CHAPTER TEN

"Hold on a sec. What are you talking about?" His eyes shrink, vertical parallels forming in his forehead.

"Pft, c'mon! Media. Crowd. King. Embarrassment. Those silly things! That's what we're talking about." Laikyn was never a soft spoken person. Not until she gets acquainted with a handsome skinny white guy on the same table, who has no idea that he's too much for her to handle.

I shoot a gaze past Benjamin and reflect through Laikyn's eyes. I open my mouth a little, enough for my tongue to make its way out and lick my lower lip. I lift my cheeks and see-saw my right eyebrow, and it's when she realizes I'm making fun of her being uneasy because of this guy sitting with us. Her lips slough off some muted words. Despite the lacking of sound, I'm still good to understand she just said 'what the hell?' while rolling her eyes exaggeratedly.

After fifteen seconds of pissing her off, I ended our telepathic communication with a wink. I then return my attention to Benjamin who surely feels non-existent for a while. "You really saw us, did you?" I clarify.

He straightens his back and leans on the chair. "Oh yeah, of course. I'm so sure it was you. But that's not what I'm asking." He stops when the waiter comes to refill our glasses with champagnes. He waits for the waiter to leave so he can lift his glass and sniff the wine. "Oui! C'est le paradis." He raises it and took a sip. "Anyhow, I'm just a little confused when you said you were on television. I mean, why would you be on the television in the first place?"

Benjamin stretches his lips, and for the first time in this fifteen-minute-and-still-counting acquaintance, his dimples narrow down.

"I thought that's what you're going to say." Laikyn takes a piece of tissue out of her bag and swabs her mouth. She folds the tissue, scrapes it to her cheeks, and her blush-ons and make-up starts to merge in a catastrophic way, that would definitely annoy girls who love layering kaleidoscope of colored powders on their faces too.

Just when I'm about to burst into laughter, she fishes her pocket mirror from her cosmetic pouch and redoes her makeover.

"I know you're making fun of my face but you better keep that for yourself." Her eyes goes sharply across the table.

"No, I'm not. I-I don't. I'm good. Not gonna laugh, promise." I say, zipping my mouth as soon as I can before I lose control of my laughter.

Benjamin's empty wine glass bumps against the table. "We're having a little confusion," he flaps, the dulcet tone of his voice sounds like a French guy having trouble in speaking english.

"Yes, we are." I reply, wowed by how fast he was able to gulped down all that champagne in just one sip. "That's why you have to make it clear or else we'll be stuck in the same topic and won't get over it."

"Yes, girl!" Laikyn blurts, sitting still as she paints her face with cosmetics.

He divulges, "actually, I know nothing about that television shits you're talkin'. I sit here because I recognize the two of you. I was behind you all the way out of the street."

He takes off his grey hoodie to finger-comb his abundant fair hair brushed on one side.

Laikyn insensibly steeks her pocket mirror. "You're following us."

Invisible particles of Laikyn's ridiculousness jetties on the air, wafting it's way into Benjamin's nostrils and makes him hold his sneeze. "Audacious." He pauses for a while, pinching his nose with two fingers, and sustains, "It just happened that I'm after this restaurant's free trial too."

"Oh." Laikyn and I croon in a dull monotone.

I thought having the same reaction with my friend would put a period to this subtle meeting with a random guy, but then I'm wrong. It's actually just the beginning and I see a lot more of talks that are coming on their way.

"Do you live here?" Laikyn, as expected, throws out another question to let the conversation with Benjamin flowing. The way I look at her makes me think she's interested in any possible way, the very reason why she keeps digging and digging for information about him.

Meanwhile, Benjamin smiles, and it's the smile he has been showing uncountable times already since he set foot here. "Uhm, actually. . ." The smile wilts when his mouth starts to rumble out some words. "I'm from France."

"I was right." I face Laikyn and she's like 'how the hell did you know?'

I look back to Benjamin and utter, "he speaks English in a way almost all French people do."

"So you're French, too?" he say, astounded.

"Oui. Je vis ici." I wink at him.

The smile sprouts back on his face, and this time, wider and brighter. "C'est bon à savoir."

Laikyn raises both of her hands in chest level, partly closes her eyes, and move back her head a little. "You both must stop right there before my nose bleeds. I don't understand anything and I wish you to be kind and considerate." She pries her eyes open, takes a deep sigh, and continues. "By the way, what brought you to Italy? I assume you're here to start a new life like what Callie and her family is doing."

"You're getting out of hand, Laikyn. That question is too personal to ask." I warn.

"No, no. It's okay. I don't mind answering." He sails his middle finger on the mouth of his empty wine glass. "I'm here to look for a friend. He's missing. I don't have any idea where to find him and this is the only place I know where he would possibly go."

I bite my fingernails-which is gross, but I always do this when I'm interested in something. "How long had he gone missing?"

"His nurse reported his disappearance three days ago. Much worse, the nurse doesn't want his family to know that something happened to their son that's why I was sent out on a mission to find him." He rolls his lips inward. On his eyes, on his empty eyes, I see pain and regret that slowly brings him in tears, but it fails to flow out when he rubs both of them with his hands.

"It's better to just stop here. I'm so sorry. I hope you find your friend sooner," I declare, sensing a flicker of fire cautiously burning my chest.

A long silence punches the clock. It feels like its swords of it spin intensively that the next thing that happens is already in a different setting.

We are on outside of the restaurant, having a little agreement on what's gonna fall out next when I finally conclude it's time to rest because this whole morning has been so tiring for me.

