The burial took placed around one week later, and Agustin`s family chose a modest cemetery. Numa would have preferred to attend alone but his grandmother had accompanied him and he had been unable to say anything to her since Eleonora had always been very concerned about his friend.
Numa looked up at the sky, which was overcast but between the masses of clouds some rays of sunshine filtered through, just as his friend liked, and for a moment he allowed himself to smile.
The ceremony was simple, a few words, flowers and the burial. He distinguished the parents and those who he thought were the rest of the relatives. From his friends circle, he was the only one there, surely they have not even heard about the news. Afterwards he would, at least, call some of them. What would they say? He has been his best friend and he couldn't even understand such a decision. He shook his head, his chest heaving again. His grandmother watched him from a safe distance, she didn't want to be on top of him at that moment, Numa was a bit special, once alone she would talk to him, although she sensed that it wouldn't be possible until a few more days have passed. As soon as they arrive home, he would probably lock himself in his room, and stay there until the next day.
When the ceremony was over, the parents came to greet him, and to their surprise, Ana handed him a white envelope.
"It is a letter for you, the police found it on his desk. Surely they will call you to ask you for a statement like everyone else," she covered her mouth to let out a sob that seemed to have been struggling for a long time to come out.
"Thank you."
Numa stood there for a few minutes, staring into their bright eyes, and before he could contain herself, he said:
"Agustin was an excellent friend, and an excellent person... and if you had given him the opportunity, he would have been an excellent son as well, I am sure of that."
He turned around and disappeared from there, his grandmother followed him as best she could.
"Numa... Numa..."when she finally caught up with him "I don't think it was the best moment to do such a thing, they lost their son, Love."
Numa stopped to stare at her, serious.
"Grandmom, they lost him a long time ago, they threw him out of their house. Do you want to know why? Because he was different from the rest, because he was homosexual. You cared more about him than his own parents."
His grandmother looked at him as if waiting for him to continue, but he looked away, turned around and continued walking.
Numa did not want to continue, although his grandmother seemed willing to listen to anything, it was not the moment, he felt his blood boiling inside him at the thought of his friend's parents, although the sadness was too strong, and he sank again into his own silence.
#
Lucas stood thoughtfully in front of the entrance of the institute. Numa has not been attending school since last time he saw him. Something bad must have happened to him, maybe something related to family, something with his parents or maybe he was sick, although he doubted it, he looked sad and depressed a few days ago.
He went home for lunch first, if Numa was sick then he will find him at home and even if he wasn't he would almost certainly be home too. What annoyed him most was that Numa stopped talking to him, it was true that they argued a lot in the past but he thought he would at least trust him. After thinking it over, he decided he would pay him a visit in the afternoon, he would show up at his house, he wanted him to know he was aware something was not right. On the other hand, the simple idea of meeting him made him excited.
He already finished eating lunch when Giovanni appeared at that moment, probably for lunch. He sat down directly at the table.
"My sister is not here, so if you want to eat, serve yourself, after all this is not Italy, and you are no longer a guest."
His cousin turned and smiled at him, stood up, and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. He returned with the plate but his cousin was no longer there.
Lucas spent the afternoon finishing some drawings, doing his remaining homework and thinking over and over again about Numa, the last hour was incredibly long, around 7 pm he would go over there.
He took a shower, picked out a pair of jeans and a dark sweater, looked at the small bathroom cabinet where the cologne was and decided that in the end he would only leave with the deodorant. He set off for Numa's house, and with his fast pace he got there faster than planned.
He rang the doorbell and a woman answered. When she opened the door, he was surprised, he didn't know that Numa lived with his grandmother. The woman did not look that old, but too old to be his mother.
"Hello, is Numa at home?"
The grandmother smiled at him, she had kind eyes, but at the same time she emanated an indescribable strength.
"I'm sorry. Numa left for the gym. He said he had training."
Lucas felt disappointed. He thought training was only Thursday or was it Tuesday? He couldn't remember very well. And most important, he went to the gym after being in such bad state. Then, he should be feeling much better then.
"He has not come to class and last time I saw him, he was not looking good, I thought he was sick and…"
"You were worried, weren't you? He's not sick but upset. You know, dealing with the death of his best friend"
Lucas looked at her strangely.
