The story clings on....
As my thoughts entangled to one another, I felt drowsy as I tried to lean forward to get up but to no avail. After a few attempts, I surrendered and just sat there. I felt that my left lower arm was a bit numb as I rested sitting down on the toilet seat. As the trains of my thoughts travelled to the past, I thought of the happy times between George and I and further back into the past when my parents and I were out to watch the sunset on a weekend. The thoughts seemed to have drained out of my brain through a large sieve and I blacked out as I slumped at the toilet seat.
As I was repeatedly shaken up, I woke up from a deep stupor. My eyes gradually opened as I saw a figure close to me. As I opened my eyes wider, that figure belonged to Belinda.
“Are you alright? You have been inside the toilet for nearly an hour. I tried to call you but I couldn’t hear any response so I unlocked the toilet door and I saw you …..” Belinda seemed terrified as I could not find the reason why her reaction was exaggerated.
As I raised my left arm to try to push her away, I did not know that near to my left wrist, it was bandaged crudely with toilet paper. I could see traces of blood on the toilet paper.
“Sorry that I have scolded you earlier, but you need not have to commit suicide. You were bleeding from your left arm, so I quickly bandaged it with toilet paper beside you. Why must you do such a thing? You scared me a lot just now,” Belinda almost burst into tears as she explained what had happened.
At first I was confused, but I realised that I might have accidentally cut myself without realizing it as I was too deep in my thoughts.
“Thanks, can you leave me alone?” I turned away not wanting to look at Belinda.
“I saved your life and now you are trying to push me away? Sister, …” Belinda’s words were interrupted as I tried to stand up and point my finger to the door.
As I stood up, I felt dizzy. As I tried to put my hand on the basin to support myself, my hand missed the basin as I almost fell off. Belinda was in time to catch hold of me. She supported me to the bedroom and helped me onto the bed.
“I did not mean to cut myself. It was unintentional, but I have to thank you a lot for saving me, if not I would not have known what could have happen,” I admitted the truth as I showed my gratitude towards Belinda.
“Go to sleep, sister,” Belinda smiled slightly as she pat my shoulders.
“Why did you commit suicide? Are you alright?” I was rudely woken up by Kelly as I was shaken repeatedly by her.
“I did not. Who told you so?” I denied flatly.
“Word was going around about what happened to you. I just overheard from Bing Bing and her dance partners. If you have any problems, you could have just come to me. Sister, do you know how worried I was when I heard about the news,” Kelly seemed to be worked up as she grabbed my right hand.
“There is a cut on your left wrist. Sister, don’t deny. You have always been looking out for us but we do not really know much about how you feel and think,” Kelly exclaimed as she glanced at my left wrist.
“It is accidental. Wait, I am going to find Belinda,” my face was flushed red with anger.
As Belinda came out of the bathroom, I went up to her and just stood in front of her, blocking her from walking any further. She was puzzled by my actions.
“Why do you go around telling people that I commit suicide? Very good, now everybody knows. What else did you tell them?” I questioned her in a harsh tone.
“I really did not tell anybody! I do not even know why everybody knows about it,” Belinda looked bewildered as her eyes seemed to show that she was innocent.
As Bing Bing walked past us, she let out a giggle.
“You two lesbians really can make a loving couple,” Bing Bing’s cheeky remarks sent my anger to the roof.
“You not only told everybody I committed suicide, now you tell everybody about us being lesbians. That night in the living room, you tried to be intimate to me. I am not your….your lover,” I was trying to find an appropriate word to finish the statement.
“I really did not, sister. I care so much for you, why would I be the one telling everybody,” Belinda cried out loud as she denied all of my accusations on her.
“Forget it. I am not going to talk to you. We have to get ready for work. It’s getting late,” I looked at the clock as I did not want to hear anymore from this woman.
“Bing Bing, although you may be one of the more popular dancers in your group, I hope you do not be too arrogant. You do not really show your sincerity and appreciation to some of your customers, that I know,” I retorted at Bing Bing.
My words fell on deaf ears as she gave me a scornful look and walked away. Just then, Belinda blurted out something immediately after I have finished with my criticisms on Bing Bing but her words came as noise to my eardrums.
“Please do not let this incident affect our performance tonight. Its very important,” Kelly reminded me as I nodded slightly.
Throughout the night, I ignored Belinda as much as possible as I accompanied Carol and Kelly with some of my long-time customers. It was only when we danced together that I had to force a smile when Belinda was beside me in our dance performance.
“Hi, how are you doing?” Alex’s voice came from my right.
“I am fine. What about yourself?” I was surprised to see Alex.
As we talked briefly, I indicated to him that I had to go to other tables. As I was walking around, I pondered. Would he be wondering why I am so cold to him? Would he get the wrong idea? I brushed off the thoughts as my mind got back on track to concentrate on my work.
