My Yuri Harem - Chapter 48

I woke up to a ringing cellphone. It took me a while to realize that, as I incorporated the ringing of cellphone to the dream I was having. So it was hard for me to draw the line. However, now that I was fully aware, I threw the covers away and slowly stood up. The cellphone continued to ring.

I shook my head sideways vigorously to get rid of the residual sleep and zombie walked towards the ringing cellphone. The bright screen cut through my vision, making me blind for a moment. As I squinted my eyes to read the caller’s name, it vanished. The room went silent. The screen showed six missed calls and two new texts. I unlocked my cellphone and went straight to the messages.

Text from Gian: 11, Goldlink Street, Osoyoos. You can even come to the GasMaxx gas station to meet me. Love, Gian.

Text from Trigman: U weren’t picking my calls, so I had to call Kyo. We are in the casino downstairs with P.A.

They were here.

I opened my call logs and saw four calls from Trigman and two from Kyo. Before I could call them back, I received another call from Kyo.

“Hello,” I said.

“Mad, Trigman and Mapalla are here. Did you invite them? Anyway, we are downstairs at the blackjack table. Priscilla is going mad with the wins. Come downstairs.”

Saying that, she hung up.

She sounded excited, happy.

I shuffled through my briefcase and took out my best joggers and sweatshirt for this event. I went in the washroom touched up my hair, my face and applied a little bit of lipstick. Then I walked back to my clothes and took out the most comfortable bra and undies before I donned my sky-blue hoodie and black joggers. But I switched my flat sole shoes with black stilettos. Feeling like a mismatched mannequin, I walked out of the door.

Hall of the Gods really did feel like one. It had brightly lit hallway that led to the casino. It was basked in golden lights and glittery roof. But the end of the hallway, a casino basked in red waited. It was like changing realms. The air changed from relaxed to excited in a second. The huge casino was round in shape, with what seemed like million games all over. It had a fountain in the middle, with a porcelain figure carrying a huge pot, spilling water in the said fountain. Given the name of the hotel, I gave the name ‘Poseidon to the huge figure.

After laughing by myself, I walked up to the bar and got myself a Lagavulin. The hot bartender retracted to the back and brought the unopened bottle. She poured me a double and I asked if she had seen the rapper P.A. she pointed me to the table she was sitting at, and I made way towards it with the drink.

There was no huge commotion around the table. Never thought there would be in the first place. I mean, P.A. is just a worldwide famous rapper. But I was more interested in the two men sitting next to her. Mapalla and Trigman. They did book the next available flights. I loved them so much. I walked up to them and casually kissed them both on the cheeks. They seemed elated at the surprising gesture.

“Hey!” Mapalla exclaimed, “How have you been girl?” He stood up to hug me. The warmth in his arms was second to none. He rubbed my back and returned my kiss on my forehead. After he let me go, he examined me from top to bottom and replied,” You have no right to look so hot.”

I chuckled at his remarks and looked at Trigman, who also had stood up to greet me.

“How are you, child? I hope you are eating well.”

Trigman never knew how to regulate his strength, thus his hug was rugged and tight. But it was comforting. Had he grown? Or was I imagining it?

“How have you two been doing?” I asked.

“Just the regular,” Trigman replied.

“And by regular, he means lot of sex.” Mapalla chimed in.

“Shut up and go back to your seat,” Trigman pointed his harsh words at Mapalla. After getting rid of his husband, he turned back to me and said,” I’m sorry. You know he becomes loose after he is bubbly. Should have never let him get that cranberry cocktail.”

“Cranberry? I thought Mapalla was into hard liquor.”

“Yeah, he is. But when he saw this huge casino, he turned into the stereotypical Hollywood gay person. His composure is gone for some hours now.”

“Hey, big guy. Less talk, more playing,” Priscilla said to Trigman.

