Limerence Turns Ugly

Chapter 4

RABBIT'S POINT OF VIEW

        Joey fell asleep while crying so Squirrel and I decided to be the kind of friends that actually carries their sleeping sad friend back to her bedroom, so we carried her together to her bedroom.

        "Is it just me or is she getting heavier?" I asked."

        "Or maybe we're just not strong enough" Squirrel answered back with a sigh, "We need to do some exercise and build some strength or we might not even carry a baby with our muscle-less arms."

        "You make it sound like we're so pathetic, we're just two ordinary girls who doesn't have that kind of strength to carry a grown woman" I joked, "But you're right, we need to exercise sometimes, I think I haven't ran for like, half a year."        

        Looking at Joey laying in her bed with her blanket covering her, we decided to leave her alone and check on the cake we made in the oven since it's about time. However, when I'm about to close the door after we're out of the room, I saw her sitting upright on her bed silently. Just before I opened my mouth to say something her, she started to smile all by herself for no reasons at all.

        A chill ran down my spine.

       "Squirrel," I whispered while pointing through the crack at the door with my shaking finger, thinking that I should let her know about it, because Joey's reaction is weird and it's freaking me out.

       "Is she alright?" Squirrel gave me a quizzical look after peeking through the door.

       "I don't know," I started to open the door wider so I can walk in. "Jo-"

       Squirrel grabbed my hand immediately and shook her head while putting a finger on her lips, stopping me from doing so and dragged me further away from the door . "Rabbit, is it a symptom of....you know, losing her mind?"

       "I'm not sure." Her words made me feel like Joey's really starting to lose her mind because she really cared about her grades but failing it, made her lose her mind. We got worried so we decided to bring her to a physiologist tomorrow morning.

        "Why am I going to a physiologist? " Joey  appeared suddenly between Squirrel and I. We almost jumped out of our skin.

       "Oh, it's -" I tried to cover it but Squirrel cut me in mid-sentence.

       "You should go, we're afraid that you'll turn into a crazy woman sooner or later." Sensing she had been too straightforward, Squirrel tried to joke about it, "You know, who'll date a crazy woman?" Squirrel chuckled nervously.

       Joey opened her eyes as big as she can and looked at us innocently, then her mouth started to tremble and she cried again.

       "Ops...I didn't mean that Snake is not going to date you ever again, well, it's about your studies-" Squirrel was so nervous that I can see it from her facial expression and her rubbing her forefinger and thumb back and forth.

       "I'm okay." Joey said between sobs, but obviously, we all know she's not okay. I gave Squirrel a hint to leave her alone. Sometimes we just need a little time to calm ourselves down, we need space for ourselves, I've experienced it first-hand.

        "So, spaghetti tonight?" Squirrel and I went downstairs to prepare our dinner and check on our cake in the oven.

       "This cake looks so yummy" Squirrel commented while placing the butter cake on the kitchen counter and started to cover it with vanilla flavoured cream before adding some blueberries on it.

      "Don't even think about taking a bite while you're doing what you're doing now" I warned her jokingly while throwing in some spaghetti into the pot of boiling water to cook.

       After we're done preparing our dinner, we went back to Joey's room and knocked on the door.

       "Come in." Joey called from inside with an elated tone.

       When we opened the door and headed inside we saw Joey talking to someone on the phone, she saw us and smiled at us brightly. "Bye, honey. My two best friends in the whole wide world, Rabbit and Squirrel are probably asking me to join them for dinner now." she bid goodbye to whoever it is on the other side of the line and mimicked kissing someone in the air.

       We look at each other for a second and a person came through our mind, "It's Snake!" we said out loud gleefully.

       "Yeah, you're both right!" Joey confirmed our doubt with a huge smile plastered on her face. We're really glad that Joey is okay now and we headed to the dining room to have our dinner.

       "Hurrah! Spaghetti! I love you two, you know me best!" Joey hugged us upon seeing the plates of steaming hot spaghetti on the table.

       After we're seated in front of our food, I looked over to Squirrel and nodded towards Joey slightly as a hint for Squirrel to ask about Joey. Squirrel nodded, "Joey, how are you feeling now?" she asked carefully.

       Joey look at us like that's the most idiotic question ever, "What do you mean 'how am I feeling?' If you mean my results, I'm fine. I really am." Joey smiled at us, "Although my result are not good this time but-"

       "But you have Snake so everything's okay, right?" I blurted out before she could finish whatever she was trying to say. I don't know why I did that, but the words just came out of my mouth without warning, so I just shrugged and smiled at her when she look at me surprisingly and agreed to me.

       "Absolutely correct! I'm so glad that you understand me so much." Joey smiled a little. "Oh ya, Snake told me that he wanted to study together with me so we can get better result in the upcoming exam next year. Both of you are welcome to join too!"

        "Okay, count us in." We said in unison.

DURING THE SEMESTER BREAK

        "Yum...this is nice...finally something edible made from you" This is my first time ever praising the food that was prepared by Squirrel.

       "Nice right?" Squirrel asked proudly.

       "Nice. Joey, would you like to try some? Squirrel made this and finally it's not burnt or under-cooked," whenever Squirrel cooks, she either burnt it under-cooked her food, even a simple fried egg. She did admit that cooking is not one of her talent, but you know, practice makes perfect, even the worst cook can improve eventually, so even though I'm the one who has to eat all her food no matter how bad it is, I still insist her to try cooking. Well, to be honest, every time when I was testing her food, I almost made a yuck face.

        "Edible food made by Squirrel? Are you sure?" Joey looked at me sceptically, "Well, I would like to give it a try, but no thank you. I'm going out for a while to buy some stuff," Joey said while tying her shoulder length hair into a ponytail.

      "You'll regret." Squirrel said it loudly with sarcasm, "and come back early after buying your things." then muttered under her breath, "Doubting my abilities to cook? You're definitely going to regret"

       I heard Squirrel muttering and giggled then turned towards Joey who was already wearing her shoes by the door, "And don't forget that you still have a date with Snake," I continued.

       "I won't, and don't worry, I will buy some snacks for both of you too." then she closed the door after finishing her sentence.

FEW HOURS LATER

       It's already three o'clock, but Joey hasn't come back from her morning shopping yet. Squirrel and I started to feel anxious about her because she didn't answer our calls too. We've tried to contact her for half an hour but still, nobody answered.

        "Maybe we could try asking Snake?" Squirrel looked at me while her fingers dialed his number in her phone.