Chapter 5

ASTRID TALITHA'S POINT OF VIEW

Orion accompanied me home after we went to the café. I turned on the radio in his car but immediately moved it to another station as I heard a new rock song I always heard on the campus this past few days. It was not that I did not like the song, maybe I was just not really fond of that genre.

"What are we going to talk about? Is there something bothering you?" I asked him seriously as I saw how his expression changed.

"I have something to tell you." I got so nervous as I heard his serious tone of voice.

"Is it about our assignment? I won't mind doing yours." He just shook his head and laughed a bit as I gave him a quick smile.

"It's not about that, but if you insist, why not?" I laughed and lightly punched him before I raised my brows as I was asking for what he really about to ask.

"What is it? You make me nervous!" He gave me a tranquil look that made me nervous even more.

"I need to go with my grandparents tomorrow night. Grandpa seems to be sick, and I don't think I can make it to your birthday." I smiled and finally let out a deep breath as a relief.

"It's okay, you do not need to be sorry about it. They are much important. Besides, you can date me anytime, but you can't come to your grandparents' place every day to take care of them. You don't need to worry about it, okay?" He gave me a sheepish smile as he was rubbing his nape. I hit him twice as he wrapped my head around his arms like he always does.

"Besides, you know that I don't want to celebrate it anymore," I uttered and gave him a quick fake smile. He grimaced and flicked me on my forehead.

"There is no reason to celebrate it, He has already gone." My voice was full of bitterness, but I could not hold it. I really missed my Dad. The thought of celebrating any occasion without him made me remember the heavy and hard it was for me to move forward. It only trigger those feelings that he was no longer here with me to share those days with. It was felt like a nightmare. I did not feel to do anything. I felt as if I was just floating, I did not know if I was just numb or shocked, but one thing I know, the word painful would never be enough to describe how bad it was. A day would be passed without me crying as I remember him. I never wanted to hear any condolences from anyone, their nonverbal presence was probably more important for me that moment than to hear them sympathizing with me or any other words they might say. I hate it when those feelings resurface.

"You know that Uncle will not be happy to hear that." He was just patted my head before he harshly messed up my hair. He and Kolten used to do this on me.

"Let's just have a date on the other day. Go home now. Be careful." He smiled and nodded his head as a response. Before he kissed my forehead. I got off his car and I saw my brother waiting outside.

"Bro..." They shook hands.

"Thanks for dropping her home. Drive carefully, bro!" My brother tapped his shoulder. I waved at him as he took a quick glance at me before he headed back to his car.

"What about the rematch? Why did you agree with it?" I asked my brother as we were making our way inside.

"Don't worry about that, just stay here. Don't watch the game, you better just sleep and stay in your room. Isn't that you like?" He smirked.

"I know what you're thinking. If you're just going to do the waves. Don't ever try it." I shook his arm to convince him. He just laughed and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

"Let's just go inside!" He leaned closer to me and quickly kissed my head.

"Mom called me earlier and asking if what do you want on your birthday." He put rice on my plate after he cooked for our dinner.

"I don't want anything. Let's just go to church together." I answered.

"Don't you want to have a party? Won't you invite your friends?" He asked. I just shook my head as a response.

"I will just miss my Dad. Besides, they know that I don't want to celebrate it." When our Dad left us, I don't want to have parties, especially on my birthday.

"Let's just go to him." I nodded.

"Kolten also asked me on Sunday. It's his birthday as well. Is it okay?" He simply nodded.

"He asked for my permission." He said deadpan.

"Seriously? He will just be going to tell me my punishment for our game. Why need your permission?" I slightly laughed.

"By the way, I mean it when I told you not to come tomorrow." I grimaced.

"Just don't go home with bruises, or else, I will tell it all to Mom." I hissed as I saw him smiling. As I was walking through the door of my room, I saw a letter, probably stationary. The only thing I saw was the name on it.

'To Ashton Israel Abram'

I just hissed as I saw a love letter for my brother. He was in his last year, taking up a Bachelor of Science Major in Business Administration. Actually, he was also studying in the same university as mine before, but choose to transfer to the other campus near one of the branches of our company he was managing. He was a very protective type of brother. Mom said that we both have the same eye color as Dad's. I can't deny his charm that made every girl turn their head when they saw him. My brother used to have a lot of admirers. There were lots of girls who used to ask me about him.

