Chapter 36 Hurting

Chapter 36 Hurting
I guess I was wrong. He was hurting. 

Malik didn’t come back home. I have no idea where he went or even if he plans to come back. The house felt colder and stranger.

Dominic isn’t in the living room anymore, he has left. I don’t know when he left but I was told he did.

Now I’m all alone in this big mansion thinking about the death of Joseph.

I don’t want to think about it but ever since Dominic talked about it and accused Malik of having something to do with it. My mind isn’t at ease until I figure out what really happened to Joseph.

Hours later, I heard noises from downstairs. I whiny rushed to go check it out and I found Malik sitting in the living room with a bottle of alcohol looking completely wasted.

I rushed down the stairs to him. When I had a clear view of him, I gasped. "What are you doing?"

He didn’t bother looking at me, he casually replied "What does it look like?"

"Malik you’re drunk. Why would you be drunk?"

Again he didn’t bother looking at me. "Is this your new way of trying to piss me off because if it is, it’s working like crazy."

"I’m not trying to piss you off. I’m just caring for you. Why are you acting this way? Why are you drunk? What’s wrong with you?" I panicked snatching the bottle of alcohol from him. 

"Give it back!" He demanded, still not looking at me. His head was turned to the other side but his hand was on my side "Give me the bottle."

"No Malik, I won’t. You’re drunk, you can’t keep drinking."

"It wouldn’t make any difference, would it?"

"It would and I’m not giving you," I said as I turned away to keep the bottle in the kitchen but he grabbed me and pulled me to him.

When he’s eyes met mine, I saw pain and tears combined. He opened his mouth to say something but suddenly clasped it shut.

He stayed silent for a moment. 

I couldn’t help but ask "Are you okay?"

He nodded "Yeah, I am…" his words broke as a single tear rolled down his cheek.

He tried to hide it but I saw it clearly. I saw that he was crying. I saw that he’s in pain.

Slowly, his voice cracked and he said, "He’s dead, Eli. He’s dead." His voice dropped to a whisper on the last part.

More tears streamed down his face. He quickly turned away, not wanting me to see him. "Just give me the bottle, Eli. Please, I need it."

"You don’t need it. You can just talk to me."

"I don’t want to. Just please give me the bottle," He demanded 

But I still didn’t. "I can’t. It’s bad for you, just.."

He cuts me off, his voice dripping in anger "I said give me the damn bottle!" 

My eyes widened as my heart stopped. When he noticed I was scared, he just snatched the bottle from me. 

He took a long gulp as he started to walk away from me only to fall down on the stairs. I rushed to check on him but found him crying.

"Malik," I said

As if that was a wake-up call, he wiped his tears hurriedly and kept on walking up. He left the alcohol on the stairs. 

I kept following him and he reached the bedroom where he fell on the bed, his eyes still filled with tears.

"I swear I didn’t kill him. If I wanted to, I would have long time ago but I didn’t, I would never hurt him like that."

"It’s okay," I said holding his hand 

"It’s not okay." He pulled away "Everyone thinks I killed my father but I didn’t. I could have killed him a long time ago if I wanted to but it never crossed my mind… I would never hurt him like that." He said holding back his tears 

"And now that I lost him, I feel so bad because I didn’t even call him dad. I… I… I was bad to him." The tears finally spilled. He sat on the bed and rested his head on the pillow and stared at the ceiling for a while.

I was about to try and comfort him again but stopped when he started talking again "I feel like a bad son. I wasn’t even good to him in his last days."

"Come on, don’t say that, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know this was gonna happen." I said 

He sighed heartily. "Maybe Dominic was right. Maybe I should have forgiven him for what he did. After all, it has been a long time, I should have just let it go and have forgiven him like a good son would but I didn’t, and now he’s dead, and even if I do forgive him, it doesn’t matter." Tears streamed down his face.

Malik went on talking about it, but it felt like he was talking to himself. I guess the alcohol he took is messing with his brain. He cried, screamed, and laughed. He was like a little boy missing his father but in full denial that his dad is actually dead, even though he knows he is.

When Malik went silent, I lay on the bed and cuddled him to comfort him. He snuggled closer to me as if I were a pillow.

He didn’t say a thing anymore, and I didn’t either. I just let the silence comfort him. After a while, his eyes slowly opened. He looked at me and whispered, "You still think I killed him?"

I didn’t hesitate to respond. "No, I don’t think so."

A smile danced on his face. "Thank you for believing me, Eli. I would never hurt him. You know that, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I do."

He rested his head back on my shoulder. I held him close and gently until he finally fell asleep.