Marked

Paintings

Narrator POV:

Philip thought this day wouldn't get worst the minute he stepped into the cafeteria room, he thought that he'll lift this godforsaken mood out of his system when he finally saw his two friends just chattering away till the bell rang.

But sitting across from Malay who is fuming in rage due to Indo not being here is an understatement of what he thought would occur in his mind.

The cafeteria bustles with students, noises everywhere both loud and quiet but he didn't take any mind to it, he was too worried for his friend to care about anything that is happening around him.

His mouth tightened to a small frown when he saw how hard Malay stared at the grey tabletop underneath him, with his arms leaning on the other that stayed closely in front of his chest. His form in slumped sitting position as if hiding himself away from anyone, mostly Philip.

Philip hesitantly spoke, words carefully slow with reassurance.
"Malay?...is everything okay?"

Malay's fist tightened when he uttered the sentence but silence still prevailed for both of them. Philip notices the slight movement carrying more concern for his friend. Philip sighs silently, his gaze glued to the Malaysian's form.

He remembers how Malay doesn't like talking about emotions that are connected to him. Sometimes he used small snippets of movements to show what he was feeling right now...
Like how his fist tightened slightly, how his eyes stared only at one object and his mouth shut into a small thin grimace, holding onto that one last bit of calmness he doesn't want to let go.

Philip knows this because Malay is his friend, a brother. Who often told the group he is the responsible one and yeah, he was right, but just like Indo and Philip he often acts like them in a chaotic sense.

"You know you can talk to me...right?" Malay stayed silent, but it seemed like he heard it on how his fist twitched a bit but slightly it unfurled in a tense but still manner, his shoulder considerably washed away the bits and pieces of rage leaving behind a more perplexed emotion settling on his face.

His angry grimace of a frown was now just...a small frown. The one which held a sadden confusion.

"I-..." He cut himself off, trying desperately to find the right words like he hasn't planned on talking in this situation.
But Philip waited for him to talk. The quiet he displays lets Malay consider his own monologue, encouraging him to speak.

"God, I just-..." He laughed a little bit, his hand brushing through his hair stressfully "I thought he would...I don't know. Be here or some shit?" The Malaysian choired expectedly "Indo?" He nodded with a humorless scoff at Philip's words.

"I was really hoping he would be here and explain...?" He pondered with his hand moving across the side of his throat upsettingly "He told me in DM's that he'll talk to me face to face but...I guess that promise is thrown out the window." Malay mused sarcastically.

"Maybe he's just late." He reasoned with Malay reassuringly.

Malay glanced at the cafeteria entrance for a bit before breathing out with a scoffing smile "It's been like, 30 minutes. Bell's about to ring and he is still not here." He shrugged sluggishly, grabbing his phone out as if he was waiting for a text from a certain someone who made him like this.

"Than maybe there's something preventing him to come here, like teachers asking him to check some papers or a possibility he was being scolded at for dumb stuff right now." He smiled at the end, trying to make light in the atmosphere.

"If that's the case, he should've DM me." "I'm pretty sure he would Mal. Not right now but later." And that made Malay think deeply at the thought, holding a semblance of solace in Philip's words. He still stared at the screen, looking at Indo's number waiting, until he finally closed it, as he put it in his pocket with an exhale.