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Chapter 10

Time skip:5 years later

(after the war)

I am standing in my old high school now for some reason and it is weird how time has gone since then, even though we just saw each other yesterday.

The day had ended early for me because I was busy with something else, but I am now free to go home, so I decided to take a walk around town. My friends were all still at work, but they would pick me up on their way home from work. So, with that idea, I started walking around town.

As soon as I entered my neighborhood, I spotted a familiar figure sitting on the grass near his house. As if on cue, he turned around and saw me. He quickly got up and went towards me.

"Oh, hey Nat, what are you doing here?" he asked with a smile, "Is everything alright?"

"Uh, yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

"No, no reason, just checking," he responded awkwardly, trying to hide his awkwardness. "Well, come on inside. I just made dinner."

He opened the door and let me enter first. I walked into his house to see some dishes already set up in the living room. It looks really good. He must have been waiting for me.

"Wow, thanks man! I was hungry!"

"Yeah, don't worry about it," he replied while smiling softly, "It's your birthday after all!"

I chuckled and sat down on the sofa, watching Carlos make his way towards the kitchen. He was cooking something delicious; his usual homemade chicken salad.

"Hey Nat, do you wanna try this? It's really yummy, trust me!"

"Hell yeah, I'm starving!"

"Alright, sit tight," Carlos said before grabbing a plate full of food and placing it next to me. "Here goes nothing!" he exclaimed. Before taking another bite he glanced over at me, asking me if I want some too.

"Sure, why not!" I answered excitedly and grabbed a handful of the delicious chicken salad.

We ate our lunch together in comfortable silence. We always did this, Carlos makes his homemade chicken salad for me every single year and sometimes he brings some snacks along to share during our meal. The last time I came over was just before his dad left us. We haven't talked much about him. In fact, we barely talked at all these days except for those occasional texts. It was nice to finally eat with him again after so long.

Afterwards, we both cleaned up the table and Carlos offered to help me clean the rest of the house. When we finished we moved the dishes into the sink and decided to watch some TV. But I didn't know what we were going to watch. I wasn't much of a fan of TV and Carlos wasn't really into watching anything else either. After thinking for a little bit, I came up with an idea.

"Let's watch a video game. How about Minecraft?"

"Oh, uhm, sure. Sure! Why not!"

I picked out a disc from the shelf and placed it on the TV. There was a bunch of videos playing on the screen and I started to put one in the player. Once the first round was done, the second one started. Carlos kept looking at the screen with excitement as the new games began. A few hours passed and we reached the end of the series.

"I think we should probably get to bed," Carlos said quietly. "It's kinda late, you know."

"Right, right. You need your beauty sleep, right?" I mocked him playfully and winked. He just laughed and nodded. "Goodnight, Carlos! I love you!"

"I love you too, Nat! Goodnight." He kissed me lightly on the lips and headed to his bedroom. I watched him until he disappeared behind the bathroom door. Then, I switched off the TV and laid down on the couch. I stared at the ceiling for a while and started thinking of things to say to Carlos when I see him tomorrow. Things like 'Happy Birthday! Have a great day! See you tomorrow' or maybe 'Don't forget to call my mom when you wake up'. All of that stuff I would normally use to cheer him up when he was sad. However, there was something else on my mind. Something that I wanted to talk to him about. What could it be?

Suddenly, my phone vibrated against the couch cushion. I picked it up and checked who was calling. It was Maria. She usually calls me whenever she needs something, usually when my parents aren't around. I picked up the call.

"Hi, Maria. Are you okay?" I asked, knowing her well enough to know that she's crying.

"Yes. Well, not really, but I'll tell you when I can talk about it," she sobbed.

"Okay… what happened?"

"Um, so… Carlos told me that his father… left… yesterday," she said slowly, as if she was trying not to cry more.

"What? How come?" I asked, shocked. "Did you guys talk about it?"

"Not really. He was upset, I think. His father's death isn't exactly easy to accept…"

"Oh, I completely understand," I sighed sadly. "So, what did he do today? Maybe he feels better now?"

"No. No, he doesn't feel better."

"Maria, please, stop talking in riddles," I begged.

She sniffled a few times.

"Fine, whatever," she muttered and took a deep breath. "Anyway, after school, Carlos drove me home and we played videogames for a while until we fell asleep. And when I woke up the next morning, he was gone."

My eyes widened in shock.

"That bastard. He actually left without telling anyone?!" I shouted angrily. Carlos loved his family very much and he never leaves them, especially not without saying anything.

"Yeah, apparently. And we haven'