A bit of joy

The sun was already out yet, here I was still lying on my bed. I felt like I drained all my energy from yesterday and I was aching physically— not to mention mentally and emotionally. After I went home yesterday, I realized that my volumes of Black Roses were all gone, I searched for them everywhere in my room but there was no left even one of the twenty-three volumes of the manga.

Is it alright to skip class for now? it is just the second day though... thoughts inside my head. I checked the time and it was already the second period. Fortunately, the comfort given by my bed lessens my worries about school and the problem with Mikael and Ericka. Of course, I was just convincing myself that lying on my bed would help me solve my problems.

I scratched my head in frustration and wrapped my body with the blanket. After the continuous thoughts inside my head, I fell asleep.

A sequence of heavy running footsteps woke me up, I was still half asleep as the door of my room opened and showed Marco running towards my defenseless body. I was confused about what he was doing here but I felt I ejected my spirit after he leaped and landed on me.

After I regained my consciousness, I yanked his collar.

I groaned “What the hell are you doing?!"

I coughed many times. He didn't answer me instead he looked at me with a straight face. And he began to open his mouth.

“Is there something wrong?” he asked, looking at me seriously.

I startled and averted my eyes. I was clueless about what he was talking about yet I felt nervous and avoided his gaze, talking about an open book.

“Even without words, I knew there's a problem,” he continued.

A moment of silence filled my room, he was still on top of me, looking at me intensely.

“As I expected..."

“What?” He looked at me confused.

“Long time friend is scary,” I blurted out and kicked him off the bed, making him fall on the floor.

I pulled the blanket and covered my body like a woman who was about to get assaulted by a pervert. He scratched his back and stood up.

“I didn't think you will notice my true motives,” he said in a low voice as he wriggled his fingers in the air and his tongue creeping on his lips.

“Stupid. So, what are you doing here?”

I checked the time on my phone. Geh! It's lunch break yet what was he doing here?.

“What the... It wasn't after school, you dumb ass!” I groaned.

“Well, I'm here to fetch you up, ” he confessed.

He pulled me out of bed and pushed me out of my room. He even threw me in the bathroom along with the towel. I tried to open up the door but it seemed like he was blocking it from the outside, only letting me out after I washed.

“Let's go!"

He dragged me out of the house after I finished fixing my clothes. He was running at high speed making me stumbled many times, but that wasn't a big deal. The real problem was how would we get into school if the gate was already closed.

“Let's go back, Marco. There's no use, it's already closed— how did you make out by the way?"

He glanced at his wristwatch and grin slyly. Don't tell me we were about to climb it. Looking at the huge gate there was no way we could climb it even if we lifted each other.

He walked to the side of the gate and stopped on the wall, clapping his hands three times. I was surprised, someone threw a rope from the other side of the wall.

I knew it, we're climbing!"

He first climbed the wall and sat on top of it, reaching his hand towards me.

“Faster, we only had five minutes before the guard come back from his patrol," he said.

My heart thumped fast as he began to pull me—it was because some people were looking at us trying to sneak into the school, some made a chuckle. Fortunately, they didn't say anything and continued walking as if nothing had happened.

After we snuck into the school, we took our run to our classroom. Gladly, there are no guards or teachers who saw us climbing down the side of the gate and safely arrived at our classroom. We looked at each other and laughed as we secured our victory.

I sat down on my seat, took a deep breath, and rested my body. Marco at my back opened a bottle of water and drank it. I glance at Mikael's and Ericka's seats but they were not there nor in the whole room.

“I guess they're not here,” I mumbled.

I already expected this, they'll skip class today, after what happened between them yesterday—.

“Heyos!”

Marco stood up and walked to the door, I stayed still in my seat running my thoughts. After a moment, I felt someone pass by my side.

“You're late,” Ericka as she sat down on her seat. “...weirdo," she added.

I glance at Marco who was chatting at Mikael. I see, so they are here. Without a word, I simply nodded.

Mikael and Marco went back to their seats as Ms. Velasquez entered the room.

Just as I felt relieved, I heard a loud bang in the front of the class.

“Earlier, while I was taking a fresh air on the rooftop [smoking at the rooftop] I was taking my time but then I saw two of my students climbing across the school wall and the other two throwing a rope to them.”

I flinched as Ms. Velasquez's glance fell on me.

But thinking about it, was it only me and Marco who are at the gate?

I glance at Marco who was completely intense, his sweat started to run on his forehead. I was expecting that only Marco and I would have the same reaction but I didn't expect that even Mikael.

‘Ah! the one who threw the rope on us was...' suddenly a conclusion came out on my mind.

I looked beneath Mikael's desk and there was a folded rope lying there.

“Did you want to say anything? Marco, Michael, Mikael, and Ericka?"

We stood one by one as Miss Velasquez called out our name. “I expected Mikael and Marco would do this stuff but... I didn't expect even Ericka and Michael.” She shook his head and let out a sigh of disappointment.

We just stood quietly.

After a long reprimand, our teacher took a deep breath.

“I'll let you go on this for now.” Our faces enlightened as we heard these words from her. “Well as a teenager you should enjoy yourselves, but there's no next time. You are lucky that I'm the one who saw you four acting as thieves," she said and told us to sit down.

Knowing her, she just didn't want someone to know she was smoking on the rooftop. Classic Miss Velasquez, I guess.

Hours passed and I spent my time listening and jotting down what was on the board on autopilot. After she left the room, she called me. “Michael, go to my office later. I'd let you go off with the wall climbing thing but I need a proper excuse on why did you skip the morning class.”