The truth always hurts

Third person's POV:

(FLASHBACK)

The atmosphere was densely tensed. Rica stared at Dili's mother, the confusion on her face was as clear as a crystal . Vanya Uzora sighed out loud. Was she doing the right thing by telling her? she thought. But alas she knew that Rica deserved to know. They were her memories after all, just that they were only lost.

"What do you mean by 'About the first time we met'?" Rica finally asked. Because if she remembers accurately, the first time she met Mrs Uzora was in the hospital, so what was she talking about?

"Exactly what i said my dear. Although, it won't be very accurate if i used the word 'Tell', instead i would say 'Remind' you about our first encounter" The more she spoke the more Rica's head began to hurt. Abi is she still dreaming ni? she thought.

"Remind me?" Rica once again spoke.

"Yes" Vanya smiled though it was a sad one.

"I believe it was two solid years ago" With a far away look in her eyes she continued. Rica listened intensively without making a single noise, her curiosity won over everything else.

'Two years ago'

The city of New York was its usually booming self. The population of cars were as high as ever, The moon illuminating into the night, the street lights brighter than ever. Although in the midst of all this, a young African girl looking no younger than 14 stood all alone on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. A hospital clothe was on her body, you could also see places were blood had stained the hospital gown. It was almost comical how nobody has noticed such a fragile looking creature.

Young Rica was standing near the edge of the bridge, dried up tears still lining her pure innocent face. She stretched out her head looking down to see a huge mass of water underneath. In her mind she has already decided; Today was the day she would end her life. She didn't see any need to live anymore, Life was undoubtedly meaningless to her at this point.

After little contemplation she then began to climb the edge of the bridge, which was painful to do given the cuts she had on her hands, but at the end she was still successful.

At this point a normal person would have at least hesitated, even if it was a little. Because just so you know, suicide wasn't a measly walk in the park, it wasn't as easy as people portrayed it to be. In spite of what people thought, it took guts to large extends. Though it was still an act that a simpleton would do.

A quick remembrance of why she was doing this again crossed Rica's mind, making a lone tear to betray her and slip out. Next she removed both her legs from the edge, but the strangest of things occurred, instead of her to be falling forward into the large abundance of water, she was falling backwards to the concrete floor.

"Phew, just in time. I thought I wasn't going to catch you for a second there" She heard a male voice say from beside her. Apparently, someone had stopped her from going through with her, I would say rather foolish plan.

Surprised she squeaked "Unhand me, right this instance" She struggled a little before the boy released her.

"Jeez, i was expecting a thank you but that will do fine too" The young boy said. The sarcasm in his voice showed that he was highly unhappy, and the eye roll was just an added bonus.

Rica stared at the boy in disbelieve "Why on earth would i thank you? Nawa o, did i say i needed saving?"

"You might not have asked for my help, but I being a reasonable human being decided to save your foolish self from whatever you were about to foolishly do!" The more he spoke, the higher his octave went. Dili looked at Rica, she was unearthly beautiful no doubt, but didn't she know that life was precious?

Rica was beyond inflamed, Who did he think he was coming out of thin air and insulting her.

"Yo-u y-ou" she stammered a little before properly speaking "You infuriating nincompoop" She could have done a lot better she herself knew that too.

A small laugh escaped the boys lips. "For your mind now you know big words, clap for yourself na" when he said this, his slight accent from minutes ago immediately changed. Rica was a little surprised by this. I mean from all the millions of individuals in New York city, what were the odds that she'd encounter someone from her own country.

But after recalling his response her shock instantly turned to anger. She thought to herself, how could a person be soo annoying. She was a rather quite and collected person, and for a person to drive her to the brim of annoyance and anger, was outrightly admirable.

"Dili Andrew Uzora, I didn't raise you to talk like that to people, much less strangers" a very displeased voice called out, making Rica to realize that there was also a woman standing looking at the both of them. It appears that it was the young boys mother.

At his mother's words young fifteen years old Dili attitude turned apologetic. "I'm sorry" he muttered out. From the way he said it, it was relatively obvious that he didn't want to apologies to Rica.

"I'm so sorry for my son's manners my dear. Are you alright" The younger version of Vanya Uzora asked. From what she and her son had seen, Rica was indeed about to jump off the bridge. She didn't know if it was fate that brought them to this girl, but she was glad they were able to stop her in time.

The kind words of the stranger brought a warm kind of feeling to Rica's heart. Her own mother would never speak so calm to her, always cold as ice. Never caring.

Even though she didn't really know what was going on, she still replied whispering softly "I'm fine".

Rica stared at the two people in front of her...'why can't they just leave already, anything i did with my life was clearly not any of their business. But why do they seem to care?'

Mrs Uzora knew what Rica said wasn't the truth in any way. She knew she wasn't fine. The different sizes of cuts on her hands too was highly questionable, they were just way too much, blood was even still distinctly flowing out. The hospital clothes she was wearing was in fact even contradicting her words the more; she looked like she had just escaped from a ward or something. And lets not forget her tear stained cheeks. If that wasn't enough of a red flag, then she didn't know what was.

She continued with a shutter "Now ple-ase can you b-oth leave, i have a-a sc-hedule to keep up with" And by schedule, Dili and his mother knew all too well what she meant. Rica knew what she said and how she said it sounded rude, she really didn't mean it to sound that way. But she knew, she knew that this was probably going to be the last chance she'd get. The nurses would surely be looking for her whereabouts by now. Like the saying goes 'It was now or never', and Rica wholeheartedly wanted it to be 'now'.

Mrs Uzora and her son stared at Rica like as if she was mad. Well she might have as well been.

Dili released a low sigh and told her "Remember when i called you foolish?" he took an intermission "I just confirmed it, you are indeed a very foolish girl" Again with the insults? she thought. And see her thinking he was going to say something completely different. He was quite gorgeous alright, but his attitude was honestly outrageous. He knew nothing about her or why she was even doing this in the first place, yet he judged her. Ridiculous. People will always be the same.

"yo-" He cut her off before she could complete what she wanted to say.

"You take life as solely nothing. Let me tell you now, there are people who would have wanted to still be on this earth but sadly that wasn't their fate. And then 'you' decide that you don't want to live anymore. A lot of people would do anything to still have their love ones with them!" Unknowingly to young Dili, he had gone off track. He didn't know when the last sentence slipped. Rica understood that from what he said, he had lost someone dear to him. She instantly felt bad after hearing that.

Mrs Uzora didn't utter a single word this time as her son spoke. He was finally being open with his feelings, something he hasn't done since the death of her husband. She just hoped that Dili could stop the young girl from going through with what she was adamant on doing. Though she also hoped that he would be at least gentle in doing so.

"See ehn, i'm sure you think that taking your own life takes strength?" He continued in a mocking voice "But do you want to know the truth" with a low yet dead serious tone he said "The truth here is that you're weak and, you are immensely pathetic" His harsh yet truthful word hit a particular place in Rica. Tears began to form in her eyes. She knew what he had said was the truth, that was why it affected her soo deeply.

Both Dili and his mother's eyes widened to great extent as the next thing they saw was Rica falling freely to the ground. Dili just as fast crouched to the ground and placed her in his arms. He did all this on impulse without even realizing it. Scanning her body briefly Vanya and Dili both noticed the blood still gushing out of her cuts, meaning she probably fainted due to high loss of blood. Mrs Uzora immediately called the paramedics.

At that point Dili began to regret the way he had spoken to her. And that even though it was the truth, he should have known that the truth always hurts. Nevertheless he also knew that the truth was like a surgery, it hurts but it without a doubt cures.

(END OF FLASHBACK)