All Which Remains

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Arron

When I wake up, my first thought is about whether or not Ramelan remembers the dreams. He hasn't given any indication that he does, but that doesn't mean that he hasn't had them either. If I ask him, would he lie?

I sit up in bed. Over in the bed beside mine, it looks like Ramelan isn't awake. I've always woken up after the dream ends, but it could be different for him. The best option would be to ask him. So, I try to.

I get out of bed and poke him on the cheek.

He shoots up out of bed and smacks me in the face.

"Hey," I say, "That wasn't nice. I was just trying to wake you up."

"Huh?" He looks around, disoriented. "Oh, morning."

"I was wondering if you had a dream last night." I try to hedge around the real question, but it's kind of hard to with such a direct question.

"No. I don't remember having a dream last night." It doesn't sound like he's lying, but I need to make sure.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, now let me get dressed." He then proceeds to kick me out. Meaning, he grabs my shoulder and hurls me out of the room.

We're acting like we hadn't had a humongous fight last night. That I hadn't walked around until it started raining, before I went home.

"Hey, Arron?" Ramelan says while we're sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Yeah?"

"Want to get some *klepon?"

"Sure, sounds like fun," I say, picking at the holes in my jeans.

It feels awkward with Ramelan because of the fight that we'd had. That and school has been canceled until further notice. Understandable. I hope that they're trying to capture the killer. I don't have a good enough reason to say no to Ramelan, otherwise, it might look like I was avoiding him.

I wish I could.

"Okay, there's a shop a few blocks down, if you want to walk there?" He seems kind of tentative in asking to hang out, which makes sense. He's not the type of person to take initiative in any kind of situation.

"Yeah, I'd love to go get some steps in." I smile at him, but he looks away.

He doesn't say anything else after that, but I get the memo. So, I go to the front door and put my shoes on.

After I finish double tying the laces, I look over and see that Ramelan already has his shoes on. It looks like he'd been working up the courage to ask me.

Adorable.

As we head out of the door, Mrs. Kirana tells us to be back before noon. Ramelan slams the door, and we're on our way. I look over at him. His ears are bright red.

Since the shop is only a few blocks away, we can take our time walking. I can't think of any small talk, so we just walk in silence. I can't stop replaying our fight over and over again in my head.

I feel like I'm going insane.

Why aren't we saying anything?

When we finally reach the store, I feel like I ran a marathon. I look at Ramelan. He's completely unbothered by everything.

Am I the only one overthinking things?

I have so many questions for him, but he just walks up to the front desk and asks for a seat. The hostess leads us to a patio seat for just two people. The table is wobbly.