It was early in the morning and I planned on sneaking out to the Mystical Academy to visit Mr. Sander. It seems things didn't go well today. I saw Eliza on the corner crying. Nobody is around so she's free to cry and cry until she wants. I wanted to walk away and ignore her and pretend that I didn't see her crying. But my feet just drag me towards her and my butt drops on the ground beside her.
"Hey," I said it cool for her to know my presence. "What's wrong?" Should I ask if I already know the answer?
"I and Nick broke up yesterday." She started. I stay quiet though I know why Nick dumped her. But the most appropriate word is breaking up with her. "I don't know what to do." She cries with a few hiccups. "I tried everything. I just can't live without him. He still loves Adhiti, he never loves me. I was there for him all the time. Why didn't he see my effort and my love?" she swallowed hard and wiped her tears but it was changed by another tear. "Adhiti was my best friend. She was always kind to me." She started as she sipped some air. "I was so in love with Nicholas before they became together. We were childhood friends, but he always saw me as a girl in his childhood and as a sister. I tried to be kind like Adhiti; I tried to be like Adhiti. But those things are just a stupid idea of me. I'll never be Adhiti that's why he breaks up with me."
"Why Adhiti?" I asked her. She looked at me for the very first time.
"Why Adhiti?" she asked me as if it was a joke.
"You think that it is because of Adhiti why Mr. Gregory broke up with you? Is she the one to blame everything around here?" I asked her monotonously. I stayed impassive and emotionless about it.
"She's their every reason, Catastrophe." She said it bitterly. "Adhiti, Adhiti…" she said the name all over again. "Nick's one great love. She's dead and now a girl who exactly looks very much like her appeared out of nowhere."
"You think I'm Adhiti?" I asked her. She looked at me into my eyes.
"You look exactly like her. But those eyes speak differently. Adhiti's eyes are kind, compassionate, and cheerful. Yours," she looks away and leans her head at the wall. "You are emotionless, fierce… I can't read you."
Read me? Does she know how to read people too? Patrick, who is a mind reader, and a telepathic person can read my mind because I show him so. Is she like Patrick?
"What's peculiar about you why you're here in Mystical Academy?" I am asking out of curiosity. I guess that it is enough for her to know that I know nothing about her. She laughs bitterly on my question as if I was joking.
"I am a daughter of a great psychic of the Kingdom of Psychē. The only granddaughter of the King."
"Hmm, that's quite a royalty." I murmur. "So you can read minds and have clairvoyance?"
"Something like that." She said with a little smile.
"You see, I don't know how to comfort people because I never had a best friend or friends."
She was quiet for a while and I found her smiling. I don't know why she's smiling but it looks creepy to me.
"I have best friends and they know how to comfort me."
"Adhiti and Marissa." She nods. We were quiet for a while and I cannot hold my tongue anymore. I should blurt it out since the very first. "Adhiti was your best friend, but you are in love with her boyfriend. She was gone for, two years from now… if I am not mistaken. Did you take that advantage for you to make Mr. Gregory for you?" I asked her. She seemed taken aback by my question. I don't want to apologize because I am supposed, to be frank.
"Yes. Because every time I see them, I am the one taking all the pain." She said it with full of hatred. Why hatred, Eliza? I wanted to ask her that.
"Do you hate her?" I asked again. She chuckled bitterly, finding my question very funny. She pushed her head back and laughed a little.
"I hate her? Yes, I do hate her. Because she's kind, she's appealing and everyone likes her very much. And the thing I hate is because she has Nick. She made Nick fall in love with her." She said it. Adhiti felt that she's been backstabbed. She's in pain. I am here to push back those pain and just feel so bad to her.
"You said that she's kind. Perhaps, are you feeling insecure towards her?" I asked in my usual cool, monotonous tune.
"Insecurity?" she chuckled bitterly again. "I don't feel that." Liar. "Nick enjoys fucking me than her. Why would I feel insecure towards her?" She knew irony too. If I was Adhiti, I could slap her across those cheeks. "I'm sorry…" she suddenly said when she realized that she goes that far. She sniffled and inhaled the air. "I hate myself."
"It's alright," I said smirking at the back of my head. "I don't understand those things. I also hope that you let go of some pain by talking to me. I have to run right now." I said and stood.
"Wait!" she stopped me by holding my hand. Her hands are cold but suddenly get warm and when she looks into my eyes, her eyes flash a different color and she stopped like something is happening inside her head. Alright, then I will make this trick to tell her that I wasn't Adhiti. "Your hands are talented." She said with a little smile. I know what she sees. I can see it too inside my head. "At first, I thought you are Adhiti, but maybe you are just her doppelganger." I am relieved that she thinks that way.
"Do you believe in those things?" I asked out of curiosity. She nods.
"Thank you for oddly comforting me." Said it with a smile. I just nod and leave. I walked around the parking lot to find my bike but unlucky it wasn't there. I have my keys with me and I have to get it.
My eyes lit up when I knew where it was located. It is probably located in the gym. Nicholas will put it there for me not to go alone. I still don't know why he would be so overprotective. I am not Adhiti. I found it covered with fatigue. I pull the fatigue and sigh in defeat. It has chains.
"You think I will let you go all by yourself?" A man speaks behind me. It wasn't Nicholas but Patrick and Andrew.
"What do you want?" I asked them coldly.
"You know, if you wanted to meet someone outside the Academy, just let us be your guard," Andrew said with a crooked smile.
I say I don't have any choice but to abort my mission on sneaking outside. However, after a few hours, I found Patrick and Andrew busy on their things so I brought a tool to break the chains. I feel like a tiger being captured and locked up in a cage for years and so wild now that I am free.
I stopped at a gas station to refill my tank. Then I called Mr. Sander to meet me. He told me that he will wait in the café that he owns and where I used to go for my violin lessons. It takes two hours to get there. I parked my bike in the parking lot and familiar people are around. I put my helmet on the bike then I walk towards the café. As I enter, the bell rings for the people to acknowledge that there's another customer.
Marcus Sanders turned to the direction of the door. He smiled immediately and removed the apron and walked towards me. He hugged me like I was his long lost daughter.
"C, I am so happy that we finally met." He said excitedly. I smile a little which is odd to me to smile these days. "Come, I bet you are hungry and tired."
He pulls me towards the comfortable chairs and table near the counter. He gave me the menu and I didn't peek on it. I told him the usual food that I will order. He told me to look again on the menu and he said that he got a new specialty. His smile is wide and genuine. I turn the pages of the menu and can't help but to smile.
"See, it is your favorite five-season fruit shake and vegetable patty burger. Do you still want the usual?" he asked.
"I think you make me change my mind." He giggled and patted my head.
"You are like a daughter to me. Since George is busy in his career I will be your guardian." He called his serviceman and told him to prepare the food. The part-timer nodded and Marcus faced me again. "So, how have you been? Are there bullies?"
"No. Not really." I told him. "People are odd, they thought me as Adhiti because I am so much like her."
"Really," he intertwined his fingers and propped his elbows and leaned his chin over his intertwined knuckles. "Does Adhiti's family recognize you like her?"
"Yes. Also, her ex-boyfriend who is now my instructor." My order didn't take long and it settled on our table. Since it is his treat, I enjoy eating it. I also bet that he made it for me.