Dedicated to vhie-vhian

WHAT I WAS planning to do was admittedly not thought through and might even wreck my friendship with Jade more.
I'd rushed out of school after classes ended and was now standing in front of Jade's house.

The plan was simple: knock, pray that Jade's dad answered and try to get closure about what happened between him and my dad. I was hoping that by doing this, Jade would see that I cared enough and didn't hate him and saw him as my brother.

I didn't really think I could do this at first. I had always pictured Mr. Mensa to be a bad person but if he raised Jade up alone and Jade turned to be who he was, then was he really a bad person?

There were two sides to every story and I was ready to listen to the side I never to the chance to hear.

Mustering courage, I knocked twice and stood there tapping my feet. Soon enough I heard a man's voice as he approached the door.

"Buddy, is that you? You left your keys again didn't you?" He thought I was Jade.

Last chance now David, either back out or face the man I thought was responsible for my dad's death, I said to myself

Well, I wasn't going to chicken out.

The door opened and standing in front of me was an older version of Jade.

This is why my aunt freaked out when she saw him. Jade and his dad were the exact image of each other.
Just like my dad and I.

Mr. Mensa looked shocked and it was as if he had seen a ghost. I noticed that he had started shaking a bit as we both stared at each other.

"Laser? How's this possible?" he said quietly.

"No sir. Actually, I'm David. Laser's son," I replied him, my palms now sweaty.

"Laser's son. Laser's son," he rubbed his hand over his face and beckoned me to enter house.

I was following him when he suddenly turned and asked, "Wait, David? As in my son's friend?"

"Yes sir," I must have looked like a bad cop who had been caught because I sure felt that way.

"What's going on here David?" Mr. Mensa asked me.

"That's why I'm here actually. There's something I have to tell you and ask you as well."

We sat down and I began narrating what had happened to my dad. It was hard. Really hard. The memories came rushing down like a broken dam.
I could see that it was hard on Mr. Mensa too because his eyes looked teary.

I told him about my dad's sickness, us moving out of town to my aunt's, how he died and my aunt's accusation about it being his fault for leading my dad into drugs and deserting him.

"Cynthia said I left him after introducing him to drugs?" he sounded shocked.

"That was what I wanted to know, Mr. Mensa," I said.

"That's not true. Laser and I were more than brothers than we were friends. We were both failing some classes in college and he suggested that we smoke some weed to help us to learn. I agreed but after a while I stopped when I realized how addictive it was becoming to both of us. I tried to convince Laser to stop but he wouldn't listen to me. He said I wasn't his father to boss him around. After sometime, he became erratic and started acting up. I put my feet down and asked him to choose between our friendship and the weed. And we both know what he chose."

If what he had just said was true then I had wasted almost half my life hating a man who had tried to help my dad instead.

"So you didn't leave like my aunt said?" I asked.

"I might not have introduced him to the weed but I did desert him," he said solemnly.

"What do you mean?" I was confused.

"I should have fought harder. I should have done everything I could to get him to stop but when things got hard, I just gave him an ultimatum and left. That's one of the things I regret most in my life. That I didn't try harder for him. Brothers are supposed to fight for each other and I didn't do that."

He rubbed his hand over his face again.

"Did you know that he'd passed away?" I asked.

"Cynthia sent me a card to inform me. Jade and I came to the funeral actually but you were both too young to remember and we didn't stay for long. Your aunt didn't want me there so we had to leave."

I didn't know what else to ask. Mr. Mensa had actually tried to help my dad and he regretted not doing enough. We both needed closure and I think we had just found it.

"So how's Cynthia and her husband? I've forgotten his name," he asked me.

"They're okay. Matthew works for an oil rig in Dubai so we see him during the holidays."

"That must be hard. Listen, David. Your dad was more than everything to me and I understand if you hate me. But I want you to know that I'm truly sorry for what happened to him."

"I think I'm okay now. Our actions determine our future so I guess I've learnt a valuable lesson from all this," I honestly believed all that I had just said.

"I have a question for you also. Why does Jade refuse to talk about you all of a sudden? Whenever I mention your name he gives me a look that could scare even Hitler."

"That is the reason why I came here," I started to explain.

We heard the front door open and closed. Jade's voice reached the living room.

"Dad! Have you seen Bullet-" he stopped mid-sentence when he reached the living room and saw me.

Surprisingly he talked to me and said, "Hey David. Come to hurt my dad instead of me?"

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Author's Note.

Hello guys! I hope you like this chapter. Writer's block wants to set in again. Ugh...I hate that.

Thanks for reading!