Chapter 13: The Wet Hair
I keep squirming nonstop, and yet there is no sign Albern even wanting to let me go. But I’m not giving up, even hitting his back again and again. And Albern step abruptly stops, only for me to fly to my back and fall down to something soft.
I see Albern standing in the front of me, both hands inside his pocket, smiling like a maniac. I scoot over slowly, distancing myself from him. I touched the soft surfaces below me, and I realized this is a big circular cushion, the hallway and the room full of painting along with sculpture. But where is everyone?
“Nobody is here”
I look at the tanned man with a neat suit that right now lowers himself and crawls closer to me, which makes me scoot back each time he gets closer.
“What is that supposed to mean?!”
His movement stopped midway, his sturdy hands on each side of my body, his face that was a few feet away from me getting closer looming at the top of me.
“They have lined up for the exhibition, how many people showcase their arts here? Senior and Junior combined together, not to mention some sponsor and some famous artist join too”
“They can’t possibly showcase everything at once”
It's starting to make sense, but for how long?
“When they are going back?”
Albern makes a thinking face, either he is being serious or he is just pretending to add an element of annoyance for me.
“Half or one hour?”
That long! Why that long?!
“So you know what that means, right?”
His face is just a few inches from mine now, his eyes look so different and his tongue keeps licking his own lips and biting it playfully.
“You all mine now…”
His face comes closer, I quickly throw my head to the side, dare not to see what he is trying to do. And then, a heavy weight sifting above me.
“Argggggg Kristin getting annoyed this past couple of weeks…”
I slowly opened my eyes, his head lay beside me and his face looking at my direction with his eyes closed.
“You are heavy… can you get up”
“No”
Instead of moving away, he let go all his power and lay on the top of me completely, let his weight suffocate me.
“I can’t!!! You are… heavy!”
“Deal with it…”
He just sighs heavily and lets his body relax which makes his weight even heavier on me. I tried to fight it with squirming hard, but his body caged me even more.
“Stop moving around… let me rest peacefully here”
“But not on the top of me!”
“Shhhh, spot meowing, I’ll put lease on you…”
His eyes closed the whole time he was talking with me, not even caring about what state I’m in. why I feel every time I fight him, it will just waste time and my energy. So, I just laid there, letting my hands on either side of my body, not sure what to do with it.
He is laying on the top of me, and his clean cut face looks peaceful there, just beside my face, just a few inches away. His eyes closed exposed his eyelash, I never saw his face this close before in my life. His dark brown hair looks silky yet thick, he has natural waving type hair, and it’s not curly. He has this slightly tanned skin, and I must admit, that Spanish blood did him justice.
“How’s your day?”
His eyelids opened up and exposed his dark brown pupil to me, he has soft eyes when you look directly, and sometimes you just want to swim inside those look, hypnotic.
“Huh…?”
“I said, how’s your day?”
His lips curve up, laughing at me. Is it just me or rich people like him always have this smug face that you want to punch? Or is it just him?
“… Bad…”
I sighed hard, letting him know how this whole day just ruined one after another.
“Really? Not even after meeting me?”
His face comes even closer, which makes me run away a few inches too. Now his smile becomes even wider and exposes his white teeth. I rolled my eyes before answering him.
“Meeting you just adds fuel to the fire…”
He burst out laughing with my answer.
“Why?”
His tone changes when he asks that question, which brings goose bumps to my skin.
“You are annoying”
“But you are mine…”
“Why does that have anything to do with my happiness?”
“Because you are mine, if I said meeting me brings you happiness, you should do so…”
“That is ridiculous, emotion is not something you can control…”
Suddenly his arms slipped behind me, through my armpits, and he buried his face in my neck, he was hugging me.
“Fine… if you ever have a bad day… just call me or meet me, I’ll make you feel better…”
My hearts skip a beat when I heard him, my breath hitched mere a second. I can feel his lips smiling through my skin, that smug smile, at this point, I do not think I have to see it ever again, I’ll just know it.
“You cut your hair?”
His finger swipes the threads of hair from my temple to the side.
“Kind of, someone did it for me…”
He smiled at me, and his eyes softened up.
“You look good, I can see your eyes clearly, keep it this way…”
He closed his eyes again, his facial features soften up with a smile drawn on his face.
“Why do you keep bothering me? I promised I’ll pay you back”
“With the interest?”
“What!”
He chuckled at my reaction.
“Since when something like that required interest?”
“Since I said so”
I gritted my teeth and dug my nail to my palm. What an Asshole!
“Why do you go somewhere else and bother them, instead of me…”
“They are no fun… unlike you…”
“You can’t keep doing this to me! Bother others! Kristin perhaps!”