I slept so early, but I don't have an idea why it was still a great challenge for me to wake up this morning. I felt so lazy and tired, maybe because I just read that our professor had canceled our class for today after I check my phone earlier than my alarm clock woke me up. So I plan to sleep all day until I heard someone knocking on my door and disturbing my precious moment of sleeping.

"Astrid, we're here. Wake up now!" I was really sure it was Orion. He did not stop until I opened the door, and he went inside on his command.

"What time did you sleep last night that you are still sleepy by this hour?" He asked while holding the picture of us when we were in kindergarten which was on the table right beside my bed, next to my alarm clock. I was so lazy walking to the bathroom and left him there, I actually left my room so messy. My bedsheets were crumpled up on my unmade bed, while my comforter was hanging over the footboard. He did not stop telling me stories about the movie he had watched last week. He even left his flash drive having its copy on my drawer.

After about half an hour, I heard him talking to someone, it was probably Kolten.

"Bro..." It seemed like they were talking about something I could barely hear.

"Where is she?" I confirm that it is Kolten as I heard his voice asking.

"Why?" I answered as I went out of the bathroom, holding my white towel and gently drying up my hair.

"The breakfast is ready. Your brother is calling you already." He said deadpan.

"Why are you wearing pajama this early?" Orion asked while unlocking my phone.

"I'm going to sleep all day." I simply answered while getting my wireless hair blower.

"Is he already mad?" I was pertaining to my brother. I asked Kolten.

"Huh? Not that much." He stuttered before looking away and continuing to chew his gum.

"Let's go." Orion stood up, and he seemed to have made my bed while I was taking a quick shower.

"Just give me a minute, or you can go downstairs now. I will just put a light makeup." I hastily sat on the chair in front of my white, minimalist vanity table having a tabletop makeup organizer that provides ample space for me to store all of my makeup, and most of those were from Lia and Zette. It had storage drawers where I arranged my makeup brushes in an orderly pile.

"I thought you were just going to sleep?" Kolten frowned and rolled his eyes and abruptly gripped my wrist. I just sighed as giving up and let him pull me to our dining area.

"What took you guys so long?" My brother asked and put rice on my plate. The both of them looked at me and I saw how he chuckled. They let me lead the prayer.

"Eat more, Astrid. You'll be so tired today." Kolten said with a serious tone that made them laugh so hard. Orion could not help himself but burst into laughter whenever he looked at me.

"Yeah, you should. It's really obvious." I know his pertaining on my pajamas.

"Stop it, guys. It's all my brother's fault. He does not want me to watch your game." My brother was laughing as I rolled my eyes against him. It seemed like they were satisfied whenever they dissed me off.

I saw my brother laughing along with them as they came out from my brother's room while I was washing our dirt dishes

"We're going, Astrid. Don't forget to close the door." I just waved at them and went upstairs to sleep as I planned.

After about two hours, I was awakened when my phone suddenly rang.

"Did I disturb your sleeping?" Orion laughed.

"You really did. Done already?" I asked when I saw that it's already 12:45 pm.

"Yeah. We are about to arrive." He answered. I wash up and went downstairs. They were all sweaty. Orion entered first and hugged me.

"Orion, you are soaked in sweat. Take a bath first! How was the game?" He laughed.

"We won." He confidently answered. I gave him a high five.

"But you should ask them." He whispered and chuckled. I saw scratches on their fists, the reason why I concluded how they messed up again this time.

"You did it again, don't you?" I exasperatedly asked.

"Just one punch." Kolten defensively said and looked at my brother, who was looking down. So stubborn! He washed up and went to the kitchen to prepare something for our late lunch. He is the one who always cooks for us since it was hard for me to learn how to cook. I really tried my best to follow all the procedures that need to be taken and even the measurements of ingredients, but I could not still able to make it properly. I mean, it was edible, but I knew they were just forced themselves to eat, so I just gave up on it.