“Thank you, sister. Mr. Fang is quite happy about my work performance so far. I am really grateful that you have helped me. But, I do hope that you can also help Belinda too. She is slowly going back to her old habits of just hanging around the same old few tables. Belinda is my buddy. I do not want her to be transferred to another place or she has to go back to Taiwan,” Carol expressed her concern as we were walking home.
“I would see what I can do,” my statement seemed to be redundant as I tried to suppress my anger on hearing that name.
As days go by, although the matter had died down, I still did not forgive Belinda. Although I had this intuition that Belinda was not the one who had spread the rumours, I did not bother to investigate as I would not know who else would know except for her and me.
“Chris, I would like to know whether you could come around six in the evening to advise us on our new dance performance?” I gave Chris a call in the afternoon when I woke up.
I was delighted when he agreed willingly and I informed the rest to prepare early for the rehearsal.
As we started our rehearsal, we tried out some new dance moves. Chris was a brilliant teacher, he not only helped us improve our co-ordinates but also reinvented some new moves to add on or change our current dance moves.
“Its brilliant, it’s much better than the original one,” Carol smiled with satisfaction as the video recording of our dance was played.
“Thank you, Chris for helping us,” Carol put his arm around his shoulder as she gave him a light peck on his cheek.
“Lets cheers to Chris,” Kelly added on as she served the drinks and gave each a drinking glass.
I laughed a little as it was obvious that Carol had a slight interest in Chris and I could see it in her eyes every time she saw him, but little did she realise what I had discovered on the first day when I saw him in our workplace.
As the night progressed, Kelly was on her own as I brought Carol around to almost every table. Carol’s flirtatious character did pay off as more and more customers liked her as compared to when she first came to work. She was drinking a lot too as I tried my hard to limit myself from drinking too much. At certain times, when she lost control and got drunk, we had to carry her back. I was afraid that day could also have the same outcome.
As I looked at the corner of my eye, I spotted Belinda with some of the regular customers that she normally sat at. I felt confused to whether I should end the cold war with her. Other than the brief instructions for the dance moves, I had not talked to her since the last time during our confrontation near the bathroom. I did not want to think too much as I went around entertaining other customers.
“Vanessa, come take a picture of me and Chris,” Carol stammered a little as her arms were all around Chris.
As she pushed her camera phone into my hands, I knew that Carol was a bit drunk. As Carol posed for a picture with Chris, I could not help laughing as Chris was making a funny face while Carol was giving a seductive pose with her tongue sticking out.
“You all are having fun taking pictures with Chris, I also want to take too,” Kelly came from nowhere as she seemed high too.
As the three of them posed for a few shots, I shook my head as I looked at them acting foolish in front of me. After the shots were taken, Carol was too busy with Chris as she seemed to be leaning her whole body against his.
“I want to take a look,” Kelly snatched the phone from me as she went to the gallery section to see.
As I was looking simultaneously to see, I could see an overall view of all the pictures and videos that she had taken in her gallery window. I spotted something familiar at the bottom right of her phone before Kelly enlarged some of the pictures for us to take a look.
“You look so silly,” Kelly laughed at Carol’s direction as she spotted her finger at Carol.
“I also want to take a look too,” I snatched the phone, but my motive was not to just look at the pictures that we had taken but also to scan to the picture that I spotted earlier.
As Carol was too busy with Chris and Kelly walked away, I silently slipped away into the toilet with her phone. As I went to the gallery to scan through the videos, I saw one video which seemed like it was taken at the staircase with Belinda and me at that night when we were intimate! I could not believe my eyes as she had filmed the whole incident without us noticing. As I scanned through her photos and other unimportant videos to me, I spotted a brief video of Belinda dressing up my wound and trying to wake me up and the video was abruptly stopped. Thoughts from all directions came like bullet trains through my brain system. If Belinda was right about her claim, it was possible that Carol might be behind it to make me dislike Belinda. Why would she want me to do that? I had to find out the truth.
As I went to the toilet, I remained calm as I saw Carol still with Chris. They were busy chatting as Carol’s hands were all over Chris. I stifled my laughter as I put the phone discreetly on the table without any one of them noticing me doing that. As I sneaked away, I looked at Carol and I gave a brief angry look at her. She would get it from me some day, but I could not let the cat out of the bag as yet. The time was not right.
As Belinda was sitting on one of the tables with Marcus and his friends, I went over and sat beside Belinda, but I pretended to ignore her. Marcus and Alan were the few customers whom I really enjoy to be with. They really made me feel as if I was not working and it felt as if I was having a night out with friends. I could feel that Belinda was enjoying herself but she did not even dare to utter a word to me even though we had eye contact.
As Carol and I walked home, Carol seemed to feel uneasy.
“Is there anything wrong with you?” I looked at Carol being concerned for her as natural as possible.
“Actually, after when you took photos with Chris and me, I want to admit something to you Vanessa, but I do not dare to. I am afraid that you would scold me,” Carol’s voice seemed to go down a few decibels at the end of her statement as compared to the beginning.
--The end--
What do you think Carol is going to tell Vanessa?
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