His weight sifted, his face rose up and he put his chin on my chest, his face confused.
“Kristin? Why?”
“I don’t know! Anyone but me…”
His eyebrow knitted together, like he is thinking something hard. But not even a second pass he come back to his position before and bury his face in my neck once again.
“Now I think about it… no, you are much-much more fun…”
“But!...”
“Shhh, Joshua… you are being noisy, I’ll put lease on you if you misbehave”
And just like that we both fall into the silence, I can feel his chest vibrating on mine and his soft breath caressing my skin. I see the clean white ceiling on the top of us, no stain can be found. And despite everything, I do not feel scared, even in this big room only two of us that currently exist. This big space, the emptiness somehow doesn’t scare me.
Suddenly my breath got steady, and my eyelids were getting heavier. His body odor and his shampoo slip through my nostril invade it.
Short enough, I feel like his body forces me to go somewhere else…
And I close my eyes…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Jo…Joshua…Joshua!”
I feel the darkness keep me still for a long time, but something shakes my body, and a short feminine voice pulls me to the light, my body swims slowly to the light source, going away from the darkness below.
When I open my eyes I see Sharon concern face looming above me. Did I fall asleep? Alone here? I slowly moving my body, sitting down and rub my eyes with my knuckle.
“Where is he…?”
“He? Who are you referring to?”
I look up to her dumbfounded, who I’m referring to? Of course that asshole Albern…
Now that I think about it, I feel light, isn't he laying on the top of me? Where did he go? I thought he was beside me because I can smell and feel him.
Yes, his smell is so close.
I followed that smell, and I found a piece of clothing on the top of me. A black casual blazer that covers almost my entire body, this is his…
The feeling of warmth that engulfed me was his blazer.
The thing that makes me keep smelling him near me it’s the fragment of his body odor that left.
But where is he gone?
I inspected it once again, and yes, this is what he wore when we met a few moments ago. And my eyes catch a glimpse of white paper sticking out from the chest pocket, I slowly take out the small square paper out from that pocket. The white based paper with colorful words caught my attention and read it silently.
‘Wonderland Fair’
A theme park? This is the business card of the theme park owner. I spun the card and found other similar colorful words, but this time there are new words written using wet pen.
Don’t forget to free up the space of your schedule for me ;)
This cursive writing, must be his. It’s neat and pretty, and doesn’t like any other people did, this is much easier to read.
“Are you okay Joshua?”
“Ah yeah… I guess”
How long have I been out? There are some people here, but most of them are just moving, changing the sculpture and the painting. Am I out for a long time? Alone?
“Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!”
A frantic voice came rushing down to our direction, her small bag with the ornament classing with one another making a noisy sound. Her colorful hair flowing as she jog, each stop makes an echo that vibrates in the entire room.
A big man walking behind her with a smile that looks like it will never be gone for at least a hundred years. Both hands hold a plastic bag that fills up with a pile of food. Even there some meat skewers stick that hanging from his mouth.
Maya quickly drops herself beside me, but he does not even stop freaking out even with her breath like she was just into labor.
“Oh my god! Oh my god! You can’t believe who I just saw!”
“It’s Albern! It’s freaking Albern! Albern freaking Kim!”
Me and Sharon just staring at her speechlessly, don’t know what to do.
“Eh you!”
“You?”
Maya quickly realized Sharon's presence and pointing at her, the same goes for Sharon to Maya.
“He is the vending machine guy”
“He is my lunch time guy”
I look at both of them confused, and by now Chad manages to reach us and sit beside Maya but keeps his focus on the mountain of food he has, not even paying any attention.
“You both know each other?”
“Of course!”
“Yes”
They both answer in unison, which proves that they are in sync.
“What a small world! Never thought that we actually know the same person!”
“Right, turn out we are talking about the same person”
“That’s it! Sharon, you should join us during lunch!”
Maya just being herself and decided for everyone without consent, I’m not even going to question his decision or everything that she did.
“Oh anyways~~”
Maya opened her colorful phone full of bedazzled all around it. Quickly typing something and excitedly showing a picture that displayed on her screen to me and Sharon.
It is a social media account, a fans site to be exact, and they upload some new pictures. The upload time of the content was about an hour ago. But something oddly familiar with the picture, especially the setting, before long everything hits me.
Its picture of Albern dragging me here.
Shock is understatement right now, not to mention the comment written in the album.
‘Who is that? How dare he punch our Albern! To be touched by him is blessing!’
‘OMG, I want to be picked up like that too!!’
‘I can’t see his face, does anyone have a much clearer picture?’
