To Express Happiness || Fayne ✔✔

The Cosmos ⭐

Two days later

The bell rings as the students leave the classroom, half exhausted for the English lesson, half excited for the declaration of the Baseball Tournament after the exams. The exam vibes are stronger than ever, and Aaron feels the rush: new school with new challenges. 

He approaches the locker just as Mr. Nestor comes near it. 

'' Morning, Aaron! How are your preps going?'' .

Aaron stands straight, knowing that he owes him big , after that collision last week. He feels relieved inside, knowing Mr. Nestor doesn't have any grudge against him, or maybe he's fencing them with that grin of his.

'' Morning, Mr. Nestor! It's perfect. I've started doing all the classes and submitted all the Eco assignments on time so I--'' .

'' That's great! '' , Mr. Nestor interrupted, with a tone that can easily be misunderstood as sarcasm , '' I have checked them too, except one.''

'' And what may that be?'' , Aaron asks, rubbing the back of his neck.

''Remember the assignment on Tax? Well..you got the questions wrong so you have to re-do the assignment.''

Aaron closes his eyes in regret, feeling his day squeeze with this additional task. Half of his face is begging Mr. Nestor to forgive his assignment, the other half feeling like  running away.

'' I'll try to do it by next week, Mr. Nestor.''

''Well..you mean 3 days right? Cuz it's Friday just so you didn't know...''.

Just as he heard those words, Aaron's head is already buzzing with all the questions and answers. He nods a good bye to Mr. Nestor, and wastes no time as he zooms out of the school and reaches home before expected. He climbs the stairs, mumbling all the questions as he does so , and he skips one stair and falls to the floor above. He gets up, still mumbling. That mumbling soon turns to 'Holy Sht' as he sees the laptop on the bed, with a note above that reads, ' For assignments only' .

Aaron excitement mixes with confusion. How did his mother know? Oh God, Mr. Nestor.

Without even keeping his bag down, Aaron opens it and logs into Facebook. His newsfeed shows old content; very old: all those sht pages that Aaron followed, all the sht people that Aaron never cared about, all the memes that deserve a 'meh' face now. They are not too old, just 2 weeks ago, and that, to Aaron, feels like 2 lifetimes. He shakes his thoughts off and goes to the search bar where he types something he should've typed a long time ago. 

'Zack Riley'.

From an immense list of Zack Rileys, it doesn't take him more than 5 seconds to find the right one.  Opening his profile was like opening a treasure chest, something grand and glorious even though you know what might be inside. Well, partially.

As he opens it up, the photo of a tall guy with deary eyes and long black hair brushed sideways appears in a circle, and the picture at the back of the circle is what makes Aaron's laptop almost slip from him as he tries to leap. It's Zack and Aaron's photo, when his head was on Aaron's and they shared the same headphones. When Aaron starts breathing again, he clicks on the photo as it enlarges, and tells a different story. It was a candid selfie taken by Irina, which shows Shae looking left while driving, Malcolm showing something serious on the phone to Neha, Ashley Instagramming and Zack and Aaron at the back, sleeping like two baby angels. Before closing, Aaron takes a long, last look at Irina's face, his head going blank. He closes it anyway.

Aaron scrolls down, and a post shows that Zack updated his cover photo an hour ago, with the caption : 'Us'.

Just a word of two letters and it makes Aaron's heart flip. He takes a moment to feel it; feel the belonging-ness that he longed to achieve. He scrolls down more, to find his profile picture with 499 likes. To make it satisfying, Aaron adds one more so it becomes 500, and wonders how popular Zack Riley could ever be with 500 likes while he barely manages to get 13.

He stops scrolling as he notices a group photo with the entire gang, that was uploaded the day before Aaron joined the school, which is not long ago. Everything in the picture is exemplary: Zack beside Ashley, Malcolm beside Neha and Shae beside Irina. Aaron wonders where he will fit, and this time, his alien feelings make him chuckle. 

Then suddenly the grin disappears as he goes to the next photo. It's a candid which displays Neha and Zack , talking to themselves before getting up on stage for drama. This causes Aaron to shift his laptop to the table from the bed, as he watches it more closely, hands crossed. Over the window, he could hear the neighbor sweeping the leaves, and except that, he is tuned to the silence of time flowing by. The moment was still. He didn't flash back again, didn't start daydreaming. Heck, he forgot about Irina for a while. It was just him and the picture. For a moment, Aaron could feel their presence in the room ; Zack and Neha sitting before Aaron , like a talk show ; instead, they don't talk. Silence speaks for them. Aaron looks at their eyes, as the exchange the same look : a look of blankness, a look of being muted : of losing your tongue, of losing your words. You are tied with thick ropes, and the long barrel of the revolver is stuck inside your mouth. You speak a word, you get shot so bad your mesh comes out of your body and splatters all over the room : a pathetic ending. How is it pathetic? You are blindfolded, so you'll never know who shot you.

Aaron feels like he's grabbing their hands and rubbing his thumb over them, affectionately, trying to coax them that everything is fine; that he understands what they are trying to express , , but they start crying, stomping their feet in frustration and agony that is seemingly endless. 

''Zack, Neha....I...I tried too. I wanted to make Irina understand what I felt for her, but everytime I ended up with blank compliments that didn't make any sense at all. I wanted to tell her about my dream...about how life could've  been  so heavenly with her and just her. I tried, guys..but I couldn't''. 

Zack has his head deep between his thighs, and Neha looks up. When Neha looks to Zack, he raises his head up and nods. After that, Neha pulls out a revolver from her jacket and points it at Aaron.

''Guys..! Don't!! I--'' .

Bam!

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////OO///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

''Bro..? BRO! Wake up!''. 

Aaron wakes up with his hand and hair drenched in sweat. The dark of the evening has spread across the street, and when Aaron checks the clock, it's already 8:40, which means 4 hours have past.

'' Mother's calling for dinner, and I won't bother to call you again '' . With a cold face, Ariana turns to the door and leaves.

Still gasping, Aaron shakes his head and assembles all the papers for assignment. He touches the touch-pad, and the laptop screen flashes the same picture. He closes everything and opens new tab, while rubbing sleep off his eyes.

Another bad-dream-turned-nighmare . To be real soon.