Chapter 4

Chapter 4: It would be fine, the same as always.

Abe screams as he raises his hands in the air, “We're finally having a vacation!” he quickly runs to the front door of the house, turns around to us, and grins widely. “Don’t you know it’s an honor to be having a vacation with me?” He excitedly announces.

He squats and holds his hands out as he shouts “Keys!” The glimmer in his eyes just shouts excitement and loudness.

“You!” Rust shouts pointing at Abe. “Your damn luggage first!”

I laugh at them as I get out of the car and walk close to Xystal who has her hands on her waist while eyeing Abe who remains in front of the front door waiting for her to throw the keys. Xystal shakes her head then looks at Rust who is quietly helping her grandfather take out our luggage from the trunk.

She walks off to them while she keeps her hands on her hips. I look at Abe who is now dumbfounded by Xystal’s reaction. He follows Xystal’s movement with his rounded eyes. I laugh and shake my head then signal him to come with me and join the others. He quietly walks to me having his hands on his back while pouting like he just got scolded by taking a candy.

I wrap my arm on his shoulder, “Why not we help on carrying the things to the front door then let’s get inside?” I suggest easing his pain. “And then maybe they’ll let it slide.” I smile trying to comfort him.

We pick up the remaining luggage from the ground. It looks like Rust took my bag with his since the remaining ones are Abe’s and just a couple of blankets in a basket. Abe carries his bags and I carry the basket.

We walk in together and see that the interior of this house isn’t well furnished. There is only a couch and a flat-screen T.V in the living room, and a couple of steps is a dining set for four people and then the kitchen at the side with a minibar area. A staircase beside the kitchen that leads to the second floor.

Xystal voices out my thoughts, “This house isn’t well furnished or decorated since we only go here once a year and stay for a week just to enjoy the rural peace.” She points upstairs, “There are two rooms upstairs,” she smiles at me, “One would be mine and Hill’s.”

“Then the other one,” she looks at Rust, and shrugs her shoulders, “You decide.”

Abe whines. “Hey!”

I pat Xystal’s shoulder as a warning, “Tal.”

She looks at me, “I mean they’re the ones to share the room.”

Rust interrupts me before I can even speak, he suggests, “Why not we all sleep together?”

Abe and Xystal give him questioning looks while I already get his point. Considering Xystal is acting up and Abe is getting sensitive, we need to do something with them.

“He is saying that we all should just sleep,” I spread my arms and smile enthusiastically, “Here!”

I emphasize the living room and Rust approvingly smiles. “That would be better than having us separate rooms that seem to be making you two that.”

Xystal speaks up “Making us what?”

I wrap my arms around her from the side and laugh at the obvious answer, “Irritated!”

Rust joins me in laughing while the two remain quiet. However, Xystal’s grandfather speaks up. “You kids should get along well for three days and don’t burn the house.” In unison, we all bow down our heads and awkwardly laughs.

He pats Xystal’s head, “Your temper, Xystal.” Then he says his goodbyes to us before walking out the door and driving off, leaving us alone inside the small house. The house isn’t as big as we thought. It’s small but it’s cozy since the place gets hit by the sunlight and it is not that bright nor dim. Also, there are plants outside the windows. The location isn’t fully rural, since it is inside a village. It also means we have access to the village pool, village court, and even the village library. However, the main attraction is that we’re still surrounded by nature and not the busy streets of the city.

Rust claps his hands, “Alright guys, we need a few things to survive for three days. So first, we need to go to the marketplace of this village or maybe walk to the nearest city out there.”

I suggest, “Why not make a list first? Then we can decide who’ll buy and who’ll stay?”

Xystal exclaims, “Wait, what?”

“I do agree that two-person stays and the other two buys since we do need to clean a bit and bring down the mattresses from the rooms.”

Abe speaks almost in a whisper, “Then who?”

Me and Rusts meet each other’s eyes and smirk before speaking in unison, “One boy, one girl.”

After a bit of convincing and rock paper scissors that I and Rust framed. Well, when we were in sixth grade whenever the two fight we tend to tie them together to do something but decides through rock paper scissors. Sine the two tends to draw paper first, we planned on either drawing rock or scissors. The winners and the losers are always paired together. So, now we see them off as they walk side by side away from the house knowing they just both lost the game.

Rust raises his hand, “It always works.”

I turn back to the house and high-five Rust, “It does.”

We get back inside and prepare the living room and dining area. We put the bags individually on the side of each level of the stairs. I take out the vacuum from the master’s bedroom upstairs and vacuum the floor downstairs. Rust on the other hand is cleaning the kitchen. He also decided that we should wash the cutlery, the kitchen utensils, and the pot and pan that’s been here stored and probably have accumulated dust. After vacuuming the living area, dining area, and the kitchen while Rust is cleaning the countertops, I help out with the things to be washed.

