain.

As if Alaiyah losing 12 kilos and sleeping 17 hours of the day wasn't enough for him to see the pain she was in. Why else would she be in so much pain? Why else would you hear her or I screaming and wailing in our sleep because of the night terrors we'd have almost every night?

Just fucking believe me bro.

Believe us.

But he didn't. And it was too late when he finally did.

"Keke, lunch is ready"

I come back to realisation, and see a toasted tuna salad sandwich on the kitchen bench.

"Tuna salad sandwich by Samuel. My favourite" I say rubbing my hands together.

He pulls the plate toward him and glares at me as I sit at the counter.

"Sam" I say smiling.

He hands me back the plate and takes a bite of his sandwich.

"Why do you hate Samuel so much anyway" I take a bite of my sandwich. "Like it's literally your name" i mumble with my mouth full.