Aurora Borealis

Chapter 26 - The Bigger Picture

>> • LAUREN • <<

I once got caught tapping on my phone by Mom at four in the morning. And even though I'm way past the legal age, she still confiscated my phone. At least, she doesn't ground me anymore.

As soon as I plopped on my bed after a tiring day today, I looked around to check if there are Mom's silhouette under the door. There's nothing bad about being cautious unless you overdo it.

I dialled Baldo's number but what welcomed me were just few rings. Looks like he's still on his way home. Better not overthink about it.

That's what I thought, three hours ago.

I'm done with dinner and is eager to go upstairs to check if he left some missed calls or voice messages on my phone, but there were no notifications received.

Perhaps he's studying, or he's busy creating artworks. He might be inspired as of the moment.

"Twenty-five... Twenty-six... Twenty-seven..." I muttered as I threw the ball against the wall, eventually bouncing back at me as I lied down on my bed.

It's nine in the evening. I tried bothering myself by sending Wendy and East some memes, although it doesn't seem to help since Wendy sleeps early and East turns off her phone during the evening to read. On the other hand, I know West is still the same old West.

I also checked Jamila's social media account to see if there's any update about her lately. It's been three days after her departure, and we haven't heard anything from her. She's quite photogenic so it seems that there's eccentricity that she didn't post about her photos on her vacation.

About Tohru, he asked me something regarding what I could suggest to help him find another alternative in order to keep his company from going rock bottom. I don't know much about business, so all I can do is to offer him some words that could console him temporarily.

As for Aero, we're not really that close. Occasionally, we talk when he asks if I'm with Baldo since he doesn't respond Aero's messages to him unless it's something important. I think Aero's messages were important, it's just that Baldo isn't the type of guy to reply often. Although it's a different case when it comes to me.

Speaking of, if Baldo's not going to respond to the last call that I'm about to make for this day, I'll go to sleep.

Fortunately after three ringings, he picked up.

" 'Sup?" tanong ko sa kaniya. "Are you busy?"

"N-Not really."

I noticed that the background from the other line is too noisy. The blasting sound of beating music almost made it seem hard for me to hear his voice. It's not that difficult to picture and guess where he is with the help of my intuition.

"Are you in a bar?" I followed up another question. "Sounds lively in there."

After a few moments, it went quiet.

"How are you?" he didn't bother to provide an answer to my question. I heard him taking a few soft sighs in between a moment.

"Still the usual. I didn't know you drink." komento ko.

"I don't."

I can't tell that much whether he's lying. I've never seen him got drunk.

"If you don't drink, then what else are you doing at a bar?" I chuckled by the sudden emergence of a thought, "Flirting with women? Conversing with a bartender—"

"Lauren, please not now."

Natigilan ako sa sinabi niya. Did I somehow crossed the line? Did I say something wrong?