Chapter 8

Dizen who is sitting at the passenger seat of his own car but the one who is driving as usual is his friend Celo. As he reclined his seat and put his head on a headrest of his seat he threw a glimpse on his friend that both hands are on the steering wheel of the car and move the other one to enter the key so that the engine is now starting, so is the car right after a mere seconds.

Dizen have not said any words toward his friend as he was just want to look at him and then he took back his eyes, close them and then humming a song in his head and sooner came out of his mouth and when his friend come to hear it, he turned on the radio. And now they are both jamming to the song they both like.

But little do they know is that the moment they sing was the moment they are a little bit further on Eli's whereabouts. As they sing as the car keep going, when Celo looked at the left side throughout the window he saw the woman they were searching for. He saw it at the front of a pet shop, holding a brown envelope reading the post on the corner of the door posted near the shop's window and she seemed to be applying for a job. 

“Oh my goodness! You would not believe me!” Celo shouted as he saw Eli. He quickly rotate steering wheel to the right, then car goes to the right side of the pavement so that they wouldn't add some trouble to the traffic jam.

“Believe what?” Dizen who seemed to be out of his mind but now looked attentive.

Celo stamped his foot on the brake very hard. “Oops, sorry.” 

“What the fuck?” complained Dizen after he recovered himself from bumping to the front of his car. “Do you want to break the brake?” he glared on the driver.

Celo seem to be not affected nor bothered. He does not show any mercy towards the situation. “Woah, what a rhyme.” He took his eyes away and threw it through the window of the car and much to his surprise. “Wait, what? Where is she?”

“Who?” asked Dizen, now nudging near the driver seat so his friend could hear his breath soothing his ears.

Celo turned his face to see his friend Dizen but he wasn't aware that it was an inch closer to him so when he turned, their faces almost touched and their lips, eww — almost kissed.

“Eli!” he screamed that he almost had a crack in his voice but she seemed or he surely was not even bothered as he was used to this.

“Eli? You saw her?” Dizen eyes grew bigger, waiting for his friend to confirm what he had said.

“Yeah, she was standing at the front of that shop earlier!” There were numerous head nods and looking outside then going back on Dizen's.

“Eh?” Dizen is almost dizzy of his friend's redundant head.

“I swear, I saw her!” Celo throw his eyes again towards the window and make it back to Dizen's.

“But she's gone! Look, she isn't there anymore!” Dizen said when she saw nothing. 

“How come she disappear so fast like that?” Celo was on the brink of breaking his head to have his brain on his bare hands and look for answers he was looking for.

Dizen is almost upset. “It's because you are dumb.” He poked his index finger on Celo's forehead.

Celo hit it also by his hand. “I was the one who saw her yet you called me dumb. It was you, Dizen. It was you.”

“Why me?” Dizen's confusion as to why the blame was on him now. Since when the tables turned? Even him couldn't think of such thing.

“Come to think of it.” Celo still has the nerve to question his friend like that when he should be the one to be questioned as he was the witness yet not having any evidence towards his alibi.

“Okay.” Dizen went back and sit down his butt on his seat. He was really thinking now.

“Hey, what are you thinking?” Celo wondered.

“Not what you think and not what you're thinking.” Dizen retorted and then looking the front direction so he couldn't see his friend's face nor even bothered by it.

“You're thinking about—” Celo didn't have the chance to finish what he was going to say because Dizen cut him off.

“No, not the one you said I should think about.” After Dizen said that, he then looked up while scratching his chin and there the other man figure that out that when his friend is in that condition, he was really thinking of something and not not just something but something different.

“Then what?” Celo dared to ask again because of the curiosity he was having at the back of his mind.

“Aha!” Dizen yelled as he snapped his finger. They're they both know there was a newly build bright idea.

“Aha what? What was it? Tell me!” Celo's both hands are now on Dizen's shoulder, he was shaking the hell out of his friend or more likely waiting for the tea to spill.

But Dizen didn't spill it easily as he thought that they were running out of time so he went outside of the car and knock on the door of driver's seat where his friend was sitting. “You moron, come with me.” 

“Where?” asked Celo right after he opened the door and ready to go out with his friend. 

“What do you noticed earlier when you saw her at the front of that shop?” Dizen asked, his eyes were full of curiosity.

“She was applying for a job because she saw the poster posted on the door, I guess?” Celo gas is stated what was on his mind and what he was a thinking possible. 

“Good guess! Let's go!” Dizen gave his friend the gesture to come out of the car.

