The Search: Light and Sun

Simply Overcome

Chapter 6 | Simply Overcome

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

- Plutarch

**Listen to "Liability" by Lorde for this part!**

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Jonas always found comfort in solace. Be it in his days of junior schooling when he would dig into his lunch in the battered corner of the school canteen, or when he played ping-pong all alone during P.E. without a care in the world. Or, be it 2 days after the passing of his beloved friend, when he chews on to the most scrumptious ice creams of Quail City, only to find tranquility in it all, from it all.

It's 6 in the morning when Jonas wakes up. He decides to skip school for a third day. His friends have been ringing him, trying to get in touch, but he was still processing the whole situation and decided to stay away for a while.

He was over Heath's passing, but it was difficult to accept the fact that a person you saw almost everyday smiling, was no longer alive.

He loves it when he has the house all to himself, his parents gone for work.

Jonas' face is illuminated by the television as he idly jumps from one channel to another, until his hand starts aching as he holds the remote for so long. He decides to watch Ross and Rachel's "WE WERE ON A BREAK!" episode and sets aside the remote, only to inadvertently massage his wrist.

What could he do other than wallow in loneliness, anyways? Granted that this is his comfort zone. But he has to at least let his friends know the existential crisis their pal is enduring.

No, that is an exaggeration. Nobody is going through a crisis!

"I'm alright!" he screams into the TV, immediately mortified by his stupidity.

He thinks of how they would react if he told them everything that happened 3 days ago. They would simply flip out without listening to another second of Jonas and his nonsensical lies.

When you have to lie to people you truly love, nothing can take away the feeling of guilt that you would inevitably drown in, unless...

He wasn't afraid of River, no, he was afraid of seeing dejected faces, who would leave him the moment they find out he had used them for going in to the Realm of Void. But he didn't...If only they understand...

Will they understand the circumstances he was put in? Of course he hadn't used them! But Jonas was too wrapped up in guilt to see that there was no victim, and thus, no criminal. His remorse was simply a blindfold that didn't allow him to take a look at the bigger picture.

"...and yet she was worth jeopardizing our relationship" Rachel hurls the bundle of newspaper over to Ross as it mishit, slamming the door behind him.

Jonas' parents will be working nights so he has the liberty of finally getting things straight with his friends. At least some plus points were tipped in his favor.

When the clock strikes 6:00 p.m., he rummages his files and books stacked up on his study, to find his phone.

He private messages each one to meet him at 7:00 calling it an 'urgent meet-up.'

He paces up and down the corridor with hands folded, eyebrows furrowed. This is even more frightening than he expected. He scratches his head, easing him from the anxiety, his fingers drumming on his arms.