The Shadow Wanderers

Chapter 5

Calista and confusion. They both have a thing, and it's impossible to explain. They have an obscure history. She couldn't sleep the previous night out of confusion and curiosity. The shattered mirror kept her awake, but she also couldn't get the red-eyed guy out of her head. It was as though he had captured her in his thoughts. She couldn't stop thinking of his mesmerizing blood-red eyes. How could someone have such beautiful eyes with the color red?

No, she wasn't hallucinating. And she doesn't have a crush on him. She's seen him only once, and she's already hypnotized by him.

Who was he? Where did he come from? The face was unfamiliar because she doesn't remember any guy with red eyes of all the people in such a small town. She kept changing sides in her bed all night long. Her father had already cleaned the pieces of glass in the room, and the mirror had gone for fixing. The rug was torn apart, so it was put away in the garbage.

Calista kept glancing at the space in her room where the mirror once stood. Without the mirror and the rug, it felt empty and hollow; just like her mind, bearing the weight of the events from the last few days.

***The next morning, they're sitting across from each other in the school cafeteria, eating their peanut butter sandwiches. Calista is helping Naomi with her unfinished assignment. Her notes are scattered on the table as Naomi scribbles with one hand and eats with the other.

"You know, you can eat later if this assignment is so important," Calista says as she watches her scribbling furiously, the crumbs from the sandwich falling on the notes.

Naomi looks up at her and narrows her eyes. "I thought you'd tell me to eat first and finish the assignment later because the health of your best friend never comes first." She takes a big bite of the sandwich in her left hand and continues writing in her notebook, glancing at Calista's notes now and then.

Calista chuckles at her comment and takes a bite of her sandwich. She purposelessly looks around the cafeteria. Students are gossiping, eating, running, and messing around. She spots Isaac entering the cafeteria with his mates, his bag slung over his shoulder. Some students step away to make way for him to his usual table. His stubbornness and rudeness are still to the same extent. However, the rudeness levels towards Calista may have risen, because as though feeling eyes on him―a strange sensation of a particular person's sight, even though half of the cafeteria is staring at him―he looks around until his eyes catch hers. Isaac and her stare at each other. Isaac's gaze holds anger, his irises burning in the flames of his jealousy, but it doesn't scare Calista. His stare gives her chills, but she holds his gaze firmly.

Not wanting to stare for too long and be exposed to other people, she breaks the eye contact and tries to concentrate on Naomi's rough handwriting. As though sensing the sudden tensing up of her shoulders, Naomi looks up at Calista, but she doesn't look back. She closes the cap of her pen and places it in her notebook. Calista looks at her at this act, but Naomi's not looking at her, rather something behind Calista. She follows her line of sight and finds Isaac making his way to their table with a huge grin plastered on his face. Her heart drops as she realizes that her stare brought him to their table and that it was a terrible mistake.

Standing pleasingly close to their table, he shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans and stares at them, the smirk never fading from his lips. Naomi stares back, but Calista lowers her gaze, not wanting to confront Isaac at the moment.

"What's up, popular girls?" chimes Isaac. Calista looks up at him and feels the whole cafeteria boring their stares into the three of them. Quick enough, a sense of discomfort builds up inside her.

"We didn't invite you here, Isaac. You can go," says Naomi, picking up her pen again. Most of the noise from the café turns into whispers and hushes, all directed towards them. Calista places her arms on the table and interlocks her fingers, waiting for this to end soon. That's when she hears him chuckle, and she shuts her eyes close as though closing them would make her deaf, and she wouldn't have to listen to his nauseated chuckle.

"Well, that was rude," says Isaac, then shifts his weight to one foot and tilts his head to the side. "You know, as you both have entered the circle of 'popularity'," he makes air quotes around the word, "you have some rules to follow. The first one; you must not be rude to other popular students."

Now, it's Calista's turn to chuckle. "Look who's talking," she mutters loud enough for Naomi to hear.

