How Jack Wrote The Universe (Revised)

2.75

Day two (p. four)

AS soon as Jack finishes his shift, he immediately look around to see if Ari is already there. Shifting his sight to every corner of the room, he finally finds his friend in his most serious form on a table in the far left corner of the shop; Ari's chin is place atop of his right palm as his elbow rest on the table while his left hand carefully hugs a brown mug.

Removing his brown apron, Jack places the thing under the counter before standing properly while he rakes his finger through his thick, brown hair. Jack jogs from across the room then to the table where Ari sits at.

The moment he sits, it is as if Ari hasn't felt his presence yet. The Indian boy's glance still stuck on the dandelions that is planted outside the glass.

"Hey," Jack smiles.

Immediately Ari looks to Jack, his forehead creasing ever so quickly then back to normal as his eyes lies to Jack.

"What's up?"

Then the Indian boy thinks about everything he's known so far. About the lies Ladi made. The journal. The parents who don't seem to care. Everything. A single question laying on him after;

Should he tell him?

It isn't an easy feat due to the fact that, as days pass by, Jack's pedastal for Ladi seems to get higher and higher. Ari wants to avoid that - no, he wants to avoid breaking that because he knows, some time now that, if Ladi did hide something bad, it will definitely depress Jack.

Jack is soft; easily attach to everything.

"She lied." Ari suddenly blurts out. Damn, he thinks.

For a moment, Jack's eyes loses its enthusiastic gleam then it turn into the in betweens of confusion and false enthusiasm.

"What?"

Ari sighs, "I said she lied. At least about her last name."

"What do you mean?"

Licking his lower lip, Ari moves his right hand to stir the warm coffee in front of him.

"I mean, Ladi's last name isn't Highmore. It's Quinn. She lied about it."

"To the whole school? How did she did it?"

Ari takes a sip from his coffee before settling it back down again on the wooden table. "Well, maybe she used Quinn when she enrolled then when she'd introduce herself to her friends, she'd tell them a different last name but then uses Quinn on her tests."

"Right. And we didn't know about it because the teachers often just call her Ladi." Jack finalizes before bitting his lower lip as his gaze settles on the orchids behind Ari.

"But why did she lie?"

The Indian boys sighs. "Don't know. But, I think it's his biological father's last name - Highmore. Quinn, if I remembered right, is her step father's."

"So what," Jack pauses while he looks intently at Ari. "She used his biological father's last name because she hated his step father? The cliché teen melodrama?"

"Or, they hate each other. I've visited her house, Jack. Ladi lives alone. And all of her things are either going to charity or to a garage sale. I mean, if a family member of mine died, I don't think I'd be able to let go of her things quickly. And, she lives alone." Ari explains, his voice turning into something malicious as he repeats the same statement.

"So the abhors-each-other scene then?" Jack asks, raising his left brow to Ari.

The boy chuckles lightly. "Maybe. Or maybe not."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know man," Ari pauses as he thinks whether he should tell Jack about the journal and about how they should dig more. About how suspicious it is that Ladi, a girl who had everything -- except for the proper family -- can kill herself. Sure, it is a sad thing to not be loved by your own family but there is just something wrong.

And somehow, after what Ari found out, he wants to uncover everything still.

"It's just - I think there's more to it than that."

"What do you want then?" Jack asks as he clasps both of his hands in front of him; his elbows standing proudly as his chin rests lightly atop the back of his hands.

"We need to dig a lot more deeper, Jack."

And by that Ari means: I need to get the journal and find out what really happened.

______

Day four

HE'LL get them.

Every day before the school starts and after it ends; the same word written with a black sharpie by the same scrawny hand writing has properly etched the never ending noun on his navy blue locker.

And the Indian boy will always think, 'Ignore them. One day, you'll be on the top of the world and they'll be down here. In the same gutter they've been born in. And you'll step on them.'

But as the years pass by -- three years to be exact -- nothing's changed. The same words still finds itself on his locker. Ari thinks for a while that he has gotten over it. But he hasn't. He tries to not to be so sour about it, though. He's been depressed for a while - on worse condition, and he's promised himself one thing; he'll never go back.

It won't be easy though if the same word can still paste itself on his locker.

After rubbing the thing with alcohol, he slams the door shot. The blue-coated metal's wham! echoing through the empty hallway.

As Ari leaves for the door, the faint gray sharpie the previous black pen left, finds itself still visible on the storage's door if anyone just looks hard enough.

Terrorist. It says.

______

A chapter for poor Ari.
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