"That's all for our orientation today, I hope to see you all at our next meeting."
The orientation ended rather quickly than what I'd expected, the instructor discussed the course syllabus and the requirements to be brought to the next meeting. Everyone stood up and started heading out of the classroom. The first thing I did was to look for the guy sitting next to me, but when I looked to my left he was gone. I scanned the room and saw him leaving the room. I reached the hallway in pursuit of Darell, I weaved through the crowd searching for him.
"Where is he? He shouldn't be hard to spot in this crowd."
The phone in my pocket vibrates, I pulled it out and Pops was calling. I answered it while still on my feet searching for Darell.
"Ranvier, I have some errands to run so I'm gonna be late, let's just meet at the mall okay? If you made any friends bring them… or not, your choice. Anyway that's all I got to say, I'm hanging up now."
"Pops wait, I saw the guy earlier, the one we almost hit with the car. We're classmates, I haven't talk to him yet, do you think I could invite him to lunch? To make up for what happened earlier."
"Sure bring him along."
"Thanks Pops!"
Pops ended the call and in the orner of my eye I saw Darell went inside the restroom, I made my way inside and saw him went inside one of the stalls. It would be awkward to talk to him while he's inside the stall so I took a leak and waited for him to go out of the stall. I finished taking a leak and went in front of the sink to wash my hands, Darell appeared behind me and stared at me through the mirror.
"Are you following me?"
"I- no, no, I'm not following you…"
We stared at each other long enough to build awkwardness between us, but he smiled and started walking towards me.
"You're lying, I can see it in your eyes. You're Ranvier right? You were the guy sitting next to me in class."
He's good. He can tell if someone's lying by just looking at the eyes.
"Yeah, I'm the one sitting next to you and you're right I was lying. I just wanted to talk to you."
"About what?"
"Do you remember what happened earlier on the streets? A car almost hit you while you were running across the street."
"Yeah, I remember."
"Uhm… my Pops was driving that car and I was riding inside. I was hoping we could make up for what happened earlier. I followed you to ask you if we could have lunch together with my Pops."
"Uh, sure sure. Your treat right?"
"Yeah."
He offered his hand for a handshake and I shook it.
"By the way, I didn't wash my hands."
I quickly pulled my hand back and looked at him disgustingly while he's laughing.
"I'll meet you outside the school."
He went out of the restroom still laughing at the joke he pulled on me. I finished up and went outside the school, I saw Darell is sitting on the bench in front of the school so I walked up to him.
"Darell do you know where the mall is?"
"Which mall?"
I stared at him when he asked which mall I was talking about. I forgot to ask Pops which mall we were supposed to meet. I quickly pulled out my phone and called Pops.
The line kept ringing and ringing but no one was answering. Maybe he's too busy to pick up the phone. I tried again for a couple of times and finally gave up.
"Pops's not answering his phone."
"So how would we know which mall to go to?"
"Which one do you recommend?"
"We could go to the closest one which is the Starmoon mall, if you want good food I recommend going to Stonefort mall."
"And are you ok with either of them?"
"Yeah, I'm fine with either of them. So which mall do you want to go to?"
"Let's go to the Stonefort mall, I'll just message Pops to meet us there."
We rode the bus to the Stonefort mall. We were both quietly sitting in the bus, until Darell's phone rang. It was a call from his mother, he told her that he was out with a friend and will be coming home a little late. The call ended and he looked at me.
"I was supposed to help out at the bakery today after school."
"We could catch the bus back and postpone the lunch today. Why didn't you tell me that you have something to do."
"This is the first time someone invited me out since we moved here, I will not pass on the opportunity given to me."
"Really? Don't you have any friends here?"
"Yup I haven't had the time to actually socialize with others. I was too busy helping my parents in the bakery."
"You're not the only one, I haven't really gone out of the house since we moved in."
"We're lucky to meet each other."
"Maybe it's fate…"
The Stonefort mall rolled into view, it is built with actual stone blocks, the one's you used to build castles a long time ago. Food shops and stalls lined up in front of the mall like a food bazaar is being held. The architecture inside was magnificent, it was like being inside a real renaissance castle but with a modern touch.
My phone buzzed, it was a text message from Pops, he said the meeting is taking forever to end and that I should go ahead and order some food for the three of us. I replied to him that he should hurry up his errands to catch up with us.
"What do you want to eat?" Darell asked.
"You…"
"What?"
"I mean what do you want to eat."
We decided on some greek cuisine and ordered some of their best selling dishes. The staff said that it will take at least 30 mins to prepare our food. Darell already found us a table, I sat across to him and waited for our order. Twenty minutes passed and Pops arrived, I introduced Pops and Darell to each other.
"It's so nice that you already made a friend. It will take your mind off of-"
"Pops!"
"What?"
"Now is not the time to talk about that."
The food arrived and we ate to our hearts content, we had the leftover food wrapped to take it home. Darell thanked us for the lunch and told us that he needs to go back to the bakery immediately to help his parents. I offered him a ride home. We found out that their bakery is just across the street from us. Darell thanked us for the ride and got out of the car, I got out of the car too and called Darell back.
"Darell… I know this would sound a little weird but, can I be your friend?"
"No."
"What? Why?"
"Because we're already friends before you even asked that."