Sun and Moon

CHAPTER 3 - THE CONSEQUENCE

“You sit down.”

I couldn’t help but quiver when Sun, a.k.a the Fifth Guy, finally opened his mouth after almost fifteen minutes of silence. Have you ever heard of the saying, “Silence is deafening?” that was how I felt like while he sat in front of me with his arms crossed in front of his chest, stared at me with his stony eyes, his mouth closed sternly.

I gulped a huge mouthful of air as I silently sat down on the chair as his eyes motioned me to sit on. Crystal and I were taken to La Cocina, a Mexican Restaurant with an outdoor set up nearby the subway station. It was basically just a 30-second walk from the subway station. I took a quick glimpse at Crystal, who was silent, too. She sat beside the Fourth Guy, on the same square table we all were seated.

Crystal looked nervous not too long ago, but when the Fourth Guy started talking to her, she seemed to have relaxed a little bit. To which, of course, comforted me. At least, my friend wouldn’t be dragged into the “chamber of t*****e” this guy in front of me had built through his taciturn eyes. Maybe he was a descendant of Cyclops. His stare shot me daggers of fire straight to my heart that made my skin burn.

I couldn’t stand the silence anymore. I might go mad for not knowing what he was thinking while looking at me like I was a frog he would be dissecting anytime soon.

So I cleared my throat. I hadn’t opened my mouth yet when Sun held his right hand up to stop me from whatever I was supposed to say. His action infuriated me. Nobody had ever, as in ever, done that to me! I clenched my fists.

“Stop glaring at me. You are not allowed to talk until I said so.” He crossed his arms again. “I tried so hard to think of a way on how to make you compensate me for everything ill-fated that had happened to me since you…” He stopped. Then his brows furrowed. “…you stole “it” from me!” he said with so much conviction and hatred.

He said the word “it” as if he was too embarrassed to even say it. The Fourth Guy chuckled beside him. He too, earned a burning glare from Sun so he shrugged and held both of his hands up as if saying, “Okay. I’ll stop.” We all know he was still laughing inside, though. He couldn’t even hide his smile.

Sun then turned to me again. “What you did was unforgivable. You made my summer vacation hell, did you know that? I was supposed to be feeling jubilant when I got that Gold Medal in the Math Olympiad in France. But look at me now. I look so distressed and troubled because of what you did! And not only that.”

He pointed a finger at me, and his face had turned b****y red. “I got thousands of friend requests on f*******: and a lot more on messenger because of you!”

Uh-oh. I coyly bit my lower lip. I should be scared of him. Even more scared than a while ago, because he looked more furious than before. But hell, he looked cute when he was mad and all red-faced like that.

“Stop smiling like an i***t!” he roared.

I didn’t know why, but seeing him all riled up made me feel strangely satisfied. I suddenly remembered my mom. It was the same feeling whenever I annoyed my mom.    

“Can I talk now?” I asked, trying to hide my smile.

He narrowed his eyes and looked at me straight. “What were you thinking? Tell me why you did that,” he demanded.

I sighed. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? It was just a dare. I’m sorry it was you.”

“What do you mean, because it was me?” he asked, a little confused.

“It could’ve been him,” I answered, pointing at the Fourth Guy.

“Cloud?!” his voice turned up a notch as if I was talking nonsense.

I shrugged. “Yes, it could’ve been anybody. Look, it was just a dare my stars, I mean, my followers on YouTube, told me to do,” I explained.

“Wow! I knew it! That’s why you look so familiar. My sister watches your videos on YouTube! You really are cute, especially in person,” Cloud said, amazed.

“Thank you,” I grinned.

“So, it was just a d-dare?” Sun asked.

“Yes. I was dared to go to the Eiffel Tower to kiss the fifth guy that gets off the elevator.”

Sun clenched his fist. A moment later, he banged his clenched fist on the table. It startled us all. “You stole “it” for a dare? Just a dare?” he incredulously asked.

“Why did you think would I kiss you then?” I sarcastically asked back.

He was taken aback by my question. And then, he looked away. “Your explanation isn’t enough to appease my wrath.”

“Hey, I already put my video in private mode. Nobody could watch the video anymore. And also, I already told my stars neither to look for you nor to try to contact you. I’m really sorry. I didn’t know it would come to this.”

