Vista

chill

Every human being sure had a way of reacting to the hottest and most intriguing parts of a movie; eyes wide open, stashing popcorn in the mouth, eyes glued to the screen, total silence.

And like every other person in the room, Ethan's eyes were glued to the screen.

But there was one big difference; he wasn't really watching.

From time to time, I would glance at him. Sometimes he looked like he was trying to figure out something. And at other times, he looked like he had to do something.

He looked like he also had interesting scenes going on in his head.

I tapped his jaw lightly, pulling his face in my direction. His eyes said a lot but when I tried to read them, he would pull me in a big hug.

"Yo E. What's tomorrow's plan?", I hadn't realized that they'd paused the movie and turned on the lights. They all felt that he wasn't watching because his side comments were dead.

"Not sure for now, dude." He walked up to the fridge to get canned drinks.

"We could go for a long ride. Or even still a picnic." Everyone seemed pleased with the idea.

"What about Ethan's mum?"

"Ah", everyone chorused.

"Yeah, I almost forgot. She's our mother and we need to take care of her."

Ethan placed the drinks on the table, holding altogether the parcel his mum gave him.

He suddenly smiled, and my heart raced. Urgh. A feeling that never gets old.

"I'm already so used to opening my mum's gifts. I think some other person should open it. If I do, it will just be as ordinary as the others she's given me."

"We vote?"

"Yeah. Lucas."

Lucas smiled and licked his lips, which caused me to chuckle.

"Wait!" Ethan shouted, then held his chest while faking a cry, "I think I'm having a crisis."

I rolled my eyes.

Tony continued, acting like Ethan. "Can someone please call the doctor?"

"I might pass out in a few minutes! Help!" Samuel fake-screamed which caused all of us to laugh.

"Mrs. Lavender is a good one. I will never forget her."

"She went to Spain last week."

"Sounds nice. She can just keep crying 'Mi Amor'!"

All the guys kept laughing their lungs out.

"Oh." Lucas' eyes were glued to the contents of the parcel. He wasn't surprised tho. He just squinted them.

"What's that?"

"Just two envelopes." He handed them to Ethan, whose eyes were slowly widening than they usually did.

He opened the first one, which seemed to have been a letter. Then the other one was a picture.

"No way."

All eyes were glued on him, waiting to say what was going on.

"No way." He opened the letter again, and instead of reading it, he gave me.

When I opened it, I almost cupped my mouth with my hand. It was a divorce letter. The divorce his dad demanded from his mum.

Why I didn't cup my mouth but squinted my eye was because I looked at the picture and I saw a basketball pitch. It was all very confusing.

"As you guys know already, my mom got a divorce last year. In court, my father refused to share any of his property with her and her children, because he claimed that he wasn't the father and he had kept his actual property for his 'children'."

"You mean, Mr Cheshire?"

"Yeah."

"Damn, I still cannot believe your dad did that to you. After everything he did for us when we were kids."

"True. It's like two completely different people. You should've done a DNA test."

"He refused." Tony interrupted, and then Ethan took over again.

While Ethan continued, I couldn't help but pick up the picture again to have a good look. The basketball pitch screamed new, with well-polished floors. When I turned the picture, there was a note at the back:

Here's for you and your wonderful family, your team. It was the only thing I could get from the money I fought for your father to give me during the divorce. I hope you all make something small out of it. I love you all so dearly!

"Jesus."

Ethan took the picture again, this time realizing the note at the back. "Oh, it's self-explanatory. You guys go ahead, read it, and tell me what you think."

I picked up the divorce letter again, this time trying to find the figures. Did she fight so much that she could get them a basketball court? She had gotten through a lot and was still trying to make him happy.

"Wait, you mean this is ours?"

"Like for real?"

"Boy, this is sick."

"I just wonder why she had to fight that much. Also makes me understand why she's been taking the medications for too long. She was fighting for my satisfaction."

The room was quiet. So quiet.

"Plan H."

"Clearly. She knew it. I always talked to her about it since the time we brought up the idea."

"So, what do we do now?"

"We need a plan. We need to figure out how we'll bring our dead ideas back to life."

"What are we even talking about?" Tad asked, "What are we going to do with such treasure?"

"Come on, Tad. Don't be so lame." Sam complained.

"Relax, dude. There's a lot we can do with the court that'll leverage our earnings. We could give it out for games, we could organize games ourselves, --"

"--depending on the location. Fortunately, we're open people."

"Yeah. That's a plus. And there's you, Ethan. You could bring Cambridge with just a wink."

He chuckled. "I know, right?"

"Ethan, what about MIT?"

That was the one that got everyone saying their opinion without thinking and without waiting for the other to finish talking."

"It's okay. Fine. Emilia will go to MIT in my stead."

"Huh?" Elsa asked all of a sudden. "Green grass, are you going to just sit there and watch him take you from me?"

I was surprised myself. It wasn't something we'd discussed about, and I wasn't even ready to leave him for school.

"Sorry, El. What I'm trying to say is, come on, guys. I got a job already and I have a family to take care of. Then there's all of you to look after."

"Anyways, we'll find another day to talk about all that. For now, it's chill time."

We watched another movie. And another. And another. Now, it was me who wasn't watching.