Liam opened his eyes and a freezing gust of wind met his bare skin. He tightened his jacket's hood and buried himself back under the thick blanket the six of us shared. Tahir stood up on the bouncy mattress and plopped down on the boys all of a sudden, causing Ron and Ken to chuckle with their now coarse voices.
Last night was a long, fun night. They spent the cold evening eating the feast Cedric had made, drinking beer, and swimming in the cold pool. Tahir, Ron, and Ken even went down to the other buildings to sing along to karaoke with the other tourists. They made the others roll on the floor the way they dance to the orchestra all wet and dazed. After their exhibition, they all played simple high school games and when Lukas dropped truth-or-dare, that was when the real chaos began. The dares they threw upon each other were a bit torturous in the mind yet they did it with no second wasted. It was all diverting. Ron looked very satisfied and happy. Liam was sure it was memorable to him — them.
Liam smiled at the thought, then put Tahir's cold palm off his cheek. Cedric folded his knees and pushed Tahir's trunk with his feet. Tahir fell off the bed with a loud thud. Everyone laughed and sat up, then checked Tahir out — he was posing like a bikini model with a cocky smile and raised brow. Ron and Ken burst into laughter and Liam tittered at the view.
Tahir stood up and went akimbo. "Let's eat!"
"Yes!" Ken jumped off the bed.
Ron followed suit and embraced the two by their necks. "Brush your teeth first, boys. You all reek of beer."
The others got off the bed and took time to groom themselves. Cedric cooked food, then they set it all on the breakfast bar. The dish made Liam's stomach growl — beef steak and smoking-hot ramen garnished with a Japanese touch — so he dug into them in no time. The taste got his eyes closed every time he chew every bit of the food.
"This is pure heaven, Ced," Ken cheered. "I'd like to have a cooking lesson from your mother someday."
Cedric took a sip of his coffee. "She won't do that unless you're her student."
"Then I'll go into culinary arts, easy." Ken turned to Ron. "How about you guys, what will you take in college?"
"I've already told you." Ron yawned. "I'm going to be a professional martial artist."
Cedric rolled his eyes. "That's not really a job, Ron, talking about stable financial resources."
"I don't care." Ron resumed sipping his ramen soup. "What about you, Tahir?"
"I'll be taking law." Tahir jerked his brows upward.
"Lukas?" Ron added.
"I won't go to college." Lukas breathed in, then paused just to exhale.
The boys just looked at him with stoic expressions.
"I'll log into the Army, guys," he appended.
"Following your grandfather's footsteps, huh?" Tahir said. "What's your father's thought about it? Have you told them your chosen track yet?"
"I have," Lukas responded, wiping his greasy mouth with a tissue paper. "They're fine with it, I guess."
"What about you, Liam?" Lukas queried.
Liam stared at him with a crumped forehead. He wiped his mouth and sighed in silence. He had never asked himself that question for a long time. When he was in elementary school, he used to dream of being a policeman. When he was in tenth grade, he wanted to take forensics — forensic pathology. He was beyond indecisive, he thought.
"I don't . . ." he shrugged, "don't know."
"Guys, when will we get back home?" Ken asked.
"After this." Ron stood up and got his phone. "I'll just talk to Mom to fix some things up."
Liam finished his plate and washed his hands in the sink. He belched out a cloudy air, then went to the open space, looking at the mountainous scenery. The morning was bleak. The fog was windswept and the skies were an abode of thunderheads. Flashes of lightning lit up the blackest of the clouds. He did not know what was going on with the weather, but it was not normal. The winds had got chillier — more flesh-numbing.
Liam went back inside and sat on the cozy bed. He pulled his socks, then concealed his upper body under the heap of bolsters. He closed his heavy eyelids and let the bolsters' feather-soft pillowcases massage his algid face.
Hands pulled him out of the warm cave later — Tahir's. The boys had already put their bags on and now heading downstairs. Liam let Tahir follow them first, then he took another glance at the breakfast bar. He smiled before descending the stairs.
They passed the village of buildings. There was no one to be seen amid the foggy mountaintop except the six of them. They went down the brick steps in great silence and at a fast pace. Liam's hair on his nape rose, making his head jerk. The temperature of the morning was dropping in an unusual manner just like the preceding days. Liam hoped the sun would later appear and warm the town of the deep freeze. He wondered if their region was the only one experiencing episodic temperature drops. He could not make out how a country in the tropics went through a weather change that dramatic.
They went through the bridge and Ron pulled his car out of the parking lot. They all got in the vehicle, then climbed down the mountains with tortoise-slow locomotion. Ron sped up as they neared the base of El Halcon.