"Where do we go next?" Laikyn glides her jaw, voice sounding too girlish that I have to pay attention to it twice just to clarify if it's really her who's speaking. She didn't speak this way before.

"I don't know. I think we should head back to the apartment now. I'm tired." I pivot my head on her.

Benjamin utters throatily. "You want me to walk you home?" A tremulous but grateful smile burgeons on his caffe latte visage.

"Sure. If you don't mind!" Laikyn swaggers with her eyes on a sparkling battle against the rays of the sun.

I take a deep breath and I recognize the rippling of air out of my lungs as Laikyn lays out another side of her. First, she talked to a stranger. Now, she's letting a stranger walk us on our way home. I mean, isn't it dangerous to trust someone you barely even know to do these things? I'm not saying that Benjamin is a bad person, but I'm just trying to be extra careful because who knows he is. . .

"Hey!" Laikyn snaps her fingers on my ears and it sends a chilling sensation into my eardrums. "What do you think?"

"Thanks for the offer." I dart my eyes at him. "But I think there's no need to walk us home," I then decline.

I see how Laikyn's face feels so sorry for Benjamin, and at the same time how Benjamin's face mimics acceptance. Their eyes find their way to meet each other despite me standing between the two of them.

"It's turning two. We must reach the house before three," I put forth, cracking their facial expressions.

"I guess. . ." Benjamin shoots his hands into his pockets. "I gotta see you around next time, then."

Laikyn dries her sweating neck with the back of her hand. "Of course! There's a lot more to go."

"Nice meeting you again." He begins walking away with his head still facing on us.

Laikyn flags her hand in midair and lets it wave smoothly with the wind. "Goodbye," she goes on.

The boy in striped sleeveless recovers his head back to his path takes his left hand out of his shorts' pocket and waves it while keeping his feet at work. "Nice meeting you! Callie!" He says one last time as he blends with the crowd across the street.

Laikyn ambles a few steps forward following the trail of the guy we met minutes ago and asks,"what did he say?"

"Eh." I scrub the inconspicuous dirt off of my shirt using my unembellished red handkerchief with my name embroidered in yellow and answer back to Laikyn. "He said it was nice meeting Callie."

"So, it's you? Correct?"

"Of course. Unless there's any other Callie out here." I shrug my shoulders.

"What about me?" She scratches some of her braided blondes.

"How would I know?" I finally say as I brush past her. "We should go. Mamma must be worried by now."

It's odd. It's completely odd. Everything that had happened so far seemed very odd. The way he talks, the way he smiles, the way he tells about his friend's sudden disappearance. All of them. They're making me feel sympathy and melancholy and they keep haunting every inch of me. Though I don't know who's the missing guy. Though I don't know the real story behind it. Though I don't know Benjamin that much. The sadness in that scenario was overwhelming to the extent that I feel how it's like to fit in Benjamin's shoes.

It's kind of a mystery everyone hopes to be unraveled for the sake of peace, but at the same time, no one would dare to do so. It's kind of a mystery that would surely soften and weaken even the strongest and toughest heart. Why am I feeling this way? Why do I feel sympathy and concern towards a missing stranger I haven't met once in my life? Is it because of the friendship that fuels Benjamin to pursue his mission of finding his friend? Or is it because of something else?

I. Am. Bothered.

We are walking on the pavement with lesser people around us. I am ahead of a few steps from Laikyn and we hit the road like we don't know each other. She is busy with her phone, and I am busy with nothing. Her finger, the index finger with a golden ring, goes up and down scrolling from her device as if she has found something interesting. I hold myself and do not dare to bug her at all because I know it's going to cause another noise. I pretend I am air. Invisible yet still there.

I meander my eyes. I look above and the stupendous skies remind me of someone; the missing guy. I look on my right and the slowly toppling of the dry and wilted maple leaf fresh from its branch reminds me of someone; the missing guy. I tilt my head to the left and seeing a bunch of guys laughing as they walk across our path reminds me of someone; the missing guy.

No matter how far my eyes could go, no matter what things my eyes could see, I still end up with the same person-the missing guy.

I. Am. Bothered. Even. More.

"Finally, we are here." Laikyn heaves a sigh when she steps her feet inside the entrance alley.

The spring season is becoming more obvious by the time we enter the back side of Migos Village, the town where our apartment settles in. It's three o'clock and it's time for the people to gather at the park to spend an afternoon picnic. They come in overwhelming numbers that turn the place lively and cheerful.

Ice cream carts and snack houses take off in all directions. Children with their kites and balloons flinging around the corners. Families settled themselves in the grassed area to eat.

Everything works so well for an ideal spring day that I couldn't tell if the sun has steamed the place because of the wind that keeps on blowing vigorously.

As I observe further, I realize it's worth staying an hour here.

"Can we stay for a while? The place is just so lovely." I ask Laikyn while looking to a tiny cute toddler crying over his popped balloon.

"You can stay here if you like. I'm going back to the building. I can't resist this costume anymore." She grunts, itching every part of her body.

"Oh. Never mind, then." I turn my gaze on her. "Let's just head back for now. We can come back here anytime, right?"

"We can come here everyday if you want," she replies. "But not today. My tutu dress is irritating my skin and I'm tired of itching them."

I nod. "Okay, sure."

I take a final look of the place. As we walk our way through the pavement on the side of the park, a question suddenly plot its route into my mind.

Out of all of the people in this park, would there be a possibility for Benjamin's friend to be here?