"You should probably stop before we have three more casualties in the kitchen."
From behind Jade, a boy in earthy brown suspenders and a cooling blue top took the killer plates away from Jade's arms and shook his head at her.
Frowning at him, Jade clicked her tongue at him and took the empty plates over to the kitchen to wash.
"Sorry for his enthusiasm. Jade, that guy, just likes cooking too much, and nobody here can consume everything."
Saying up to here, the boy then looked in amazement as Linel continued to munch down on the dessert, and then changed his words.
"Or maybe I should say almost nobody can consume everything."
As his smile changed into a weary one, he shook his head as we watched Jade pass another plate over to Linel. Furthermore, he passed each of us a piece of paper and asked us to comment on the desserts he had just given us.
Looking down on the blank piece of paper, I placed the tip of my pen on the surface and then paused.
What do I write? That it was delicious? It was salty? All I knew was that it was tasty.
Feeling lost, I hesitated for what I felt was too long before I just gave up and wrote 'it was delicious' on the piece of paper.
Handing the paper to a waiting Jade, I took the chance to look at the other two's answers.
Frank : It was pretty
....
Shifting my eyes away from an answer worse than mine, I focused my attention on Linel's paper. Although it was handed earlier than mine, the content could not even be compared. A whole four paragraphs greeted me as I scanned the paper. Furthermore, the analysis seemed to be deep and well-thought. Although he lost me at the sixth word.
Finished collecting all our feedback, Jade spent less than a minute on both Frank and my answers. But, as he moved on to Linel's feedback, I could see a pleasantly surprised expression on his face as he read the four paragraph essay.
And while Jade was occupied with that, the boy that seemed decently close with him herded us away from him to sit down on a couple of boxes.
"The three of you can sit here and wait for your friend. The Owner shouldn't take too long to show him around and explain things to him. The cafe is also quite relaxed right now, so there's not much to do."
Sitting next to the three of us, the boy pointed to himself with a cheeky grin as he introduced himself.
"By the way, it should be either your first or second time here right? I'm Joel, childhood friend of that ice cold man Jade over there, and a full time employee of Lux Aestiva. Or LA, as I like to call it!"
He then pointed to several of the other employees and introduced their names to us one by one. And once he was done, he stood up from the box with a light jump and reached over to a nearby counter to grab a couple glasses of water.
"Here, water to wash down all those desserts you had."
Passing us the glass cup, I took a small sip as the four of us fell into a more relaxed mood. However, as Joel opened his mouth in order to talk, he was suddenly interrupted.
"Joel, I forgot to hand this to you too."
Hearing the cool refreshing voice of Jade sound from in front of us, the four of us looked up as he joined our small gathering to pass a blank piece of paper to Joel.
"Why me?! I haven't even touched your food yet!"
With a scrunched up face, Joel pushed the piece of paper away from him as he put down his own glass of water.
"You remind me - "
"No! That's not what I meant!"
Snatching the paper from Jade's hands, Joel hurriedly passed it onto Linel with one hand, while dragging Jade to sit down with the other.
"You know I can't stand sweet things!"
A little aggrieved, Joel then softened his brows and patted Jade on the back.
"You don't have to try so hard. It's fine."
Sensing the tension surrounding them drop to a freezing cold, the three of us exchanged glances with each other and tried our best to disappear into the background. The backstory between the two of them seemed complicated, and we didn't want to stick our noses into places it didn't belong to.
Noticing the atmosphere first, Joel gave a weak smile and patted Jade on the back once more.
"Anyway, you don't have to worry about having someone test your desserts anymore."
He pointed enthusiastically at Linel, who still had different colored frostings smearing the sides of his mouth. In fact, he was still holding onto an empty plate.
"I saw this kid swallow all the desserts you gave him. You can give my share of desserts to him instead for him to test out. It's a win-win situation!"
As Joel's smile got brighter and brighter, Jade's frown got deeper and deeper.
"That's not the reason why ..."
Receiving a look in the middle of his words, Jade reluctantly agreed with Joel's words and passed several more plates of desserts to Linel.
Sharing a glance, the three of us decided to keep quiet as Linel awkwardly accepted the desserts. However, Linel didn't have the heart to continue eating when it was obvious those sweets were not meant for him.
Caught in a stalemate, the five of us kept quietly to ourselves until a warm voice broke this fragile silence.
