The Conspiration of the Universe

Chapter 5

Second: The Meeting

5

The aftermath; I don’t know what is happening to me. It seems that the world suddenly became apathetic and cruel. It was Friday night when I told Matt everything that had happened. I thought maybe the weight of the experience could be alleviated when I told someone about it. All he could say to me is “You’re going to be okay.” It’s a sentence fraught with hope and lies and yet people still uses it. “I don’t know what to do next. Am I that stupid to not see her twisted plot? ” I told him.

“First off, you should stop talking like that...”

“Like what?”

“...like you are some actor on a movie. It makes me feel sick about you. Second, you are not as stupid as you think; just mildly stupid but not an I-swear-to-God-you’re-dumb-as-a-rock level of stupidity.”

I sneered at Matt’s frankness. “Thank you for justifying.”

He tousled his curly hair to remove some of it from obstructing his slanted eyes. “Anyway I invited Eric over, you know, its Friday night.” Matt reminded.

“Yeah, it’s Friday night, movie night.” I said sounding bored. Once in a month, Matt would invite his ‘friends’ (which is only Eric) over so they could watch a movie. Yeah their friendship sound so gay but I am forbidden to judge. Maybe this is what they call bromance. Weird.

“That’s right and I need you to watch with us.”

“What? Why? You know I don’t watch those things you watch!” I argued.

“Yeah right, like you are not a nerd like us.” He said it confidently.

“No. You’re a geek. A nerd is someone who...”

“....is someone like Luke, I know” he continued. “But tonight we would be watching something else. It would be of great help with your ‘condition’ right now.”

I just sighed as a sign of defeat. I don’t even care anymore. Star Trek or whatever movie they would watch I hope it would just melt my mind.

“Hey, another thing” he seriously looked at me. His eyes are as if piercing. “you should take a shower. You reek.”

***

As I came out of the bathroom fully clothed, I saw Matt and Eric already talking. Eric, as usual is wearing PJ’s. Its loose light green texture makes Eric smaller as he is. His hair which is properly combed on one side and his dark skin makes him a perfect model of Jose Rizal.

“Hey Luke, long time!” he goofily greeted. By goofily I mean, he shakes his shoulder too much. Remarkably, the thought of him being Rizal suddenly vanished. I just raised my chin as a response.

“I told you he is not in all sunshine.” Matt interrupted.

“You told him?” I asked out of surprise

“Yeah of course. The more the merrier, right?”

“Okay, whatever.” I said nonchalantly

“Anyway dudes, the movie we are going to watch is epic!” Eric interjected. He flashed the case of the DVD. “500 Days of Summer” it says. The two appears to be amused and gave each other a high five.

“Oh God, no!” I cried. Anything but a love story. That would make feel ten thousand more worse. “Really? You are torturing me in this way! Whatever happened to Star Trek, Vampire versus Zombies versus Werewolves or your perverted High School of the Dead?” I added.

“Woah, Luke! First off, HOTD is not a movie so technically it should not be included. Second, it is not totally perverted it is just Ecchi.” Matt explained in a condescending manner.

“We are making an exception this night, for you!” Eric said and winked at me. That brought me an incredible amount of weird and creepy sensation all over my body that it made me shudder.

“I think I’m just going to bed.” I told them frankly.

“Noooo!” they both shrilled. “Don’t be a kill-joy.” If they were both girls this situation would be finely understandable but... sigh. I have no choice so I agreed to watch the movie with them.

Truth (not) be told, the movie was really a torture to me! But seeing how miserable the actor was on the movie, it made me feel better. That I guess was the magic of the movies. It makes you feel different. It could either inspire you of being a better person like the protagonist of the movie and/or it would make you feel better off by yourself because the protagonist has a messed up life you wish it won’t ever happen to you.

The best part of the movie was the ending. Because that’s the part where I realized that I have good friends here in real life and that feeling is something I wouldn’t trade for.

***

The movie, thanks to Matt and Eric, served as a pain reliever. But it was two weeks ago and the relief has already worn off.

A part of me wishes that Sydney was just playing a bitter joke to me and then she’ll call me and tell me that she’s sorry and she was wrong but...but it took me two weeks to realize that that is never going to happen.

Matt was already home for the weekend so I’m all alone. Being out of my mind, I called my mom who is 61 km away from my apartment. I never did this before. But considering the comfort I had when I talked to Matt, I couldn’t think of a better pain reliever. Usually she will be the one who would call, but today, today is all different. After the fifth ring, my mom finally answered the call.

