Chapter 9: fourth day
"Skyla!"
I twist my body to the voice impulsively and my eyes meet a pair of sharp blue eyes and I nod.
"Hey." Alex catches up to me and places a hand on my shoulder. I shift a little uncomfortably and smile at him weakly. "Knew it was you, couldn't miss your hair for a million sunsets." He says, but the moment he realizes what he's said, he blushes and looks away.
"Oh. Where are you headed to?" I attempt to make our situation less awkward than it already is.
"Oh, erm... I was... where am I headed?" He stares in front of him and he blinks with the sudden memory of where he was heading to, "Right! The Math block!"
"It's the other way." I point out and he flushes bright pink. I laugh lightly and nudge him on the shoulders.
"It's fine if you'd rather join my english language and literature class though." I offer.
"What? No! I'm not studying sick poetry!"
"We don't just learn about 'sick poetries', Alex." I roll my eyes.
"Then how come Riley recites a poem every time she walks out of a literature class?" Alex raises a brow and stares straight into me.
"What poem?"
"Roses are red, violets are—" He starts with an expressive expression, but I cut him off.
"Anything but that. Really."
"Haha, sick poetry you don't say!" He strides off to his math class and leaves me standing there with a big, fat smile smudged on my face. I wipe it off quickly, but not quick enough. Kiley literally runs over like a two year old who've just found her mother in Walmart. Walmart is huge, don't judge.
"Sick look you've got there! So... what were you and Alex chatting about? Seemed like a hot topic, whoop!" Her excitement flusters me and I wave her off with a hand.
"It was nothing, really. Don't mother me about what I'm not supposed to be talking about, of whom."
"Your words against mine. Still, it looks like you two are getting along." She beams and I nod.
"Well enough." Until I say something that'll ruin everything between us.
"Right. Next class, come on. We're gonna be late!" She grabs my hand and we dash off to our next class together. We seem so close already, but there are a lot of deep secrets that neither she nor anyone knows, and it should stay that way.
—————
"Class is way too boring!" Riley complains. Riley invited me to their lunch table and I don't wanna reject their offer because it'll mean looking bad in front of Mason. I can't believe he's still avoiding me, like my life is even any of his business!
"Mr Hawk talks like a drone. He drones on and on about K-pop. It's not like he's gonna win the hearts of Twice girls or Black pink..." Kiley agrees. "But it is his way of getting us to think about true love."
"Right. I've got to go. Catch ya later." I wink to Kiley and she understands right away.
"Make up classes, eh?"
"Yup." And I'm off.
—————
"Henryk? I'm ready!" I call Henryk from outside his room door.
"In a bit, baby!" A few minutes later, he slams open the door and announces, "We're gonna be late..." But trails off once he sees my shirt. "Not your baby, huh?"
"Yup, come on, let's go! You're a legitimate sloth!" I scoff.
"Ouch. Right I am." He takes my hand and we walk towards the car together, and all of a sudden, it starts raining heavily. Henryk stares up in the sky and yells, "Damn it, what's with the weather?"
"I'll go get an umbrella." I say but Henryk shakes his head.
"We're so close to the car. Come on!"
By the time we get in, Henryk sighs and laughs, "I'm so glad I'm doing this with you, even though we're soaked."
What about Gemma?
My mouth is sealed tight and I push the thought to the back of my head.
"Yea, me too." I mumble unwilling.
"So..." Henryk says, "I heard you were taking some medicine classes?"
Right, I picked up some topic about a degree in medicine. I don't even know why I did, but I probably took it because Gemma have always wanted to be a nurse. She wanted to take care of people, make them feel better, happier, but that was just a ten year old's dream. God only knows what she would have wanted if she's still alive.
"Yea."
"How is it going? Learning anything good? Like a medicine to cure your brother's undeniable charm." He jokes and I tense up.
"Ohh... shut up!" I laugh to loosen myself up. "So far... my teacher is very far fetched."
"How far? Is he threatening to call FBI if you steal a chocolate from his secret stash of sugar candies?" He wiggles his eyebrows at me and my jaw drops.
"How... how did you know?" My eyes are most probably shining with amusement.
"Know what?" Henryk acts all innocent and I punch him in the shoulders. "Alright... alright. Anna told me that Mason suspects that his Medicine teacher stores a whole treasury of chocolates under his desk."
Mason... "He's not wrong." I feel the color draining from my face and I look out of the window and listen to the rain splatter itself all over the car..
"What's wrong?" Henryk looks over worriedly.
"Nothing..."
"Sugar is bad for health you know? I wonder how your chocolate thief professor even became a teacher."
"Sugar is good for a person's emotional well-being though." I point out.
"So your teacher is good..." He nods knowingly and I laugh, "I got that from the internet."
"So my sister is a traitor!"
"Am not!" I laugh harder. This feels like the first time I am actually enjoying my time out.
"It's okay..." Henryk smiles sheepishly, "I'm guilty of searching for things ladies may like for Valentines, or some new boxers."
