Love Fiction

Chapter 5

            All of us sat in a circle. My heart was palpitating. Before my eyes sat the people whom I’ve always considered closest to my heart, but never have I thought I would get the chance to meet them. I mean, this meeting was beyond a rabid fan getting backstage passes to her favorite rock band; this shouldn’t even be possible! It had been pretty much a miracle that I had gotten this far without trying to feel their skin, touch their hair, hyperventilate, or pass out from the utter excitement. These are the guys who would get me through my lonely nights, and whom I would call my best friends when I had no one to comfort me, although I had never met them before. And here they were.

            “Could you stop staring at us? It’s freaking me out,” muttered the guy in the loincloth. I could already guess who he was. “W-what’s with the giggling?”

            “Maybe it’s because of your clothes. What’s with them, anyway?” laughed the soccer boy.

            Embarrassed, he blushed and grumbled, “Shut up. I didn’t want to dress like this…”

            Older than the three of them, the guy in the scrubs quietly twiddled his thumbs.

            “Enough!” Hiro roared. All of us flinched and stared at him. He swiftly turned to me and demanded, “Let’s stop all of the small talk and get to it. Who are these guys?”

            I fidgeted with the hem of my nightgown and hesitated, “Um… Well, I guess you already know Prince Arion…” I shyly looked at Prince Arion.

            But the guy in the loincloth spoke up. “We can introduce ourselves.” He gave a serious look to my cautious friend. “I’m Christopher Armstrong. I was on a mission from Earth to explore an alternate world version, um, thingy of Earth. Uh, I-I don’t normally dress like this, okay? When my team landed, we were found by an advanced race of, I guess you could say, aliens, and they dressed us up in their native clothing.”

            “Question,” said the soccer guy with his hand raised.

            “Yeah?”

            “Is it breezy under that cloth?” He had a huge grin plastered on his face.

            Christopher shot him a dirty look, which sent the soccer guy into a fit of giggles.

            “Okay!” the boy in the soccer uniform exclaimed. “My turn! I’m Quinn Richards and I’m seventeen-years-old! I like girls and adventure, okay?” He winked at me, which caused me to blushed. Hiro just rolled his eyes. “I’m wearing my soccer uniform right now, but I guess I can do any sport, now that I think about it. But honestly, I really do love acting. Don’t ask me to study with you, though, because you will surely fail!”

            Christopher scoffed, “What kind of introduction is that? It sounds like you’re speaking into your webcam for one of those dating websites. What about where you’re really from?”

            Quinn tapped his finger on his chin. “Well…that, my dear Chris…” He gave him two thumbs-up with a smile. “Is a secret for now.”

            “My name is Christopher. Not Chris.”

            The red-haired guy with the scrubs piped up timidly, “Um, I’ll go now. I’m Jim Redding and I volunteer at a mental institution…” He rubbed his neck and then noticed that Hiro, Christopher, and especially Quinn were gaping at him. “A-ah, it’s not a big deal or anything! Actually, the people are very nice there! And I’m not just talking about the staff, either! In fact, I had a very good relationship with one of the patients. But, anyway, y-yeah…” He smiled bashfully, not knowing what else to say. Then the realization hit me, and I looked from Jim to Quinn, back and forth. Quinn looked absolutely shocked, as if he didn’t know what to expect from this person, and of course, Jim didn’t know about Quinn’s previous situation about being in a psychiatric hospital.

            I hope things are going to turn out all right, I thought.

            “Whoa…i-isn’t it scary to work in a place like that?” asked Hiro, forgetting about the situation.

            “I can only imagine what you have to see and do there…” murmured Christopher. “I mean, the closest things I have as reference are what I’ve read in books.”

            Quinn stayed silent, losing his playful face, and Prince Arion had no idea what they were talking about.

            I hope everything will be all right between Jim and Quinn, I thought hopefully.

            “Okay...” Hiro stood up and began as he turned towards me. “Clara, you need to tell me what happened. What kind of magical, voodoo thing did you do last night?” He got up and started to rummage through my book collection.

            “Hiro, what are you-“ I started to ask.

            “Do you have some books on black magic? Is that what you used?” He didn’t stop rummaging through my stuff. “Hey. Your bookshelf is too tall, so get me your chair.”

            I got up and put my hands on my hips. It’s time to put an end to his douchery. “Oh my God. You’re being ridiculous. Are you really accusing me of using witchcraft to do this? And stop going through my things. That’s really rude!” Everyone watched as he continued on his rampage through my room. “Hiro!”

            He stopped in front of me. I gasped; we were so close that we could have been bumping chests. Hiro asked firmly, trying not to be as frantic as he had been the whole morning, “What happened last night?”