7 Bad News!

CHAPTER SEVEN

With the receipt in my hands and a hoodie half covering my face I headed for the Hampton Mall. It was a quite small mall but beautifully decorated. I entered the glass building to meet an elderly woman at the counter, from her face and my skills as a detective I could guessed that she was probably in her late forties. "Good day Mrs Parks" I greeted after reading the name tag on her chest.

"Morning young lady, how can I help you" she replied politely"

"My brother came here sometime around last week and purchased these items" i said giving her the receipt, He said his friend helped him pay at this counter, and I don't know if you could help me describe that friend"

"Calm down dear" she replied "if I got you right, you said your sis bought something..

"My bro"..I corrected.

"Oh, but his friend paid for it and now you want to know that friend,am I right?"

"Yes" I replied with a glimpse of hope

"Well that's an easy one" she replied smiling

"Just ask your brother then" she was almost laughing now.

I ignored her sarcasm and continued

"The thing is that my bro is really sick and I need to find that friend so that I can tell him" I said, faking a sad face.

Her countenance changed immediately and she began to apologize.

"No problem Ma, I just need that friend my brother doesn't have much time"

"Honestly dear, I wish I could, but I'm not young anymore and I meet hundreds of people every day in this mall, I really don't remember all there faces" she replied

"And besides, you didn't even give me a single feature I could use to distinct him"

"Yea, I didn't" I said to my self, I had nothing, absolutely nothing. We talked a little, I bought the items on the receipt and I left her almost in tears, it turned out that my brother had lung cancer with only two months to live, oh I will miss you my imaginary brother.

I shamefully walked myself to the school security office and answered there seemingly irrelevant questions.

I left the office disappointed and quite tired, I still had one last stop, my room. I called Dawn phone to ask her if she was free, she wasn't, I called Charlotte and after a series of disappointing response from my few girlfriends, I decided to call the one and only guy that I could still trust, Calvin.

He was excited and a little bit nervous when I called and I smiled at myself for the nervousness I caused him, He promised to come in some few minutes and true to his words he came really quick.

He came wearing a black tee shirt graced with a dark blue denim jacket and a nicely shaped black trousers completed with his Nike slides and his ever present glasses.

He did look a bit manly today, something i hadn't notice about him in all the three years I had known him.

He walked me to my dorm room and we talked heartedly, I learnt a lot about him on that walk than I had in years and I kind of felt selfish at that moment, I realised I had been using him in a kind of way and even though we talked a little in school, most of the times we had been together were during exams or quizzes.

He was by far the smartest person in our class, faculty and probably the whole school, word around was that in his three years in school he's never had anything but an A, but with all his cool smart records no one actually knew him that well. How he managed to keep his profile simple baffled me. His life was basic as hell, classes to library and then home, you'd hardly see him around the school campus. If you didn't know him you will definitely think he was a classic nerd: no friends, no fun, just books. But crap I was wrong, that was not Calvin, it was far from being him.

I got to know that he played video games, watched movies and series, some of his favorites were mine too and it turned out he was a crazy about investigative journalism like me.

The rest of the day was really fun with him, we got to my room and he helped me packed my things, he then escorted me to Dawn's room were I dropped my stuff, I jokingly told him I was hungry, even though I was, and he he insisted that we go out for dinner, I had nothing to lose, I agreed.

'Who's this guy" I thought as he spoke while we ate, he was funny, brilliant and he had single handedly turned this shitty day into something glorious, never judge a book by it's cover was what my mind kept repeating to me, I had arguably my best dinner in longtime that night.

I reached Dawn's room at about quarter past eight, Calvin had waited at the entrance, it was obvious from his face that he was to shy to enter, we had shared an awkward but beautiful hug and I entered my room feeling lighter than I had left it in the morning

Later that night as I sat to read my books, opening the first page of my Mac 301 textbook a text entered my phone, a lovely text from Calvin on how he enjoyed our time together, I replied in the same vain and was about switching off my phone for full concentration when a call came in, an unsaved number, probably Tyler or Lauren I thought.

I had been getting those kind of calls in the past week, but I always answered, my dad had thought me to always pick the call of a number I didn't know and I always did.

"Hello Amber" I knew that voice, Lauren's twin brother?

"Nick?" I said stuttering a little, unsure.

"Yes it's me" He replied and I could hear something was off from his voice but I didn't care much.

"Come on Nick, you couldn't call m.....

He cut me sharply and this time I could feel the pain and tension in his voice, my heart froze for few seconds as I heard his words "There's bad news Amber, really bad news"

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