Naomi stands up in front of Isaac, who is towering over her. "You know, as we both have entered the circle of 'popularity'," she, too, makes air quotes around the word, then points her finger at his chest, "The rule applies to you too." She gives him a bright smile. The smirk from Isaac's face falls as they hear soft laughs from the students who are still watching them. "Jerk," Naomi says as she hears Calista laugh a little too.

She sits back but immediately stands back up as Isaac picks up the notebook she was writing in. He flips the pages back and forth and scrunches his nose in disgust as he examines her handwriting. Calista senses the sudden trouble in the air and crosses the table to stand beside Naomi. Isaac holds the notebook upside down with his finger and thumb, bringing it closer to Naomi's face.

"I can't even read a word here. You are a disgrace to popular kids," he says, his signature smirk returns on his face. He throws the notebook back on the table.

Naomi's face turns red with anger, and her ears are blowing due to frustration. All of a sudden, she lunges at him and tries to grab Isaac's collar. He steps back in horror while Calista grabs Naomi by her waist and pulls her back so that she's out of Isaac's range.

"F*** you, Isaac!" she curses at him while Calista holds her in her place and tries to calm her down. The whole cafe has gone silent and looks perplexed at the sudden outburst of Naomi.

Then, out of nowhere, a piece of a cake comes flying towards them, and everyone in the cafeteria bursts out laughing as it hits Isaac on the face. Isaac shuts his eyes close, and his jaw hangs open in disbelief, whipped cream dripping from his chin. Calista loosens her grip on Naomi as she starts to laugh too. Calista stares at him, and a chuckle escapes her mouth, but she covers it with her hand. Isaac's left cheek and his nose are smudged with cream, which he wipes off with his hand.

"Who did that?!" He yells, but the students don't stop laughing. Instead, their laughs further intensify as they see Isaac's cream-smudged face. "Shut up. Stop laughing! Y'all know what I can do. My Dad can close this school, and you won't have anywhere to study. I can literally make y'all homeless," he finishes his outburst, yet not even half the students stop laughing. Already annoyed enough, he marches out of the cafe, and his mates follow him.

"Way to go, Marlin!" Naomi exclaims, referring to an afro-haired dark guy, and picks up her notebook.

"No worries!" Marlin shouts back as some students cheer him and pat him on the back.

Calista looks at Naomi in confusion and asks, "How did you know it was him?"

She gathers the scattered notes on the table and pins them together, then turns to Calista and replies, "I saw him."

"And what was the need to lunge at him? You created a huge drama."

"He's a complete asshole. I couldn't help it. He would've torn the notebook, and all my work would've gone to waste." She holds the notebook in one hand and slides her bag on her shoulder. Calista does the same and walks out of the cafe with Naomi, heading to their lockers.

"But he didn't," Calista tells her.

"Are you on his side?" asks Naomi, arching a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

Calista looks at her, perplexed. "What? No. Of course not!"

Sensing the sudden shock in her eyes, Naomi says, "Chill! Just kidding." Calista smiles wryly.

Naomi stops in her tracks. "By the way, you should know that he is not popular anymore. He's not the Mayor's son for this school anymore. Students are not afraid of him or of his Daddy threats anymore. There's no level of high or low in this school anymore. You know why? Because of you. You stood courageously on the cliff that day, telling the school that you're not afraid of anything and that there's no need for them to praise him as they do. I can't say that we have replaced his popularity, because it's not what we want, right? I mean, now these people have started to acknowledge us, but we aren't popular. We're just like them. We're normal. And that's the biggest gift I've received from you, Calista. Everything is much better now."

All the while, Calista stares at her while Naomi speaks with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Calista's chest contracts and she feels overwhelming gratitude towards her best friend.

"Yeah, better," she says, smiling down at her.

Naomi chuckles and slides her arm around Calista's shoulder as they continue walking.