Chapter 21: You are Coward (Flash Back)

It's been three days since his father left the house for the city but this time, he is gone for good that's what his mother says.

Mrs. Adam doesn't seem much affected by the leave of Mr. Adam, perhaps she was already expecting this to come sooner or later. She seemed all prepared for it but what concerned me was her son, who was caught against his inner turmoil, weakening him day by day.

Just after his father was leaving, he stood by the door frame of the house when Mrs. Adam sobbed while hugging her dear husband last time and he was fighting against his tears, watching them. When his father looked at him last time there were no words just some unspoken promises in the air that I could see in his papa's eyes.

Why is he doing this when he hates himself so much for doing it? Or is it just my delusional pretense? He must have more important or somewhat more special people near him, is what I could conclude.

D was becoming less social then he was already after his father left. The first two days he didn't come out of his house, not even to school. I visited him but it wasn't any good. He shut the door to my face and I knew he needed time. He knew the word spreads in the town almost immediately and that people would speak soothing words that wouldn't change the fact that his father left him who he loved so much. Every time I visited him, his mother looks at me with pleading eyes, trying to convince me to somehow cheer her son up.

After a week passed he came to school. It was like the air around me had become cool and fresh again. I went towards him, trying to speak but he moved passed me without even noticing my presence and I watch his back, moving ahead of me.

I walk towards my class, shaking off the sad feeling that was deluding my mind. I enter my class and walk towards my usual desk and place my bag there and look at the desk beside me which is the usual place where he sits but why isn't he here yet? He should've arrived before me.

"Hey, Sarah?" I look behind to the owner of the voice.

"Hi, Jamel." I give him a half-hearted smile.

"Why did your best friend D jumped to a higher grade in the middle of the session?" He asks me.

"He... He did not." I shake my head.

"Look over there, he is in 7-B." He points outside the class and I run outside. I look at my left and catch the sight of class 7-B and run towards it. I halt at the door frame, my both hands holding the sides of the door frame. I move my gaze around the class to catch his face and I spot him sitting on one of the back seats.

Not one of the back-bencher, he was.

I move towards him and stand beside him, my arms crossed against my chest. I tap my feet so he would notice me standing there but he just stares down looking into his book but I knew well that his attention was elsewhere. I take his hand and drag him out of the class to the secluded place down the staircase.

"Explain yourself to me brat!" I was looking into his eyes but he wasn't looking at me but avoiding my stare. "Speak something! you can't just do this... I'm here with you, just talk to me!" my voice pleading, he looks into my eyes.

"I can't... I can't stay near to the people I like. I don't want to get hurt by them." His voice weak.

He really lost his trust on people, he is afraid that same thing might happen, he lost the trust to be loved because his father left. How can I help him to fight against his turmoil? My heart clenches at his words with sadness.

"You don't want to get hurt but you would hurt the people who love you by distancing yourself? The ones who really love you, your friends." He remained silent and looks down "And me..." His head jolts up and he looks at me with sadness in his eyes. "Sally, Lucas, Maraca, Jonathan and... me." I say the last word in a low voice. "Don't give up on us, please... trust yourself and us." I lower down my gaze and started backing away giving him time to think on my words. I move out of his sight and walked towards my class.

