Cemetery

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After 15 minutes, I finally reached the cemetery, driving past the gate, and making my way into the familiar view of the place.

Some time ago, Reyes called me again. And I answered, but upon the click of the call, neither of us said anything to each other and the phone was just silent on both lines.

Although the call was still ongoing, he surprisingly didn't blabber and talked at all, instead he was unusually and completely silent from the other line.

All I ever heard were momentary blows of the wind, and some thuds of an object coming into contact with a surface.

As I drove on the cemetery road at a steady pace, I scanned through my surroundings. The sky wasn't in its usual blue hues; it was ultimately covered with white clouds here and there, blocking an enough amount of the sun.

Tombstones were lined up respectively on the green field of grass, a few were left with candles and flowers, and a couple were stained and dirty, moss evidently growing on its surfaces.

When I spotted the familiar headstone under the tree, I remembered planting all those years ago. I slowed the car to a halt and parked the vehicle on the sidewalk just a few walks from the area.

Pulling off the key from the ignition, I grabbed my stuff and opened the door. But as I was about to stand up out of my car, a familiar sensation waved through me.

That heavy feeling building up in my chest, the sudden slight tremble of my fingers, and the cold sweat I could feel gradually building up at the nape of my neck.

I closed my eyes and breathed deep and hard, attempting to relax myself, but prominently failed every time I tried to do so, seeming to get worse and worse.

My breathing was getting labored and I could barely hold myself up into a standing position.

I was left in an awkward position, half of my weight leaning at driver's seat from the outside, the door slightly open, and my feet already out of the car, placed on the ground threatening to give out any second now if this sudden wave of unknown feeling wouldn't go away.

It was the same as last time, when I got home from the park, alone in my room. It terrified me to feel like that again. I didn't want to feel pathetic or cry anymore it was frustrating. Why does this feeling have to visit me now?

I was about to hoist myself and climb up the driver's seat to calm myself there, when a familiar voice I grew to be accustomed to, for the past week, echoed within my ears, snapping me of whatever nightmare I was entranced to.

"Leigh? Are you okay? You're using earbuds, right? Your breathing's pretty labored, what's happening?"

Upon hearing the familiar sound, the feeling suddenly dissipated away into thin air. Taking away that nightmarish feeling from me, as if it was never even there a moment ago.

That oddly soothing voice slowly calmed me down into a manner I never knew existed. His voice was deep yet soft, blunt yet gentle, loud yet peaceful.

The tone was indeed very much similar with the person I see as my best friend, but now that I have grown to know his voice more, it was different in ways that could only be explained if you indeed knew the two not only from appearances.

It's not about the tone, accent, or punctuations that differ. It's the way he talks and makes me feel all sorts of things every time we call each other.

Sure, our exchange of conversations is often chaotic, but it was something that I was growing accustomed to, something that I was starting to look forward to as the days pass by.

I closed my eyes and let the noon breeze filled up my lungs before I uttered out a reply attempting to avoid any sort of topic related to what just happen and just brush it off.

Grabbing the doorframe of the car, I opened my eyes and cast my head skywards, staring at the caramel and greyish hues of clouds that were covering the sky.

"Nothing, I was doing a—" I pondered for a second and blurted out the first thing that came into mind, "breathing exercise?" I answered skeptically, more in question rather than a statement.

'𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘙𝘦𝘺𝘯𝘢?'

I closed my eyes, lips lifting up into a sour expression, grimacing at what I just said, embarrassed and annoyed at the same time on putting myself into this kind of situation.

"Okay? If you say so then."

By the tone of his voice, I knew he was still hesitant. I wanted to retort out a reply to what he said, but I just chose to keep my mouth shut and be glad he didn't ponder on the topic further.

Silence loomed on both sides of the line but eventually been broken by him after a brief moment.

"So, are we there yet?"

I rolled my eyes at no one in particular, lips curving up ever so slightly at his attempt to lighten the atmosphere.

Sighing, I finally leaned off the car, reached for my phone that was laying at the passenger's seat, and slammed the door shut, making sure it was locked before I strode off to the place.

"Yes we are. Now be patient, will you? Unlike earlier, we need peace and quiet here."

When a light-hearted chuckle echoed from the other line, my heart also jumped so suddenly right after, as if my heart was a person who was startled by someone.

The new subconscious action my body portrayed surprised me, stopping me abruptly in my tracks.

"Sure Leigh, will do." I heard him say.

I stood there dumbfounded, eyes wide in shock. Eyes furrowing and staring at nothing in particular into the distance.

I brought my gaze to where my heart was supposed to be and raised my brow at it as if it has personally insulted my whole being of a person.

I blinked in bewilderment, scoffing and glaring immensely at the left area of my chest.

"What the hell?" I managed to utter out, voicing out my confusion.

"What? Why? Is there something wrong?"

I snapped my head up in realization of the fact that I just blurted my thoughts out loud.

If someone would have seen me, eyes glaring ominously at my body, and stuttering out weird stuff, they would have been instantly creeped out, and think I was losing my mind.

"N-nothing! Some random insect just appeared out of nowhere."

"Leigh? Are you sure you're okay?" I took in a deep and shaky breath and bit my lip before answering.

"I'm fine, just—" I staggered on my words. How am I supposed to explain the weird event that just happened? I shook my head, "—Shut up!"

