I'm staring at the wall, letting the tears flow out of my eyes. I feel like questioning everything about life right now. I want to scream, cry, rip things up, and just let it all out. I feel like someone has a key to a cage that's holding all my true emotions from escaping and revealing the true nature of how I feel. I want to disappear into my bed, letting all the sheets consume me so that I can cover myself from the reality of the situation.

As I'm wallowing in my bed, I hear a knock come at the door. "Go away, Mason," I say, pulling the sheets over my head. After everything that's happened, the last person that I want to see right now.

"It's not Mason, honey. Can I come in?" Sarah's voice calls through the door. Hearing Sarah's sweet voice is such a soothing contrast to everything that I'm feeling right now.

I take the sheets off of my head and say, "Yeah, you can come in." The door swings open, followed by her footsteps leading towards my bed. The bed dips under her weight, and her hand goes up to my hair to stroke it. I turn around to face her, and she just has a concerned look on her face. Her hand goes to wipe my tears, and I just give her a sheepish smile.

"Where's Mason?" I ask. It's not that I want to see him, but I'm wondering where he is so that I can face him as little as possible when I get out of bed.

"He went out. He said he had some business to do, but honestly, I think he just went to clear his mind."

"Clear his mind? He's the one who started this whole mess, and he wants to go clear his mind? What bullshit, honestly." I think to myself, angrily.

While Sarah's comforting me in bed, a thought strikes my mind. What if Sarah knows about this? I mean, Mason and Sarah are married, and Mason must have told her about this at some point. "Sarah, did you know about the whole affair thing?"

The look on her face drops a little bit, like a deer caught in the headlights. She gives me a guilty look, and says, "Not initially. I didn't know until we started dating."

"And you didn't bother to tell me?" A shocked look forms onto her face, and I just raise an eyebrow at her. So it's official. Both of my parents lied to me and kept this big secret from me. Disgust blooms from within me, as I convey it on my face to Sarah. "Now it's you too? Sarah, I deserved to know the truth. How could you hide it from me?"

Sarah gives me the same kind of look that Mason gave me, and I just say, "Please leave. I don't want to talk to you either." Sarah gives me another apologetic look, before getting up and walking out. My anger is at another high because Sarah decided to lie to me as well. She was just as capable of telling the truth, and yet she didn't.

I turn to face the wall again, but after around another 5 minutes, I hear another set of footsteps lead towards my bed. This time, a less strong pair of hands goes onto my side, and Nathan's voice whispers, "You're not mad at me, right?"

Guilt wrings his voice, even though he did nothing wrong in this situation. I can't help but smile at that a little bit, because Nathan is one of the cutest things ever, even though he will never admit it. I sit up, and face Nathan, who looks the least like a wreck in this house. I give him a smile, and say, "Of course not. You did literally nothing wrong."

He smiles, and then spreads out his arms in a hug. Because it's Nathan, I take the hug, and he just whispers, "I'm so sorry, Ashmita. They shouldn't have done that."

I smile, and whisper, "Don't be sorry. You did nothing wrong." I just sit there and hug probably the only person who I can't be mad at right now.

(The next day)

I stare at my computer, contemplating as to whether I should send the email or not. I think it's concise enough, but I don't know what the response is going to be. I need to do this. I need a decent source to talk to. He's the only thing that I have left, and the only person who I'm not mad at right now.

I think I got the email address right, but I don't know how often he checks it. But, it's worth a shot. I need to try in order to know. I will never know if I never try. He's my last bet at the moment. I hover over the send button, and click it, finally letting the email go through, along with my thoughts.

Just to be sure I conveyed what I wanted to in that one email, I reread it again. "Arjun, I'm ready to talk."

"Yes, that's perfect. It's more than enough," I think to myself. I open another tab so I can watch some YouTube for a while. After watching about two videos, I get a notification that I have a new email.

Slightly excited, I open the email, and surely enough, it's a reply from Arjun. "That was quick," I think to myself. I read it, and thankfully, it's everything that I want to hear.

"Great. Is tonight a good time?"

I type back, "Yes, tonight's perfect. What time?"

"Come at 6:30. I'm thinking I can cook dinner for you."

I smile, because I know that's probably going to be pretty decent. "Sure. What's your address?"

He types in his address in his reply, and says, "It's a walking distance from here. You don't have to worry about driving."

"Sweet. See you then."

"See you. Can't wait."

Can't wait. Is he more excited than I am? I never knew that he would be this excited so easily.

