2 Chapter 2: Mortality

Several days have passed since Daniel first encountered Catherine. Throughout the entire time, she spent the majority of her time talking to Daniel. He is convinced that Catherine only goes away to eat, sleep, do things regarding school, and work. As one can imagine, dealing with this girl is a nightmare on a weekend for Daniel. Even if he is not the type to create content daily, like some of his peers, the constant communication wears Daniel down more than he likes to admit.

Most of the time, Catherine would offer the choice of topic for Daniel to decide; very rarely does she take initiative. However, over the span of six days, Daniel has learned that there were specific subjects that Catherine would avoid. Her part-time job is a prime example of a matter that she avoids like a plague, which only made Daniel more curious. The only way Daniel could get any semblance of information from her was by asking her about programming. She does not seem to mind sharing information regarding her hobby, and sometimes, Catherine would accidentally mention her work. Those moments were rare, but Daniel usually lets it slide in hopes that she would continue to slip up.

Another piece of information Daniel has picked up on was Catherine's eagerness to talk about video ideas. Daniel admits, Catherine's creativity never ceases to amaze him with her suggestions. Those recommendations were usually so elaborate, Daniel suspects that she might have a document just filled with video ideas (although Catherine has denied his suspicions, claiming she thought of her ideas on the spot).

Okay, so maybe Catherine is not as difficult to talk with as Daniel had previously mentioned. However, the constant bantering still wears him out. Six days of constant texting and anyone would have run out of conversations to cover. Daniel could tell that within three days, Catherine has also emptied her creative output. Yet despite that, Catherine still desperately clings on to Daniel with her insistent texting. It is almost pitiful.

The thought of simply ignoring Catherine comes up often, but guilt always follows soon after, and he quickly scraps the idea every time it comes up. So now, here he is, sitting by his desk and resting his head and arms on the table surface.

'So why in the world did I end up with this career path anyways?' Daniel ponders to himself. 'I could have easily been an entertainer at some coffee shop or bar somewhere...'

Daniel's thoughts quickly cut off. There was a clear reason why he chose isolation over everything and everyone else. Even if Daniel ends up regretting his choice, too much time has passed for him to redo everything. It's not like he could somehow travel back in time to fix all of his mistakes or explore different paths of life. That is a luxury he could not afford, and Daniel understands it. But every once in a while, Daniel will end up questioning his life and existence, even if he does everything to avoid that train of thought.

Daniel takes a deep breath before rising. He walks up to the balcony, which displays a beautiful view of the ocean. Under the night sky, the stormy waves almost reflect the starry heavens like a mirror image. The slightly alkaline taste carried by the wind adds to the charming view in front of Daniel. Every once in a while, whenever Daniel feels a heavy pressure building in his chest, he would take the time to allow himself this brief time to rewind.

After lingering for a while longer, Daniel reluctantly walks back into his bedroom, closing the sliding glass door and curtains in the process. He then proceeds to prepare for bed.

The next morning is mostly uneventful. Daniel downs a glass of orange juice and devours a piece of plain toast before sitting down at his workspace to work on one of his many pending projects.

Instinctively, Daniel looks down at his phone. Strange... For the past week, Catherine always greeted him before going to school.

'Well, it's not like she is obligated to text me every day at a certain time. I'm probably just getting a bit too used to having her around, even if it's only been a week since we met. She can be a good companion, even if I'm not that fond of her constant pestering,' Daniel chuckles to himself. 'Maybe I'll actually get the whole day to myself for the first time in a week. It has been a while since I had all day to work on my videos.'

And get to work he does. Nevertheless, Daniel is having trouble investing all of his attention in his videos. Every five minutes or so, Daniel would check his phone for any updates from Catherine.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing since yesterday afternoon.

After the umpteenth time of Daniel constantly checking his phone, he decides to see for himself. By now, Catherine would have texted him to let him know that she was home from school. Then, she would spend hours talking to me as she did her homework at the same time. Occasionally, she would have some clients to help, as with her part-time.

- Hey, Catherine. What are you up to?

Daniel has never started a conversation himself; it was out of character for him to reach out to anyone for anything.

There is no reply.

Has he gotten so used to social interaction that one day of isolation is enough to force Daniel to do something so out of character? He does not know, nor does he care. There is a desperate need to reach out to a girl he has barely known for a week. Daniel has finally recognized that he thought of Catherine as a friend; someone he could share his thoughts with, and vice versa.

Still no reply.

It was not until the day after that Daniel found out what had happened. Catherine never replied to his text. No, it was from the local news:

"SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD CATHERINE STELLIO COMMITS SUICIDE"