Celo was so shocked and didn't even expect that. “Hey! Wait, what are you gonna do?” He then untie the seatbelt he had on himself and then hurriedly went out of the car, calling his friend to come back. “Dizen! Come back! I can't cross the road!”

When Dizen heard that word, it was just then when he remembered that his friend really didn't even know how to cross the road. “You — tsk! How old are you?” he muffled as he is in the process of making his way back to his poor friend.

“I'm as old as you,” replied Celo as he read what was on his friend's lips. Maybe that was his hidden talent so that when the time comes where he became deaf or couldn't hear of anything he has this ability that he could read someone's saying by just looking into their mouth even if they are far. 

Dizen talked back. “You really a dumbass. Come, hold tight.” He gently offered his arm as if he was escorting or was ready to guide a fragile woman on her walk like what we saw in balls or promenades.

Celo smiled, strangling his arm on his friend's arm. As they both crossing the pedestrian lane, he began to talk about something. “You know what, my girlfriend broke up with me because of this?”

Dizen remained looking straight. “Yeah, she broke up with you because you just want a girlfriend to guide you cross the other end of roads.”

Celo chuckled, “And that's why you were the one who was doing it with me right now.”

“You're a big guy and you're that afraid of cars in roads.” Dizen's words we're like an insult but the other one didn't take it seriously.

Celo tried to defend himself for at least to have a clean conscience. “It's because they're scary. You don't know, you're not in my shoes. All I know is I'm afraid of running cars but not when I'm in your car because it's yours, he he he.”

“What's the point? Rubbish.” Dizen said, also was shocked when he saw his friend reacted exaggeratedly after a truck horned loud.

Celo tried to reply even if scared. “I still don't know.”

Their journey on crossing roads did not take so long that they are now on the end of the road and staring at the door of the shop Celo had pertained.

“Now what are we going to do?” Celo asked innocently.

Dizen elbowed him. “Still don't know? Where is your brain, huh?”

“I think I dropped it in the bathroom.”

“So you are not at fault but the bathroom?”

“Yeah. Couldn't agree more.”

Dizen started to be serious. “Fuck you. Listen, we're going to enter this shop.”

“We?”

“You and me.”

“You and me?”

“Come on, Celo! Stop copying what I'm saying!”

They both stopped when the phone rings. It was Dizen's.

“Shit! Why are you calling me in this kind of situation?” said Dizen soon as he saw the name of that person in the phone call.

“Who's that? Your dad?” Celo asked.

“Who else? What the fuck. Shh.” Dizen shushed his friend before answering the call.

“Hey, Dizen where are you?” said his father on the other line.

“Somewhere you didn't know even if I tell you.” Dizen's words were kind of disrespectful.

His dad replied, “I need you now. I'm not feeling well, come to my office and be my proxy for my upcoming appointments or all of my appointments rather, today... just today.” 

“Is it that important?”

“Of course, what do you think? Our company is always important.”

“As if you will let me if I say no.”

“That's why I didn't ask you if you want or not because you have no choice.”

“Okay. Bye. Get well now.” He ended the call. “Let's go, Celo.”

“Huh? We're leaving?”

“Yeah, I said go. Let's go, come on!” Dizen seemed to be in rush.

“Why? What about Eli?”

“Let's look for her some another time?”

“What? Wait, let me look at the window.” Celo tried to peek through. “Oh my gosh, she's inside!”

Dizen who turned his back on his friend, “Okay, let's go so we will be back here later.”

“You are unbelievable, I mean your dad is so... argh!” Celo rolled his eyes, he was like this if he wasn't satisfied of something they're accomplishing.

“I know, he always ruin everything.” Dizen offered his arm again to his friend.

Celo grabbed on his friend's arm firmly. “Oh my god, I thought you're going to bring that girl back to your bed again.”

“Shut up. She's not the woman just for bed.”

“Oh, so you're going to marry her?”

“You know what, shut the fuck up! Oh, the traffic light is red, let's go.”

Dizen and Celo continued crossing the lane while arguing but when they get inside the car, Dizen's gave his final warning to Celo.

“Keep your mouth shut. Just drive and play some music. Don't ask. Zip your mouth, I repeat, shut your damn fucking mouth.”

“I really love you my friend.”

“Likewise.” Dizen crossed his arms in front of his chest with burning eyes and heavy sighs to the extent like it was a groaning tiger.

Celo fastened the seatbelt of his friend, saying these words, “I know you're having a bad day and I just want you to know that you deserve it.”