Orion was in the bathroom right now to wash up. I saw Kolten sitting on our couch in the living room while his towel was hanging on his left shoulder. He was looking at his fist when I sat beside him. He has already taken a bath and wearing a stated navy green shirt that makes him look so neat. I just got noticed his new haircut. His dark brown hair was wet. The side was cut in a bit shorter than before that it was not easy to be noticed but kept the top longer that still allows it to fall over his forehead. His deep-dark-round eyes that always looked so tired were on me. I was caught by his soft blue eyes together with his long eyelashes that were noticeable as he blinked his eyes. His pointed nose was perfectly seen in my position where I was standing. I just always like how his tiny mole was perfectly placed on the lower left side of his lips. He used to wear dark tops that accentuated his clear and pale skin. I laid my hand on him. He looked at it for a moment and gave me glances of confusion.

I just sighed before getting his left hand. I felt the warmth of his hand. It was way bigger than mine that I suddenly felt as if I was holding my Dad's hand. I get the first aid kit I left under our center table when I cleaned my brother's wound earlier.

"I thought, it was just a punch." I hissed while making my way going in his direction. He quietly watched me treating his wounds.

"Have you taken up your lunch?" He uttered.

"Not yet. Maybe that is the reason why my stomach was growling." I put a bandage on his hand.

"You should learn how to cook so don't have to endure it." He was digging his hand into his bag to get something.

"It's okay. It helps me on my diet." I simply uttered.

"Have this!" He put a bar of chocolate into my mouth.

"I hope this is not from your admirers." He grimaced and gently messed up my hair.

"Stop that nonsense." He smirked before looking away.

I put down his hand and got the magazine on our table. When I was browsing, I saw a girl having nude nail polish on her hand. It causes me to look at my hands that were having band-aids on every fingertip. I grimaced as I heard him chuckling and immediately closed the magazine. I just rolled my eyes against him.

"Why are you mad? It looks cute on you. There are different prints of band-aids." I think his voice was full of sarcasm. I was about to take off the band-aids on my fingertips, but he stopped me as he saw the index finger of my left hand has a tiny cut on both sides. My nails were all trimmed in half by my habit of biting them.

"I'm sorry. But I mean it when I say it was cute." He gave me a sincere smile.

"Let's eat!" I stood up and left him after hearing my brother from the dining.

"I'm going to eat later. I am still full." I was about to go upstairs when Orion pulled me.

"Stop making excuses. Don't skip your meal." I heard his familiar laugh.

It was 4:07 in the afternoon, the gloomy weather makes it feel like it was 7:00 in the evening, but they are still playing the basketball court in our backyard. There was overcast, and the clouds seem like they could burst at any moment. I got my book in Anatomy and the different colors of my highlighter pens I put in my organizer before I tied up a thick strand of my hair that keeps on falling into my eyes and literally blocks my vision. I put on the eyeglasses on my study table. Our finals will be at the end of this week. Just two weeks away from now to be exact. I maybe always been caught sleeping by the class by most of our professors, but I always make sure that I will get nice grades. I know that I am not smart as Albert Einstein, so I must spend extra time studying and catching up on the lessons I slept in class. And maintaining the rank was kinda challenging but gave me the motivation to keep awake every two weeks before the examination week. I was pressing down on the keyboard of my laptop I just turned on to unlock its password that has approximately 12 characters when someone knocked on my door.

"Astrid..." It was Orion.

"Studying already?" Kolten asked while walking toward our direction.

"The finals are near. Bro, let exchange our seat. I will be next to Astrid again." His tumultuous laugh echoed in my room. He always sits beside me every time we have an exam and used to exchange paper with me in Calculus and Statistics, since he was complaining about my tiny handwriting that struggled him to see the solutions on the back of my test paper as it was always required by our terror professor.

"I'm just about to start until you come." Their hair was both wet with sweat and seems so tired.

"We're just coming to say we are about to go. Let's go, bro." Kolten tapped Orion's back, who was sitting at my bed right now.

"We'll go ahead." Orion walked in my direction and kissed my forehead.

"Wear your sweater. It's cold." I nodded as a response to Kolten as he was making his way and kissed my head.

"Take care."