Mikaal

19: Mikaal

"That was awesome!" Simon said with enthusiasm as he and Dalia's eyes readjusted themselves to the blinding light that shone through the cinema door entrance. Simon tossed the large, now empty, cylindrical container that was overflowing with popcorn earlier, in the bin to their left.

"Yeh, it was way better than I'd expected," Dalia said with a nod, chucking out her empty bottle of water behind him. "Remakes can be hit and miss, but I guess having a female Ghostbusters team did give the movie a totally fresh and fun new perspective."

"Yeh, Melissa McCarthy was hilarious! The story was good too."

"I so agree." Dalia flashed Simon a wide grin as they stepped outside the greyish-brown, one storey building, greeted by the cool winter air. Although her smile was genuine, truthfully, it masked ideas that had been brewing in her mind. She turned to face him as she rubbed her hands together for warmth, "Hey, I feel like a coffee... Unless you have to rush home?"

Simon beamed at the suggestion. "I don't have any plans," he said eagerly.

There were a couple of cafes just outside the cinema, Dalia leading the way to one with decisive steps. Although it had been Simon's suggestion to catch up again over a comedy movie after their karaoke laughs, since coming across that meme the other day on Facebook that had shifted Dalia's mindset into one of a detective, she was glad for this opportunity to fish for info, but this time, deciding to adopt a new approach - a more indirect approach.

So she purposely waited until after the movie before she even attempted to broach the subject, waited for the moment when Simon appeared his relaxed, jovial self - when his guard would be down.

When the coffees were brought out and placed on their square, walnut table for two, the heavenly smell of roasted beans wafted up to Dalia's nose, causing her to regret not having brought a packet of Tim Tams. Although it wasn't Monday - she liked to limit her guilty indulgence to Mondays only - she felt she deserved an extra day's reward after the recent ordeals she had been through.

Pushing the urge aside, she sipped her coffee, refocussing on the task at hand. She asked in a nonchalant way, "How did the rest of your exams go?"

"Most were good; Physics was pretty tricky..."

"But none as bad as Maths?"

Simon laughed, "No, definitely not. Maths was nuts. Everyone else I spoke to said the same. I'm hoping it gets scaled up..."

"Hey, good point!" Dalia said, her eyes dilating with excitement at the prospect, hope awakening within her that she might actually have a chance at passing! It was funny, the grading system at UWA, how marks could be adjusted for a number of reasons such as, to ensure consistency in the 'quality' of grading or so that the marks given truly reflected the achievement of the students - so you either hoped to pass or that everyone else also failed, where the latter would suggest the exam was unjustifiably too difficult.

Realising Simon's comment had distracted her from her initial intent, she changed gears, taking another sip of her latte before she casually asked, "Did you say you shared any other subjects with Mikaal?"

Simon's eyes flashed with an emotion she couldn't name but it was almost like Spiderman's 'spidey-senses' going berserk. "No..." he said too carefully.

"I guess that's a good thing... You probably wouldn't have wanted to see him. I don't know what he did to you, but it must've been bad."

This time, Simon was deadly silent, his face blank, his expressions controlled. He eventually shrugged. Shortly, his phone buzzed. The relief in his eyes at the interruption was only momentary but Dalia didn't miss it.

'Pff, an Android,' Dalia noticed, wondering to herself what it was about boys and preferring Android phones - first Blake, now Simon? Was it because they liked things to be more complicated? She hadn't paid much attention to Simon's phone before, but then again, it would have changed over the years as new models were released, so maybe he had had an iPhone at some stage but changed to an Android? She had to ask him - had to convince him he had made a mistake if he had made the unfortunate switch...

'Blake...' Dalia creased her forehead. Why did Android phones have to remind her of Blake now? And then she remembered her dream - that damned recurring dream...

Not only had Simon distracted himself, he had succeeded in distracting her for the second time. But unperturbed, Dalia persisted, saying, "I know you don't want to talk about him - "

"He's not a good guy," Simon cut in, his voice quiet, but avoiding her gaze, pretending to be concentrating on enjoying his coffee, he wouldn't elaborate.

Dalia could feel her temperature rising, her heartbeat growing erratic in rhythm. How could he make such a statement yet not explain why? It was even unlike him to badmouth someone else without a legitimate reason - which made the whole situation all the more confusing.

She clenched her left fist below the wooden table, her head throbbing as she began to lose hope in her plan. 'Simon should work for the Australian Federal Police,' she thought to herself - who, like the FBI, typically looked after matters of national security. It was proving impossible to draw out even a sliver of info out of him.

"I wish you'd trust me and just stay away from him," Simon continued boldly, his eyes meeting hers this time, looking cool yet imploring - again, so out of character.

Already pissed, in a clipped tone, Dalia responded in defiance, "Simon, you know me. I don't like to judge people by what others say. Mikaal comes across genuine to me. So as long as you don't tell me what's so bad about him, I'm going to continue to see him as a friend."

As if he hadn't already needed shutting up, her words ensured he remained mute the rest of their awkward catch up. Yet still the optimist, she waited, watching him fiddle with his coffee cup and then his napkin, hoping her statement would cajole him to give her something, anything. But for the first time, he didn't even try to lighten the mood with a funny quip, the atmosphere between them growing in tension.

Dalia sighed to herself before she gulped the rest of her coffee that had grown lukewarm. As she bore the unpleasant experience, the milky liquid neither hot enough nor cold enough to be enjoyable, she at least came to one conclusion - that whatever Mikaal had done, it couldn't have been that bad. Because surely if you knew your best friend was getting close with a serial killer, you'd say something?

On the topic of Mikaal, she would be seeing him in a couple of days. Luckily, she had a 'plan b' - trying to gather clues from talking to Mikaal, something she hadn't considered before because of not really knowing him long enough...

After her Facebook message to him the other day, Mikaal had immediately responded, saying he would always care about her - 'care' how much exactly still wasn't clear. Nonetheless, they had chatted back and forth about Maths and sports and a few other common interests when eventually, Dalia had decided to bite the bullet, saying, "We should catch up since it's holidays."

At exactly the same moment, Mikaal had messaged, "I miss you. Let's catch up."

After an exchange of 'LOL's, he had taken charge from there, telling her he had the perfect post-exam activity in mind, but it would be a surprise.

---

Hey hey hey!

Happy New Year!! Hope you have had an awesome 2017 - mine's been awesome as you know, writing this! :)

2018 is even more exciting - with what I have in store for you... ;)

-Noelle