From now on there won't be the always cheery and chirpy brat beside me but I will bring him back from the trauma that the outside world has brought upon him.

~~~

"Sarah, would you mind if I sit here?" Jamel asks, standing in front of me and points his finger at the empty place beside my bench. I just nod and continue to eat my lunch alone.

"Why are you alone here? I mean where your friends are?" he asks while unwrapping his sandwich.

"I just wanted to be here for a while."

"Oh... I thought they left you alone here." He said before biting his sandwich.

"Now why would they?

"Well... just like mine did." He looks at me with no emotion in his eyes.

"Oh... Why did they?" I ask, curiously.

"They just plan on doing something I didn't agree on so... They ditched me to make their plan work." He shrugs, innocently and I laugh lightly.

"Can I ask what their plan was?"

"Mhmm... to prank on someone." he thinks before speaking and I look at him with my mouth agape.

"How come you didn't agree with them?" I say, shaking my head.

"Because next thing I know I could be one of them... Being pranked one day, you see." He finishes with an eye roll.

"Well that's what makes things more interesting I and D do that quite a lot and get punched and kicked back too." I purse my lips, remembering the aches of being punched and kicked after I and brat prank on my sister, Maria. She was one kid boiling with extreme rage.

We poured a sticky purple liquid onto her, on her 9th birthday and she took almost 3 hours to bath that day to get rid of the purple color from her body.

I smile to myself remembering that day how he and I planned together to doom my own sister's day but we got punched and kicked though Maria was avenged.

"That might have been pretty bad." He makes a weird face, probably feeling the pain of getting punches and kicks.

"Yes, it was but no less fun either." I grin at him then pause for a moment.

"How come I never get to talk to you before Jamel?" I say, looking at him. A hesitant smile appears on his face at my words and he looks away while his ears turn pink.

"You were always busy with... your friends." He shrugs. "I'm glad you noticed me now." He gives the same innocent smile, turning back to me.

"You quiet brightened up my mood somehow." I stand up from the bench and dust of the contents from my lap and straighten up my uniform. "Well, I better get going, it was nice talking to you." Before I start moving away, a hesitant voice called back.

"I'll see you again? Err... maybe we can get to talk again sometime." Jamel hesitates and scratches the back of his neck and I just smile at him.

"Sure."

~~~

I walk towards the same house to which I'm very familiar with, to check on the same guy I miss so much these days. It feels so nostalgic even though it's just been a week since I last had a nice talk with him. I knock on the door and on the second knock the door flies open and reveals a beautiful lady, a foot taller than me. Her long brown hair cascading down to her shoulders, her cheeks glowing in sunlight and eyes sparkling.

I don't understand this still, how can Mr. Adam leave a pretty lady like her and fall for a woman who he just met a few months or maybe just a year ago?

He was with Mrs. Adam for more than 16 years already. Why has the charm in their marriage ended so drastically that it had to influence their only son?

"Hello, Mrs. Adam." I try to put on my brightest smile. "I just wanted to know if he's still in his room."

"Yes dear, he just came home." She half smiles back at me.

"May I?" I gesture to come inside her home.

"Oh sorry, sure come in dear. Now, where are my manners." She moves away from the doorway and leads me inside and I quietly move towards his room. Just as I enter his room, I find him shuffling through his course books. I clear my throat to get his attention.

"It must not be easy to catch up with the new syllabus," I say, walking in the room.

"Yes but it's not hard either," he says, looking back at his stuff.

"Alright, so you're busy again?" I try to come up with things to continue conversing.

"Yes this needs to be done," he answered, still engrossed into one of the books.

"I was thinking to go to the nearby ice cream parlor what was it.... Oh yes, The Flu's?" I pretended to remember the name. Of course, I knew the place at the back of my mind. It was just to remind him how much we tend to go there and now more than a week has passed, we haven't visited there even the owner of that place knows us and would sometime hand us ice cream for free as treat for being the regulars.

Yes, we townies are this ecstatic well, perhaps sometimes.

"Maybe later," he says, looking at me and then turns his head back to his books.

"But we haven't been there like a decade already!" I whine.

"No mom's alone. I don't want to leave her." he reasons me.

He is being persistent to stay at home. It's not like the first time we would be leaving her mother alone in the house. The thing with his mother, maybe he's afraid if he'd leave her mom any second she would also disappear from his life.

"You should go, son, I'll be fine." I look at the doorway and find Mrs. Adam standing by the door with her hands crossed across her chest. She smiles sweetly at her son and he looks at her expressionless.

"I said we could go later it's not like I'm running away anywhere." He stands up and stomps out of the room like a stubborn kid, not wanting to listen to anything. I look down at my folded hands on my lap, wondering when I would be able to see my old brat again.

You are running away. Yes, you are coward!

"I'm sorry Sarah, he wasn't like that you know but since his father left he has become more cautious of people around him." She pauses. "I think you understand... just keep helping him I know you can do it, child." She smiles fondly at me and I nod at her words.

"I guess I'll take my leave now." I stand up hesitantly and walk out of the room. I take a last look in the kitchen where he was standing and reaching for something above in the cupboard and move out from the house.

I'm sorry D, sorry if I can't help you in this situation of yours, sorry if I'm not good enough with you, I'm sorry to not be able to understand you right now. I just wish you to overcome this soon. I'm so selfish of wanting to see my brat again. I really want to see you back again.

With my selfish thoughts up in my head, I walk back towards my home.