"Go out with me."
"What?"
"I want you to go out with me."
"Are you out of your mind? You know that that's not gonna happen right?"
"I-I just…"
"You're a good friend to everyone and I treated you as one, but I don't see you as… I will never see you as much more than that."
"I understand…"
"Ranvier, I'm sorry but I don't feel the same way as you."
"But we could still be friends right?"
He walked away, never saying a word, never even looked back, never been the same since that day, the last day I saw Darvin and the last day I talked to him. That was the night of our graduation in high school, the day before my flight overseas, the day before the murderer with the axe strike.
I lay awake here in my bed, it's the first day of school and based on my mood I might skip school for the day. I grabbed my phone from the night stand, there's an email notification from the university I'm supposed to go to today. The email contains my class schedules for this semester, and since I only have one class for the day I decided to go check out the school and maybe take a walk around the neighborhood.
I jumped out of bed and put on some clothes. Someone knocks on my bedroom door and opens it. It was the man who adopted me, the man that acts as a father figure to me. His name is Fervo Salamat.
He claims that he's friends with my father and that my father entrusted me to his care. I was skeptical at first but as time went by I started to trust him. He treats me as his own son, he never had a family of his own and he was glad to have me in his life.
"Ah, it seems that you decided to finally go out of your room. Should I drive you to school?"
"Thanks Pops, but I'll just take the bus, it'll be easier for me to memorize the area."
"Are you sure? I was hoping we could spend some time with you. We could eat outside, shop for your new clothes, a nice quality time with you."
"Alright, since my classes end at noon we could eat lunch afterwards."
"Looks good to me. I'll get the car started."
He dashed out of the door and down the stairs. It's a surprise to see him that energetic despite his age. I grabbed my bag and put a notebook and a pen inside, it'll only be a class orientation so I don't need to bring too much stuff.
Pops were already on the driveway waiting for me, I opened the car door and went inside. Pops adjusted the rearview mirror and drove away. We entered the town proper, you could see shops everywhere, there's a coffee shop, a bookstore, an appliance store, every store you could imagine could be in this town. We passed the police station and the fire station, which could be helpful in case of emergency.
In my mind I'm creating a map of every shop and building I might check out later. The stoplight at the intersection ahead flashed red and we stopped a few meters away from the pedestrian lane, people started crossing the street completely blocking the view of the road ahead, the pedestrian signal started flashing and turns to red and the stoplight turned to green, but as soon as Pops stepped on the gas someone suddenly ran in front of the car. Pops quickly stepped on the break and the person quickly crossed the street, he looks like he's in a hurry, he must be late for something. Speaking of late.
"That was close huh?"
"Pops we need to go quickly, I'll be late for my class!"
Pops stepped on the gas and turned right at the intersection and at the end of the road was the university I'll be attending. Pops pulled up in front of the main door and I got out of the car quickly.
"Hey Ranvier."
I looked back at Pops waiting for him to say something.
"I'll see you later at lunch, good luck on your first day."
"Thanks Pops."
I went inside the building and went straight to the classroom, I was lucky that the instructor hadn't arrived yet. I searched for an open seat and found one at the back of the class. The guy next to the open seat looked at me, something familiar hits me to the core but I don't know what it was. I shrugged it off and walked to the open seat. I set my bag above the table and sat on the chair. I looked at the guy next to me, and he's giving this familiar aura around him like we've met before. I tried to remember everything, but then suddenly the instructor walked in and welcomed everyone to his class.
We started with introductions one by one. It started from the front of the class to the back. I'm not interested in who my classmates will be, all I care about is the subject. Until the guy next to me introduced himself to the class. I started paying attention to every word he said. I'm starting to take interest in who this person is.
He said his name was Darell Roman, they've only moved here a couple of weeks ago. I think he has the same height as me, his hair is black, and he has the same body type as me, not too skinny but not that stocky either, just the average body type for our height. He finished introducing himself and it's now my turn, he was staring at me the whole time I was talking and then I realized he was the guy that ran past in front of our car, and what's worse is his face bears the resemblance of someone I knew back home. The face of Darvin Moran.