Andrew was editing a song when I walked into my house a little while later. He removed his headphones and looked up when I closed the door.

"Hey," he smiled. "Back in one piece?"

I motioned my hand down my body. "What does it look like?"

"Sexy," he said, showing me his pearly whites in the most cringeworthy way.

"Uh!" I grimaced and rolled my eyes. Instead of replying, I took the bags and went into the kitchen. Andrew got up from the sofa and followed me.

"Actually," I began. "There was this one girl," I laughed fondly at the thought of her. "Eva, her name was. She was like fourteen, and she recognised me through all this black covers. I signed her cap, and took a selfie. It was cute."

"Did she ask about me?"

"Of course she asked about you," I said, glancing at Andrew. "She also told me to tell you that she loves you."

Andrew shrugged. "Everyone loves me."

"Everyone loves me," I mocked him.

"Anyways," I continued. "Everything was fine, until I noticed these people with their phones up, inconspicuously trying to take our photos. We had to rush after that, so I couldn't pick up all the items-"

"We?"

I stopped and looked at him. "Yeah. We. Funny story. I ran into Felix at the supermarket."

He raised his eyebrows. "Felix?"

"Hmm. So the people started taking photos so we rushed out and Felix's car was on the other side, so I had to drop him at his home. Oh man, you should've seen his house. Wait, his mansion. It's the prettiest."

"You shopped with Felix?"

I looked at him blankly. "Uh yes, Andrew, I literally mentioned him twice, did you even listen to a single word I just said?"

"Yeah." He said bluntly, and then became quiet. I stared at him for a while before asking, "why don't you like him?"

"No, I-"

"Don't even try to deny it, Andrew," I said and proceeded to take the things out of the bags.

"I just- I feel like he's- look, I just don't like him, alright? Do I have to like everybody?" He replied, waving his hand animatedly.

I huffed and narrowed my eyes at him. "You're weird."

"Yeah, whatever." He grumbled. After a few seconds of silence, he said, "remember we have to start packing tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, right. Wow, time flies by so fast."

Andrew and I were going on a mini promotional tour around North America next week. Which was just three days from now. We had to start packing tomorrow, and complete any kind of pending work because this tour would be our first tour where we would fly around the states. Later this year, we had a world tour planned.

Later that night, I called my mum.

I talked to her for a long time before she said, "Koko, your father wants to talk to you."

The smile immediately dropped from my face, and I frowned. "What, why?"

She remained quiet for a while, then said, "here talk to him."

"Mom, wait-"

"Hello."

I became silent. This was the first I had heard his voice in months.

"Hello?" Dad asked, uncertainly.

Before I could stop myself, a snarky reply came out of me. "Look who decided to talk."

"Keighlah. . .I'm trying, okay?" He sounded a little on the edge already.

"Clearly that isn't working," I snapped. "What do you want?"

"What- I can't talk to my daughter?" He sounded angry.

I gripped the phone in my hand and gritted my teeth hard. "Didn't I stop being your daughter the day you told me if I chose music over academics, you'll disown me? Huh? And now you're trying to make it up by calling me when I'm successful and probably earning more than you ever did in your entire life!"

"Keighlah, you don't talk to you father like that!"

"You don't get to scream at me after leaving me when I needed you the most!" I was crying now, the tears leaving marks on my face. "You know what, screw you, I never should've called."

I cut the phone abruptly and threw it across the bed. Then I started to weep into my pillow. It was one in the morning, I was tired, my head was throbbing, my eyes were burning, and everything felt like shit. I cried for a good fifteen minutes before screaming into the pillow. Then I got up from my bed and went into the bathroom to wash my face.

After that, I got out of my room and walked towards Andrew's door. The light was off, which meant he had probably gone off to sleep, but I needed to be with someone.

I tiptoed into his room. He was lying on his bed. I guiltily decided to wake him up before noticing he had earphones in. He was listening to music with his eyes closed.

"Hey," I said meekly, but he heard me.

"Keighlah?" He took his earphones out and sat up on his elbow, looking at me in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"I. . ."

He took a hold of my shoulders and pulled me down on the bed. "Wait. Have you been crying?"

The moment he said that, a fresh wave of tears bubbled out of me and I started crying once again.

I watched in darkness as his eyes grew big to the point where it would've been funny if I wasn't bawling my eyes out at the moment.

"Hey, hey, what happened?" He asked in a worried tone and I pulled away from him.

"Shit. Look at me. Crying like a child. How silly," I laughed through my tears and vigorously rubbed my eyes.

"Nothing is silly," Andrew said, and placed his hand on my cheeks, brushing away the tears.

"No, come on. You must have been trying to get some sleep and I'm here, disturbing you. Nevermind, I'll be okay in a few minutes, it's just one of my. . .haha, episodes."

I made up a few more excuses and started to get up from the bed, suddenly feeling very embarrassed.

"Keighlah, Keighlah, stop," Andrew pulled me back onto the bed and made me sit beside him. Then he stared hard into my eyes and said, "let me in, Keighlah."

I stared back then gave out a deep sigh. "It's dad," I said, my voice cracking. Andrew didn't say anything. He simply looked at me, and I was glad he didn't have any signs of sympathy on his face.

"It's just," I said, "he. . .I mean, I hate fighting with him but, everytime he talks to me, I remember the way he rejected me at the beginning of my career and it just makes me so angry, I just can't help it.

"And today, it was. . .it wasn't good. The way we fought. I said a lot of hurtful things," I said, feeling immensely guilty.

"It's not your fault, Keighlah. You have the right to feel sad and angry," he said in a soothing voice. "But again, he's still your father. Maybe hear him out once?"

I let out a frustrated groan. "It's not that easy, Andrew."

"I know, I know," he said, and rubbed my back in a comforting way. "And that's why I'm here. I'll help you."

I looked at him with a grateful smile, placing a hand on his jaw, his stubble tickling my palm. "Thanks, Andy. It means a lot."

He had a soft look on his face as he hugged me. And I felt a little relieved.

•••

Next chapter - next Saturday at 10pm IST.