"Eh?! What did I do?"

---

After several minutes of rolling my eyes for how many times, while sitting on the warm grass of the cemetery field, earbuds no longer inflicted in my ears and was place instead securely inside my pocket, phone on a speaker laying atop my lap, the person form the other line talking and blabbering at endless random things that happened to him in the past, with a few of them that was something I didn't need to necessarily hear.

When we got here several minutes ago, I formally introduce them awkwardly to each other like normal people would do.

Reyes was very enthusiastic about the whole thing. Though I didn't know if he did it out of courtesy or just the fact that it was part of his personality, I didn't mind.

I was oddly comfortable on the scene playing out in front of me, albeit his blabbering and muttering was irking per usual. It was still a peculiar comfort in my ears.

Hearing him talk to my brother as if he were really there. That was how I used to do it all the time, and I'm glad that without telling Reyes about my past interactions with my brother, he was still on the other side of my phone, talking to Aiden as if he were really there.

"Did your delivery arrived yet?"

I glanced at the phone laying atop my lap.

"Not yet."

"Isn't it supposed to arrive already? It's been what? 20 minutes?"

I rolled my eyes away from the phone and brought my gaze to the outstretched field of grass where no grave stones were placed.

"I'm the one who's going to eat here, aren't I? Why are you the one who's impatient?"

"Because, my meal's ready. And it'll be rude to eat why you still aren't."

"Oh just eat already, it's not like I could see you."

"But you're aware."

"Reyes, just eat your damn food. I'll have my meal when it gets here."

A puffed out breath resonated from the other line, alongside a clanging of ceramics and utensils.

I heard him clicked his tongue while silence loomed briefly before he said something.

"Let's just talk about something else while waiting then."

I raised my brow, looking down at the phone.

"Like what?"

"Tell me something about your brother? All I know is his name, Aiden, right?"

I was taken aback at what he said, and went silent longer than he anticipated, for when I didn't reply immediately, a stuttering, frantic, and panicked Reyes echoed from the other line.

"B-but it's okay if you're not comfortable on a-answering its fine! I'm sorry if I crossed the line, let's just t-talk about something else—"

"His favorite flowers are chrysanthemums, gold chrysanthemums to be exact."

He stopped blabbering at the reply he got.

A wave of breeze echoed from the other line before I heard him say something, almost hearing the smile in his words, even though I didn't know what he looked like at that time.

"His fond of flowers?"

"Actually, I was the one who really liked them when I was young. We were introduced to a family friend of ours, Isabelle, a second cousin twice remove of my father. After several visits to her and a few advises here and there. We finally started gardening in our backyard and eventually had our favorite flowers."

"What's yours?"

I pondered for a second at what he said, biting my lip that was curving up ever so slightly to a smile.

"Camellias."

"Camellias?"

"You don't know them?"

"I'm not familiar with names of plants."

"You're really are dumb."

"Hey! Knowing specific flower names aren't a must, don't judge me."

My head perked up in realization and immediately grabbed my keys that was laying beside me on the grass and stood up abruptly.

"I'll be back, I forgot something!"

"What? What is it? Reyna?"

I ignored him, and jogged up across the field to the direction of my car, his voice faintly resonating the place as I retreated.

Reaching my car, I unlocked it and opened the backseat, crouching down and reaching my arms inside to grab the bundle of florals I bought a while back.

Upon reaching it, I retreated my form up into standing, closed the door, and locked it, before making my way back to Aiden's place.

I sat down on the warm grass, its surface tickling me just like it did earlier.

After placing myself in a comfortable position, I grabbed the phone that was laying atop the grass, fingers hovering on my screen as I raised the device up above the bundle of flowers, snapping a quick picture of it, sending it to a certain airhead.

"Oh! I know those! They're the flowers that look like have an organized version of petals for roses."

I chuckled and rolled my eyes. "That's a weird way of describing a flower, also they're not roses."

"I know they're not roses. And now I know what they're called."

I hummed in acknowledgement and placed the bouquet down securely at the surface of Aiden's memorial.

"What do you think of them?" I asked absentmindedly, eyes still hovering at the bouquet.

Before he could answer the question I asked, he was cut off by a sound of high-pitched horn resonating the area, alongside a ping of notification popping up on my phone.

I checked the notification out and showing me that my food has now arrived. After reading the tab, I snapped my head in the direction of the sound earlier and saw a motorcycle delivery of the fast-food restaurant I ordered to, parked at the sidewalk across the field.

"My meal is here. I'm gonna go and get it."

"Oh, yeah, sure."

I stood up and grabbed my wallet, making my way to the delivery guy.

Before I could get far away to the point that the phone was out of earshot, his faint, deep yet soft voice resonated within my ears, seeming to be loud and clear like it never did before.

"The camellias are beautiful just like you."

I stopped in my tracks, stunned, heart pounding frantically at an unsteady pace in my chest.

I glanced back at the phone that was laying atop the grass, my brows furrowing at what he said.

'𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭? 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘐 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶.'

I blinked and stared at the screen of my phone; the device lit up in the delivery application I used to order my food, a green tab placed on top of the screen, where the time being consumed by the call was ticking, seconds running as the time passed by.

'𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘓𝘪𝘢𝘮? 𝘖𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦?'

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