“Yeah, it’s time you lost,” Trigman returned to his table and resumed with his game. I turned to Kyo. She was looking at us the entire time. I smiled at her. and she smiled back. She was wearing a red polka dot skirt and navy blue heals. I noticed the gold anklets she was wearing. She looked hot, glammed up and all. I went to her side of the table and bent over to kiss. Shockingly, she didn’t retract like I thought she would. maybe she didn’t want to cause a drama in front of everyone. Or maybe, she was become acceptable of me. I guess that was the first step in becoming her own person.

I took a seat in between her and Harman, who was stressing over her cards. I never imagined Harman to be the gambling type. I turned back to Kyo and asked if she understood what was even going on. She shook her head in denial. I replied, ‘Me too’ and turned my gaze at the Trigman and Mapalla. They were more invested in the game than us.

“Hey, how come nobody is fawning over our celebrity? I mean, a celebrity is sitting on the table. I thought more people would be crowding this table,” Kyo asked.

“it’s not just us who is in the room,” Harman replied. “There are mayors, painters, authors and all other kind of people playing right now. Nobody has the time to turn into a fan when they are a well-known entity themselves.”

Made sense.

The next eighty minutes passed away in a flash. It was full of surprises, gasps, laughter, shouting and liquor. So much damn liquor. It was one of those days for me when I genuinely left my tensions at the door. That was the rule of our households. But it had been rather impossible following recent incidents. So it was refreshing seeing gleeful smiles over everybody’s face. Even the dealer smiled while listening to our banter. It was the evening I deserved. No, it was the evening which everyone deserved.

After spending over $250,000 priscilla finally decided it was enough and cashed in her chips. We all followed. the golden light that lit the hallway was welcoming after what seemed like an hour of optical strain. Priscilla walked in front of the pack. I noticed she was wearing her favorite color of top. Light pink paired with bell bottom denim jeans. I guess she wanted to bring back the 2000s. Harman was carrying her bag, which became apparent when she slowed her pace to match with hers, only to fish through the bag while it still hung over Harman’s shoulder. The pair was followed by Trigman who was listening to Mapalla’s rendition of ‘Highway to Hell’. He didn’t mind his off-key singing when he was seven drinks down himself. Kyo was carefully trailing behind them, careful not to trip and fall. The soft tumble and sway in her walk made her intoxication apparent.

In the end was me, not affected by the whisky at all. Or was it beer? I could not recall. The truth was that the sight in front of me was unique. I never had Priscilla and Trigman and Mapalla and Kyo in the same room before. But after a vigorous session at the casino, they seemed alright. Knowing Priscilla, I thought she must have rambled something off to them. But it seemed less like it. I didn’t want to involve my friends more than they needed to be.

We all made the way to the lift. Priscilla’s hands were out of the purse. I guess she was done fondling it. She had a black bag in her hands, which concerned me little. Harman pressed both buttons of the adjacent lifts and we silently waited for them to open for us. After waiting for twenty seconds, the doors went ajar. Priscilla and Harman entered in one lift, and us four entered the remaining one.

The doors closed in front of us and I pressed the button ’77’ on the panel. As the gears moved and we started going up, Mapalla posed a question.

“So what did happen with Brad and Amaan?”

Trigman swatted Mapalla’s lips as to shut him up, but the words were already out. I was surprised but not shocked that they knew about them. I had mentioned them in passing, but never went in the details.

“Priscilla did open her mouth.” I chuckled at the thought of her staying quiet for my mercy.

Trigman spoke this time, “I’m sorry. On Mapalla’s behalf. We were not supposed to say anything. But this blabbermouth doesn’t know when to keep his trap shut.”

I shot a glance at Kyo. She seemed down once again. She was darting her vision all over the steel box we were enclosed in. And when she couldn’t find any place to concentrate on, she looked at me. She smiled at my blank face.

I closed my eyes for a second. Then looked at Mapalla and said,” Not right now.”

There was silence in the lift once again.

We had gone thirty floors up when Mapalla opened his mouth again.