"Oh my goodness! Henryk!" He laughs this time, and I almost don't feel guilty that Gemma isn't with us. Sooner than expected, we are outside a restaurant and I can already hear music coming from inside.
For once, I'm just going to forget about my sister who went missing on my fifth birthday. My sister who died on my fifth birthday. My sister who was found dead with no evidence on my fifth damn birthday.
Tears slide down my cheeks and I quickly wipe them away. A person serving drinks stares awkwardly at me and I drop my head and stare at my feet.
I look up and see Henryk walking towards Zach, Regina, and the rest. My eyes, however, got distracted by the person serving out the drinks. I am so sure he looked familiar, then it came to me. All of a sudden, it was like there are a million church bells ringing in my head, and the guy at the counter looks up and I stare at him. He looks back at me, his expression unreadable.
I stare at Mason.
Then I look away.
So he knew why I wouldn't have been out with my brother's friends, because he'd be there.
"Skyla." Henryk calls out to me and I look up at him, cheerfully. "You've met my friends, right?"
"Yea." I smile at Regina who takes my hand into hers.
"Come on, we're off to get a free drink." Regina speaks.
"Free drink?" I look confusingly at her.
"Yea, Anna's cousin works here, come on. I'll show you to him."
But... I don't want to see him...
"Mas, buddy!" Zach calls out to Mason.
"Hey, what's up?" Mason calls back and completely avoids my eyes.
"The usual." Zach simply states and gestures at me, "Pretty sure you've met Henryk's lil sis, am I right or am I wrong?"
"Right. I've got an impression on her already." He smirks but not at me.
Good or bad? I thought.
"Eighteen year olds' vibes." Zach laughs.
"Always searching for another mama." Regina adds and I look away, embarrassed. Thankfully, Mason brings out our glasses of martinis.
I take a look inside and I see a whole lot of alcohol and I push it aside, before shaking my head, rejecting the drink politely, "No thank you."
"How about Vodka? It isn't always the answer, but it's worth a shot. Or whine if you must, it's not good to bottle up your emotions." Zach lists drinks that are pretty much alcohol-familiar. Mason and Regina seemed to have gotten seen a joke out of it because they are laughing pretty hard. Even Luke, his girlfriend along with Anna and Henryk, who've only heard the last sentence are chuckling.
Henryk places a hand on my shoulder and says, "He meant wine, not whine." It took me a while to understand the joke but when I finally got it. I simply nod and made an 'O' with my mouth.
"Your sister doesn't drink liquor?" Zach turns to look at Henryk who nods his head in reply.
"She wouldn't even pick one up." Henryk teases and I glare at him.
"Anyways, that was a joke I used to tell him whenever something reminded him of his sister." Zach explains. It seems he's the closest to Henryk.
"Oh." I say sadly and Mason notices.
"It's my break time." He announces, "So the rest of the drinks are on you, Zach." He winks at Zach who pouts his lips and pleads for another shot, but Mason shakes his head and says, "Plus, I wanna catch up with Skyla. See you guys around." He waves and I stare at him as he signals for me to leave with him. I look at Henryk with puppy dog eyes, but he shrugs approvingly.
"Your shot, your go. He might be your—" I cut him off by kneeing him on the groin on the way down my chair.
"I'll freaking go, just don't complete your sentence." I complain.
Anna's eyes widen and her smile reaches her eyes, but she doesn't reprimand me. I wink at her and tell her in a serious tone, "Be warned, he cannot be tamed."
"I think I've already learnt that from the bed." I hear everyone laughing at her comment but I couldn't care less.
"So you really were going out with your brother's friends today..." Mason looks up at me as I walk over to him. I shuffle my feet in front of me and shake my head, "No. I'm supposed to be using today as some sort of make up-apology for missing tomorrow."
"Do they know?" Mason asks.
"Not yet. Now, if you don't mind, I—" A beep from my phone suspends me and I retrieve my phone from my pocket to check out who the message is from. It's from Henryk.
HENRYK: don't bother coming back. I've got you covered, they say it's all cool so have fun! XOXO
ME: XOXO? Ew? Also, what gives you the impression I'm having any fun?
Henryk replies me back immediately with a shrug emoji. That's all. I'm stuck. Stranded with Mason.
"What's up?"
"Nothing." I mumble and walk away from him.
"It's getting late, and it's raining. I'll drive you home." Mason offers but I ignore him. "Skyla."
"What?" I snap my head back in repulse and he jerks back, a little shocked from my outburst.
"I said I'll drive you home."
"No need." I know I'm pushing him away from me, but who cares?
"This I'm serious." Mason says, his tone is concerned. Concerned about me.
"Why can't anybody see I'm serious too? I don't want to go anywhere with you! Is that not clear enough?"
"Fine." Is all he says and then he leaves. I watch as he moves to his car, turns one last time as if he's urging me to accept the offer, but I don't. I turn back to the restaurant and right then, I hear my brother's voice in my head saying, "He could be the one." But no, we've walked our separate paths. Paths that will never meet again.
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