WORLD'S WEIGHT ▹ tfatws

[ 012 ] chapter twelve

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

JOURNEY ON THE
LAWLESS
PIRATE ISLAND

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

Czarina sat by the far left seat of the plane, opposite to where her father is. Her fingers dialed on her phone screen nervously. The girl has made up her mind that she has to put this trip first before her personal plans for the break. Which includes her promised vacation with Hazel. She exhaled sharply before pressing the call button on her best friend's contact.

"Rina!" An overtly joyful voice immediately answered from the other line.

Czarina felt her heart skip a bit hearing the girl's voice. God, she missed her so much. Thinking about seeing Hazel again makes it harder for her to be decisive on the matter. She just wanted the two of them together, out on vacation for a week, without the rest of the world bothering them.

"Hey, Hazel...," Czarina trailed off, biting her lower lip. "Where are you now?"

"Oh, we're at the supermarket. I'm with my mom and Leah. We are buying stuff for tomorrow!" Hazel giggled. She almost imagined her best friend's cheeky smile just by listening to it.  "I can't wait to see you again!"

"Yeah, me too..."

Hazel continued talking happily on the other line about how her day is going and their preparation for the trip. At this point guilt is weighing down on Czarina's chest. A part of her just wanted to listen to her best friend all day and tell her she's coming to see her again in two days. But she can't.

"Hey, Rina. Are you still there?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm here," Czarina sighed. "Uh, Haz. Listen, I really want to go on this trip with you. But my dad needs me here, in New York, for a while. So I might not be available for the week to come. I'm really sorry."

The blonde shut her eyes close and bit her lip as a dead silence replaced Hazel's voice. "Hazel?"

"Oh, I see. I'll just tell Mom about it." The disappointment was evident in her tone but there was no sign of anger. "Is... your dad okay? Oh shit is he like in the hospital?

"No, no. He's fine. I just need to help him with some family business, he has no one around here." Czarina explained briefly. "I'm really sorry, I promise I'll make it up to you once it's over."

"Rina, it's fine. I promise." Hazel assured her. "Besides the family business thing sounded like an emergency, I know you have to take care of it first."

A small smile slowly formed in her lips. Until now Czarina is amazed how Hazel knows her so well. She doesn't know if it's her voice or tone that's giving it away, but Hazel is so quick to figure out when something is going on with her. And most times she doesn't point it out, but she  makes sure she's being considerate to Czarina.

"It's okay if you're angry at me. I told you, you don't have to be so nice all the time. It's okay to let people know you don't like what they are doing."

"It's fine, I swear!" Hazel chuckled on the phone. "You know I could never be angry at you right?"

"Well, you're allowed to."

"I'm not." Her tone lowered, it sounded more reassuring. "Good luck on the family business. I'll see you back at school soon, Rina."

"Yeah, or maybe I'll see you sooner. Bye, Haz!"

When the call line ended with a beep, it was only then Czarina realised all the eyes in the room were staring at her.

"What?" She mused at them. "We were just about to take off a while ago so I took a phone call."