“You thought I lived in France, did you?” he mocked.

I nodded, feeling a bit ashamed.

“And you really thought you could get away from me just like that?”

My heart started racing again. “W-what do you mean?”

“I want you to post an apology video addressed to me. Also, I want you to admit that it was all edited. The…” again, he looked away. “…the k-kiss…” he cleared his throat. “…was all fake.”

“I’ll never do that!” I disagreed vehemently. “What would my fans say? They would think that all my videos are fake, which of course, isn’t true! What would you want me to lie about it?”

“Because I have a reputation to protect!”

“I have a reputation to protect, too!”

“What reputation? Kissing someone you barely know just for likes and views? Ha! Come on. That’s ridiculous!” he taunted.

Well, his words hit me real hard—spot on. I suddenly felt small.  And hell, his words hurt me. I couldn’t even refute his claim. Maybe, what he had said was true.

“Sun, that’s enough,” Cloud said when I didn’t answer.

Crystal held my hand on the table and gave me an I’m-so-sorry-honey-look. Cloud threw Sun a glare. Sun looked at me. Maybe my head just turned into a pumpkin because Sun looked surprised. I looked away, still feeling a bit hurt.

“Great. Now I’ve become the bad guy,” he muttered.

“I hope you’ll understand. But Sun here is our Mr. Genius in school. His record is as clean as a whistle that everyone in school worshipped him. Do you get what I mean? So, when your video broke into the internet, our school was baffled. His silent world instantly turned upside down. Sun didn’t like a nuisance. Sorry for the word,” Cloud explained.

I nodded. “Yes, I understand. I also want a peaceful life. So, can we all just forget everything?” I said and coyly smiled.

Sun shook his head. “I don’t just forget things that made me suffer.”

Exasperated, I rolled my eyes. “What do you want then?”

“Your video apology.”

“I already told you I couldn’t do that. It would ruin my career.”

“So? I’d like it better if my “career” would be spared because of what you did,” he sarcastically smirked.

I turned to Crystal. We weren’t best friends for nothing if we couldn’t understand each other just by looking at each other’s eyes.

“I’ll run,” my eyes said.

Crystal gulped. “How?” her eyes said.

I looked at the street where we were at. “I’ll run as fast as you can. Run for your life, and never let them catch you.”

Crystal sighed, louder than usual. It meant she just said yes to my plan. I then looked back to Sun, who was still waiting for my answer. My mind was trying to figure out how I could run away from them. I sighed.

“I just hope we would clear everything here. I mean, it was a coincidence that we both live in New York, right? How about I order our food and pay for it? My treat.”

“I can pay for my own food,” Sun yapped.

“Silly. I know you can, but I just want to treat you guys. Wait.” I turned my back as if I was trying to look for a waiter while, in fact, I was busy scouting the street if it was feasible for me to run away in that direction—all clear. I’ll take the risk.

“Where are the waiters here?” I impatiently asked.

“I said—”

I didn’t let Sun finish his words. I stood up, pushed the table towards him, pushed Cloud away from Crystal, held my best friend’s hand, and pulled her out. And then we started running away.

“Come back here, you stupid girl!” Sun yelled, chasing us.

“Don’t look back,” I firmly said to Crystal. “We live here, so we know every street and every alley. We can outrun them, okay?”

“What have you done again, Moon?” Crystal asked, almost breathless.

“I don’t care! As long as they wouldn’t catch us!” I said, yelling.

“Come back here! You’re dead when I catch you!” he yelled harder.

“You’ll never see me again!” I yelled back.

We ran towards a narrow alley that only Upper East Side Manhattan Locals knew about. Not everybody knew it’s a shortcut to our school. I never heard his voice again.

We continued running as fast as we can, taking every turn we knew. And when we had finally gotten in front of our school’s gate, we both stopped running away.

“I promise we will never see each other again. I’ll do everything to stay away from him,” I said as I stared at the gate. “I proooooooooooomise!” I shouted as I held up hands up the sky as if I was trying to call all the saints I knew.

And then, I laughed again. Crystal laughed with me. We continued laughing until we ran out of breath, too.