I wash while he dries and put them back on their racks and storage. After we finish washing, we go upstairs and prepare the mattresses we’re going to carry downstairs. We successfully bring down the first mattress however, the second one is a hassle. As we carry it down the stairs, my leg catches on a bag strap that I lose balance and harshly grab on the mattress but I accidentally push it. Because of that Rust losses his balance, “Oh! Oh oh!” and falls down the stairs and the mattress lands on him.

In shock, I rush to run down the stairs, “Rust!” I push off the mattress above him and help him sit down.

“Are you… okay?”

He rubs the back of his head, “It was a good thing we decided to put the mattress below the stairs. That was a soft landing but a bit heavy, Hill.”

I awkwardly laugh, “Sorry.”

He faces me and smiles before laying down the mattress again. “Let’s enjoy these few days together.”

“Hm?”

“I mean, you’re definitely going to a prestigious school for high school. Xystal might go with you or she’ll pursue studying abroad. Abe? He’ll definitely go where I’ll go but, I want him to decide for himself and find other friends.”

He looks at me, “We’re going different paths, Hill. How about our friendship?”

I lay down beside him and optimistically say. “It would be fine, the same as always. We’ll see each other grow!”

He closes his eyes while plastering a smile on his lips and I do the same. Enjoying this bit of time where only our breathing is audible alongside the rustling of the leaves outside, the soft whooshing of the wind coming from one open window. This is one of the things Ma wants me to appreciate, the little things.

After lying on the mattress for 10 minutes, we get back to fixing up the place. Out of the silence this village has, a loud yelling comes from afar while I come down the stairs with pillows and while Rust fixes the mattresses in the living room. “Mission complete!”

I throw the pillows at Rust and while they are still flying over him, he pushes them to the mattresses. We both run to the door, open it and look out just to see Xystal dying of laughter, holding her tummy, laughing at the loud Abe who has four plastic bags with him. Two on each arm while Xystal only has her wallet in her hand. “Looks like they’re in a better mood now,” I tell Rust and he just happily sighs, like a relieved father.

Abe sees us and lifts his hand to wave but fails to do so that he just smile and shout, “We’re back!”

Rust shakes his head, “We can see that!” Then he rushes to Abe and helps him carry the other two bags while Xystal runs to me and gives me a bone-crushing hug.

We all go inside and Xystal and Abe plop down the mattresses. While we put away what they bought. As I individually take out the items from the bag, I notice something that wasn’t on the list. A blue plastic bag that has things inside it. I lift it and am about to say a word but then a hand snatches it from me. “That is my top secret!”

I look puzzled by his reaction but he runs off with the plastic and goes upstairs. We all hear a door shut and in unison, we all lookup. I shrug it off and maybe it was something he needed and doesn’t need to inform us since he has it handled.

A few hours pass by and we’re just chilling in the living room while playing minecraft on our phones. Abe already came down from the second-floor minutes after he came up. We didn’t question him and just suggested to play, which is what we’ve been doing ‘till now. While we all laugh and nag at each other because of the game and the awful way we sometimes play. Xystal nags and nags and laughs and laughs loudly. Her phone is even on full volume.

Rust notices that her phone dominates everyone’s, “Tal, lower down your volume.”

Then Abe on the other hand stands up to turn the T.V on and play music from it but as he turns the volume up, a grumbling sound finds its way to silence us.

Abe’s head snaps at each of us and he grins, “Who has the monster?”

I watch as he continues to eye us. I feel weird movements beside me, I look at Xystal who looks so suspicious right now.

I come closer to her, “Is it at any chance, you?”

She seems flustered and waves her hands, “No! no!”

We all laugh at her reaction knowing that she does have the monster as Abe calls it.

“It’s not really me!” Then the monster acts again.

I shout and point, “Abe!”

“You’re such a,” Rust sighs.

Abe laughs hysterically that he plops down the mattress and rolls over it like a puppy. I shake my head and lift myself to go to the kitchen. Rusts on the other hand do the same. We quickly decide on what to eat from all the food Xystal and Abe bought from the market. We choose to cook spaghetti and meatballs and cut a few of the apples that I and Xystal like. We also take out the chocolate bars they bought and put them on the table along with the platter of spaghetti and meatballs. We all eat silently, considering that we’re kinda hungry from all the cleaning and buying.

After we finish eating, Abe gets up from his seat and goes up to get something. He comes back sits back down. We all look at him, he has his head down and hands below the table. “When we were on the market, I saw a stall that sells… beads.”

He shyly puts the blue plastic bag on the table. “So I decided to buy different kinds of beads and charms for us to… make friendship bracelets… To promise that our friendship will last.”

“Aww, Abe!”