“So, what are we doing here? You called us out of the blue and told us to come to Canada. I don’t think you felt reunion was mandatory on foreign land, right?”

He had returned to be his normal self. His posture was not scrunchy. And his speech was not funny anymore. This was the person I could talk to.

“We are here to see Gian,” I replied.

I saw a small jolt shocking both men. They took a moment to comprehend this knowledge. Mapalla was with the expressions of annoyance, while Trigman didn’t let any emotion come over his face. But I knew he was pissed too.

“Why? After all these years, why are we back on the starting line?” Mapalla said.

“It was not our starting line, Mappa. Have you no memory of Nepal?” Trigman said.

“No, I do. But I also remember all the changes that happened between us. And all of it was kickstarted by that woman. Why are we going back to her?” Mapalla pointed his question towards me. I tried to be smart with my response.

“Well, you said I needed to deal with my past. And here I am, on the other side of the world, doing just that. you cant blame me now.”

“Well, I can. Because you think of putting me and her in the same room. That doesn’t sit well with me.”

I never thought Mapalla could be so adamant about something. His speech was rigid. His posture was stern. His mind was clear. And everything I had planned could go south if he

“I’d go wherever you want me to go. As long as it doesn’t involve that witch.”

didn’t say that.

The lift pinged once again and opened its doors at floor 77. Mapalla dashed out before anyone else and came across three doors. He swung his head sideways like a lost puppy and turned towards Priscilla’s room. We walked behind him, but by the time we reached our room, he had already disappeared behind the door.

I fished my pocket for the keys but unfortunately, I had locked us out.

“Wonderful day, isn’t it?” Trigman chimed.

“Please, not right now.”

Trigman let out a small laugh and headed back towards the lift.

“I’ll go to the reception and get another key card.”

“You can just call them and get somebody to come up here.”

“We could. or you can take this time and explain the clueless Kiyomi what is going on.”

Trigman vanished behind the steel doors and I crumbled down on the floor. Kyo sat on the floor next to me.

“What happened between Gian and Mapalla, Mad?”

“Gian, and her husband Krash, spent a long time looking for me. There was a blast in Dhaka, where I lost my parents, I was presumed dead. Nobody noticed my admission to an orphanage. Or should I say that there was little to no media coverage of my survival. There I met with Mapalla and Trigman. They knew the corruption that ran through the orphanage, and how the head priest was a pedophile. So they took me, who didn’t have the time to settle in with the circumstances and ran away. We found ourselves in Nepal. I was nine. The beginning was rocky, like every kid who lives on the streets. But after five years, I got wind of Gian and Krash looking for me. I contacted the authorities and they led me to them. Gian hugged me, and Krash sighed in peace. They left me with some money and went back to the USA to reverse my death certificate. A year later they returned for me, but I wanted Mapalla and Trigman to come with me. They were not happy with it. But I stood my ground and refused to come with them.

They left me a little money once again and returned with Trigman’s visa, saying that Mapalla’s was in progress. So me, Trigman, Krash and Gian came to New York for our further studies and elevated lifestyles. I was seventeen, just out of highschool. Trigman was too, and we were ready to go to college. But it was apparent that Krash and Gian were not going to let Mapalla come to us.

And that, is why Mapalla is less fond of Gian.”

I closed my eyes and crunched my teeth. I was angry at abandoning my friend. I was mad at Gian for betraying him. But I was glad I was out of the mess i had made back home. So, maybe I was happy coming away from Her.

It had been so long that I visited this confusion in my mind. And that too in the middle of this shitshow. I balled my hand into a fist and punched the door that didn’t budge. I did it again. Nothing but a thud.

I felt Kyo’s soft hand grabbing my fist. I stopped punching and turned to look at her.

“It wasn’t your fault. You had one shot at a better life, and you took it. If I were you, I would have done the same thing.”

The wold seemed a little smaller now that I had her with me.