After the lengthy descent, they arrived at the noiseless suburbs. Ron dropped Liam and Lukas in front of the high school, then went on their different routes. Lukas got his bike out of the parking lot of a small street. He went back before Liam, then Liam rode in the rear seat. Lukas then revved up along the fluency of the streets. The cold wind they passed through enveloped Liam's body, making him shiver. He wondered if Lukas ever felt the biting weather. His friend always seemed unfazed--his facial expression. He might be numb in the flesh already, he assumed.
Lukas entered Liam's subdivision and pulled over in their front yard. Liam got off his bike and smiled at his friend. Lukas just stayed there on his bike, staring at him.
"What?" he said, sighing.
Lukas laid his hands on his knees. "Let's get you to our house."
"What have I told you about this, Lukas?"
"You'll just get yourself beat up here. It makes me sick just by looking at your doorway.
Liam turned his head to the side and stuck his vision at the open door. He looked at the gloom on the inside of the house through the dusty windowpanes. He faced Lukas again and eyed him for some time.
"Come on." Lukas patted the rear seat of his bike, then gave him a smile. "I'm sure you'll be more comforta——"
"No," Liam cut in his words and walked away. "Thank you, Lukas, but you can go home now."
He then heard his motor starting from the back. He continued to head to the house at an average speed, but as he neared it, his heart pumped at a rapid-fire pace. His chest ached — sharp needles were penetrating his muscles. He stopped in front of the doorway and heard Lukas' bike's motor weaken as seconds died off. He looked at the front yard — all clean.
He went through the entrance of the house and closed the door. The lights had gotten dimmer. He always forgot to buy a new bulb for the kitchen. He passed by the unlit living room and went upstairs, holding onto the powdery railing of the stairway. He wiped the dust off his palms with the hem of his shirt.
"Dad?" he asked amid the deafening silence. "Dad, are you home?"
He stopped in front of his room and opened the door just for his father's mysterious look to greet him. He entered the dark room and halted before him.
"Dad, I'm sorry I didn't—" I stepped back as he rose to his feet, "We just went out because it was our friend's birthday. I'm sorry I wasn't home last night."
"Where have you gone?" Lesley, his father's name, said with a hoarse voice, then chugged the bottle of clear liquor in his hand. "I was alone here. I didn't have dinner. The whole house was shit."
"We just went to El Halcon, that's all."
"I ate nothing last night, Liam. Nothing!"
"I'm sorry, Dad. Let me get you clea——"
"You were supposed to be taking care of me, you know that."
Liam caught his father's weight before he plopped down on the tiled floor. "Dad, let me get you cleaned up so you can rest."
Lesley pushed him with great force, making him bump his spine into the jamb of the doorway. He uttered a curse in his mind, his back in sudden sharp pain. He stabilized himself and helped his father as he stood up. He dodged his imminent punch, his whole body falling onto the now liquor-flooded floor.
"Your mother and sister died because of you, you a little piece of shit!" Lesley knelt, then grabbed his son by the neck. "You're living just to serve me, okay?! You're still on this fucking earth because you killed them! You're all jinx!"
"Dad, you're hurting me," Liam said, his eyes watering. "I didn't kill them. It was an accident. You saw it too."
"You're a fucking jinx! You have to mark that to that empty brain of yours!"
"Dad, please . . . stop!"
After those words, an excruciating pain covered Liam's face as his father hit him twice. The physical pain was hellish as he continued doing it, but the pain inflicted on his mentality was way more torturous--heartrending. He now realized what Lukas had meant last night. He should have pitied himself before, but all he had done was pacify his father's grief and sorrow. He did not do anything that killed his mother and younger sister. It was an accident. His father had never seen it that way. All he had done was blame him for it. He could not take it anymore, the agony he had been locked up in for years.
He clasped Lesley's arriving fist with his sweaty hand. He felt like his body was shutting down by itself. He rose to his knees and sat on his father's trunk astride. He pinned his wrists down to the floor and shook his head, making the liquids on his facial orifices drop off his skin. He yelled out with a rather violent grating voice.
"I'm done with this!" he started. "I'm tired in this hellhole of yours! I'm tired of allaying you! I'm going fucking insane here!"
He stood up and left the room. He ran down the stairs, then lammed out of the house — a place of extreme misery. He put out his phone and hit Lukas' number in great haste, his fingers numb and teeth gritting. He bugged out of their front yard and trod the sidewalk pavements with celerity. He told Lukas to pick him up and his friend responded with an affirmation.
Some minutes passed when he saw Lukas on his bike going towards his point. He ran to him when he screeched to a halt. Lukas' brows wrinkled as he looked at his face all painted with blood. Liam straddled the rear seat and held onto his shoulders.
Lukas turned his head to his side. "What the fuck happened, Liam? You're all run-down."