"Didn't he tell you...? Some days ago his best friend, Agustín, passed away."
Lucas was shocked and upset with Numa for not telling him but at the same time he understood.
"I did not know. I am so sorry"
"And today he was determined to go to training. Maybe it will help him to distract himself a little," she smiled softly "In two hours, probably, he'll be back. Do you want to come in and wait for him?"
"No, thanks, don't worry. I'd better stop by in later. Excuse me ...." he took out his cell phone "Could you please give me his cell phone number?"
"Sure... wait, I have to look for it," she disappeared inside and came back with a small notebook to give Lucas the number, which he quickly copied.
The woman looked at him for a few moments before adding.
"I still don't know who you are."
"I'm Lucas from school," he added a little embarrassed.
"Okay Lucas, give him a call him before coming by, I don't know if he has his cell phone on, but he always comes straight home after the gym, you can be sure of that."
"Many thanks, see you later," whispered the young man.
"See you"
Agustin, if he was not mistaken, was Zeus, or maybe he was confusing the person, but if it was this Zeus, then it would surely be very bad. He didn't know how close they were but apparently they have been dancing together for quite a long time.
Once on the street he looked both ways and decided at that moment he would wait for him on the stairs of the building.
Before that he went to the newsstand and bought something to read, he was quite nervous and playing some games in his cell phone wouldn't work. Picked up two different comics, to pass the time, he took full advantage of them by reading even the address of the printing house, but the two hours have not yet passed, waiting for some with such expectation could take forever. He waited a few minutes and went back to the same place to get two cans of soda.
He kept looking at the people and trying to think what he would say to him when he finally meet him. A friend died and he should not say anything stupid to him.
He looked at the phone, 9:30 pm, he was supposed to be back, maybe he was a little late, maybe after training he went for a drink with his friends, but Lucas didn't want to move from there, he did not want to miss him. The gym was not far away but he didn't know which way used Numa to take. He looked at his phoneimpatiently, he tried calling him before, but it was turned off. He remember, Numa was one of those persons who, strangely, paid almost no attention to his phone.
10:30 pm and he started to worry, he didn't know whether to go up to his place and ask his grandmother if Numa already called.
"Well," he thought, "he has school tomorrow so I'm sure he won't be late, I'll wait a little longer". In spite of everything he said and repeated to himself to calm down, he was on edge.
He looked around the corner and got up to head back to the kiosk. His eyes discovered the little box of temptation, he wondered after a year smoke free if that was not a good time to start, he needed something to pass the time. He bought a pack, a lighter and another soda and sat on the stairs smoking and drinking. Almost one cigarette after another, looking up and down the street. He went back to check some magazines and continued smoking.
It was already midnight, what the hell happened? Grandma said that he always went straight home after training, so he dismissed the idea of Numa going to a friend's house, there was something about the whole thing he didn't like at all. It was too late to ring grandma's doorbell, she was probably already resting. He tried calling him on the cell phone but it was still turned off.
He waited only half an hour more, it was already half past twelve, no cigarettes left, and he felt a little dizzy.
He decided to go straight to the gymm it was only 10 minutes' walk, but first he tried his luck and called him once again, nothing. The area was quite dark, far from the big avenue, streets were silent and at that hour there was not a soul around. He finally arrived, streetlights were dim and it was hard to see very well. Near the door of the gym he discovered a figure, with his knees drawn up, and his head hidden between them. His heart pounded wildly, that figure corresponded to Numa, and the first thing he thought was that he was crying.
He ran up to him, once in front of him he held his breath. "Lucas, calm down," he said to himself. Something was not ok.
He was leaning against the wall with his knees drawn up, his face hidden against them and in his left hand a sports shirt with which he was covering the left side of his head. It was obvious that he has been in a fight, he had blood stains all over his body and his dark T-shirt was torn. The young man made no sound, only the slow breathing relieved Lucas' growing nervousness.
"Numa," he whispered, coming closer, the young man had a split lip and he gave off a strong smell of beer.
"Numa" he took him by the arm gently, the boy opened his eyes, he raised his head slightly, he had a lost look
"Numa...can you talk?"
"Eh?...uhm..."
his eyes seemed to focus on him for a few minutes and he hid his head between his legs again.