After sending that email, I close the tabs, grab my phone, and then call up Usha. Out of all the times in which you can phone a friend, this is probably the most useful time. Especially when that friend is willing to lend you almost any favor that you ask for. "Hey, Ashmita. What's up?" her familiar voice asks.

I sigh. I cut to the chase because Usha and I both don't like to be kept waiting. "Usha, I need you to do me a huge favor."

I could feel Usha's heart drop on the other end of the line. "No, I'm not going to try to key Daniel's car. You know I already said no." Defense wrings her voice, in an attempt to faze me out of whatever request I was going to make.

I roll my eyes. That was a long time ago, and even then, I wasn't that cruel. "No. I'm going out tonight. I'm really mad at Mason right now, because of something. If he calls you to ask if I'm there, can you cover for me? I don't want to get in trouble for where I'm going."

I feel Usha raise an eyebrow over the phone. "Ashmita, you're not going to do something shady, are you?"

"Well, it depends. But no, I'm not going to go in a dark alley and do drugs that I stole from a pharmacy. I'm more responsible than that." I can feel Usha reassuringly exhale, as she spends little time thinking about the request.

"Fine. I'll cover for you. I owe you anyways."

I smile, and then say, "Thanks Usha. I appreciate it."

"What are friends for? Just be safe, okay?"

"Deal. Bye." I take a small bag so I can pack some things for tonight, such as pajamas, my toothbrush, and other necessities.

I take my phone again, and then text Nathan. "I'm going to be going to Usha's house for the night. Let Mason know." I turn it off, and then sit down with my laptop to wait for 6:30.

******

I wonder how this is going to go down. I don't know if he's going to be happy to see me, or he's going to drag me into the back of his little home and stab me to death, like he did with my mom. I'm kind of skeptical, not going to lie. I don't know how interesting this will turn out, but I guess that is up to him to decide.

It's still slightly damp from the rain last night. Thankfully, I have an umbrella, and all I can hope for is that it won't rain anytime soon. It's still cold, so I pull my jacket over me to retain heat.

My fingers feel like there are little ice piranhas nibbling at the tips, paralyzing it with the frigid temperatures. I enter the little apartment building in which Arjun tells me he's staying in, and look at the map to make sure that I'm in the right place. I press the "Up," elevator button, and almost immediately, the doors slide open and I step inside.

I press the third floor button, which is where Arjun's apartment is located. My heart is beating like crazy at this moment. "Thumpity thump. Thumpety thump," it goes, like someone banging on a door. Eventually, the elevator reaches the floor, and the doors open once more.

I step outside, and the hallway is dead silent. The beating of my heart sounds like someone's hitting a hammer against a glass case, trying to break it open to get something out of it. I walk down the hall, until the apartment number matches the one that Arjun gave me.

Taking a deep breath, I press the doorbell, and wait for him to come to the door. I take deep breaths so that I don't collapse into his arms and start to bawl. Eventually, the lock clicks, and the door swings open.

As expected, Arjun is standing right there, with a hopeful look on his face. When he sees me, his eyes light up. A slight smile appears on his aged face. "I didn't think you'd show up," he says.

To be honest, if you told me this a few weeks ago, I wouldn't have thought that either.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had a few people worry that Ashmita was going to do something completely illegal. Don't worry, she's responsible. So, she went the completely different route and decided to spend the night at Arjun's house! Do you think that he's going to do harm her in any way, or does he just want to talk and reconnect with his daughter? Let me know in the comments.

Hey everyone! How's it going? So we're gonna meet Arjun veeeeryy soon, and trust me, excited isn't the proper word to use when it comes to describing what I'm feeling. I've been DYING for you guys to meet Arjun, and my gosh, it's finally here! I hope you guys like him, because I think he's one of my favorite characters that I've ever created. (with Manish from my slow burn novella being another favorite.)

Also, I'm probably too early, but are you all preparing for Wattys 2020? I'm only planning on entering Phoenix, and I'm gonna polish up the first few chapters for that. Partially because Phoenix is the only other completed novel that I have other than INI, and I haven't finished rewriting INI.

I really wanted to enter Blooming Flower, but it's 41k words, and I don't think it'll be long enough by the time we get to the Wattys with all the author's notes and stuff. But Wattpad will host a separate contest for all the novellas and short stories, so I'll enter there.

Alright, I'll stop here. Hope you guys liked this chapter!

Please vote/comment/share/follow/message if you like my work! See you all next Sunday with a new chapter of TSOC! Have a great week!

Love you guys, and stay safe,

Shree.