"Joel! Come over here! You're in charge of Ralph for this week!"
Turning our heads, we saw the Owner wave her hand to signal Joel over, and I could hear a small sigh of relief from someone beside me.
"Coming!"
Shouting back a response, Joel excused himself and left the group.
Watching Joel's shrinking back, I noticed Jade's eyes were following him with concern within them. Then, once Joel, the Owner and Ralph went behind a door, he shook his head and turned his head back to us.
"Here."
Without hesitation, Linel passed the plates of desserts back to Jade, to which he accepted and placed back on the counter.
"Thank you."
With two words, Jade then left the group.
Once the three of us were sure Jade was out of earshot, Frank gave a relieved sigh as he patted his stomach.
"Those two are not good for the appetite."
Rubbing his full belly, Frank then leaned back and relaxed fully.
"You say that but I don't think you can eat more food."
Joking with him, the three of us lightened the atmosphere as we waited for Ralph to be done. Making some small talk, we finally stopped as we heard several footsteps approach us from a distance.
Turning our heads, we saw Ralph, the Owner and Joel walking towards us. However, before they reached us, Joel parted from the two with a wave to join Jade who was working in the kitchen. Then, a couple steps away from us, the Owner also bade farewell and headed to the kitchen.
"How was things?"
Linel asked as the three of us stood up and started walking to the back door.
"They were nice."
Lowering his head, I saw Ralph give a small and warm smile.
Exiting through the back door, the four of us walked aimlessly on the streets.
"Now, what are we going to do until the sun sets?"
With his arms behind his back, Frank asked as we passed several other stores on the crossroads between Middle street and High street.
"Hmmm. Good question. I don't really want to go back to my apartment right now. Mom and Dad are still out working so there's no one there."
In a bummed out voice, Frank sighed.
And hearing that description, I was reminded of Ralph's empty house this morning.
"Same. My parents won't be back until sunset today. And since I'm with you three, it's better to spend time together than to return home and have to watch those stupid 'news' channels."
Linel rolled his eyes as the four of us walked to the front of the cemetery.
Tilting his head up to take in the white walls, Ralph raised an eyebrow at the building but soon hastened his steps to join us inside.
Climbing up the stairs to the third floor, we headed straight to Will's tombstone and listened to Frank give his daily updates. Beside me, Ralph was trying his best to suppress his curiosity as he subtly looked around at the burial grounds.
"Is it your first time in a cemetery?"
Whispering to him, both Ralph and Linel's eyes snapped to me.
"No. Bottom street also had one. But it was not as clean, or .... accessible."
He shook his head as he described the cemetery for Bottom street.
Apparently, the cemetery was less white and more gray, with fixed opening hours and several guards to prevent the homeless from sleeping on the floors and occupying the space.
"It is also the largest building there and occupies the most space. Thankfully though, since it's so large and has many overhangs, it provides a lot of shelter to those who don't have a place to sleep at night."
"Although it would have been better if they at least allowed people to sleep in the reception area."
He shook his head as he folded his arms.
"I don't know if it's reassuring or worrying that regardless of the street, the churches are always prioritized more than the citizens."
Scoffing, Linel turned to the front and looked off into the distance.
"Even in High street, the cemeteries are all extravagant, white elephants that are physical proof that only in death do you matter."
With an uncharacteristic mean glint in his eyes, Linel's sarcastic words grated on our ears. But as soon as those words left his mouth, he seemed to realize that saying this in front of a tombstone in a cemetery was inappropriate, and muttered an apology to us.
Quietly, Ralph patted Linel lightly on the arm and gave him a consoling look.
Done with his daily report, Frank walked in on the silence and we all swept the awkward atmosphere under the rug and headed out of the cemetery.
"Now what?"
Turning to look back at the cemetery, the three of us then looked at each other and discussed our time-killing options.
"Most shops aren't busy right now, so even if we went to them we wouldn't be able to earn anything."
With a troubled look Linel crossed his arms.
"My parents are working right now so nobody's at home as well."
Frank sighed and looked hopefully towards me. Taking that as a cue, I saw Linel brighten up and copy Frank's pleading eyes. Ralph just looked at the two idiots with a confused look.
"Fine! Fine! Let's go to my place. My mother should be home right now, and we can hang out in my room."
Faking an angry expression, Frank and Linel cheered as the four of us walked back towards my apartment building.