"Come on." Liam tightened his grasp on his now drooping shoulders. "Let's just go."
In no time, he saw his father with his balled bloody fists and reddish eyes standing in the front yard. He clenched his jaws, then let tears fall off his chin. Lukas stared at Lesley. Liam saw his eyes darkening in the side mirror of the bike.
He leaned his forehead on his back and sobbed. "Let's just get out of this place, Lukas, please."
Lukas took a deep breath and uttered a long sigh, then started his bike. Liam closed his eyes as the vehicle moved with fleet velocity. He wiped the tears off his face, then lifted his chin, looking at the skies — all thick and ash-gray.
Lukas took turns and alterations in the course and after some time ceased, they arrived at their residence. Lukas pulled into their driveway and they both got off the vehicle. They entered their silent building, then Lukas led Liam to the living room. Liam sat on the couch around a small glass table in silence. Locking his fingers with each other, Lukas arrived with a first aid kit box. He sat beside him, making him face his ticked-off friend. Lukas then started cleaning the hardened blood off his face. Liam just shut his eyes and breathed in peace.
Lukas closed the first aid kit box and held his chin up. "You look awful."
"I always have." Liam lowered his head. "Where are your parents, by the way?"
"They've been out of the town for two days. They'll be back soon, or maybe later."
"Okay, um, thank you, Lukas."
"For what?"
"For this." Liam bent his body forward and rested his elbows on his knees, supporting his weight. "For helping me. I know you knew what was happening in our house, but I . . . I always disrega——"
"It's fine." Lukas moved closer to him, then looked him in the eye. "I'll never let that devil touch you . . . or even see you at all."
"Lukas."
"What? He's a devil, isn't he?"
"He's still my father."
"Biologically yes, realistically no."
"Well, um, I'm really grateful for you, Lukas." Liam smiled at him.
Lukas raked his fingers through his hair. "Now that's the smile we've always needed to see."
Liam had always known Lukas since seventh grade. Lukas was that typical student who preferred silence more than socialization. He inherited his thinking from his mother and courage from his father. He was thoughtful, but always saw the bad in things more than the good. He had a great childhood and Liam was grateful he met him. Liam did not know, but when he was around him, he felt safe. Lukas was like a stronghold ready to take blows from whatever coming his way. Liam looked up to him for that.
An approaching noise sounded from Lukas' house's driveway — the De Toresses. Liam stood up as the entrance creaked open. Lukas greeted his parents with hugs and kisses. Liam bowed at the view all of a sudden, then looked up at them again.
"Good day, Mister and Missus De Torres." He gave them a cheap smile.
"Liam?" Kara, Lukas' mother, dropped her bags and caught him in a tight embrace. "It's been a while since you visited us."
"What the hell happened to you, son?" Leon, Lukas' father, put his hands on his waist and stood by his wife while eyeing his face.
"We fought," Lukas entered the conversation, rubbing his nape. "I've just fixed him up though."
He was lying. Liam did not know why he was doing that. He had gone way too far, Liam said to himself. He puckered his lips at Lukas' voluntary bodily movements. Lukas then looked at him with a small sneer, then back to his father.
"What the hell, Lukas?" Kara slapped his son's upper arm.
"Ouch," Lukas interjected with a low tone.
"Why would you beat him up?" Kara added.
David massaged his temples. "Lukas, what the hell happened between you two?"
Lukas closed his eyes, his brows raised. "It was just a small misunderstanding."
"Misunderstanding? Liam beat up? Misunderstanding?"
"You never hurt Liam again, you hear me?"
"I'm fine, sir, ma'am," Liam cut in their rather jolly crossfire. "Lukas and I were drunk, so we just . . . yeah, had a small misunderstanding. Besides, I was the one who started it all."
"You two sure you're alright?" David raised a brow.
"Yes, sir." Liam put a wide smile on his lips. "Everything is perfectly fine."
The De Torresses just stared at each other, then shrugged at the same time. They nodded at us and went on their way to the room Liam assumed was their kitchen.
"Dad!" Lukas yelled, nearing his friend.
"What?" David shouted in response.
Lukas just looked at Liam with such stability. "Can Liam stay here for the night?"
"Of course!"
"You're always welcome here, honey!" Kara said in addition.
Liam jabbed his friend's chest. "What the hell."
Lukas uttered a silent laugh. "What? You can't go back to the house of the— I won't let you."
"I have to go back still."
"Liam."
"But I do have to."
"I'll just prepare— Wait, will you take the guest room?"
"No, I guess I'm really going ba——"
"Don't be silly, Liam."
Liam hugged Lukas as tight as he could. "Thank you for the effort, brother, but I'm alright."
Lukas caressed his back. "You could literally live with us, you know, but yeah, you're welcome, brother."