‘How lucky that onesie boy’
‘What a slut’
‘Find him, and interrogate him’
‘Isn’t he is the same boy at the canteen incident’
‘Anyone know who he is? And what is his relationship with Albern?’
‘I have never seen him before, is he a student at this Uni?’
One comment after another, and their words getting fiercer and fiercer, I’m done for, at this moment I’m done, they are going to grab pitch fork and kill me.
“Wild right~”
Maya smiles widely, not even having sympathy for me.
“At first, I’m not believing all this post, until I saw Albern goes out few moment ago, and not far from that, here you are”
“Tell me Joshua! Tell me everything!”
Maya looming closer to me, her eyes full of excitement and somehow there are a pinch of evil too.
“There is nothing! I swear!”
She quickly grabbed Albern blazer and unconsciously grabbed my hand and grabbed onto it, not letting it go. But that was a wrong move, because her smile became even wider, and her eyes went like a crescent moon.
“This is his~~~ right~~~? I saw Albern walking without his blazer, and that blazer you holding on it’s the same model and color with this picture he wore~”
“Tell me~~~”
“I swear! Nothing going on! He just came in suddenly!”
“NO~~~~~ Tell me~~~~”
“Maya! Stop, have some pity, he looks exhausted”
Sharon jumped in to my rescue, and Maya only rolled her eyes, but thankfully she is not pressing me anymore. This is bad, my day that already started bad, just worsened, what will happen to me! Now I think about it…
This is not going to get worse if Chad were to help me!
Yeah!
Chad you asshole!
“Chad!”
Three of the people here jumped due to my sudden harsh voice. I immediately scoot closer to Chad and start hitting him, he pretends to be hurt and protects his face with his big and muscled arms.
“How dare you to sold me like that! After what I have done for you! How dare you!”
“I! I’m sorry! I thought you guys close! I’m so sorry!”
Sharon quickly grabbed me from behind trying to drag me as far as she possible cloud. After all I have done for him, how Chad could let Albern take me like that, not to mention my loss was with food.
I’m no more special than a piece of meat!
“Please calm down seniors! I’m so sorry! I genuinely thought you guys are close”
“So you better buy that much food than helping me?!”
He looks at his mountain food inside the plastic bag, and rubs the back of his head.
“I… I just thought my family can’t really taste food like this often, so… when Albern gave his card to me, I just thought… you guys close and all, so it’s okay to leave you guys together…”
Pain stung my heart the moment he spoke about his reason, my anger gone completely. I remembered how his family is, and yes he has a solid reason, if he thought I’m close with Albern. I feel bad, I feel sad, I’m just lashing out to Chad, he is as innocent as anyone during all of this. But my anger and my fear of the problem that will occur blind me.
“No…”
“No need to say sorry, I understand. In fact, I’m sorry”
I tug at his orange fabric, feeling bad that he must feel less of himself.
“No! It’s my fault!”
I quickly hug him, and take a deep breath.
“I’m his friend… you weren’t wrong doing so, it’s okay…”
I can feel his big hand slowly hug me back, I can hear his heart through my ears on his chest. His pure hearts, his big hearts, his whole being starting to calm down. Step back looking at his smile, it seems his sun has already come back again. His stupid smile come back like usual. I pat his arms slowly, to signal him everything is fine.
Sometimes I forgot, Chad is big, but his hearts are mere a child.
“Oh yeah! Here is his card!”
Chad handing me an Albern card, I just sigh, your innocence sometimes really is troublesome.
I took out my phone, I need to inform him how to give this thing back to him. When I took out my phone and the screen lightened up, something changed with the display. Everything has changed, the simple one colored theme that I used now changed with something else.
Now the display is…
I’m sleeping with Albern burying his face in my neck smiling.
When he took it! Did I forget to put a password for my own phone?! Why! I have thousand upon thousand questions that start to form inside my head.
“What is it? Something wrong?”
Maya slipped to my side trying to check what I saw. I quickly hide my phone back into my pocket.
“Nothing! Really nothing”
Maya squinted her eyes, and both his fingers pointed at her eyes then mine, signaling how she was going to keep watching me.
God please don’t give me another reason to contact that asshole!
“In any case, why are you here Maya?”
I try my best to shift everyone's focus from me to something else, only crossing my fingers none of them realize what I’m trying to do.
“Oh yeah about that…”
“Maya! Where should I put your painting?”
“Wait! Over there!”
Maya pointed at the wall around the hall, near the place that I had fallen asleep at.
All of them see the process of a big framed painting that is still covered with black silk put out, hanging on the wall. The staff carefully placed and handled it with care, they leave as soon as everything is done.
