Begin Again

RED

It was a very special Friday. School ended an hour earlier for winter break. Everyone had smiles plastered on their faces as they left the school gates like a herd of wild horses, though a few of them decided not to join in the stampede. 

The temperature was starting to fall and the weather was chilly, Delano held on to his leather coat while his boots made trails of shoe marks with the sound of snow brushing against the ground. His friends walked alongside him, chattering about how they were going to spend their time during the holidays, while he was quietly lost in his own thoughts. 

Neither of them seemed to hold on to the fact that the trial regarding Flavien's case was to commence after the holidays, but Delano couldn't help but feel as if his life was starting to go on a roller coaster. One minute his family broke apart because his father had an affair, then his mother's career fell into a valley, and now he found out that his father was involved in drug-dealing. All these were enough for him to lose some of the holiday spirits. It was like he didn't know who his father was anymore. 

'You guys going to Max's Christmas party tomorrow night? He throws the best ones,' Zeke asked. Everyone answered except for Delano, who was staring at a snow-covered tree which had lost all its leaves to the season, and wondered if icicles would form on the branches when it rains later in the winter. 

'Delano?' 

'Oh, my bad,' He laughed when he realized he had been zoning out. 'Yeah, sure, I'll be there.'

'Great, see you tomorrow,' Fletcher waved them goodbye and everyone parted ways. 

Delano stopped by the bookstore on his way home, he hadn't discovered this part of the town before. The store smelt of paper and ink, somewhat resembling a hint of vanilla. The racks were arranged close to one another in the shoe box-sized store, leaving only space for one person to enter between them. Delano slid into one of the racks to find something to soothe the winter nostalgia he was missing. 

He took a deep breath and felt the beautiful scent of old books filling his lungs. He laid his eyes on a book on the shelf, a little too dusty to be new, but the touch of its pale yellow pages felt overwhelming, like it had some kind of history. Delano smiled to himself as he walked back to the counter with the book held in his hands. 

This is the book I need.

***

Friday nights are supposed to be the time to watch a movie, do something artistic or FaceTime an old friend. But sitting on the couch for the entire night was a little boring, and Delano knew himself too well to know that he wasn't exactly the kind of people who could just sit down and draw a masterpiece. He crossed out the first and second options. Though he would have called himself a people person back in his old school, deep down he knew that none of the people he met were his real friends, they just wanted to be seen, to be given attention, to heal their lonely souls that were desperately counting on fame to live. So with that, he crossed out the third and last option. 

He sighed and lay down on his bed with his body facing his study desk, and his eyes found some of his stationery sitting messily on it. The little perfectionism voice was speaking in his head, and he got up to arrange his desk. At first it was just a few pens and books, then it was wiping the whole desk, and it eventually turned into a huge cleaning session where he would wipe everything in his room and sweep the floor and make his bed. 

It took him two whole hours to finish off the work, and by the end of the day he was exhausted like a deflated balloon, but the state of his room was satisfying. Delano took a peep at the face of the clock on his desk, which he had just rubbed and polished, and decided to pay his friend a visit.