He kept calling his name but the young man didn't seem to respond. He searched in the darkness for some serious wound, he began to rummage through the clothes that despite being stained with blood did not seem to be his, he only had a cut on his leg, bruises, a split lip and that seemed to be all. He noticed the wrist of his right arm was a deep purple and terribly swollen. He lifted his face and Numa opened his eyes again, Lucas tried not to look at him, took off the shirt he was holding, and had to stifle a scream. He had a cut that was born on his forehead and went about 10 cm into the scalp. The blood there was somewhere between dry and wet, a thin thread slid from the wound down his forehead as the young man watched. He put his shirt back in place.
He took out his cell phone with trembling hands, and as best he could, he dialed the emergency phone.
A female voice answered. Lucas didn't even let her speak.
"I need an ambulance urgently, my friend has a cut on his head... a serious deep cut," he had to exaggerate.
"Calm down, tell me what happened."
"A fight... "he bit his tongue, at once he should have said he had an accident "they attacked him..."
"What is his condition? Is he breathing regularly? Is he able to speak?"
"Yes, yes but he has several wounds all over his body and a deep cut on his head."
"Tell me your location"
Lucas gave him the name of the streets.
"As soon as we have a unit available, we'll send it to him."
"And how long will it take?"
"We don't know. Keep in mind that we have hundreds of cases like yours. And we don't have enough units to cover all the areas and all the cases that come in. You'll have to wait a bit."
Lucas hung up in a bad mood, sat down next to Numa and started calling him by name. It was already 1 am. The young man was still in the same position. Lucas wanted to hug him but didn't know if it would be dangerous to move him. He kissed him on the forehead and waited for the ambulance.
Thirty minutes passed and the ambulance was not there yet. He didn't even know how long it would take. He took out his wallet, he had a card with some numbers, and saw the card of the private clinic. He smiled triumphantly, picked up his cell phone and quickly called home, and as expected, his sister answered the phone.
"Yes?" she was a little sleepy.
"It's me Manon, I don't have time, listen to me, it's very important. Numa was beaten up, we are now in the street, it's too long to explain. I called the emergency service and I've been waiting for an ambulance for half an hour, I'm going to use my insurance card as it would be his. I don't know if you understand me, I'm just nervous."
"Yes, it´s fine, I'll change and I'll be on my way to the clinic. Meet you there. You guys never get bored, right?"
She hung up, before Lucas could tell her that she didn't need to come too.
Lucas called the clinic's emergency service and in about 10 minutes they were there. Numa did not even speak and that was great in that situation, and once they get to the clinic and he would be able to respond again, he will tell him what he had to say.
When he arrived at the clinic his sister was already there at the entrance of the emergency room, looking worried, with a tracksuit, a long-necked shirt and a sweater.
"What happened?"she asked as soon as he saw him.
"Apparently Numa got into a fight and his head was cut open."
His sister looked at him without understanding, Lucas told her what happened.
His words casted a shadow over her face.
"That´s terrible. Agustín was his best friend, he must be devastated. He was such a great guy. And do you know he died? He was the one who organized the birthday party for Numa."
"Now that I remember, his grandma must be very worried"
"Call her."
"I don't have her number, only his cell phone number."
"Well, after I talk to the doctors, give me the address and I'll go over to talk to her. You better stay here."
Lucas decided to wait outside, he did not want to be around when the doctors come to talk with his sister they would not see him there. It would be a bit suspicious; the resemblance was too obvious. His sister told him that nothing will happen, she already spoke to the secretary.
After a while his sister went out to look for him.
Lucas was anxious.
"It's nothing serious, apart from the blows, he doesn't have any kind of fracture. His right wrist is somehowscrewed up but it will heal perfectly, it seems that they bent his arm and wrist, although nothing happened to his arm. The cut on the head is big but not deep, however that type of cut could cause a tremendous bleeding. They will let us know in case he needs a transfusion, but they don't think so. They say in 48 hrs he can surely return home, earliest in 24 hrs however they do not recommend it since he could have suffered a concussion. Now, give me the address, I'm going to her grandmother's house, that woman must be desperate."
Lucas looked at her gratefully while she gave him what he asked for, and went back to the emergency ward to keep Numa company.