"Joe, what's up?" Jerrod greeted his friend. He arrived at a pub that his friend suggested.
"Hi, Je. Finally, you invited me to drink!"
Jerrod and Joe had an energetic fist bump as soon as they met at the pub entrance.
The two managers may act indifferent to each other whenever they are in the office, but outside of work they are drinking buddies.
"It's rare for you to ask for a drink first." Joe put his arm over Jerrod's shoulder to tease him for calling for a drink first.
"Why? Is it bad for me to ask?" Jerrod replied. He stood straight to make it harder for Joe to maintain his arm on his shoulder. Joe is a tall, lean man, but he looks short whenever he stands beside Jerrod.
"No. I thought you were heartbroken or down for asking me to drink."
"Haha, the fuck with that."
The two went inside the bar, where they had a lot to chat about.
They rented a room even if it was just the two of them because of how Jerrod hates socializing with others.
"Hey, dude. I think you should learn how to drink in the public area, at least at the bar counter. You know how much my reputation was stained because of you."
"Why? Has the rumor that you are gay died down yet?"
Jerrod burst out laughing after remembering the funny rumor that circulated in their office. Joe was rumored to have slept with a man after they saw Joe going inside a rented room with him. They were only drinking together, but the rumor circulated differently.
"How come they recognized me entering a room with a guy even if that guy was you? How come they didn't recognize you?"
"Haha. You just have bad luck."
"Bullshit. Anyway, this cost us another bill. Why can't we just drink at your house like usual?"
"My house won't do."
"Why?"
"I am renovating it." Jerrod lied. It would be strange to invite someone into an empty house, and he doesn't have the intention of telling Joe about his situation. They were drinking buddies, but their relationship was not that deep for Jerrod to share such things.
"Wow, dude. You really have a lot of money for doing that twice a year."
"Yeah, whatever."
While Jerrod was looking for a chance to talk about Larissa Mutya, Joe and Jerrod had a few drinks together.
"Larissa Mutya? Oh, she's my classmate at senior high. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I just recently saw her. I was just curious, what was she like in high school?"
"You saw her?" Joe laughed loudly before continuing his sentence, which made Jerrod perplexed. "Does she still look like a guy? The mustache girl. haha"
"Mustache?"
Jerrod's eyes widen after hearing more about Larissa.
"Yes, a mustache. Ah, right. You might not see her because she's in the other class, but she's a very manly girl."
The more Joe described Larissa, the more the image of the ghost popped into Jerrod's head.
"Why? How does she look?"
"She's a huge girl. Tall and chubby. What's funny about her is that she has hair on her upper lip. Calling it a mustache is a bit exaggerated, but still, she looks more like a guy than a girl before."
Jerrod rubbed his arms from getting goosebumps. The description that Joe gave him was a similar description of the ghost in the cabinet.
The fact that Larissa used to look very identical to the ghost made Jerrod think that the two had a connection. He felt like he was getting near to the answer to why the ghost was hunting him and couldn't point it out yet.
"D-did she get bullied because of that?" Jerrod asked. He wondered if he was one of the people who offended Larissa before, and that made her hunt him.
Jerrod won't bully anyone, but he still considers a chance that he might have unintentionally offended Larissa before.
"No. Who will dare to bully such a large girl? She's bigger than the boys in our class."
"Really? Then she graduated fine?"
"I can't tell because, as far as I remember, she didn't attend the graduation ceremony because she was dumped by the guy she confessed to."
"There's a story like that?"
"Yes, the guy has no restraint on his mouth. The guy straightforwardly told her that he couldn't date someone who looked more manly than him. Really, that's a fun story to remember!"
Joe was enjoying his time retelling his high school memories while Jerrod froze as he held the beer in his hand. While Jerrod paused for a moment, as if he was trying to recall something.
"Dude. What's wrong? drunk already?"
"Hey, Joe. Did the confession take place in a back alley near the basketball court?"
"Oh? So you did hear about that?"
Slam!
"Shit! Man! You startled me!"
Jerrod suddenly slammed the bottle of beer on the table and stood up from the couch. Joe looked up at him, startled by his strange behavior.
"Sorry. Joe. I have to go somewhere."
After leaving his wallet with Joe, Jerrod rushed out of the room without waiting for his friends' response.
Jerrod drove his car away and arrived at the convenience store parking again. He then tiptoed and stealthily looked through the glass window to check on Larissa.
There he sees Larissa still manning the cashier counter, clueless that someone is watching her.
"She does look similar to the ghost or the manly girl in high school, but she's the better version," Jerrod mumbled.
The cashier girl that Jerrod was spying on is a tall lady who is only slightly shorter than Jerrod. Unlike her high school chubby appearance, now she has less flab on her waist. And her body weight is proportionate to her height. She's not like a model type body, but her proportions are not too thin, not obese, or over-weight.
Jerrod could tell that Larrisa, the ghost, and the one who confessed to him before, was the same person as her facial features were so similar.
Of course, except for the mustache.
Jerrod bumped his head against the wall to calm himself. The overwhelming discovery he found was too much for his drunk state to take.
"Why did I forget about her? She's the girl I rejected before?"