The Sun, The Moon, and Their Stars

32 : Crowd

Kimberly

Mandark finally stops ordering me around and lets me go.

My feet are complaining, so I go to the restroom. And inside a cubicle, I put strips of Band-Aid on the spots that hurt.

When I open the door, I see Angela standing in front of one of the sinks, checking her face in the mirror.

She notices me and turns around. "Hey, Kim," she says.

She was my classmate once, but that was in our elementary school days. This is probably our only direct interaction in four years.

"H-hi, An-gel-a."

She's about to say something else, but she shakes her head instead and unsteadily offers me her teeth-y smile.

I just raise my hand and awkwardly give her a wave. Then I walk out of the restroom.

I sit back on the chair at the rightmost table designated for section wisdom.

Most of our batchmates are having fun on the dance floor, and some are with their respective groups all around the gym. But they all look blurry to me with the lights dimmed down.

Something blue is approaching from my left. He pulls a chair and sits on it. "There you are, Kim Possible." That voice gives me a good kind of chills.

I smile at Benjie. "Hey," I say.

He's smiling back, and his right arm is on the backrest of the chair I'm on.

"Are you officially off-duty now?"

A slow song is playing, and he's going to ask me to dance. I'm sure of it.

But just as I'm about to answer, his face turns serious. He loses the smile and creases his eyebrows. And he slowly starts standing up, looking at someone from my right side.

I turn and see Darlynne there. Lawrence is also a few steps away.

"Kim, I need to talk to you," she says.

"The last time you said that," Benjie snaps at her with sharpness in his voice, "something happened to her."

"Not this time. I promise," she assures him. "And Lawrence is here too," she points to her back, and Lawrence nods at me.

I stand up. "It's okay," I say to Benjie.

"Sure?"

"I'll be back," I nod.

The three of us start walking toward the doors of the gym.

We go outside and stand at the right of the entrance. Jonna's group is talking and laughing at the other side. There's a small truck meters in front of us. And we stand closer to each other, so we don't have to raise our voices.

"First thing's first," Darlynne says, looking at both Lawrence and me. "I'm sorry." Then at me, "especially to you."

I reach for her arm and hold it. "No need to elaborate," I say. "We know. And we get it."

"We missed you," Lawrence says.

She sniffs. "I know." Her eyes also start to well up.

"Please don't cry," I tell her.

She nods and sniffs once more. "Can we just put that awful year behind us and move on?" she asks, wiping one of her eyes.

"I don't see why not," I reply.

Lawrence places his arms on both Darlynne's and mine's shoulders, and we go for a group hug.

"I missed you guys too," she says.