"Where Is Cale?"
A drooping Catrina asked Gabriel
"Well he is always late..."
They were sitting on a bench In a somewhat small park.
"Hey... didn't Cale seem a little odd today?"
He hadn't even teased Catrina for calling him, like he usually did which creeped her a little
"Not really, but at the same time I get where you are coming from?"
Cale had always been with Gabriel and Catrina ever since Primary School
Essentially they were his only childhood friends no matter how many times he would deny it, So they knew if something was off with him.
No matter how much Cale tried to hide his unease, Gabriel and Catrina could at least tell that he was uncomfortable with something
"Well not that many people would be excited to go to school"
"That's true"
They assumed that to be the case and stopped talking further about the matter and started talking about something else.
"Oh? Is that him over there?"
"Huh? Where?"
Catrina looked around, then Gabriel's voice made her stop looking aimlessly
"He's there"
"...That's a dog"
"It's adorable right?"
A sudden urge that wanted the submerging of Gabriel's head in a bathtub full of biting cold water swelled in Catrina's mind
Minutes passed with nothing happening and just idleness chatter floating around
"Are you disappointed?"
Gabriel sheepishly asked, boredom filling both her and Catrina
"About what?"
Catrina half-expected Gabriel to say something dumb to pass the time
"That you didn't get teased by Cale?"
Her entire face turned to stone at those words
'Does he think I'm a dog?[1]'
Her eyes snapped back with life filling her retinas, utterly dumbfounded at what she heard
"You...aren't suggesting that I am a masochist, are you?"
"I never said anything like that though?"
Their conversation had already turned into one filled with utter nonsense
"You implied that I am"
"That is entirely up to interpretation though?"
Gabriel glanced at the petite girl next to her
"If your mind wandered on and landed to such a conclusion"
Gabriel retorted and then landed the nail in the coffin
"Aren't you the weird one for thinking that way?"
Happiness filled his face, beating someone in an argument was and will always be everyone's shared joy, and Gabriel was no different
"...."
But sometimes that is not possible, why?
"Hm? What did you say?"
What kind of argument would you be winning when the other wouldn't even be listening?
Cupping her ear, she drew closer to Gabriel
"..."
'You...feign ignorance?'
"I said, aren't you the weird one for thinking that way?"
"Ahh, okay"
Catrina then shifted her attention towards the giant arched gateway which was the front entrance, not paying attention to Gabriel's words whatsoever
"...."
An intense awkwardness enveloped the two like a blanket
They both stayed silent for what felt like forever and then finally
"..?"
Catrina had spotted Cale in the distance, wearing a plain black shirt and Jeans
"Hey!"
Catrina sat up from the bench made out of porcelain, waving her hands wanting to be noticed.
Cale spotted them shortly after and started briskly walking towards them
Stopping right In front of the smooth porcelain bench they were sitting at. His hair was still a mess but it was nothing surprising to the two.
"Hey why were you late?" Gabriel asked him curiously
"I was eating"
"...."
"...."
Gabriel and Catrina stared at the Glutton In front of them with disbelief in their eyes.
"What is it?"
"It's nothing...."
Gabriel lowered his gaze away from Cale.
Cale bore a thin smile on his face asking with a tinge of excitement stuck to his tone
"So? what are you guys waiting for? aren't we going to go to the Cinema to watch a movie?"
"We are~" Catrina answered softly
The reason Cale came out with them and hang out in the first place was because of a movie he had been dying to see and even got tickets for himself the moment he was free and even used his own allowance for it
Gabriel and Catrina did the same for similar reasons as Cale.
'Sometimes, watching a classic and an amazing movie can calm and sooth your nerves'
This is what he believed at the very least
"It got delayed"
Catrina said outright, fiddling with the black bow that rested tightly behind her small head
"...."
'What did she just say? maybe I heard wrong'
Desperately wishing it were not true. Cale asked again
"What did you say?"
"It got delayed due to some maintenance and technical problems and the movie will now start at [1:15] PM or at least that's what they said"
"...."
He bit into his soft lip
Opening the phone that rested at his palm, he checked the time
[10:59] AM
"Haaaaa"
A long and dragging sigh escaped his lips
'At least they didn't cancel it..'
That was the only good thing about this
'Well I can just wait in my house and just go out to the movie theater when it was time'
"Well what now?"
Wanting to know what his two accursed friends he loved teasing from time to time
He brought himself to ask out of slight guilt what would they do with their free time now
"We wait?"
The response though was unexpected to his sensitive ears
'Who is...we?'
Cale attempted to take a step back but
Grab
'Ah shi-'
A slender arm grabbed his sleeve, refusing to let go, her grip on it tightened
So much so It proved difficult to break free completely without hurting the individual even for Cale
"Where are you going?"
Catrina asked innocently, her other free hand tightening on Cale's already bound arm, not allowing an inch to get away free
Gabriel had already sat up, barely containing his laughter in.
These two...
'They knew the movie got delayed and didn't tell me on purpose!'
Only a sense of betrayal could be felt in his blood, betrayal by the two people he trusted so much, not that he trusted them a whole lot
'Is this her way of taking revenge because I called her a dwarf?'
She sat up, sticking her body closer, using her body weight to drag him down, making sure he wouldn't be able to shake her off without hurting her
"If we had told you the movie got delayed you wouldn't have come out right?"
Catrina smirked, not hiding her Intentions whatsoever.
"And we can't just break in to your house and drag you out"
'Yeah, that's called a crime you know?'
"So Gabriel came up with a brilliant Idea to not tell you the movie got delayed"
This bastard!
Gabriel yawned without a care in the world as he watched Cale slowly getting dragged by Catrina.
And that's how the short story of how Cale got dragged around by these two for 3 hours straight while waiting for the movie.
***
"Uhg"
Vomit welled up in his esophagus
After watching the movie. Cale went back home exhausted by the dragging around he experienced from Catrina and Gabriel during the time he was waiting for the movie to start.
"Those two do not run out of energy no matter what kind of shenanigans they pull"
'Of course I won't deny that I did have fun but I also won't deny that I felt exhausted after all of that.'
"..."
'Now what do I do?'
There was nothing else for Cale to do but wait till tomorrow
"I could start by trying to understand what exactly happened to my eyes"
'The letter had said that In order to make full use of my 'Unique Eyes' I had to first 'understand' them and I didn't see any reason why I shouldn't listen to it when I know that I will definitely need them If I want to survive'
Sitting in his bedroom, he soon stood up and faced himself before a mirror In the corner of the room and tried to see what difference his eyes had than before that maybe only Cale would be capable of seeing.
"No change in my eye color, It looks the same overall..."
His eyes were still bronze, no change at all
He tried squinting his eyes and focused his vision to see If there was any difference.
"?"
And he indeed had noticed something, something that was fiercely swirling In his Irises
Cale couldn't tell what it was but he knew that It had something to do with what the letter had told him
"Now that I'm doing this"
Turning his attention towards the thin pitch black lines that were barely visible.
He also focused and filtered out the thin black lines to see any white line.
However, no matter how hard he tried to 'see'
He couldn't see it, no white line could be seen like before no matter how hard he squinted his eyes.
'Was it maybe a one time thing?
"If that was the case, then that is slightly disappointing"
Laying down on his bed. Cale began to think about what to do now. Now that he couldn't satiate his curiosity
He continued pondering and contemplated on what his plan should be when he would eventually be forced to go to Gardenia again, which took two whole days
And no sufficient and full-proof plan could be made
[1] *When you tease and ragebait your friend so much that they are 'trained' to expect you teasing them