The whole journey back to Hilldale was hell for the passengers that were in the vehicle with Denzel, but with the way the passengers kept their distance from him, all Denzel really cared about was knowing the date of that day.
Denzel looked by his side and saw how the passengers looked irritated at him. He smiled and shrugged, knowing the reason why they did.
The bus came to a halt and Denzel could already notice from the atmosphere that he was already at Hilldale. The passengers rushed out and Denzel, caring less about what people thought of him, walked majestically from the bus.
"Now then, where should I head to? My house isn't an option, so maybe… Teds'?" Denzel looked around him, and he could already see the changes that occurred at Hilldale.
Waiting for the next bus, Denzel sat on one of the few seats that were stationed at the bus stop. It was as if he kept on writing something on his palms.
"Only if those passengers weren't scared of me, I would have asked them about the date."
It was the same there, all the passengers walked past him, covering their nose with a handkerchief, sending complaints about his stench.
Soon, a bus arrived and Denzel walked in. He dropped in some cash into a basket and walked to a chair to sit on.
When the bus came to halt for the third time, Denzel looked out to check where they had arrived, and then he placed his head back on the window of the bus.
At that point, when the bus came to halt, someone walked in and sat beside Denzel.
Denzel was surprised, at the fact that someone would still actually want to stay beside him with the whole commotion he had been causing around him.
'Well, who cares, it's their loss.' Denzel thought, positioning his head back on the window.
Denzel didn't know why, but for some reason, the smell he perceived from the person who sat beside him was quite familiar, which made him raise his head to take a look at the person beside him.
He couldn't get a close look at the person. It was a female, and her long hair already covered up the left side of her face.
When Denzel couldn't get a closer look at the lady, he rested his head back on the window. Soon, his eyes began to close.
Denzel was about to fall asleep when something caught his attention. An old song, one he couldn't really recall, but sounded much familiar.
"Uptown… Hills?" Denzel didn't know why he knew the name of the song, he had never even listened to it on his own, but he knew he had heard the song at someplace.
He looked beside him and noticed that the song came from the earpieces the lady beside him fastened into her ears.
When he tried to ask about it, the bus had come to a halt and the lady beside him had already started to come off. Out of curiosity, Denzel ran out, following the lady.
"Hey!!!" Denzel yelled, reaching out his hands to thump the lady.
He pulled off his hood and tapped the person by her shoulder.
She looked back, and Denzel looked at her. He was shocked at the sight of who it was, and it was the same vice versa.
"Zoey?" It was quite obvious how surprised Denzel was at the sight of Zoey. He knew the smell he perceived earlier was one he knew, but that was when he understood why it felt so familiar.
"Wait? Den...zel?" Zoey looked at him, unplugging the earpiece she had in her ear. "Denzel, is this really you?"
"Yes, and you are Zoey, right?"
"Yes! It's nice that you actually remember me." She smiled, her head moving from up down and down up to look at him from head to toe, and she saw that he had even gotten more muscular than he was when she met him at Mountaly.
"Of course, I don't easily forget people, Haha," Denzel said, smiling, but deep down, he knew that if he hadn't seen her bike earlier that day, he wouldn't have remembered who she was.
Zoey covered her nose and looked at him with a grumpy face. "You reek." She said jokingly.
"Eh! You are just noticing that now? How did you even stay beside me on the bus?"
"Well, I couldn't hold my breath, so I just had to bear with it. But, I didn't know it was you, your hood covered your face, and you looked like an assassin." Zoey pulled her bag from her arm and began to search for something in it.
'She means if I actually was an assassin, she would still stay beside me? Wow,' Denzel thought, looking at her with a face showing how confused he was.
"Don't you have somewhere to go?" Denzel said, placing back his hood on his head.
All of a sudden, Denzel felt some chilly around him. He pulled his hood off and looked at Zoey, wondering what she was doing.
"Use this please, you stink..." She kept on spraying her cologne around him, moving around him as she did. "Now, we may walk together, wanna have a drink?"
Denzel was completely confused at what was going on, but he knew that it was a little different from earlier. People didn't really complain much about his smell anymore.
They both walked into a tea shop and Zoey walked towards the counter, ordering some drinks. She carried two cups towards Denzel, who already sat on a chair.
"So, Denzel, when did you arrive back at Hilldale?"
"Today. I left this morning." Denzel carried his cup of coffee and drank a little sip from it. To his greatest surprise, it tasted much sweeter than it ought to. "Oh, was it always this good, or is it because I haven't had it in years?"
Denzel raised the cup, and Zoey thought he wanted to Skoal with hers. She carried her cup up also, but when she did, Denzel put his into his mouth and drank it all.
"Zoey, can I get more?"
Zoey was more ruffled at him, but Denzel didn't notice it. "Get it yourself."
"I am flat broke, please…"
Zoey got up and ordered another. She couldn't blame him. For someone who had lived in the jungle for basically three to four years, eating nothing more than wildlife meat without seasoning, it was only natural that he would be fascinated by the sweet taste of the beverage he drank.
"Denzel, what made you come back to Hilldale? Is it because of what I said when I left Mountaly?"
"No, my tent collapsed, so I thought I would come home."
Zoey was already annoyed by Denzel's earlier reaction, and now she had gotten enough of it.
"Denzel, is that all?"
"Yeah." Denzel gulped the second cup of tea and dropped it down, giving off a relieving sigh after he drank it.
"You know, It's outstanding how you drink something this hot that quick."
"This is hot? Wow,"
Zoey always looked so beautiful, but looking at her, she was more beautiful than before. She wore a turtleneck sweater and a jacket on it.
"Zoey, what's the date today?"
"Uhmm, lemme check." She took her cell phone and put it on, checking for the date. "27th of June 2055."
"51, 52, 53…" It sounded like he calculated something with the fingers of his left arm.
"What's that?"
"Wait, I only used up to four years at Mountaly?!"
"Yes, what's wrong?"
"Damnn, I thought I used more than six years. I guess the time was much slower than I expected." Denzel shuddered, smiling.
"Wow, Denzel, this is the second time I would see you smile. Please do it once more."
"No, I won't. Never." Denzel scorned his face and stood up from the chair he sat on.
"Off to somewhere?"
"Yes. If we meet again, then that's cool. But for now, I have a lot of missions to complete. If you can still see me then and claim that we are friends, then you would receive something better than my smile from me."
Zoey was completely dumbfounded, hearing Denzel's words. She felt he was just spouting out nonsense, but she didn't know so much about him.
Denzel got out of the shop and everywhere was already quite dark. He entered into a taxi with the last cash he had in his hand.
The next place the taxi stopped, Denzel got out and walked towards a building.
It was already renovated, but it was not much different from when he left. He looked at the building of books, Ted's house.
Denzel walked towards the door and pressed the bell outside the door. In less than a minute, someone came to open the door. It was Ted.
At the sight of Denzel, Ted looked completely shocked, his cellphone falling from his palm.