Maya proceeds to tear down the silk, reveal a beautiful painting with dark, green, white composition, the beautiful painting that hangs there shows a beautiful scene yet with sadness and sorrow.
A man lying on the floor, and he is surrounded by the pool of blood.
A sword stabbing his chest.
His hand stretched out up to the starry night sky, with his last power to reach out something.
A beautiful angel descended and reached out to his hand.
The beautiful white moon becomes their witness.
“Maya, this is masterpiece”
I agree with Sharon, Maya's personality didn’t do justice on how good her skill is.
“Where do you get the inspiration?”
I’m curious, how she managed to imagine this thing, and make it to be realized, within a short time even, this must be the same piece that she was yapping about.
“Wait! There is more!’
She walked away from us, going straight to the room lamp switch.
“You know Sharon, why do I fight with the event organizer regarding placement of my arts?”
“Because this is not a normal painting that I ever made!”
And then she switched the light off. Instantly her painting changed into something else.
People gasped when they saw what happened to the painting now.
The sorrow and beautiful theme that was present now changing into something much more sinister and sadness.
The color is glowing in the dark revealing something terrifying.
A man in the same position as before, but this time everything has changed.
Instead of greeting an angel, he dragged down by many hands below him.
Right now his stretching hand no longer represents acceptance, but regret.
The fear of his reality that he is being dragged to hell.
And then the light turns on again, revealing Maya smiling maniacally, proud of what she made. Her colorful fingernail touched the gold frame of the painting slowly, playing her finger around the wooden carved motive.
“You see… My grandparent used to tell me a story that… if a man facing his last moment, depend on what they have been done in this world, you either will be greeted by angel and guide to heaven, or you’ll be dragged to hell by people you are wronged”
“But don’t you guys think this is beautiful! A reality of death!”
Her facial expression now changes completely, her eyes seem not here, but she is indeed here.
People start to murmur her arts, and people start getting interested with the technique and the theme.
“You might win this year action Maya, this is great piece”
Sharon nodding toward the arts, seems she also gets used to thinking like this. I guess everyone on this arts and letter faculty used to this kind of horror.
“I hope so! Want to bring some kind of achievement before we are out of this hell hole!”
She refers to University life as hell hole? I heard the work world is worse than this.
And suddenly a sound came from Maya's phone, she scrambled to take it out. And she keeps getting yelled out by people around.
“Hey, this is an art gallery! No sound allowed!”
“Maya turn off your phone!”
“For god sake! Maya!”
“I’m sorry okay! Dam these people!”
Maya struggled to turn off her phone, but something made her stop her, she stood there silently. But before we can start worrying about her, her sinister smile comes back again.
“Ah~~~ looks like my unexpected ship is sailing~~~!”
Her right hand caressed her check while her other hand showed us something on her phone screen.
That is a picture of Albern, but that is not his account, in fact it’s completely someone else's account. That account uploaded an Albern picture and they are claiming it was asked by the man himself.
But I found something odd once again, to my horror, this one even much more trouble than before.
It's a picture of me and Albern, but my face is completely covered with the hoodie. But what infuriated me more is the caption.
‘This is my cat! I found him few weeks ago’
And, soon that picture flooded by comment and reaction.
And I’m dead set, dead set to be killed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I sit down on the couch and bury my head between my arms, I feel exhausted. My heads keep spinning, these whole days start bad and perhaps will end even worse. Why did everything go downhill? Have I done something to make Mother Nature mad at me?
“Here, I think you need this…”
I look up and find Sharon smiling at me, her hand handing me a cold soft drink. I weakly took it from her and started to drink it whole in one go, but even so, my head still hurt. I can feel her weight sifting beside me. Her soft hand rubbing my back trying to calm me down, after what I saw, I definitely had a mental breakdown.
I try to look at her face, and she is still smiling at me, as if she isn't even troubled. And soon I feel bad for her, I’m here not because of my own accord, just pure accident.
“I’m sorry…”
“For what?”
Her beautiful face twisted and turned into concern.
“For everything, as you know… I’m here just because of the rain… not because, you know… wanting to be here”
She chuckles as soon as she hears my reason, her pretty eyes twinkling.
“You came… that’s all that matters… why feel bad about it?”
I smile back at her, sitting down in the middle of the art exhibition room. While Maya and Chad busy themselves to clean up the mountain food so it’s easy for Chad to bring it back to his house.
“You are supposed to be a Literature student right?”
“Yeah I’m”
“So, what literature students usually present during exhibitions?”
“Well, we usually making poetry book, some making a thesis, many thing”
“Are you participating this year?”
“Yeah! I sell poetry book”
I smile at her excitement, I can see her eyes lighten up, perhaps this is her dream.
