He felt the sobs coming and he balled his hands into fists. He was inwardly glad for putting on a hoodie before coming out to the restaurant.
He was about to give way to his tears when he heard hurried steps behind him. He heard both chairs beside him scrape as Sam and Tom occupied each one of them on either sides of him.
He felt his shoulders as they were clasped by them while they squeezed gently. He breathed in a deep sigh as he thought over and over again all that had happened ever since he got back home in the afternoon.
From hearing of his father's death to the way his brother had reacted, he felt more weary and instantly tired out. He smiled reassuringly through the tears that were yet to be released in his eyes.
He was grateful for the friends he had. He knew they would always come through for him. They all stay there for close to thirty minutes in silence.
None of them said a word to the other person. They knew how much the moment meant for Chris and they silently lent him their support.
After thirty minutes of silently sitting down while Chris mourned his father, he raised his head and looked at his pals for the first time that afternoon.
Sniffing back tears, he made for Sam and enveloped him in a tight hug. He retrieved himself and also did the same for Tom. Both boys were moved and together,they encompassed him into a warm hug.
It was a silent declaration of love, strength and brotherhood. They stayed like that for another three minutes before Chris spoke up.
"Let's take a walk. I feel like there are some things I would need to clear from my head. Keeping them in here may make me go nuts." He chuckled as he spoke and they all filed out after Chris had left a few bills on the table.
His friends had always found that particular habit of his surprising. They had often bugged him about it but he had always claimed it as a personal thing.
What they never knew was that Roger had told him that a true gentleman would never leave a table empty in a restaurant. He never divulged this secret to any of them. He kept it hidden in his heart. It was one of his special bromance moments.
They stepped out of the fully air-conditioned restaurant and stepped out into the mild summer sun. They walked down the street and crossed the intersection to connect to another street.
Mina alighted at the bus station and while trying to keep up with Luke, she was bumped into and lost her footing. She scrambled to her feet and rushed to retrieve the hand luggage which had fallen out of her hand.
It was kicked a few feet away from her and she had to crawl on all fours in order to get to it. She managed to snatch it up before another pair of feet kicked it further away.
She picked it up with glee and stood to her feet. A quick glance around the bus station and realisation hit her hard. She had lost look and to make things worse, she couldn't remember her parents address.
She hadn't been allowed her own phone until she was seventeen and that was two months away. Her parents had moved away from their previous apartment and now had a new house.
She reasoned that since she couldn't find Luke,she would roam the streets and find a way of getting across to her parents even if it meant going to a police station.
She ran to the entrance of the bus station and walked down the road. She heard the sound of drumming coming from down the road. She furrowed her brows and headed towards the direction.
It didn't hurt to go for some sightseeing. She might as well grab some street food as she was heavily famished. She giggled to herself at the thought which made an old woman walking beside her to raise her eyebrows.
She only smiled in greeting and walked fast in the direction she was going. She soon got to the street and was mesmerised by the colourful sights before her.
She saw several kids buying ice cream from a street stall and approached them. She waited patiently in the queue and soon, it was her turn.
"Two dips of vanilla, a dip of chocolate and marshmallow." She gave her order and pulled out some bills from her wallet.
She smiled at the storekeeper and leaned conspiratorially on the makeshift table that was attached to the stall.
"What are they celebrating?" She asked the store keeper as he handed her what she'd ordered.
"They're celebrating the first settlers to settle in this area back then." He explained to her with a smile.
Mina nodded her head to show that she understood. Adjusting the hand luggage on her wrists, she grabbed the spoon and dipped it into the foil pack her ice-cream was served in and began eating it while walking along the street.
She could see a lot of people doing the same thing she was doing, so she felt at ease and continued watching the colourful parade going on.
The street they were on was filled with different arts and sculptures. They could see a lot of the people painting their faces and decked in different colourful attires.
The women had huge, colourful headdress with feathers on their heads while they displayed a lot of ceramic and wooden artefacts.
Chris found this fascinating and inspite of the grief in his heart, he smiled to himself and strolled down the street with his hands in his pockets as he walked among his friends.
The sound of music and drumming filtered into their ears and they could see the parade up ahead. He looked on while his friends grinned at each other as they saw a few beautiful dancing in front of a stall.
They already had the same thoughts. They were ready to abandon their grieving friend in search of some fun with the girls. They were about to give him their excuses when they both felt a tightening grip on their necks.
Chris, who had already guessed his friend's intention, immediately withdrew his hands from his pockets and grasped each of their necks tightly.
The boys immediately tried to extricate themselves from their friend's grip. They both flailed their hands and tried wringing their necks in a bid to tie him out.
Chris also wasn't interested in letting them go. He smiled as he kept his hold on them. Suddenly, Sam made an unexpected twist and he was able to break free from Chris' hold.
Chris, who had obviously miscalculated, lounged forward to grab his friend. In an attempt to do that, he unknowingly released Tom.
Seeing that both of them were now free from him and laughing, he made an extra effort to grab one of them without looking where he was headed.
He fell into someone or something and crashed to the floor. A loud yelp filled with pain sounded from beside his ear and he quickly scrambled up in order to help the person he had crashed into.
0He was ready to raise himself up when Sam and Tom came towards him and assisted him. All three of them stood up to see a petite girl with long brown hair trying to get to her feet.
A foil pack with unfinished ice-cream was plastered to her hair while her hand luggage was thrown a few feet away from the melee.
She stood up with rage blazing from her blue eyes. She uttered a string of colourful words that weren't worth repeating before turning to face Chris.
"I'm sure you knew that this road was busy before you decided to turn it into your playground?" She asked with her arms placed at her waist.
Chris felt insulted. His mood which was about to lift sank low instantly. He felt something explode in his head and he matched her fire with fire.
"Uh...oh. I never knew so until you told me. I know I'm wrong but I never had the opportunity to apologise before you attacked me." He replied, equally pissed.
"Really..?" Mina screamed. She was so angry she almost vomited blood.
"If that's the case, let's fight it to the latter."
She bellowed out and began to roll the cuffs of the dress shirt she wore.
Chris' friends sensed a brewing war and decided to take him away from the scene while whispering to him not to forget his father had just died.
Chris decides to follow their advice and figures that he couldn't send his father with news of engaging in a street fight, moreso with a girl.
However, as he made to leave, he caught a flash of something on her left wrist. His eyes lingered on it and he also checked
his own wrist. There it was lying on his wrist.
They had something in common: a yellow wristband.