“Hello? Luke? What a surprise! Why have you called? Is everything alright?” my mom interrogated.

“No ma.... I mean I’m fine.” My words came out crude and unbelievable.

“Right, you have a problem. Do you want to discuss it honey?”Honey? When did she start to call me honey?

“No, I don’t want to discuss it here.” I admitted

“Then why did you call?”

“Um, I am just going to inform you that I am not going home this weekend. I need a time for myself.”

“Are you sure?” She said, sounding worried. That’s a problem. I don’t want her to be worried to me at all.

“Ma, I’m fine, trust me. That’s just what I need for now.”

“Okay, Luke. Take care.”

“Thanks ma. I’ll be home next week, I promise.”

I hung up. The immediate silence both in my head and from the room made me feel so pathetic. I know that this is a bad idea bad I turned on my laptop and quickly logged in to my f*******: account. Probably my logical part and the irrational part of me are going blitzkrieg already within the loading time. At the end, the irrational and stupidly in-love part of me won and I clicked my way to Sydney’s profile and saw her same profile picture; her hideous floral dress, her wicked face with her obviously a non-candid smile. Why is she even seated at that swing set? She probably took it away heartlessly from some lonely kid who only wants to have some littlest joy on a summer afternoon! Poor kid.

She has no recent activity but her wall has a lot of posts from her friends greeting her a happy birthday. Some greeted her with a message full of sentiments but some also lazily greeted her ‘HBD’.

One post took my attention. It was from a friend of hers, which I personally know, saying “Belated happy birthday Sid. Now you’re finally free of him.” I can’t believe it. The second, third and fourth time I’ve read it seemed to me as illusory. Free? Was our relationship a prison for her? What the hell is wrong with her friends? What the hell is wrong with her? Why would she even go to a relationship in which she knows for herself that she hadn’t move on yet? My asthma started acting up on me again as if the oxygen around me suddenly thinned out. Right, this is really a bad idea. I closed my laptop in an instant like it was the cause of my distress. Then I decided to just to tune in to some music on my phone. I pressed the don’t-play-this-unless-you’re-really-pathetic playlist and dismal music started to play. I don’t know why I have this collection of sober music, but the thing is when I’m sad and listen to these it makes me feel better. It makes me feel like I was in movie trailer or something.

I lay down at my bed staring at the clean white walls. For a moment, I absorbed the silence of the room. I really wish I could talk to someone right now. Someone who would understand or someone who would take my mind off this upsetting situation I’m in. It would make me feel a lot better.

Without me noticing it, hours passed by and the afternoon heat started to fade away as well as the glow in the room so I reached for the light switch. The room instantly regained its former atmosphere, where it feels secure and calm. I noticed at my study desk the book that I was supposed to give to Sydney. “A Starless Night” was engraved in silver at the hard cover of the book. The cover art features a silhouette of a girl staring at the empty dark-blue night sky.

Of all the books of Andrew Stine, this one was absolutely my favourite. It is all about an adventurous girl named Eureka Cortez. Her parents were forcing her to be a doctor but she has a dream of becoming a videographer. She simply wants to capture moments of people’s lives and compile it and watch it and she would be already happy about it. And that is what I love about her.

As I scanned through the pages I reminisced about how I felt when I have read those passages when I was just 14. Even the smell of the paper, an old book smell, aided me to remember how I interpreted the scenes in the book. I noticed that how I thought of the scene before was a little different than how I imagine the scenes now.

Time passed by and I came across the last page of Chapter 9. I re-read the sentences it contains and realized that this is the part where Eureka would ran away from her home to chase after her dream and escape the pressure her parents are giving her. This is also the part where she would meet Darwin, the boy who would change her life.

***

The night was quiet. It’s too quiet. I looked up and saw an empty vastness of dark-blue sky. I was quite disappointed. The grass beneath my bare feet felt cold and comfortable so I lay down to continue to observe the dull sky.

“It is not empty, you know.” A mellifluous voice spoke out. It’s a girl. She was sitting beside me.

“What?” I answered.

“The sky, it is not empty, look.” She pointed her finger to the sky.

I followed the direction she was pointing out and saw a star twinkling. I glanced back to the girl to inspect who she was but her hair covers the side of her face. Who is she? Do I know her?

“You just have to look harder Luke.” She said while slowly turning her face towards me. I almost had a glimpse of her face but the morning light woke me up to my phantasmagoria.