“Is writing your hobby or something?”
“Yeah, I have fascination toward writing”
“So, it’s been your dream?”
“Kind of… it’s not always like that but… anyways, how about you?”
My mind stops the moment that question hits me. Dream?
Do I have a dream?
What is a dream?
I never thought about that before.
I try to smile right back at her and try to answer her question.
“I… I never thought about that… maybe a goal? I never sure myself”
“Is a dream… the same as people following Albern?”
She laughed at my answer.
“I’m pretty sure that is not the same that is just obsession”
We laughed together with that.
“Is Albern always that famous?”
“You don’t know? Well he is used to studying here as a bachelor, and he was always that famous back then, but I assume he never paid any attention to it, and nobody dared to be near with him either…”
“You know how big his family is right? At this point snippet of his live already well known by people here, at this university, probably outside too”
I nodded to her explanation.
“He also doesn’t have social media, so there is no way he can know all that attention he have”
“He doesn’t have one?”
“Yeah, people that rich, they have names and behavior to protect, and their private lives... you know? Private. So they can’t upload freely about themselves, sometimes, they even need to act as if they are stranger among their family”
They need to act as if they are strangers even with their family?
Suddenly my heads feel hurt and my eyes feel burned…
Those familiar words ringing inside my head.
“Joshua? Are you okay?”
Sharon hands warped around me, my breath started to hitching again, and my chest felt like burning inside. I shake myself trying to shake away the pain. I managed to get back at myself, but Sharon's face was not changing, she was still worried about me.
I just smile at her, trying to shake away her worry.
“Do you have any projects?”
I will try to change the subject as soon as possible.
“Uh… yeah, I do have some project, but… I do not think that will be realized any time soon…”
Hey tones and eyes become sad when she mentions that.
“Why so?”
“It just… something need to be done instead”
“To be done? You know… I like to read, perhaps I can help you little bit”
“Really?”
“Yeah why not”
Sharon smiling at me
“Sure! I’ll be thankful!”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The soul inside the building connecting with one another slowly, making the next motion of fate working again. With that, the rain starts to stop outside the building, and the sun starts smiling again, but the night that waiting will be crying over the future.
For the lost soul that is laying for their last breath, and for the angle that weeping for the cruel fate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The little boy running through the flower field, the big glasshouse contains so much nature that even a field of many flowers fits in it. The fragrance of the tulip and rose spread through the air, and the little boy happily ran while inhaling the sweet fragrance.
It was morning and the flower just got watering a few minutes ago, the leaf still wet as well as the petals. The water blankets the sand, turns them into mud everywhere inside the glasshouse, the mud covers the structure's artificial road perfectly.
An old man sits calmly, enjoying the morning fragrance, and nothing can make him happier than see the innocent child of his blood running and accompany him, the smile of that boy lighten up his day, and that smile that makes every day bearable and he can breathe easily. His only grandchild, Shaun, called him.
The little boy tired of running and walking slowly to his grandfather, his chest still puffing from the exhaustion, his small lung trying to catch as much as oxygen for his small body, his fragile feature trying to cool down while walking.
“Shaun, what are you doing here, wet?”
The old man holding his staffs with his both hands smiling to the lovely boy.
“I was feel down to the mud”
The boy smiling brightly, showing his white teeth, didn’t care with his white expensive shirt, pants and shoes dirty by the mud.
The old man smiled at the innocent smile of his grandson.
“Come here, Shaun let me help you with your shoes”
The old man patting the empty spot beside him, signaling the boy to sit there.
The boy climbed the bench with effort, and success to sit down beside his grandfather, seeing his grandfather's eyes with full of admired looks.
The old man took the little boy's foot and put it on his lap, untie the shoes one by on.
“Shaun my dear, if your sock are wet you should take it off, because you got very weak stomach it’s not good with your body temperature, you should remembered this next time okay”
“Yes grandpa, I will”
The boy smiled once again to his grandparent.
“Now shall we go back to the main house, you must be hungry, right Shaun?”
The old man stood and tied the shoes to his staff while extending his hand to his grandchild.
“But will he be mad? I go to the main house without shoes and dirty like this”
The boy hesitantly took the old man's warm hand.
The old man lowered himself and put his staff on the ground, inhaled deeply, took the boy's shoulder with both hands gripping it tightly.
“No Shaun, I will never let him do bad things to you, trust me okay?”
The old man throws and faith smiles but it seems bitter, it’s full of sadness he can only agony the boy's fate.
“Now Shaun shall we?”
The old man stood once again and led the way.
The boy is still smiling while holding his grandparent hands, sometimes tugging it along the way.